Intralink 3.3

You coul use Object/Import in your Workspace. But the most robust way I have found is to open a session of ProE in a Workspace, then open the drawings and assemblies you want to import into Proe, then save them to the Workspace. Once you have the files in Workspace you need to set the Commonspace folder for each file, then you can check them into Commonspace.

Okay, Frank, there's got to be an automated way!!!!!! Isn't there a Pro/CONVERT?

I have to agree that there must be a better way.

However, I did it by opening Pro/E while linked to a workspace, opening the files I wanted to import and saving them to the workspace. Once there they can be checked in. If you do this with assembly drawings you will find that it goes quite quickly. There are many reasons to do it this way among them is that you can make sure you have the right files and you can make repairs as necessary. You can actually also use the import function in Intralink but it will open Pro/E in the background anyway.

We tried bringing the files in only as needed but there are problems. For a small company like yours and mine this is the only practical way to go even with the problems. What we did in the in-between time was put all the files on the server (not in Intralink just in a share for the Engineering department to use for this purpose). This was our way of keeping the files safe (backed up) and assessable at the same time.

I have to warn that unless the other folks in your office are more disciplined than average you will probably have both duplicate file names and duplicate work. You really have to make up some sort of file naming policy, create a directory structure inside of Intralink and make appropriate changes to files before they get imported. I am still dealing with the mess an extremely disorganized engineer that left my company 3 years ago inadvertently created (try working with hundreds of duplicate parts with names like e_fp_oring_size_006.prt and a_oring_regulator_piston.prt that are actually the same part created twice and appearing in half a dozen assemblies each ... there is almost always yet another part I created which is also the same thing because I couldn't find a size 6 o-ring anywhere ... ). You might want to start using UDFs or family tables for common parts like washers and screws during or before the import. I have found the ones available from PTC to be awful but you might find them acceptable.

Even worse, because you don't have Wildfire yourself you will not be able to check the files by opening them. Nor will you be able to perform the import.

Lastly, make absolutely sure that everyone always checks their work into Intralink commonspace at all times. Go to each workstation at midnight on Saturday to check everything in yourself if you have to. (It doesn't work if you don't use it.) To facilitate the inevitable make sure that you have administrator privileges on each and every workstation. Without fail the one drawing you will need is either not checked in or is out-of-date compared to the paper copy you have in your hand while the guy that worked on it last is on a 2 week vacation in the Australian outback without a phone (this just happened to me yesterday ... not the first time and probably not the last).

Your answers are good and I'm getting the hang of it. On my first drawing of an assembly I want to put into Intralink I get something new. I start Pro in the work space where it is to be save, I open the drawing, I start the save and it says, "The following attribute definitions are not among Pro/Intralink" and it shows a list of definitions. Such as Drawn_by, Engineering, Material, Quality, and so on and so on. I have never use attributes in Pro in the last 12 or 13 years. How do I assign this information to the parts and or Drawing?

Thanks Frank

Frank,

That usually means that the indicated parameters are designated in your Pro/E model and Pro/INTRALINK doesn't "know" about them. Pro/INTRALINK must be configured to receive designated parameters from your Pro/E models. Doing this makes them (the parameters) visible in your Pro/INTRALINK browsers. I don't know all the details of how to accomplish that, but I would imagine there is something in the documentation or someone who can answer in here. This is useful if you want to search Commonspace for files with a specific parameter value.

Ron

Ron is correct. I have added some of these parameters to Intralink in order to perform an import from an outside vendor. In hindsight I think this was a mistake. I was mostly just really happy to have figured it out and didn't think of the consequences. If you want to keep these parameters you will have to create them in Intralink. I also have forgotten how to do this but you have to be logged in as the Intralink administrator to do it.

If you don't need these parsameters I suggest you actually spend some time taking them out of the models. From personal experience I can tell you that parameters can be both a blessing and a curse. Family tables, for example, really will become complicated by these parameters because they will have to be populated if you actually plan on using them.

I only actually found two pramaters useful: part_number description By using these two parameters I can search my entire database by the two things I can remember independent of the filename (which I mentioned before can be a real problem). I can think of many others that might prove useful but, they are better handled by MRP software. (People that create MRP software spend their entire lives thinking about this type of thing so you should listen to them.) These might include product type (screw, washer, wire ...), material (plastic, stainless steel, bronze ...), part type (assembly, purchased part, part, spare part ...). My small company was, unfortunately, set up by people that do not understand these things so we have them built into the part number (assembly drawings start with AD, or sometimes a 1, unless it is a purchased assembly, but if it is both purchased and made in-house the in-house one ends in M and the purchased one ends in P, spares start with a 2 unless they are also used in-house in which case they might start with a 1 unless they are not assemblies in which case they start with 0, AAAFF%%%#$$). DO NOT make this mistake if at all possible.

So you are saying the attribute definitions are really only parameters! If that is the case I can work with that. One more thing my start part was made by someone else sometime back and when I make a new part in wildfire in my workspace about half a dozen parameters are made and when I go into the part and try to delete them they all show they are locked, and I can't get read of them. Can you tell me how to unlock them. I will be making a new start-part this coming Monday to correct that problem.

There is another problem (sorry for all the questions), One of the first parts I checked in went into the directory I will put all the models in; however, that part is my library part for screws. I have another directory I will be putting my library parts in. I did a delete in the common space because it would not let me do a move to move the screw part into the correct directory. Now when I'm in work space and I would like to check-in the screw part it says the part has not been changed, it thinks its still there. I can't find a way to clean out the screw part from the common space so I can check it in to the library directory. ....What can I do about this?

Frank

Yes, the attributes and parameters are one and the same as far as Intralink and Pro/E are concerned when working correctly together. However, apparently it isn't quite that simple. In the past, if I created a part using the Intralink command to create an object it seems to use a different start part than Pro/E. When you are working inside of Pro/E and you want to look at an attribute in Intralink the ones you create yourself appear as parameters. Unfortunately, I have never found a reason to even work with start parts except when setting up Intralink to handle Word files (which I have forgotten how to do also). Now here is where I have trouble myself.

This hasn't always worked. Now that I try to remember what happened in the past I might not have been able to unlock the parameters either. Which is how I ended up with attributes I don't want.

Now, as to moving that part I will have to try to remember this since I am not at my desk right now. I think you are seeing two different problems. First, if you delete something from commonspace you have to delete all versions. Otherwise you are just deleting the version you selected. I believe this is the first problem you are seeing. When you delete the part you can use a short-cut by selecting the object and holding the shift key while pushing the delete key. This deletes all versions.

For moving parts between directories I think (again from memory) you have to explicitly give yourself permission to do so. I normally do this operation while logged in as the Intralink system administrator (you know the username and password for that account don't you? It is TOP SECRET.). While I do my normal engineering work I am logged in as an ordinary citizen so I have to log out and back in as the administrator to move parts between directories.

Remember to refresh your workspace after commonspace changes.

You will also have to do 'Synch with Commonspace' in your workspace when you do file moves/renames in commonspace.

Another thing you may try for the deleted object is 'Object/update' in your workspace. If it updates the workspace object it means you haven't deleted all versions of that object in commonspace. You will have to do a workspace undo to get back to the latest version, and then go back into commonspace and delete all the versions of the part in question.

Thanks for all the input, I think I am now checking in everything. After I figured out how to assign the parameter descriptions as admin everything is starting to work correctly.

I have another question regarding family tables. When I look at parts that have family tables, in common space, all the instances are open, or they are showing every instance name. In PDM you would only see the generic part name. In intralink, for example, one part has 1900 instances and all of them are showing. If I only want to find or look at the generic part I have quite a list to look through.

Is there some way to instruct Intralink to show only the generic name?

Thanks again Frank

One additional thing. I see in commonspace there is a tab that shows just the parts that have family tables. I don't see a tab that shows just the objects without showing the entire family table.

Frank

Frank,

In the Intralink Table Configuration Editor, select the Filter Objects tab. For the attribute, assign "Generic?". Set the operator to "=". Then set the the value to "true". Adjust the Column Display and Sort Order tabs as desired and then save this configuration by selecting the Create button under the Configuration Name area. Saving this as a named configuration allows you to switch back and forth between this display and other saved configurations as desired.

Ron

Ron I went through this as you instructed. Just what difference should I see? The commanspace and workspace looks the same. Except that in workspace the name I assigned shows up in the tool bar.

Yesterday I loaded a number of items into common space from my work for the last month. I checked the common space several times to see that everything was there and they were. Then I went into my old directories and deleted everything. Today I start Intralink and every thing I checked in are not there. Very distressing. I'm not sure if maybe they are just not showing or they really are not there. Fortunately I'm working in windows and everything I deleted yesterday is still in the recycle bin. Today is going to be a long day!

Did you delete any files in your C:\Intralinkv??\.proi\ directories in Windows? Delete these and you delete your workspaces. If you did a search for all .prt and .asm and .drw files on C: and then deleted them all then you have deleted the files in your Workspace. If you have deleted these files/directories, restore them from your recycle bin and you should get away with it.

Did you check the items into Commonspace or did you just import them into your Workspace? If you checked them into commonspace you should be able to check them out again into Workspace.

Ron

Thanks for your help I have everything working now. Some times I just need to talk to some one to get things cleared up. Your help is appreciated.

Thanks again Frank