Using Workspace Save As
The workspace Save As action allows you to save copies of objects in the workspace as new objects. These newly created objects are not committed to the commonspace until you perform a checkin. Your copies can be modified, evaluated, and discarded before checkin, to avoid unwanted or redundant database iterations. Workspace Save As also allows you to update and unset attributes that may differ from the original objects, as well as update a dependency from an existing parent object to the newly duplicated object, letting you replace an old component with a newly duplicated component without involving the authoring application. In addition, circular dependencies can be detected and managed.
Following are some general considerations for Save As (parts related—Windchill PDMLink or Windchill ProjectLink only).
• If CAD documents and their associated parts are copied together, the new objects have the same types of associations as the originals.
• If a CAD document is copied without its associated parts, the new CAD document does not have any associations to parts.
• If a part is copied without its associated CAD documents, the new part does not have associations to any CAD document.
If the server side preference, > > is set to Yes, then the new Part will stay related to the already associated CAD Documents.
• For Creo family table objects:
◦ If an instance alone is copied without its generic, then a new instance is added to the family table.
◦ If the generic alone is copied, then a new standalone part is added.
◦ If the generic and some of its instances are copied then a new family table is added.
• For family table objects: Replace content functionality is possible when a family table generic with same number of instances exists in Windchill.
• Save as using Update Parents action for a child having family table is now supported. This is possible only when the child is added as a column in the family table of the parent. For other authoring applications, all Family Table objects must be copied together
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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.
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Workspace Save As is available from the workspace File menu, the workspace information page actions list, and the workspace Structure tab toolbar.
The Save As page has the following two steps:
1. Collect Objects to Copy
2. Update Parents
You can navigate to a subsequent step by clicking Next. Navigate to a preceding step by clicking Back or clicking the gray box corresponding to a previously completed step.
Collect Objects to Copy
When
Save As is initiated, the first step of the
Workspace Save As page appears with the objects you selected and any required dependents listed in the
Save As table. Current Settings information is listed above the table. The
Configuration menu allows you to change the current table columns and add additional attributes that you may want to edit during Save As.
For more information on basic table use, sorting, using and customizing views, and finding strings in the table listing, see Using Tables and Customizing Table Views.
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The preference, Save Selected Objects Only, is set to No by default. When this preference is set to Yes, only selected objects are copied and the rest are reused by default.
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Below the menu bar is the tool bar for the Save As table. You can use the action icons on the left side of the tool bar to:
• collect additional related objects.
• remove selected objects from the table.
• exclude or include objects from the action while leaving them listed in the table.
These collection tools are common to many
Windchill action pages and are described in the topic
Collecting in Advanced Mode.
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Several collection/toolbar actions can have the effect of specifying a reuse of a component during Save As. For example, note the effects of the actions listed in the following table.
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Action
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Result
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The collection action Remove selected objects |
Removes the selected object from the Save As table. The result when the Save As action is committed is that the original object, not the saved-as object, is used in the new structure.
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This action will not remove the object from the new structure.
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The collection action Exclude selected objects |
Used to mark the object for exclusion from the Save As action, while leaving the object in the Save As table. The result when the Save As action is committed is that the original object, not the saved-as object, is used in the new structure.
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The Save As action Reuse |
Marks the selected object for reuse of the original object in the saved-as structure. If the object is an assembly, then all of its original components are also reused.
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To the right of the collection tools are the action icons for specifying how the new objects for selected objects in the Save As table are saved. These actions are described in the following table.
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Action
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Description
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 (Set New Name) |
Launches the Set New Name window, allowing you to select naming and numbering options. 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. See Setting New Names.
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The administrator can set up the user’s profile to disallow updates to the New Number, New Name and New File Name on the Set New Name user interface.
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(Reuse) |
Specifies to not copy the selected object, but to reference the original in a new (saved as) structure.
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 (Replace) |
If enabled at your site, presents theFind Object window, enabling you to search for and select a replacement for the selected object.
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 (Org ID) |
If enabled at your site, presents the Find Organization window, enabling you to select an Organization ID.
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 (Set Location) |
Presents the Set Location window, enabling you to set a commonspace location for the new objects.
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 (Set view) |
Presents the Set View window, enabling you to set a view for a new part (available for parts only). See Setting a View. |
 (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. |
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When two objects have circular dependencies on each other, the Save As action 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, > , 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.
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Clicking the reset icon
on the right side of the toolbar resets the
Save As table to its initial condition.
| Incomplete objects are not eligible for collection. Objects with circular dependencies must be either included or excluded together. |
| For generated names and numbers, you can specify that the file extension be dropped from system-generated CAD document names and numbers by setting the values of the following Windchill preferences to Yes. The default is No (file extensions are included). > > • Drop File Extension from Name • Drop File Extension from Number |
| • 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. |
To use Save As in the workspace:
1. Select an object in the workspace that you want to save as a new object and select > . Incomplete objects, or objects that have never been uploaded, are not eligible for Save As.
The Workspace Save As page opens, listing your initially selected objects and required dependents and circular dependents in the Save As table.
2. Use the Configuration menu to set rules for the dependency and configuration of objects to be listed in the Save As table.
3. Select one or more objects and click the appropriate collection toolbar action to gather, remove, exclude, or include related objects in the Save As table.
| In the case of circular dependents, you must either include both objects or exclude both from Save As. |
4. Select one or more objects and click the
Set New Name icon
to select name and number options for the objects (see
Setting New Names). Site settings (for example, auto-numbering) may affect what options are available to you. By default the system appends an underscore to the original name. See
System Behavior When Setting New Names.
5. By default, objects in the
Save As table are indicated in the Action status column to be saved as new objects (
). You can specify that an original object be reused (for example, in the newly saved-as structure of a higher-level object) by selecting the object and clicking the reuse icon
.
| You cannot reuse a circular dependent. |
6. By default, new objects take the organization ID of the original context. You can change the Organization ID by selecting one or more objects and clicking the set Org ID icon
(if available at your site).
7. By default, newly saved-as objects are stored in the same location as the original. You can set a different location by selecting one or more objects and clicking the set location icon
.
8. By default, the view of newly saved-as parts is the same as for the original. You can set a different view by selecting one or more objects and clicking the set view icon
.
9. Click Next to continue to the Update Parents step.
—or—
Click Finish to commit the Save As action without updating parent objects.
Update Parents
The Update Parents step allows you to update a dependency from a parent object so that a newly saved-as object can be the child of an existing parent. For each object being copied, valid parents are determined. If the parent is in the workspace and is not being copied, then the parent is valid.
When you click Next in the Collect Objects To Copy step, the system presents the Update Parents step. This step lists parents of the objects set to be saved as new objects in the Parents List table. By default, all parents are set to reuse their original members.
| Replacing a model using Update Parents now has the same type of circular dependency checking as if the model was copied, and is disallowed in the case that it has circular dependencies. |
To update parents:
1. For any parent listed and eligible for update, decide if you want it to remain the parent of the newly saved as objects.
2. In the toolbar of the Parents List are action icons that control how a selected parent object is handled during a Save As action.The controls are described in the following table.
Action | Description |
 (Replace parent) | Replaces the original parent with a new copy as the parent of a newly saved-as object. This option is available for checked out objects only, therefore the parent object has to be checked out. |
(Reuse) | Specifies not to copy the selected parent, but to reference the original parent in a new (saved as) structure. |
 (Check Out parent) | Initiates a simple (no user interface), immediate check-out of the parent object to allow modification of references |
◦ If you want the new structure to reuse an original parent, ensure that the reuse (
) symbol is displayed in the parent's Action status column. You may need to select the parent and click the reuse icon
. To check out the parent to allow modification, you may need to select the parent and click the checkout icon
.
◦ You can specify that a new parent object be created for the new structure by selecting the listed parent and clicking the replace parent icon
.
3. Click Finish to commit the Save As action.
The objects are processed and the new objects are listed in the workspace.
