Configuring the Windchill Help Center
Starting with Windchill 12.0.1.0, Windchill refers to the online Windchill Help Center (WHC) hosted on Help Center page on PTC Support site by default. This means that when the help is invoked from the application Windchill users will be navigated directly to an external site, PTC Support in this case.
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As a security consideration, PTC recommends that for Windchill installation, the Windchill Help Center URL is configured with HTTPS, and using an HTTPS connection for manual configuration.
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It is possible to install a local Windchill Help Center and configure the application to point to the local help center. The wt.whc.url property in wt.properties file, which is located in the Windchill codebase directory, can be configured to direct the application to refer to either the online help center or the local help center.
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Windchill administrator must ensure that access to the PTC Support site is available through any existing firewall configuration.
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The following table provides scenarios and instructions on hooking the help center when installing or updating a Windchill instance.
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Type of Windchill Installation
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WHC Option
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Instruction
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Setting WHC option in new Windchill installation
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Point to local WHC
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1. Set the environment variable PSI_ENABLE_WHC=1.
2. Run PSI and install WHC.
When directed to local WHC, the property is set to: wt.whc.url ="$(wt.server.codebase)-WHC"
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Point to online WHC
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Run PSI and complete installation. By default the online WHC is referenced.
When directed to online WHC, the property is set to, for example wt.whc.url=https://support.ptc.com/help/wnc/r12.0.1.0/
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Updating WHC option in an existing Windchill installation
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Switch from online WHC (default) to local WHC
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1. Set the environment variable PSI_ENABLE_WHC=1.
2. Run PSI and install WHC.
When directed to local WHC, the property is set to: wt.whc.url ="$(wt.server.codebase)-WHC"
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Switch from local WHC to online WHC
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Configure the property wt.whc.url to add URL of the appropriate version of online WHC and propagate the changes to the properties file using the xconfmanager utility.
Sample command to run from windchill Shell for 12.0.1.0 WHC:
xconfmanager -s wt.whc.url=https://support.ptc.com/help/wnc/r12.0.1.0/ -t codebase/wt.properties -p
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Updating WHC option when an existing installation of Windchill is updated (for example Windchill 12.0.0.0 updated to Windchill 12.0.1.0)
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Existing online WHC to updated version of online WHC
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wt.whc.url property is updated automatically during the update process to point to appropriate version of online WHC.
This will apply in the update scenario such as,Windchill 12.0.1.0 to Windchill 12.0.2.0.
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Existing local WHC to updated version of local WHC
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1. Set the environment variable PSI_ENABLE_WHC=1.
2. Run PSI and update the installation.
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Existing online WHC to updated version of local WHC
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1. Set the environment variable PSI_ENABLE_WHC=1.
2. Run PSI and install WHC.
This will apply in the update scenario such as,Windchill 12.0.1.0 to Windchill 12.0.2.0.
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Existing local WHC to updated version of online WHC
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wt.whc.url property is updated automatically during the update process to point to appropriate version of online WHC.
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When updating existing installation, for example from Windchill 12.0.0.0 to Windchill 12.0.1.0, the following may be observed:
• During the update process, the reference to local WHC in Windchill 12.0.0.0 changes by default to the online WHC in Windchill 12.0.1.0. However, the Windchill version will display WHC version of 12.0.0.0 in the updated instance as this was an installed assembly in Windchill 12.0.0.0. You can ignore this WHC version because starting with Windchill 12.0.1.0, the online WHC is referenced by default, you are directed to PTC.com to view and access the help content from the latest WHC of the Windchill release that you have installed.
• If you opted to install local WHC in the updated Windchill 12.0.1.0, the Windchill version is updated and displays the Windchill version of the WHC CD.
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