New to Teamcenter, Help on Process 2

[Buckshott00]

Hello,

I am new to Teamcenter. Could someone walk me through the process of how a group of people all working on 1 large assembly would check in and check out parts. I am familiar with Solidworks' vault system, and would like to do something similar with my data management.

Specifically, how do I keep people from screwing up the assembly if they try to work on the same part at the same time, and get both of their updates in

Running NX6 Windows 7Pro 64Bit
Thank you,

 

[MarckyMON]

Hi,

When someone opens an assembly, that assembly is temporarily checked in. That means that if someone where to open the assembly after you did, they are unable to save changes, as their copied would be opened as "read only".

In addition, you can also lock a part which you have created by checking it in under your user name. That way only your user can make changes to it. To allow other colleagues to make any changes to it, you will need to check it out again.

I hope this helps,
Marc

 

[Buckshott00]

Thanks Marc,

So if I understand correctly. I could upload a top level assembly into a common area where everyone would have access, and it is already broken into sub-assemblies then people would check in the sub assemblies under their name? That way when it is checked-in under Person A's name and Person B tries to use it Person B will get a read only copy?

Is that correct?

 

[MarckyMON]

That is correct.

However, for clarification, no one "uploads" a top level assembly in Teamcenter. Teamcenter is a powerful application that provides a front-end GUI for a database. Drawings (specifications) and models (masters) are created in Teamcenter using a company specific numbering system. Each model/drawing is saved as an item. Each item can have multiple item revisions.

Let's say that the assembly in discussion has the ID 001, and contains the subassemblies 001_a, 001_b, and 001_c. These subassemblies would have their own items/item revisions. Hence, Person A could have 001_a checked in under his/her user name, and Person B could have 001_b checked under his/hers, etc. That means that Person B could open 001_a, but not save any changes, due to this ownership concept.

Does that make any sense?



Marc
NX Software Developer

 

[looslib]

Basically, yes.

There are some scenarios where you could download an assembly to your workspace and then later another person can download and checkout the same assembly. The person who has the checked out copy can checkin their changes and your copy could not be checked back in.

Everyone can download any part, within permission rights, but that doesn't lock the file for changes until it is checked out. Changes can still be made on everyone's copy, but the first person to do a check out will the one who gets to check in their changes.

Even with a PDM system, you still need guidelines and understanding of the implications of all options.




"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[Buckshott00]

Yes and No,

What if Person A and Person B wanted to work on the same sub assembly at the same time, or different parts in the same sub assembly, It would prevent that? Or would both revisions be saved and then someone else has to make sure that both set of changes are applied to the higher level assembly?

 

[MarckyMON]

What if Person A and Person B wanted to work on the same sub assembly at the same time, or different parts in the same sub assembly, It would prevent that?

One of them would have the bad luck and lose his/her changes. What you are asking deals with racing conditions - whoever loads the subassembly first will have read/write privileges. The other would have a read-only access only.

Marc
NX Software Developer

 

[looslib]

He who files first wins!

It all comes down to who did the checkout which locks the file to prevent others from checking in changes.



"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[Buckshott00]

Thanks Guys!

So Ben, you're saying that once person A checks out the sub assembly, even if person B has been working on a part in that sub assembly, person B won't be able to check in his part changes?

 

[Buckshott00]

Okay, great! Thanks guys I think I understand better now.

So I can set it up to be like a gatekeeper right? From the top down I could start with the highest level assembly and have guys/girls check out only the most bottom level (parts) of the assembly that way people can continue to work in the assemblies and sub assemblies without messing each other up?

I think I was thrown because in Solidworks' vault you want to check out the most up to date top level assembly that then open down. It seems that here you want to open the bottom most assembly and check in up.
Thanks again,

 

[looslib]

Yes, IF person B did not check the part out before starting his changes person A's checkout will prevent person B from checking in his changes.

Guidelines to the users on proper use of the system will reduce the chances of this happening. Learn to use the SEARCH functions of the PDM to find who has the part in their workspace and what status the part is in.

I am not in a TC system, I am in a Windchill system and I am guessing that both TC and WC work the same way for these functions. I have had some exposure to TC as prior companies did have it, but I have never used it directly.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[looslib]

See the thread "Teamcenter not loading per load options" for some other things to be aware of when working bottom up.



"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[Buckshott00]

Thanks Ben,

Is there a thread on working Top down?

 

[quecee]

hi,

I'm using teamcenter at my company and it's fairly new. I want to know how do I delete a workflow process I've started in teamcenter once it's been kicked off to the a group?

 

[MarckyMON]

Hi quecee,

If I remember correctly, you will have to ask the user you sent the item to to delete the workflow from his tasks.

Marc
NX Software Developer

 

[quecee]

MarckyMON,

Thank you and you are correct. . . Since I started the process I ran an impact analysis and was able to delete it from there. That ended the process - then I went to the owner of the workflow and ask them to delete it from TC.

The next question I have is how can I run a item report to better understand what happens through the workflow process.
I'm familar with the sign-off reports but would like to get more detail than that, i.e. if someone deletes something from the process downstream. ..

 

[MarckyMON]

I'm afraid my knowledge of TC is very limited.

You might want to check out the workflow viewer. Each workflow consists of tasks and events. Workflows are show graphically in the viewer. If you right-click on one of the tasks, you should be able to pull up the audit file. This file logs any events which happen to the task - start, stopped, completed, etc.

Marc
NX Software Developer