WT Parts in Windchill

[qnen]

For those Pro/E users who are using Windchill 9.1, how many of you are using the WT Parts (or gear parts as we call them)? What are you doing with them?

We have been using Windchill 9.1 for about 2 years now and from the onset, have been creating the WT Parts (gear parts) during checkin of new objects (Pro/E parts, asms, drws). However, we have not come across a need for the gear parts yet. We are considering removing the 'create WTparts on checkin' function from our standard. We use PDM mainly for vaulting and controlling access for different groups at different states of development.

Just curious if we are missing something grand or what.

Thanks

Michael Kuehnen, Kansas City

 

[looslib]

Are you using Windchill/PDMLink or Windchill/Intralink?

If you only do vaulting, you are missing a lot of potential of the power of Windchill. We do full product release with Windchill, so the WTparts are critical in capture the CAD files and releated data. We release the WTpart, not just the CAD file. Since the WTpart has the part or assembly file attached, it is easy to release multiple CAD files by selecting one WTpart. The assembly structure of the CAD file must match the assembly structure of the WTpart.

In the near future, when we upgrade to Windchill 10, we will start doing PR (Problem Report), IR (Incident Report) and ER (Engineering Request) in Windchill. We already do the release of documents in Windchill.


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

Ben Loosli

 

[qnen]

We are using Windchill 9.1 with WF3. We are getting close to upgrading to WF5 and then Windchill10.

We currently do use Windchill for vaulting as well as controlling access. (Machine shop can only see parts that are Released). We also use it for revisions.

We have been pretty good (>95% ) about keeping the WTparts and the CAD files (parts, asms, drws) together at the same state and rev levels.

Sounds like I need to look into using the WTparts to collect sub items. Currently to promote an assembly, we would pick the assembly, collect the sub parts and drawings, un-collect the hardware or purchase parts, etc and go from there.

Please keep us posted on the PR stuff. It always sounds powerful, but we fear that if we implement it poorly, it will just create more dislike from our small user community. (Small meaning that we have to self administer since no single person has time to do that solely.)

Thanks


Michael Kuehnen, Kansas City

 

[anyoldname]

Like Looslib says, the Windchill WT parts/gears really come into play when you start using Windchill for stuff other than just CAD data storage and control.

We do all our design release, design reviews, revision control, BOMs, procurement etc through Windchill. The gears effectively act as a place holder item onto which we associate/link CAD files, drawings plus non-CAD data like product specs/analysis reports etc.

When we come to release a CAD model/drawing, the designer promotes the WT part and all of the associated files, this process automatically sends emails to the Design Leader (and Project Manager if required by the project) asking them to approve or reject the release request. Once approved, Windchill then emails the project's Buyer telling them the part has been released/revised, it also assigns him a task to procure the number of parts required by the BOM and updates the part's status in the project's part tracking documents.

Building the BOM is fairly easy using the Product Structure Explorer function (its a little Java driven app), you simply drag and drop the WT parts in the structure you require for the BOM and type in the quantities. You can set it up to drive the BOM from the CAD structure but we rarely have our CAD assemblies sorted well enough for this.

The BOM structure also allows non-CAD users to explore a design by using Productview. The BOM structure is also transferred into SAP by some macros that we had developed but this is a little shaky and seems to need a bit of manual intervention to coax it along.

We aso have a load of standard report formats set up where Windchill outputs the relevant parameters such as no of parts in a BOM, the number released, dates etc which are fed into spreadsheets for the Design Team Leaders, Project Managers etc.

We don't use Windchill yet to track components once they have been manufactured or assembled but it does have this capability if required.

For the record, I'm not entirely a fan of all of this functionality, its great for big companies with big projects but Windchill does require a lot of admin so for smaller projects it can be more trouble than its worth. It all depends on what your company does but if you're in a dynamic organisation that needs to get things done quickly and doesn't plod through the same steps with every project then it can be very frustrating trying to progress things when you're badly constrained by things like not being able to get a component authorised for purchase because the Project Manager is off on holiday so can't approve the design release.

I'm told that Windchill 10 is much more intuitive but 8 & 9 are very unintuitive, especially for occasional users.

 

[looslib]

I am headed to Windchill 10 training next week. Can't wait to see the changes to the UI. From the demos I have seen, it looks simpler to use.


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

Ben Loosli