Pro/E Wildfire Connectivity Architecture

PDMLink Integration

© 2006 PTC

Pro/E Wildfire Connectivity Architecture

Major Components of the Architecture

– User Model

– File Management

– Communications Architecture

Architecture Goals

© 2006 PTC

Major Components Of The Architecture

The next few slides will cover the following major Architectural components in more detail:

User Model

The Console

Pro/E Menus

Navigator

Model Tree

Html UI

File Management

File Abstraction

Location

Cache

Communications

SOAP Services

Windchill Server

Pro/ENGINEERSession

http

Datastorage

Cachestorage

WorkstationDisk

© 2006 PTC

User Model – PDMLink Access Points

PDMLink Access points

�Pro/E Menus

�The Navigator

�The Model Tree

�The Browser

© 2006 PTC

User Model - TheConsole

Because many operations occur asynchronously, a console is required. The console…

Provides progress for and logs output from asynchronous activities for later review by the user

Identifies any conflicts with suggested resolutions and tasks to be resubmitted

Is accessed from the Pro/E UI

– Tools->Console Menu

– Console icon ( ) in Pro/E status bar

Shows in the browser

One for each registered server

Can be configured to show Errors, Warnings, Information, Status and Debug level information

© 2006 PTC

File Management Architecture

File Abstraction

Pro/E uses file system files to persist model data (e.g. “.prt”, “.asm”)

Pro/E Wildfire added “location” drivers for Internet Locations (ftp, http, Windchill)

– Allows existing Pro/E functionality (e.g. “Component->Assemble”) to be extended to Internet locations

– Pro/E requests a file from a “location” & the driver implements the logic to get the file for Pro/E

PFA

Disk FTP HTTP Windchill

Pro/ENGINEERapplicationlayer

Location independentabstract file management layer

Location specificdriver

New driversadded with

Pro/E Wildfire

Existingfile system

driver

© 2006 PTC

File Management Architecture – Location Drivers

Declaring a New Location

Location drivers get initialized by Pro/E when a user adds a new “Location”

1. Select “Tools-> Server Registry”

2. Select “Add”

3. Enter an aliasAnd the server URL

� The new location now appears to Pro/E as a new “disk” and is accessible through File->Open, File->Save, Component->Assemble etc. making the nature of the location transparent to the Pro/E user.

ProjectLink Project

PDMLink Server

Second PDMLink Server

Windchill Foundation Server

FTP Site

Hard Disk

© 2006 PTC

File Management Architecture - Caching

Pro/E Wildfire utilizes a cache to:

Improve system responsiveness

Optimize data upload/download

Ensue data integrity

Windchill Server

Pro/ENGINEERSession

Datastorage

Cachestorage

WorkstationDisk

1. User chooses File->Checkinfrom Pro/E menu

2. Pro/E writes thedata to the cache

http

4. Pro/E uploads the datain a background thread(s)

5. Results of the transactionare written to the Pro/E console

3. User can continueto work in Pro/E

© 2006 PTC

File Management Architecture - Caching

WindchillServer

Pro/ENGINEERSession

Cachestorage

WorkstationDisk

Checkout

Download

Save & Upload

Checkin

Upload

Save

SharedFolder

PrivateFolder

© 2006 PTC

Architecture: Runtime View (Open in Pro/E)

Client (Pro/Engineer)

Pro/ENGINEERSession

Cachestorage

InCache?

YRetrieve from

cache

Pro/ENGINEEROpens from cache

PDMLink Server

Workspace

Windchill Public Folder

YRetrieve from

Workspace

InWorkspace?

NRetrieve fromWorkspace

NAdd to

workspace fromPublic Folder

© 2006 PTC

PDMLink Server

Architecture: Runtime View (Open from html page)

Java

Script

Bridge

Client

Connector Replica Site

Download

Metadata and

URL for content

CAD files

URL

Download

Service

Open in Pro/Engineer

JScript.OpenModel (http://URL)

Client (Pro/Engineer)

© 2006 PTC

Communications Architecture

Communications to the server use the built-in browser

All communications to the server use the browser’s TCP/IP connection

Only http (or https) is used (no Java RMI*)

Pro/E can call the browser programmatically

The browser can load pages that call Pro/E programmatically

Authentication is through the browser

Remote calls are made to the server using (SOAP)

SOAP = “Simple Object Access Protocol”

XML over http allows structured data to be sent to the server…

*Except if required by Windchill applets

© 2006 PTC

Communications Architecture - S.O.A.P Example

To get the contents of the folder, Pro/E

writes out a SOAP request

and sends it to the browser

<SOAP-><><get-contents…></get-contents><…></SOAP>

The browser forwardsthe request to

the server

Java Classes query thedatabase and return

the results

Results are serializedinto SOAP and returned

to the client

<SOAP-><><…><></SOAP>

SOAP Services onthe server receive therequest, deserialize it

and execute the appropriate Java Methods

http

http

User Opens the “File Open”

dialogIn Pro/E to find a

model In Windchill

Pro/E deserializesthe SOAP message into

C++ Classes and displays the result into

the File->Open dialog box

© 2006 PTC

Architecture Goals

Internet/Intranet Enabled

Firewall safe

– Use only standard protocols (http & https) on standard ports

– Server cannot initiate a call to client

– Eliminate RMI (use SOAP for complex data operations)

– Use the browser’s API for all network communications

– Work with proxies and reverse proxies

Respect customer’s security models

– Inherit security settings from user’s existing browser (e.g. Tools->Internet options in IE)

Loosely coupled client & server

Use http requests not “hard” API calls

– Server functionality injected into Pro/E via downloaded pages

– Pro/E can connect to different Windchill solutions (PDMLInk, ProjectLink etc) and utilize the existing UI

– Enables version interoperability with one version of Pro/E able to work with different versions of Windchill

Familiar user model

Make use of familiar user interactions

– Bookmarks, hyperlinks, history, forward, back etc.

Component technology

Make use of existing component technology where possible

– IE, Mozilla

Rule of thumb:“If your browser can do it,Pro/E can do it, if your browser can’t then Pro/E shouldn’t”

© 2006 PTC

Business Configuration Flowchart

Add Prinicipals

(Users and Groups)Start

Add Creators within

Organization

Create Product(s)

and Libraries

Add Teams to

Products and

Libraries

Register Server

within Pro/

ENGINEER

Update Pro/

ENGINEER Start

Parts with defined

Parameters

Update Pro/

ENGINEER

Formats with

titleblock attributes

Update Pro/

ENGINEER

config.pro file

Setup External

Vaulting for CAD

Documents

Enable CAD

Document Auto-

numbering

Enable Parameter

to IBA PublicationEnd

© 2006 PTC

Pro/ENGINEER Start Part Modifications

The primary modifications typically necessary to a Pro/ENGINEER start part (and start assembly, etc.) include defining a standard set of designated parameters to enable bi-directional attribute modification with the Windchill application and to provide a valuable, searchable field within the Windchill application.

© 2006 PTC

Pro/ENGINEER Drawing Format Modifications

To ensure that the Pro/ENGINEER drawing formats reference the accurate value of attributes stored by the Windchill PDMLink system, it is important to update the drawing formats that are in use. Some of the system attributes that can be added to the drawing format may include those listed in Table 1.

© 2006 PTC

Date of creation of the current iteration&ptc_wm_modified_onModified On

Username of the creator of the current iteration&ptc_wm_modified_byModified By

Date of initial creation&ptc_wm_created_onCreated On

Username of the initial creator&ptc_wm_created_byCreated By

Context and Folder as identified by the Windchill system&ptc_wm_locationWindchill Location

Lifecycle as identified by the Windchill system (as

assigned by the OIR)

&ptc_wm_lifecycleWindchill Lifecycle

Lifecycle State as identified by the Windchill system&ptc_wm_lifecycle_stateWindchill Lifecycle State

Concatenation of the Revision and Iteration separated by

a “.”

&ptc_wm_versionWindchill Version

Iteration as identified by the Windchill system&ptc_wm_iterationWindchill Iteration

Revision as identified by the Windchill system&ptc_wm_revisionWindchill Revision

Total number of sheets in the drawing&total_sheetsNumber of Total Sheets

Current sheet number&current_sheetCurrent Sheet Number

Scale of the drawing&scaleSheet Scale

Name of the model used to build the drawing views&model_nameModel Name

Name of the drawing file&dwg_nameDrawing Name

DescriptionParameter NameType

© 2006 PTC

Update Active Drawings with New Formats

The process of updating drawings that are currently in work with the newly modified formats can be a tedious one and should typically be left up to the customer’s design engineers. This process involves retrieving the drawing into session and updating the format with the newly created format (in Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire, this is done through the Drawing’s File>Page Setup… dialog). Obviously, for many released drawings, this modification may require a change request and is probably best left to the customer to be performed on an as-needed basis.

© 2006 PTC

Pro/ENGINEER config.pro Modifications

Pro/ENGINEER allows the usage of standard configuration settings through a config.pro file. These configurations can be applied to all users all the time (via config.sup), to all users as an initial default, or based upon their specific working directory and current working session, depending upon the location of the config.pro file. As a rule, the following settings should be assessed by the implementation team and the customer to determine to what extent this standard should be rolled out to the user base.

The config.pro options in Table 2 relate specifically to the management of Pro/ENGINEER data within the Windchill PDMLink or Pro/INTRALINK system and should be considered for implementation. For an extensive list of all of the Data Management-specific config.pro options

Automatic will perform an automatic upload of content to server upon file>save within

Wildfire. Explicit is the default.

dm_upload_objects

•=Explicit

•=Automatic

Enables compression of data for upload and download. Use cautiously as higher

compression levels will put more burden on client and server CPU.

dm_http_compression_level

•=0 for LAN clients

•>0 (up to 10) for WAN clients

If yes, Pro/ENGINEER automatically attempts to reconnect to the primary server at startup.dm_remember_server

•=yes

•=no

DescriptionConfiguration Option

© 2006 PTC

Pro/ENGINEER config.pro Modifications Contd…

It is possible, and recommended, that to store template start parts within Windchill. This provides revision and access authorization control over these standard documents. These template files should be created and maintained by a Librarian within a Library inside of Windchill. The options in Table 3 specify the various template file settings.

Note: If multiple start parts of the same type are used, the end user will need to use the Pro/ENGINEER Copy From Source functionality instead of the new part dialog

© 2006 PTC

Set this to “yes” to automatically point the user to the template start partsforce_new_file_options_dialog

Specify the model to use as the default sheetmetal part template.template_sheetmetalpart

Specify the model to use as the default mold layout template.template_mold_layout

Specify the model to use as the default manufacturing assembly template.template_mfgnc

Specify the model to use as the default manufacturing mold template.template_mfgmold

Specify the model to use as the default manufacturing expert machinist template.template_mfgemo

Specify the model to use as the default manufacturing cmm template.template_mfgcmm

Specify the model to use as the default manufacturing cast template.template_mfgcast

Specify the model to use as the default ECAD part template.template_ecadpart

Specify the model to use as the default ECAD assembly template.template_ecadasm

Specify the drawing to use as the default drawing template.template_drawing

Specify the assembly to use as the default assembly template.template_designasm

Sample syntax:template_solidpart wtpub://<server>/Libraries/Pro Standards/Start Parts/START_PART.prt

where <server> is the name as configured through the server registry.

Specify the model to use as the default part template. Template_solidpart

Sample syntax:start_model_dir wtpub://<server>/Libraries/Pro Standards/Start Parts

where <server> is the name as configured through the server registry.

Specify the complete path to a folder containing start parts and assemblies. start_model_dir

DescriptionConfiguration Option