set up a new machine to run PDM tasks etc.?

[berg_lauritz]

Good afternoon,

we would like to automate some more things:

• automatically print newly revisioned drawings at timed intervals
• run tasks like i.e. convert to PDF/other formats
• re-fresh drawings automatically (?)

As far as I know the tasks run on the computer that initiates the task (i.e. print). Which lead to several idiotic problems/crashes when we used tasks.
Should there basically be a 'server' that does those tasks for you or are we doing something wrong here?

I guess some of you might have already implemented something similar:
@bnemec , @jcapriotti , @matt , @AlexLachance ?

[AlexLachance]

We went an alternate route rather then go with PDM so I'm afraid I can't really help you with that part, though the rest is part of our process.

I think I've read before of people using scripts to run tasks at specific hours on PDM, but I can't confirm.


The way we process is this way:
Whenever a drawing is saved, it generates a PDF and DXF. It is imperative that these files not be "Read only", so that they can be overwritten at anytime, which means you need to get a different PDF viewer(SumatraPDF works). DXF's have never been a problem because nobody accesses these, the only person who uses them is the nesting person and she "imports" them, so the file never is read-only.

We have step files be generated at night time, so that it does not make our saving process too long. Step files are validated by a programmation that validates the date of generation of the .STEP with the date the part/assembly file were last saved, if it's outdated it gets updated.

We import revisions when processing orders in our ERP, as the ERP only needs the information for external cutting.

Our ERP has live access to the PDF. When we send projects to our ERP, there are multiple validators that verify things such as if the PDF and/or DXF are generated (it does not validate if these are up to date, only if they exist, it is our job to make sure they are updated if we've done a change. When we overview our project at the end, if the PDF of the file is outdated, then that will tell us the DXF is also outdated, but it asks a certain level of "attention.

[bnemec]

Yeah, letting tasks run on user's PCs will not work well. LOL, I can only imagine how that would go.

There's several steps to set up a task host machine. First off it needs to be set up like any other CAD user with Soldiworks, PDM vault view, etc. You can use the PDM Contributor license instead of PDM CAD license if that matters to you.

Then you need to enable the machine as a task host. So on the PC you want to use as a task host, in the windows notification area click the blueberry icon and select Task Host Configuration:

image.png (16.62 KiB) Viewed 3867 times

Then select the vault to use from the "File Vault" drop down. Next check the "Permit" check box for the add-in you want that machine to be a task host for:

The task host should be the only workstation that has this checked IMO, don't have users' workstations configured to enable running tasks. Except maybe if you're developing your own task add-in and you want to debug the task but that's another story.

Now in the Admin Tool, open the task settings to the "Execution Method" tab and select the first radio button. "Let the system choose the computers to execute the task" Then down in the list box check the box for the machine name of the PC you just set up to run the tasks.

[bnemec]

...The way we process is this way:
Whenever a drawing is saved, it generates a PDF and DXF. It is imperative that these files not be "Read only", so that they can be overwritten at anytime, which means you need to get a different PDF viewer(SumatraPDF works). ...

I hate, hate, hate Adobe Reader for this. Why the heck does a "READER" lock the file? They've added so much functionality to the Reader (want it or not) that now we need a light weight reader.

I've found most web browsers do a good job of displaying pdfs without locking it. They are fast and most have some kind of markup function. If you need 3D pdf then that's another story. Best part of web browser pdf display is they don't take up half of the window with irrelevant side bars that are all enabled by default...

[AlexLachance]

I hate, hate, hate Adobe Reader for this. Why the heck does a "READER" lock the file? They've added so much functionality to the Reader (want it or not) that now we need a light weight reader.

I've found most web browsers do a good job of displaying pdfs without locking it. They are fast and most have some kind of markup function. If you need 3D pdf then that's another story. Best part of web browser pdf display is they don't take up half of the window with irrelevant side bars that are all enabled by default...

We install 3 different browsers to "solve" this problem.
1. Install Adobe Reader
2. Install Foxit Reader
3. Install Sumatra

It is important for us that it be done in this order. Adobe Reader is the default browser. Foxit replaces the Adobe extension that's used for the "preview" tab in Windows Explorer so that the preview tab does not grab the read only.
Sumatra lets us open PDF without them being in read-only.

[SPerman]

Best part of web browser pdf display is they don't take up half of the window with irrelevant side bars that are all enabled by default...

I recently upgraded from an ancient version of adobe acrobat and I'm shocked at how bad the UI is.

[bnemec]

I recently upgraded from an ancient version of adobe acrobat and I'm shocked at how bad the UI is.

you mean updated from ancient version...

update != upgrade The latter implies some kind of net gain or improvement which is not always provided by the former.

[SPerman]

From a security standpoint, I'm sure it was an upgrade. From a feature standpoint, The 10+ year old version did everything I need it to do, and the UI was much less cluttered.

[jcapriotti]

@SPerman Can you still buy Acrobat as a perpetual license or are you playing the monthly fee?

[SPerman]

Unfortunately it is subscription only these days.

[berg_lauritz]

...
Whenever a drawing is saved, it generates a PDF and DXF. It is imperative that these files not be "Read only", so that they can be overwritten at anytime, which means you need to get a different PDF viewer(SumatraPDF works). DXF's have never been a problem because nobody accesses these, the only person who uses them is the nesting person and she "imports" them, so the file never is read-only.

We have step files be generated at night time, so that it does not make our saving process too long. Step files are validated by a programmation that validates the date of generation of the .STEP with the date the part/assembly file were last saved, if it's outdated it gets updated.
...

How is that an alternate process? The PDF/DXF is generated through PDM or on your own machine?

The step files are not generated by PDM?

Why is the PDF viewer important here? Does PDM lock a PDF to be read only if it's saved to a different location?

Edit: Great replies already, thank you!

[AlexB]

How is that an alternate process? The PDF/DXF is generated through PDM or on your own machine?

The step files are not generated by PDM?

Why is the PDF viewer important here? Does PDM lock a PDF to be read only if it's saved to a different location?

Edit: Great replies already, thank you!

I believe this is referring to a shared drive on a server outside of PDM. If I go in there and preview a file right now and PDM is running a task to overwrite the file I'm currently looking at then it will fail since I have it "locked".

[AlexLachance]

How is that an alternate process? The PDF/DXF is generated through PDM or on your own machine?

The step files are not generated by PDM?

Why is the PDF viewer important here? Does PDM lock a PDF to be read only if it's saved to a different location?

Edit: Great replies already, thank you!

We don't have PDM, so I don't know how PDM acts, but nothing is generated by PDM. All is user generated.

Every save of drawing creates a PDF, along with a DXF if the DXF exists.
Every step file is generated by a script ran at night on a user computer that creates them based on if they're outdated(very roughly explained)


We use CustomTools, and our ERP is Prextra.

Prextra has it's own command on SolidWorks that I have assisted with the implementation of and also the continuous improvement.

CustomTools is used as our project manager and is also used to create our custom properties. It has a few cool features on it like DXF creation, where used, file conversion, task running, plus the support we get from them is simply outstanding to say the least. The support we have gotten from Dassault is "okay", to keep it polite, so we decided that if the support was as great on PDM as it is on SolidWorks, that we were better of with an alternative to it and with developping whatever else we required that wouldn't be covered by CustomTools.

For the PDF Viewer, PDM isn't the issue, Adobe Reader is. If anyone has the file opened in Adobe Reader, or in the preview of Windows Explorer, then the file will be locked in Read Only and PDM wouldn't be able to overwrite it technically, like it happens for us when we try to overwrite a file opened on Adobe Reader.

All our files are on our server, shared across multiple companies.

Edit here's a screenshot to give you an idea what CustomTools gives us capabilities of

[AlexLachance]

I added an image to my reply to show you what CustomTools can do

[berg_lauritz]

I added an image to my reply to show you what CustomTools can do

I just saw it. I was not expecting customtools to be that powerful. We looked at it about a year ago but it was decided to first find solutions with our current system.
One of the big flaws of PDM is also that you cannot really mass-edit custom properties and I think that's unacceptable. But who am I to judge this...

[AlexLachance]

It's very customizable and they implement almost every suggestion flawlessly. We've asked to be able to link the name in our scrolling menu of names so that we can link them to user profiles on CustomTools, so that when we do a save, the save will change the user's name and the date of creation. That will then make sure that our users do not forget to change their names, along with the date when creating new files from existing ones, as it will all be controlled by the Administration side.

[AlexLachance]

I just saw it. I was not expecting customtools to be that powerful. We looked at it about a year ago but it was decided to first find solutions with our current system.
One of the big flaws of PDM is also that you cannot really mass-edit custom properties and I think that's unacceptable. But who am I to judge this...

Just to show you all the custom properties we have inside our 3D Models that are managed by CustomTools.

Our "Automatic naming" is a combination of these properties to give the name along with incrementing controlled by a SQL database, which will soon have an awesome upgrade!
You can also see in one of the images one of the properties created for our step creation.

[jcapriotti]

I just saw it. I was not expecting customtools to be that powerful. We looked at it about a year ago but it was decided to first find solutions with our current system.
One of the big flaws of PDM is also that you cannot really mass-edit custom properties and I think that's unacceptable. But who am I to judge this...

What kind of mass update do you want to do? There are a few ways to push properties to a group of files but it depends on how complex.

[berg_lauritz]

What kind of mass update do you want to do? There are a few ways to push properties to a group of files but it depends on how complex.

I was used to using the task pane. Select components & mass-change some things.

Now with PDM I don't want to use the task pane anymore to change custom properties. It's all a mess....

some examples:

• linking dimensions to custom properties is a breeze with the task pane
  but the task pane is limited to either the custom properties or the cfg specific properties
• PDM can change all properties on tabs at once & do more than that
  but it cannot naturally change multiple parts at once
• using the part properties can do everything
  but it's super tedious and unintuitive
• with the task pane I can quickly look up some custom properties
  but it slows everything down & it does not show everything at once
• PDM can change custom properties without opening the part
  but not multiple ones
• PDM can not set custom properties of virtual parts
  the task pane add in can
• and here is my absolute horrific favourite: PDM check boxes can only store 1 or 0
  this limitation is not shared by the task pane add in
  when you change anything on the PDM data card where check boxes are present those check boxes WILL BE ADDED to the custom properties! If you SHOWED THE TAB ONCE the check boxes WILL BE ADDED to any tab you SHOWED while editing the data card.

[jcapriotti]

I was used to using the task pane. Select components & mass-change some things.

Now with PDM I don't want to use the task pane anymore to change custom properties. It's all a mess....

some examples:

• linking dimensions to custom properties is a breeze with the task pane
  but the task pane is limited to either the custom properties or the cfg specific properties
• PDM can change all properties on tabs at once & do more than that
  but it cannot naturally change multiple parts at once
• using the part properties can do everything
  but it's super tedious and unintuitive
• with the task pane I can quickly look up some custom properties
  but it slows everything down & it does not show everything at once
• PDM can change custom properties without opening the part
  but not multiple ones
• PDM can not set custom properties of virtual parts
  the task pane add in can
• and here is my absolute horrific favourite: PDM check boxes can only store 1 or 0
  this limitation is not shared by the task pane add in
  when you change anything on the PDM data card where check boxes are present those check boxes WILL BE ADDED to the custom properties! If you SHOWED THE TAB ONCE the check boxes WILL BE ADDED to any tab you SHOWED while editing the data card.

I see what you mean, but you should be able to still use the Task Pane Custom Props to do multiple changes. We have an in-house developed property editor that we still use instead of the PDM data card. Mostly because we need to validate and handle data in ways PDM can't. But not everything on the PDM data card is mapped to custom properties so there are few things we might still on the PDM data card.

PDM can change multiple parts without opening, but you would need to either build a transition and maybe dispatch script, or use the "Update values" function. Neither are these are really for every day use....more like data migration activities.

I don't use checkboxes often so I agree there...I tend to create a Yes/No drop list box instead. Just depends on plan to do with it. Checkbox variables shouldn't be added to custom properties unless mapped.....are you say it does it anyway?

[berg_lauritz]

I see what you mean, but you should be able to still use the Task Pane Custom Props to do multiple changes. We have an in-house developed property editor that we still use instead of the PDM data card. Mostly because we need to validate and handle data in ways PDM can't. But not everything on the PDM data card is mapped to custom properties so there are few things we might still on the PDM data card.

PDM can change multiple parts without opening, but you would need to either build a transition and maybe dispatch script, or use the "Update values" function. Neither are these are really for every day use....more like data migration activities.

I don't use checkboxes often so I agree there...I tend to create a Yes/No drop list box instead. Just depends on plan to do with it. Checkbox variables shouldn't be added to custom properties unless mapped.....are you say it does it anyway?

Yes, basically we need to do a data migration/custom property update for our legacy parts. Some information it not in there and it is often impossible to determine the missing data without seeing the part within the assembly. There is sadly no way to automate it.

For check boxes:
We determined that we wanted to 'tag' our parts for various processes (i.e. is it a purchased part? CNC part?) and we decided to use check boxes. Little did we know about their limitations.

1. selecting multiple parts & adding check boxes can lead to undesired results, for example

   

   2022-06-03 07_57_32-Window.png (14.11 KiB) Viewed 3682 times

   It shows ALL check boxes as 'undetermined' although only one of the check boxes has variable data (checked/unchecked) in them.
2. Take a look at this gif & what happens (also great to know: If you open the data card of a part FROM THE ASSEMBLY level it will always show you the CONFIGURATION TAB OF THAT PART IN THAT ASSEMBLY on the data card first..)
   

   

   Basically it inserts check box values even if you don't work on them. This happens automatically if you only SHOW A TAB ONCE(!) and save the data card. If you don't show the tab - nothing will happen. Yes, per standard it only shows the @ tab for us - but mistakes can happen SO easily with this.
   
   There is only one way around it and correct me if I'm wrong please: We have to check 'updates all configurations' and also have a dispatch script in place that will update all configurations after checking in. So if you use the task pane & change the custom properties through that the dispatch script will update all. But guess what - one of our tags was configuration dependent. We have to get rid of it first & then do this all over but there is no time for it currently.

   

About 2. we have reached out to our VAR (HawkRidge) but it seems that this will probably not make it further than an SR/ER. At least that's what it looks like.

And there were more limitations we did not know about that I cannot think of right now. I stumbled upon CustomTools and it looks like it could do the job. And as @AlexLachance mentioned it works great. Now you mention that you also use something different.
I would gladly use something else instead of this mess. Why is this not consistent across their own software?

[AlexLachance]

Yes, basically we need to do a data migration/custom property update for our legacy parts. Some information it not in there and it is often impossible to determine the missing data without seeing the part within the assembly. There is sadly no way to automate it.

For check boxes:
We determined that we wanted to 'tag' our parts for various processes (i.e. is it a purchased part? CNC part?) and we decided to use check boxes. Little did we know about their limitations.

1. selecting multiple parts & adding check boxes can lead to undesired results, for example
   2022-06-03 07_57_32-Window.png
   It shows ALL check boxes as 'undetermined' although only one of the check boxes has variable data (checked/unchecked) in them.
2. Take a look at this gif & what happens (also great to know: If you open the data card of a part FROM THE ASSEMBLY level it will always show you the CONFIGURATION TAB OF THAT PART IN THAT ASSEMBLY on the data card first..)
   
   cusprp-autofill-checkbox.gif
   
   Basically it inserts check box values even if you don't work on them. This happens automatically if you only SHOW A TAB ONCE(!) and save the data card. If you don't show the tab - nothing will happen. Yes, per standard it only shows the @ tab for us - but mistakes can happen SO easily with this.
   
   There is only one way around it and correct me if I'm wrong please: We have to check 'updates all configurations' and also have a dispatch script in place that will update all configurations after checking in. So if you use the task pane & change the custom properties through that the dispatch script will update all. But guess what - one of our tags was configuration dependent. We have to get rid of it first & then do this all over but there is no time for it currently.
   2022-06-03 08_02_16-Window.png

About 2. we have reached out to our VAR (HawkRidge) but it seems that this will probably not make it further than an SR/ER. At least that's what it looks like.

And there were more limitations we did not know about that I cannot think of right now. I stumbled upon CustomTools and it looks like it could do the job. And as @AlexLachance mentioned it works great. Now you mention that you also use something different.
I would gladly use something else instead of this mess. Why is this not consistent across their own software?

Well, it is SolidWorks.