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Saving Commonspace Objects As New Objects
The commonspace Save As action enables you to copy checked-in CAD documents or dynamic documents, their structures, part objects, or product structures, or document, or document structure and store them as new objects. In addition, you can create new documents to be associated with the new Windchill parts, while the document is checked-in. This functionality applies to models, drawings, and family table objects in the commonspace and is capable of preserving CAD document/part associations. In other words, the “saved as CAD documents and parts” are associated in the same way as their originals.
A similar action, workspace Save As, can be initiated only from the workspace. In the workspace version, newly-created objects remain outside the commonspace until they are checked in. For more information, see Using Workspace Save As.
Commonspace Save As is only available from the commonspace view (for example, the Structure tab) of the object's information page, as well as the part or CAD document Actions menu. You can also use the right-click menu in the commonspace view of an object's information page, in the Folders page, or the Search Results page.
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You can use Save As to copy an entire or partial Creo family table. If you copy an instance without its generic, the new instance copy becomes a new member of the family table. If you copy a drawing without copying its referent model, the new drawing refers to the original model.
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Save As is supported for objects and structures shared to a project. The new object or structure copy must be created in the active Windchill ProjectLink project context.
For a user with access to the project context only, the Save As action is supported from the project Folders page Actions menu and right-click menu option, only. This creates a new object or structure in project context only. However, for a user with access to both product and project contexts, the Save As action is also supported from CAD document information page. When the Save As action is invoked from the object’s information page, the new object or structure will be created in the product context.
The soft type attributes displayed are editable and validated against the current constraints. You must ensure that the attribute values are valid before creating the new objects.
The type and attribute manager checks the attributes and constraints defined for unmodified objects when you perform a Save As action.
Overview of Save As
Objects selected for Save As are initially shown in the Save As table as being set to be copied.
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The preference, Save Selected Only, is set to false by default. When this preference is set to true, only selected objects are copied and rest are reused by default.
• Selected objects display a default Number. CAD objects also have a default Name.
◦ If the selected object is auto-numbered by default by a site preference, then by default the New Number field displays the text (Generated) and the New File Name field displays the text <Same As Number> and both fields are inactive. This is to indicate that the object is being copied, and that auto-numbering is applicable for that object type.
◦ Clicking Reuse indicates that you intend to reuse the existing object in the new structure, rather than creating a new copy. If you toggle between saving a new copy and reusing the existing object, then any text, whether generated by the system or entered by you, is removed from the New Number, New Name, and New File Name (if relevant) fields.
◦ An underscore (_) is added to the default object New Number when auto-numbering is not the default mechanism for naming for this object type.
◦ Windchill generates the default New File Name when the file name is tied to the CAD document New Number . The file name is the <number> plus the appropriate CAD document extension. For example, if auto-numbering specifies a number for a CAD document to be "1234567", and you are copying a Creo Parametric part, then the resulting New File Name is "1234567_.prt".
◦ An underscore (_) is added to the base of the default New File Name when auto-numbering is not invoked. That is, if the file name was bolt.prt, then when auto-numbering is not used, the New File Name by default would be bolt_.prt.
• Related objects may be added to the Save As table by using the collection tools and Configuration menu.
• You can also use the Set View command to specify a different view for a part object.
The default behavior of Save As is to preserve CAD document and Windchill part structures to the maximum extent possible.
If you save a CAD document or Windchill part structure, a new, complete, and parallel structure is created only if both of the following conditions are met:
• The top-level object is saved as a new object.
• All the parents of a lower-level object are also saved as new objects.
If these conditions are not met, the explicitly selected objects are copied, but each change is discrete.
To save an object (and its associated objects) as a new object or objects:
1. From the CAD document information page menu or other commonspace location of an object, select Save As.
The Commonspace Save As window opens. It contains a toolbar for collecting or removing additional objects and a table where the objects to be saved as new objects are listed.
2. Use the collection user interface (commonspace Save As uses the advanced mode), which includes options to set a configuration specification, to specify the objects to add, remove, include, or exclude from the Save As table. For more information, see Collecting in Advanced Mode.
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When two objects have circular dependencies on each other, the Save As operation requires both objects to be either included in or excluded (or removed) from Save As together. The property, Save.as.trace.circular.dependents, when set to true, enables checking for circular dependents. The server preference, Save As > Check For Circular Dependents, controls the scope used to check for circular dependents. If this preference is set to "Workspace Only", then no error message will be generated when duplicating any objects with external references or circular dependencies that are not present in the workspace.
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Duplicating objects with the "Workspace Only" setting can lead to the creation of new structures with invalid or incomplete dependency information, and might make objects unusable in certain cases, such as skeleton assembly, merge reference, and so on.
3. To the right of the collection icons are the action icons for specifying how the new objects for selected objects in the Save As table will be saved. These actions are described in the following table:
Action
Description
(Set New Name)
Calls the Set New Name window, allowing you to set a renaming pattern. You can use the Set New Name action on an object previously set for reuse to re-include the object in the Save As action
(Reuse)
Specifies not to copy the selected object, but to reference the original in a new structure. In the case of family table objects, reused objects are not copied into the new family table (if one is created).
(Remove any usage links to this object)
(Applicable to Windchill part objects, only.) Sets the selected object for removal from the saved-as structure. For more information, see Using Save As to Derive a Simpler Part Structure.
(Set CAGE Code)
(If enabled at your site) Allows you to find and assign an organization for the selected object
(Set Location)
Calls the Set Location window, allowing you to set a commonspace location for the new object(s)
(Set view)
Calls the Set View window, allowing you to set a view for the new part. (Windchill PDMLink or Windchill ProjectLink only)
(Edit attribute values for the selected objects)
Presents the Edit Attribute Value window, enabling you to set the attribute value for various EPM documents, Windchill documents and parts. See Setting Attribute Values.
4. In the Save As table, examine the proposed New Number, New File Name, and New Name values for each listed object, which have been initialized according to site preference settings. If auto-numbering is not set, you can edit these values; however, CAD document and part numbers must be unique in the database and of a valid length.
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File Name and New File Name are not applicable to Windchill parts.
5. Examine the proposed Location for each object. You can change this value by using the folder button in the Location column.
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If you are working in a Windchill PDMLink context, a context rather than a folder is the location listed.
6. Optionally, to remove your specifications for object collection and handling, and return the table to its original state, click the reset icon .
7. Click OK on the Save As window. The system checks for object number uniqueness and for valid name, model name, and folder location. If the CAD document or part number, name, model name, and folder location are valid, a new object is created.
If the object number is not unique or invalid (for example, too long) an appropriate message is displayed, asking you to try another value.
If the object name, model name or folder location is invalid, a message is logged, and the next selected object is processed.
The Save As Table
By default, objects are listed in rows with columns that contain object information as explained in the following table:
Column
Description
(Select All)
Use check boxes to select rows to which to apply toolbar actions. The top (yellow-highlighted) check box selects/deselects all rows.
(Share status)
Displays icons that indicate an object's status relative to a project or PDM (if applicable)
(Action status)
Displays the current intent to copy or reuse the object
(General status)
Displays object general status icon (if applicable)
(Status Messages)
Displays status text message (if applicable)
(Type)
Contains the object icon specific to the object type and its state
Number
Displays the number of the object.
New Number
Contains a text box, which defaults to the new number of the object (CAD document or part)
File Name
Displays the file name of a CAD document. For a part, the field is blank.
New File Name
Contains a text box. It's initialized with new file name of the CAD document if the object corresponding to the current row is a CAD document. Otherwise it is left blank.
Name
Displays the name of the object
New Name
Contains a text box initialized with the new name of the object (CAD document or part)
Organization ID
Shows the organization ID. This field may or may not be visible or editable, depending on a preference setting. If editable, you can use the accompanying button to access the Search Organization window.
Location
Displays the current selected folder location for the new object. You can use the folder browse button to select a new folder location.
Collection Rule
Displays highest priority rule for including object in Collect Objects list
Version
Displays the version of the object
Part View
Displays the view for the part (Windchill PDMLink or Windchill ProjectLink only)
You can use the Pick a View menu to select an existing view or to create a customized display for table objects and their attributes.
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