Graphic file format conversion tasks for generating web-viewables and thumbnails are normally run synchronously as part of the document check-in process. In a multi-user environment, where large graphics files are loaded as content for documents or image pages, there is a need to improve performance.

Enabling the asynchronous conversion feature allows control to quickly return to the end user. Moving the image generation tasks to run in the background makes this possible. Asynchronous conversion provides a scalable technique for converting graphics files and prevents performance degradation when loading multiple large graphics files simultaneously. Enabling the asynchronous conversion functionality prevents overloading the Windchill server by shifting the conversion tasks to a lower priority background process.