Windchill Connector

An out-of-the-box Windchill Connector is available. It can be used to connect to existing Windchill instances, if available, query for and retrieve CAD files directly into HyperMesh. Additionally, it can be used to publish simulation files back into Windchill.

The Windchill Connector requires a simple one-time configuration within Windchill before it will be ready for use. Windchill Webjects, the standard way for communication between third party integrations and Windchill, need to be added to the Windchill server. The configuration requires administrative access to Windchill.

To create the Webjects:

Copy the webject tasks from the webjects folder in the HyperWorks installation to the /tasks/ext folder under the Windchill installation. For example, the webjects can be found in C:\Program Files\Altair\2017\javaapps\win64\pdmconnector_server\webjects, and the Windchill server location would be similar to C:\ptc\Windchill_10.0\Windchill\tasks\ext.

2.	Login to Windchill as Administrator.

3.	From Windchill home, expand the Navigator.

4.	From the Browse tab click the Site button > Utilities > System Administration > Task Delegate Administration.

browser_tab

system_administration

Log on.

Note:

The image below shows the values for an example of the Windchill installation. You will need to find out the correct values for your Windchill installation.

windchill_installation_example

Base URI: Is automatically populated by Windchill

LDAP Server Administrator: Customer specific

Password: Customer specific

6.	Go to Create Delegate.

7.	Create the following four delegates.

create_delegate

•	Repository Type: com.ptc.windchill

Name: HWCheckConnection

Source URL: /ext/HWCheckConnection.xml

Type Identifier: com.ptc.windchill.ws

Description:

•	Repository Type: com.ptc.windchill

Name: HWExpandBOM

Source URL: /ext/HWExpandBOM.xml

Type Identifier: com.ptc.windchill.ws

Description:

•	Repository Type: com.ptc.windchill

Name: HWGetBOMOccurrence

Source URL: /ext/HWGetBOMOccurrence c.xml

Type Identifier: com.ptc.windchill.ws

Description:

•	Repository Type: com.ptc.windchill

Name: HWGetRelatedCadDoc

Source URL: /ext/HWGetRelatedCadDoc.xml

Type Identifier: com.ptc.windchill.ws

Description:

1.	Access the Explore dialog from the Import Geometry panel in HyperMesh.

2.	Click the Windchill repository (or add a new one) in the Explore dialog.

3.	Click Login.

4.	Enter text to search on in the Query field and select which attribute to search from the By list.

Note:

Selecting Only with CAD Document will search for only parts that have attached CAD Documents.

5.	Click Simple query. Items matching the query criteria will be returned.

Select the desired parts(s) or file(s) and select a temporary folder to retrieve the files in the Select output directory field. You can browse the part structure and view individual files associated to item revisions by expanding or collapsing items in the tree or by selecting Expand all from the right-click context menu.

Note:

You can also view additional properties of the selected part by selecting More Properties from the right-click context menu. Selecting a part results in all files associated to the selected part and all files associated with the selected part’s children being retrieved. Selecting individual files results in those files being retrieved.

7.	Click Open. CAD file(s) associated to the selected part, along with CAD file(s) associated to any related parts are retrieved to the specified output directory and can now be imported into HyperMesh.

In addition to the Simple Query, Advanced Queries can be built and used to search the Windchill repository.

1.	Select the Open Query Dialog icon to display the Query Editor dialog. The Query Editor dialog allows you to build complex queries based on available content types and their associated metadata. See Organize dialog – Advanced Query for more information.

1.	To preview a data file before retrieving it, select the file and select Preview from the right-click context menu.

Note:

Content preview is currently supported for CAD files only.

You can upload contents from HyperWorks Desktop Collaboration Tools libraries, meshes, solver files, simulation results, and so on directly into your Windchill PLM system.

1.	Select a content in your workspace (retrieved via Get or Check-Out) having an attached document, right-click and select Upload to PDM from the context menu.

publish_to_windchill

2.	Select the desired Windchill repository (or add a new one).

3.	Click Login.

4.	To query for the Part your simulation file will be attached to, enter text to search on in the Query field and select which attribute to search from the By list.

Note:

Checking Only with CAD Document will search for only parts that have attached CAD Documents. Alternatively, you could use the advanced query options by using the Query Editor dialog. See Organize dialog- Advanced Query for more information.

5.	Click Simple query.

6.	Parts matching the query criteria will be returned. Select the desired part.

7.	Select the Content Role from the provided list.

8.	Click Upload. If the upload is successful, you will see a dialog that says that the file was uploaded successfully, and you will see the new file associated with the chosen part.