About Locating and Accessing Non-Native CAD Data on Windchill Servers

Data Management > Data Management > Managing Heterogeneous CAD Data > About Locating and Accessing Non-Native CAD Data on Windchill Servers

Windchill can store the heterogeneous CAD data of non-native formats such as CATIA V5, Creo Elements/Direct Modeling, NX, and SolidWorks. The Windchill Workgroup Manager (WWGM) allows you to store such data as the primary content of the non-native CAD documents and manage the stored data in a collaborative manner.

In the Windchill connected mode of a Creo application, you can connect to WWGM to access the non-native CAD data that is stored in the Windchill servers. You can then retrieve the non-native CAD data into your workspace and open their non-native CAD content in the Creo application. The opening of the non-native CAD content in the Creo application creates CAD document structures where the non-native CAD data drives the resultant CAD data. You can retrieve the resultant heterogeneous CAD product structures, with or without the non-native CAD documents, and use them in native assembly designs. That is, if you created part and assembly components in applications such as CATIA V5, Creo Elements/Direct Modeling, NX, and SolidWorks, you can store on the server the heterogeneous CAD data of these components and integrate them into native assembly designs.

The Associative Topology Bus (ATB) functionality is enabled by default when you open the server-managed non-native CAD data of CATIA V5, Creo Elements/Direct Modeling, NX, and SolidWorks models in the Creo application, such as Creo Parametric. ATB creates the environment to work with heterogeneous CAD content. Refer to the Online Help module, Interface, for details about the options required for the import of CATIA V5, Creo Elements/Direct Modeling, NX, and SolidWorks models.

When you are connected to WWGM, you can utilize the common CAD management capabilities of the Windchill connected mode to perform the following tasks:

• Access heterogeneous CAD models stored on Windchill servers and retrieve them in the Creo application or to the workspace.

• Open the non-native CAD models in a Creo session to create Translated Image Models (TIMs) or the derived product structures.

• Update the derived product structures to synchronize the contents of the derived product structures with the primary content of the CAD documents located on the servers.

• Store the source non-native CAD models and TIMs or the derived product structures on servers.

In the Windchill connected mode, you can locate, retrieve, and open heterogeneous CAD content as follows:

• Use the File >

Open command.

• Access the HTML user interface options and the search results in the Creo browser.

Make sure that the non-native heterogeneous CAD models are uploaded, and checked in to the servers through the WWGM and downloaded to the Creo workspace.