rename family table frustration!

[dakeb]

I imported a large assy into a workspace in PDMLink as new parts, opened it in WF3.

I needed to rename a large amount of the parts, so I got all three hundred drawings in session, and all the sub assys loaded.

I systematically gave the parts proper part numbers, tooke me two days, whilst everything is in session. Looked good. All the drawings referenced the right parts and assys.

Then I set about giving proper numbers to parts that were named things like plate.prt etc, to avoid duplication in PDMLink.

Everything worked fine.

saved the whole lot, shut down ProE, opened it again loaded the main assembly, everything loaded up perfectly, no error msgs.

Then I set about giving a prefix to all the family table parts in the workspace, fasteners and fittings etc. so they could have unique names. Every time I renamed a set it asked if I wanted to replace the parts in session. So of course I did.

Some of the instances in the FT's had more than 31 characters, so I had to shorten some of the names on the fly during the rename process in Workspace.

Everything went perfectly well, the parts were updated in session, and all looked okay. So I saved the lot.

I shut down ProE. When I started it again, it was a nightmare. Loads of failures, refs missing, components not found and I haven't a clue how to fix it. i can't import the files again because I will lose all the renames I did that took two days. I can't easily rename all the FT instances as I fixed some of them on the fly to get around the stupid 31-character limit and don't have a meticulously written record of every change. Why should I? I was given no hint of failure at the time, and the model worked perfectly in session.

So, family tables have just probably caused me another two days work to investigate every failure and try to fix it. I know I'm gona end up with duplicate parts with more than one name attached to parts and assemblies with ghost references that cannot be resolved.

I hate family tables.

Rant over.

Dave

 

[looslib]

Once the parts had been saved in PDMLink, you should never rename them from Wildfire. That will create a new copy and not get the references resolved in PDMLink, as you found out.
Always do renames from the Windchill server side, not the client workspace or Wildfire.


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

Ben Loosli

 

[dakeb]

I have to resolve the filename duplications though before I can check the parts into the server side, so have to do the rename in workspace prior to check-in.

I blew away the old workspace and started again. I have renamed everything that has it's own drawing to have a unique part number.

I will rename all the extraneous parts needed to build up the assemblies that don't have drawings, things called "plate.prt" etc. and give them a unique project prefix.


That still leave a multitude of family table parts, bolts, nuts, washers, etc. that need renaming. Many of them have the same names as parts already on server side, but I cannto re-use our existing ones. I tried that and thre references didn't work the same, and there are thousands of these things assembled.

When I tried to rename these before in Workspace it caused me loads of problems when opening the assembly, e.g. instances could not be resolved to parents, or it said it copuldn't find the component, and when I did a manual find it said it was not the right part even though it had the same name. It's as if PDMLink loses traceability within family tables.

I am going to try again this afternoon but this time I am going to back up the work I have already done out of PDMLink first so that if (when) it goes wrong at least I can blow away the workspace again and retrieve my work done up to now.

Dave

 

[looslib]

Why can't you use the exisiting hardware in PDMLink.
As an admin, I would come down hard on a user who duplicated parts that exist in the library. Use the library hardware items, even if it does mean reattaching them. In the long run, it will be easier.



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

Ben Loosli

 

[dakeb]

Sure, ideally I would, but I cannot go through this job reattaching thousands of nuts bolts and washers. This job is going to be archived in a supplier work folder.