Checking Out Objects from the Workspace

Use the Check Out action to add objects from Windchill to your workspace for modification. Generally, a working copy of the file is transferred to your local disk, and a lock is placed on the object in the database to prevent simultaneous modification in another workspace.

Refer to the section, ‘Comparison of Download, Link, and Reuse’, for an explanation of how content can be handled during a checkout.

A direct checkout (no user interface involved, only initially selected objects checked out) occurs when checkout is initiated from the following places.

For more information about the Check Out page, see Checking Out Objects from Windchill.

When checking out or adding objects to your workspace, your choice of download options (download, link, or reuse) should be guided by the current workspace situation and your intent. If your intent is to open the current server-stored model in Creo Parametric at some point in time, the Download option should be selected, as it downloads the content in a much more efficient manner with fewer performance concerns. Selecting Download does, however, overwrite any locally cached modifications, if they exist.

If you select the Link option during checkout, file data for that object is not downloaded during the checkout, but it will be downloaded at some subsequent time if it is requested by Creo Parametric. Whether a subsequent download is triggered or not, the server content is identified as the content of the object. Therefore, the link option can be used in scenarios where you want to overwrite (or have no) locally cached modifications of the CAD document, and have no intention to open the model in Creo Parametric. For example, you might want to modify the model parameters through the WindchillEdit Attributes page).

If the file already exists and is modified in your local cache, and you select Reuse, content for that object is not downloaded. Instead, the locally modified content becomes the content of the "added" object iteration or working copy. In other words, the reuse option is only applicable if you already have modified object content in your local cache.

It may become desirable to revert to an earlier design for a CAD document. You can use the Iteration History of the latest iteration of the object to identify an earlier iteration, navigate to its information page, and initiate a checkout. In general, you can initiate the checkout of a non-latest iteration from the same places you would initiate the checkout of the latest iteration. Exceptions are the row-level check-out actions available in places such as the workspace page, the workspace Edit Attributes page, and the Check In page.

Check out of an earlier iteration of a CAD document is supported, subject to the following conditions:

• If you perform the checkout using the Check Out/Add to Workspace page, a conflict message saying an iteration other than the latest cannot be checked out is displayed in the Event Management utility. This is an overridable conflict that can be overridden using the Conflict Management utility.

• No other iteration of the object can be currently checked out. Also, when you check out a non-latest iteration, all other iterations of the object are adorned with a "checked-out" symbol to indicate that no other iterations can be simultaneously checked-out. On the Iteration History report, to avoid confusion, only the iteration actually checked out displays the yellow checked-out-by-you symbol (

). The iteration which was latest before the non-latest checkout shows a checkmark on a gray background to indicate that it is unavailable for checkout.

• When gathering related objects of an initially selected object that is not the latest iteration, the default configuration is the As Stored configuration for the initially selected object (not Latest). This can be modified by the Windchill preference, Set Configuration for Check Out.

• Upon checking the object back in, it becomes the latest iteration. The Iteration History report records the earlier iteration it was derived from.

• When checked out, the object has both the content (only if a CAD document) and meta data of the earlier iteration. When checked in, however, the earlier iteration is assigned the life cycle state of the iteration that had previously been the latest.

• When the checkout of an earlier iteration requires overriding an overridable conflict, you need to explicitly refresh the workspace to properly view the earlier iteration.