I’m sure that many of you have come across slow-performing searches in Windchill, especially when using wildcards. It might be snappier if you have Index Search installed, but only when the Keyword: field is used; as soon as you enter something in the Criteria section of Advanced Search, the system falls back to basic database queries.

Under the hood, the bulk of the time and resources spent during wildcard search is in database queries containing something like "..AND NAME LIKE ‘%mypart%’…", i.e. with filters that include leading and/or trailing wildcards.

New functionality was introduced in Windchill 10.2 to deal with this. The basic idea is that, for a given business object type and attribute, a separate table is created in the database that holds indexed columns with substrings of the current values. Windchill can then do exact searches of these substrings without using wildcards, which speeds things up significantly. We’ll go through an example here to illustrate how to use it.

Configuring it

I’ll be adding a substring index for the attribute ‘name’ in the business object class wt.part.WTPartMaster.  The actual creation and maintenance of the substring index tables is done with the SubStringIndexTool, but before running it, it needs to be configured.

The tool reads the configuration file <Windchill>/conf/subStringTool.xml. This file does not exist in OOTB Windchill, so I’ll have to create it manually.

For this example, the content of the file looks like this:

The parameters className and attributeName are set to the class and attribute on which the substring index is created. I want the index table name to be JLAPARTINDX; if this is not specified, it will default to <table>$<attribute>$SSI, which is a bit long for my taste. I don’t want it to be case sensitive (caseSensitive=”false”) and the index length is set to 6 (indexLength=”6”). I’ll cover that later when we look at the results.

I’m also enabling pre-query, which is one of two available approaches for applying the substring index during searches. The one chosen here means that Windchill first queries the substring index table for matching object IDs; these are then used to query the actual business object table. There are more details on this in the JavaDoc of the wt.pds.subStringIndex package.

With the configuration done, we can run the tool to create the substring index.

Running the tool

The substring index is created with the following command:

windchill wt.pds.subStringIndex.SubStringIndexTool create <user> <password>

where <user> and <password> is the Windchill database schema username and password. The result is a new table that looks something like this:

The ID column holds the object ID of the related WTPartMaster; the VALUE column holds the full values of the selected ‘name’ attribute. The SS* columns hold the substrings of the given lengths that have been found in the attribute values. This is where the ‘indexLength’ parameter comes in; it was set to 6, so it will generate six SS* columns. SS1 holds all substrings of length 1, SS2 holds the ones with length 2, and so on.

For example, one of the attribute values is '01-51284.prt'. The substrings for this value start in row 13 above: as the POS value increases, you see the various length substrings for that value in the different SS* columns.

So how does it work? Say a user does a search for *5128*. The substring between the wildcards is four characters long, so a fast, indexed search is done in the SS4 column for the exact value 5128. The query returns the ID column values, which are then used to find the matching entries in the original WTDOCUMENTMASTER table.

Maintaining it

A separate table is being used for the substring indexes, which means that a mechanism is needed to keep it in sync with the original business object table. There are three options:

• Event-driven– sync is triggered insert, update and/or remove events in Windchill
• Scheduled– sync takes place at scheduled, regular intervals, triggered from a background queue.
• Manual– sync is done manually with the SubStringIndexTool

This is configured in the subStringTool.xml file mentioned earlier. Details on these and how to configure them can be found here.

Going forward

If this looks interesting and you wish to implement substring indexes, you’ll find further information in the Windchill Help Center. The purpose of this blog entry was to raise awareness of its existence, as we have seen very few queries on it in Tech Support.

Thank you for your time; as always, comments and feedback are greatly appreciated.

In Windchill 10.2 a lot of effort has been made to enhance and simplify the user experience when working with WTDocuments from your Microsoft Windows Desktop.

In this blog I will show you some of the enhancements and how they can significantly simplify your interaction with documents stored in your company’s Windchill system.

Windows Explorer Integration

The PTC Windchill Desktop Integration plugin adds the Windchill Documents system folder to your local environment. You can you use that Windows Explorer Integration to find, open, access and download Windchill documents without the need to open the Windchill web application in a browser.

This will give you a variety of ways to easily access and interact with documents just like they had been stored on your local system:

• by double clicking on a file in the Windows Explorer
• by using the context (right mouse button) menu on the Windchill node, any context folder or document in the Windows Explorer
• by the File > Open dialog of any local application (like Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat…)
• ...

But I do not want to miss the (in my opinion) most natural way of interacting with documents in Windows – Drag and Drop.

As working with the Explorer Integration should just feel natural, Drag and Drop capabilities have been integrated and with Windchill 10.2 M010 these have even been enhanced.

Dragging a document file from your local system to a context folder under the Windchill Documents node will trigger one of the following actions (depending on the area where you drop the document):

• New Document / New Multiple Documents
• Check In
• Replace Content

The other direction is supported as well:

Grabbing a document from a Windchill context folder and dragging it to your local system or another Windchill context will trigger corresponding actions depending if modifier keys (Shift and / or Ctrl) are applying and the target the document is dropped (possible actions are copy, move, create shortcut…).

Access to Windchill Functionality

Starting with Windchill 10.2 F000, the right-click menu in Windows Explorer includes a wider range of Windchill actions. While in previous releases only actions such as Open and View Information were available, this expanded to the most commonly used actions on the Windchill web application (even multiselect for Check in, Set State… have been implemented in 10.2 M030).

The right mouse button menu is context sensitive and the actions availability will change depending on the object you open it on. Additional restrictions like access permissions, preferences and so on can have impact on the availability of actions.

My personal highlight is the introduction of the Compare Document functionality in the Windows Explorer integration with Windchill 10.2 F000.

Compare Documents

Starting Windchill 10.2 F000 (and enhanced in 10.2 M010) the Desktop integration added compare capabilities. But different to the compare functionality available in the Windchill web application this will concentrate less on comparing metadata but more on comparing the content of the documents.

Out of the box Windchill supports Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010 files and had been extended to Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint in Windchill 10.2 M010 (dedicated support matrix below).

Additional file compare tools can be registered based on the file extension in the Windchill Desktop Integration Configuration menu.

There are two different compare actions available:

• Compare Document Versions

This will allow you to compare the file content of two different versions of the same document (see screenshot)

• Compare Documents

This will allow you to compare the content of two different objects, which need to be of the same file type.

Going forward

This was the first part of my post about productivity enhancements on Windows Explorer Integration.

In the second part I will show you how easy it is to access Windchill Meta data in the Windows Explorer, how this can be adjusted to your needs and how simple it is to find any document with the integrated Windchill search.

If you are in the meantime interested in additional details on the Windchill Explorer Integration, you’ll find further information in the Windchill Help Center.

And as always any questions and comments are appreciated but I definitely would be very interested in your ideas:

• What do you think about the enhanced functionality? Which functionality you like best?
• For which things do you use the Windows Explorer integration?
• …

Please let me and the community know about it.

In my last blog post Productivity Enhancements on Windows Explorer Integration for Windchill Desktop Integration 10.2, Part I I discussed the possibilities and enhancements around the Windchill Documents system folder in the Windows Explorer.

This blog will show you how easy it is to display Windchill Meta data information in the Windows Explorer Integration.

I will also discuss the integrated Windchill search and how leverage the Windchill Index Search functionality.

View Windchill Information

Windchill metadata information of your documents can be displayed in the Windows Explorer without opening a browser to access the Windchill web application. Even applying filters is possible.

To do so, you have to navigate from the Windchill Documents node to the context that you are interested. On the right hand pane you will see the stored documents.

You may add or remove attributes by right-clicking a Windows Explorer column heading to see a drop down menu of additional columns available.

Is the attribute still not available in the out of the box list?

No problem, since Windchill 10.2 F000 you can select Windchill folder views to add columns that appear in the list. With Windchill 10.2 M010 even the filters on these views will affect the data displayed in the object list.

This allows you to configure which documents will be show in the folder. E.g. if you only want to display the latest document version, then apply filter settings on the Windchill table view (in the Set Filter step select Revision and Version attributes and set them to Latest).

Folder Search for Windows Explorer

All the features that I showed until now required that you exactly know where the documents are located in your Windchill system but this unfortunately is not always the case. While manual navigating through the folder structure is cumbersome and annoying to find a document, there is a simpler way to find your documents.

Starting in Windchill PDM Link 10.2 F000 you can search for any Windchill document using the Windchill Search action. This is a quick and easy way to search for your documents inside of the Windows Explorer Integration without the need to open the Windchill web application.

The search can be initiated from context, container or folder level within the Windchill Documents node. This will allow you to search by Name or Number on this context level and all sub-contexts.

Please note that the search is case-insensitive and wildcards are allowed. Add asterisk (*) as a wildcard character to indicate that one or more characters can appear in that position.

For Windchill systems with Index Search enabled, even document content will be taken into account when calculating the results if the option “Include search within content (only if index search is enabled)” is selected.

The native Windows Explorer search field (in the top right corner of the Windows Explorer) can also be used to perform a search but this will yield slightly different results. The search will only be performed on the current folder / context and not on any sub-context.

In case you are also interested in the location of document in the folder structure, you can use the right mouse button menu to select “Open File Location”. This will open the Windchill context or folder in which the object is stored.

Conclusion

This was the last part of my post about productivity enhancements on Windows Explorer Integration.

I hope that you liked this brief tour on the Windows Explorer Integration if you are interested in more details, you’ll find further information in the Windchill Help Center.

Thank you also for your many comments on part I.

As always let me and the community here about your thoughts and questions:

• What do you like about the Windows Explorer Integration and what do you think is missing?

• In which scenarios you are using the Windchill Explorer Integration?

• …

In this article, I’ll provide some tips and tricks that will hopefully enable you to really start leveraging the potential of the WVS Job Scheduler.  I’m sure many of you are aware of this tool and using it already, at least in a basic form but for those that are new to it, here’s a quick intro.

The WVS Job Scheduler allows you to schedule the creation and execution publish, print, thumbnail, interference detection and clean-up jobs, in a specific context, at a specific day / time and optionally repeats the job execution on a timed schedule.  Depending on their type, these scheduler jobs will result in Publish, Clash or Print Jobs being added to the WVS Publisher Queue or the execution of clean-up or thumbnail generation for the objects returned by a predefined Windchill query.

Before we get started. some useful tips that might avoid embarrassing Scheduler faux pas:

• Always test scheduler jobs using the Only create log file option
• Limit publish jobs by launching the WVS Job Scheduler Administration utility in Product or Project contexts
• Increase the wt.pom.querylimit for particularly large contexts (CS124149)
• Always delete all WVS Scheduler Jobs prior to migration to avoid issues relating to changes in the database model (CS64089)

Customized Scheduler Methods

Out-of-the-box scheduler methods are defined in com.ptc.wvs.server.schedule.ScheduledJobQueries.class and PTC ships the Java source under the prog_examples in your Windchill home.  The ScheduleJobs.class since Windchill 10.0 only provides supported utility methods.

The basic approach for creating a custom Scheduler Method is documented in the Custom Publishing Help Center topic (PDF).  You’ll need basic understanding of Java programming and Windchill customization. The intent is that you use the sample methods in ScheduledJobQueries.java to create your own customized methods.  The only limit is your imagination!

In the References below, I include links to a few articles that provide real world examples of custom scheduler methods.  Feel free to download, reuse or customize these to your own requirements.

The perennial challenge for PTC has been providing Scheduler methods that will satisfy all customers’ needs.  One approach, that allows you to be in complete control over what is and is not published, is to create a custom method that simply processes a list of OID's from a text file you created.  With basic Windchill customization skills, this should not be difficult to implement as followings:

1. Create the text file containing the EPMDoc OID's of the objects that need to be processed; this can be achieved using SQL, Windchill Query Builder or even Creo View Search tools, for example.
2. Create a WTDoc and upload this file as the primary content (could make this a WTDoc sub-type, context specific and be access controlled as required)
3. Write the custom Scheduler method (using a relevant out-of-the-box method as a basis) that:
   1. Locates the WTDoc
   2. Downloads the primary content file for the latest iteration
   3. Reads the OID's from it in to an array
   4. Cycles through the EPMDoc OID’s and returns a WTList of EPMDocs to publish and/or Representations to republish

Why not dive in and try it?  Or maybe one of you has already achieved this and is willing to share the code here?

As always, I welcome your comments, questions and will answer them if I can.

References:

Basic WVS Scheduler info:

• WVS Job Scheduler Administration Help Center topic from the Windchill 10.2 M030 WVS Guide (PDF here)
• Article CS113279documents the out-of-the-box scheduler methods that are available at Windchill 10.2.

WVS Scheduler articles providing some real world examples of what can be achieved:

• Article CS211115 provides a method that enables the republishing (or publishing) of default EPMDoc representations based on criteria defined in a separate properties file, e.g. CAD content type (file extension) and life-cycle state.
• Article CS187307 provides an alternative to the out-of-the-box methods for use with large query results by batch chunking rather than using a paging query spec

Get a preview of the next version of PTC's flagship PLM software: PTC Windchill 11. PTC Windchill 11 is the world's first smart, connected PLM software and delivers new levels of connectivity and process improvements across the entire closed-loop product lifecycle.

Join us for the PTC Windchill 11 launch telecast* on Tuesday, December 15th at 11AM EST to see the new features in action, hear from customers like you on how they benefit from PTC Windchill today, and learn about new product developments, including how PTC Windchill 11 is now:

• Smart, delivering role-based PLM data to ALL stakeholders at their point of need
• Connected, leveraging data from the product's operation via IoT technologies that deliver fully closed-loop processes
• Complete, improving Bill of Materials management, from requirements through service
• Flexible, with more deployment options that scale to your needs - including Cloud, SaaS and subscription

UPDATE: You can still view this webinar telecast by going to the following page and quickly filling in your information.

* This telecast was previously recorded and broadcast only in English.

Link (requires login):

http://support.ptc.com/cs/help/windchill_hc/wc110_hc/

Even if you're on an earlier release, you might find the "New and Changed for this Release" topics interesting:

PTC Windchill

PTC Windchill Workgroup Manager

A few notes about using the help center (for those unfamiliar):

• It's supported for IE and Firefox. (In my opinion, it's best viewed in Firefox)
• You can view it in Chrome, but be advised that table borders won't render in Chrome.
• The help center can be frustrating if you're not aware of the Show in Table of Contents action:
  
  
  
  Clicking this will orient you in the table of contents, allowing you to browse the related documentation.

In early December, PTC introduced Windchill 11, with new capabilities to make PLM more Smart, Connected, Complete and Flexible. Leveraging PTC’s unique Internet of Things (IoT) technology, Windchill 11 introduces new levels of PLM functionality and delivers more product data to more of your organization than ever before.

Join us on February 16th at 11:00 a.m. EST for a live product demonstration and Q&A during this 45 minute webcast. You will learn about 11 brand-new PLM capabilities in PTC Windchill 11 from James Paschetto, PLM Technical Specialist, Principal at PTC. This webcast will feature product demonstrations of:

• Role-Based Apps
• New Windchill Search
• Query Builder Enhancements
• Updates to BOM Management
• Connected Quality
• Change Management Enhancements
• Document Management Enhancements
• Automatic Project Updates
• CAD Data Management Enhancements
• New Web UI for eBOM & mBOM Transformation
• Performance Advisor

This is a great opportunity to learn more about the new features and capabilities of PTC Windchill 11, and to get your questions answered by a product expert.

Register today »

James Biggwither, Senior Manager of Configuration & Data Management for Albany Engineered Composites sat down with us last year after the PTC 2015 event and shared with us his experience, gains, and improved understanding of PTC Windchill MPMLink by attending the event in person.

You can read about Mr. Biggwither's full experience in the designated LiveWorx 2016 space where you can expect more PTC Windchill information in the weeks to come as well as event, session, speaker, and networking updates.

Also, there will be some fun opportunities to get involved and win some prizes!

We'll see you in June, but until then we'll see you here!

liveworx.com

In case you missed the live webcast where James Paschetto, PLM Technical Specialist, Principal at PTC demonstrated some of the key new features in PTC Windchill 11, you can now access the recorded version.

Here are some of the demonstration highlights:

• New Windchill Search: The search capabilities in PTC Windchill 11 are significantly more complete and effective. The classification search included with Windchill Partslink, and the traditional Windchill attribute searching, are now combined.  This means users can search on both classification information and/or business attributes simultaneously.

• Enhancements to Query Builder: We have completely redesigned the UI and implemented a HTML interface instead of the java applet.  The new graphical user interface makes understanding the relationships between the objects easier to create, and understand. Query Builder now allows you to filter and display only the object types and available relationships that you are using in your deployment of PTC Windchill when you are creating new reports.

• Addition of Role-based Apps: Because of our new PTC Windchill and ThingWorx connection, PTC is able to deliver simple, easy to use apps that unleash product data to all participants in the product development process.  Apps include: View Part, View Drawing, View Parts List, View Part Structure, View & Measure 3D Geometry and View Documents.

• Change Management Improvements: For the first time, PTC Windchill customers can now configure their own change management processes to match their business needs.  PTC Windchill 11 introduces flexible change associations allowing the ability to configure links between a variety of change objects.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the new capabilities available in PTC Windchill 11. Other enhancements demonstrated during the webcast include:

• Updates to BoM management
• MPMLink and BoM transformation
• Document management enhancements
• Automatic project updates
• CAD data management enhancements
• Connected quality

Watch the webcast now to see all of these capabilities in action.

With all of the news about PTC Windchill 11, you may have heard that it now offers stakeholders across all levels of the company easy and secure access to product data. We can't wait to show you how.

Join us Thursday, March 10^th, for a live webcast featuring product demonstrations of PTC Windchill 11’s new role-based apps by  PTC PLM Solution Manager, Chris Bergquist.

Now, not only will Engineering have access to product data, but so will Manufacturing, Support, and even Sales. During this webcast, Chris will demonstrate how intuitive and easy to use the role-based apps are to:

• View documents
• View drawings
• View part properties
• View parts list
• View design files
• View and measure in 3D

Register for the webcast to see these apps in action and to take part in the live Q&A.

Good day everyone,

I am happy to announce a new PTC Windchilll conversation space dedicated to Customization.

Windchill is a complex and powerful tool, customization can be challenging while helping with utilization; I hope this conversation space is helpful.

You can reach it from the main community drop down menu (please see the screenshot below).

Best,

Toby

For those of you who were unable to join us on Thursday, March 10^th, for the webcast, “PLM Access for All Stakeholders”, the recording is now available here. Watch Chris Bergquist, PTC PLM Solution Manager, demonstrate PTC Windchill 11’s new role-based apps and hear what questions were top of mind for your colleagues.

With role-based apps, stakeholders across all parts of the product’s lifecycle can easily and securely access product data at their point of need.

For instance, with the View Drawing app you can enter a part number and quickly bring up a drawing for that part. This allows you to easily get to the critical information that's communicated from design to manufacturing in one step.

With the View Part Structure app you can enter a part number for an assembly and get a 3-D image of that assembly coupled with the part structure that describes that assembly. Highlighting a row in the part structure will simultaneously highlight the appropriate elements in the 3D assembly. This is a fantastic way to quickly understand the status of a part number and how the parts fit together in the design. This can be critical information for those in the role of procurement, tooling, process planning and sourcing.

These are just a couple of examples of how role-based apps can extend the value of PLM throughout your organization. Watch the webcast to learn how you can use role-based apps to:

• View documents
• View part properties
• View parts list
• View design files
• View and measure in 3D

Existing PTC Windchill customers should note that you can take advantage of these apps immediately. There's no need to upgrade your existing Windchill deployment. So you can dramatically expand the value of PLM information across the roles in your company with no barriers.

Watch the webcast to learn more.

Please join us for the third installment of the PTC Windchill 11 webcast series, “PLM for All Design Data”, on Tuesday, April 5^th, at 11:00AM EST (in English).

In PTC Windchill 11, new capabilities help you manage more data and processes: enabling parts-centric design, reduced time to market, streamlined collaboration, and improved accuracy and speed of decision-making. Register for the webcast to see these new capabilities in action, including:

• Enhanced BoM transformation with smooth transitions between eBoM, mBoM, and sBoM
• Visual side-by-side BoM comparisons and changes that cascade automatically across BoMs
• Parts-centric BoMs with improvements to visualization, parts definition, and variants management
• Support for PTC Creo 3.0 breakthroughs: Leverage the latest design exploration capabilities and Unite technology to manage supported third-party CAD files in their native formats
• Seamless combination of PTC Windchill PartsLink classification search and traditional attribute search
• Protection for sensitive IP  while supporting “design anywhere, build anywhere” strategies

Join PTC experts Graham Birch, Senior Solutions Director, PLM, and Ryan Blankenship, Technical Specialist, for the webcast and participate in a live Q&A to learn how to leverage the complete, accurate, evolving product definition in PTC Windchill 11. Register now.

The LiveWorx team interviewed Nirmesh Jain, PLM Program Manager, at Ingersoll Rand about his upcoming session under the “Design” content track.  Read more to find out how Nirmesh was steadfast on solving some of Ingersoll Rand’s consolidation of PLM systems, best practices in change management and what you can look forward to learning in his session “One PTC Windchill PLM: Ingersoll Rand’s Successful Journey”. Manufacturers with many engineering and production teams – distributed among many worldwide locations – may wish to heed these hard-won words of advice:

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Challenge

Having one PLM platform, for shared use by all teams, is better than having many.

I write this from experience. Over the past five years, I’ve helped guide Ingersoll Rand’s consolidation from five different PLM systems to PTC Windchill alone. Today PTC’s PLM platform is very close to serving as our single source of product truth.

I’ll tell of this experience in PLM process improvement – and the key lessons we’ve learned from it – in a case-study presentation,  “One PTC Windchill PLM: Ingersoll Rand’s Successful Journey,” at LiveWorx 2016 in Boston on June 6-9.

You may know of Ingersoll Rand, but you may not realize how many market-leading products we provide. Our brands include Club Car golf carts; Thermo King temperature control systems; Traneheating, ventilation, and cooling systems; American Standard heaters and air conditioners for the home; and ARO fluid handling equipment. We also make compressors, pumps, tools, and more under our own Ingersoll Rand name.

Our “one PLM” vision is to be able to “Design Anywhere, Build Anywhere.” And indeed we manufacture our products in 50 plants around the globe. Ingersoll Rand has many more engineering and marketing offices, warehouses, and repair centers in strategic sites worldwide. Yet this wide diversification has complicated our PLM challenge.

Hurdles to Overcome

Within Ingersoll Rand, we had, until recently, some 30 different change management processes. Silos abounded. Teams generally did their own work in their own ways. There was much duplication of data, and an engineering or production team in one location found it hard to leverage the product insights of our other teams elsewhere.

There were supply chain challenges too. For example, the same bolt used in 15 different plants might be ordered by 15 different purchasing teams from 15 different vendors.

But we were determined not to let these hurdles hold us back. We want all of our teams, everywhere – from China to the Czech Republic, from Indiana to India – to be able to work together seamlessly to optimize the design and manufacture of our products.

In the general realm of the Internet of Things (IoT), we also want to use the insights gained from in-the-field use and service of our products to help drive product design improvements in the future.

All of this requires having a single, integrated PLM platform – PTC Windchill – for cross-team, cross-location, and cross-function collaboration throughout Ingersoll Rand.

Phased Rollout

One PLM at Ingersoll Rand has been a methodical process. In the first stages, we focused on alignment. Teams met early and often. We identified our main challenges, set priorities, and agreed on methodologies – in a regular cadence of program planning meetings. This was crucial to our success. Teams could see steady progress to our goals.

Deployment has been equally careful. We’ve rolled out the common PTC Windchill platform in phases. First we tested and tweaked in a few locations, so we could then move confidently on a larger scale. Our most recent phase deployed more factories than the first three phases combined. We’re now about 90% integrated with “one PLM.”

PLM consolidation helps Ingersoll Rand achieve three organizational objectives:

1. Growth through innovation. One PLM helps break down the silos to let all teams build on each other team’s ideas. This creates a continual value-adding chain of product design enhancements. Our customers get better products faster.
2. Operational excellence. One PLM provides all teams with easy access to the latest product information. Data is more complete, accurate, and consistent. This minimizes project delays and frees up our engineers for creating new solutions and value.
3. A progressive, inclusive, diverse culture. Working together effectively advances the accomplishments of all of our engineering and production teams, no matter where they are in the world. At Ingersoll Rand, we all succeed when everyone succeeds.

Better Products Faster

Here’s the bottom line: With one PLM, our customers get better products faster. We earn customer preference, retain and grow their business, and increase our sales and profit. This extends Ingersoll Rand’s leadership in our highly competitive markets. As for our worldwide employees? They reap team and individual rewards from our overall success.

I’ll tell more, with plenty of Q&A, at my One PLM presentation at LiveWorx in June.

Visit liveworx.com to learn more about full event experience and how you too can join 5,000+ of experts and innovators and experience world-changing technologies.

In case you missed the live webcast of “PLM for All Design Data”, we’ve posted the recording here (in English). Watch PTC experts Graham Birch, Senior Solutions Director, and Ryan Blankenship, Technical Specialist, demonstrate how PTC Windchill 11 manages the complete product lifecycle, including data and processes.

Capabilities highlighted include:

• Enhanced BoM transformation with smooth transitions between eBoM, mBoM, and sBoM
• Visual side-by-side BoM comparisons and changes that cascade automatically across BoMs
• Parts-centric BoMs with improvements to visualization, parts definition, and variants management
• Support for PTC Creo 3.0 breakthroughs: Leverage the latest design exploration capabilities and Creo Unite technology to manage supported third-party CAD files in their native formats
• Seamless combination of PTC Windchill PartsLink classification search and traditional attribute search
• Protection for sensitive IP  while supporting “design anywhere, build anywhere” strategies

Watch the webcast to learn more

These are just some of the improvements we’ve made to PTC Windchill 11 to support the complete product definition.  Contact a PTC Windchill expert for an in-depth demonstration of all that PTC Windchill 11 has to offer!

Supporting your need for flexibility and choice, PTC now offers several new deployment options for PLM, including SaaS, Cloud and subscription-based licensing.

Join us for the live webcast, “Flexible Deployment Options for PLM”, on Tuesday, May 3rd, at 11:00am EST. PTC experts, Chris Bergquist, Senior Solutions Director, PLM, and Tom Rassmann, VP of Cloud Services Infrastructure & Security will discuss the deployment models and how they reduce IT burden and cost overhead of PLM while ensuring accessibility and security:

• “True” SaaS (Software as a Service) PLM - Rapid deployment and expert management
• Cloud Services - Outsource hardware, support, administration and expertise
• Subscription Pricing - Right-sized pricing based on users and features

Join us for the webcast on Tuesday, May 3rd, at 11:00am EST and participate in the live Q&A.

Register Now

Join us for a live webcast on Wednesday, May 11^th, at 11:00am EST where Peter Bilello, President of CIMdata, will present PLM for All: Unleashing Product Data to the Enterprise. If your teams are making poor decisions because they can’t access product data then this webcast will be time well spent.

Learn what you can do to democratize your product data – to provide it to everyone who needs it, when they need it, throughout the product lifecycle. Peter will discuss how leveraging product data across more teams at your company will drive better actions and decisions to provide significant business value, including:

• Improved product decisions and quality through access to accurate, up-to-the-minute information
• More streamlined collaboration across otherwise siloed teams for better efficiency and effectiveness
• New product insights by experiencing data in context that’s usually siloed

Register today!

In case you missed the May 3^rd webcast, “Flexible Deployment Options for PLM”, you can access the recording here. Learn about PTC’s new deployment options for PLM from our experts Chris Bergquist, Senior Solutions Director, PLM, and Tom Rassmann, VP of Cloud Services Infrastructure & Security.

Supporting your need for flexibility and choice, PTC now offers SaaS, Cloud and subscription-based licensing. Find out how these deployment models reduce the IT burden and cost overhead of PLM while ensuring accessibility and security:

• “True” SaaS (Software as a Service) PLM - Rapid deployment and expert management
  • Managed upgrades and migration provide immediate access to the latestcapabilities
  • Assured value and predictable cost
  • Flexible cost model based on cost

• Cloud Services -Outsource hardware, support, administration and expertise
  • Secure hosting and IT management
  • Optimized systems and ongoing support reduce risk and costs
  • Decrease IT burden, time to deploy; increase productivity

• Subscription Pricing - Right-sized pricing based on users and features
  • Scale software to active users based on program needs
  • Remix functionality to meet changing business needs
  • Low up-front costs, predictable budgeting: OpEx vs. CapEx

Access the webcast

Please join us for the fifth and final installment of the PTC Windchill 11 webcast series, “Connect to All Parts of Your Product Lifecycle; Including Service and Use”, on Thursday, May 26th, at 11:00AM EST (in English).

Guest speaker Matt Littlefield, President and Principal Analyst at LNS Research, will share insights from his research on the latest trends in product development. These include the impact the Internet of Things (IoT) has on quality, design of connected products, and big data analytics.

In addition, Duane Huffman, Technical Sales Manager at PTC, will demonstrate the Connected Quality capabilities available in PTC Windchill 11. Learn how you can:

• Improve quality by informing processes with smart, connected product data
• Increase speed and accuracy of root cause analysis and CAPA, reducing CoPQ
• Deliver more quality data throughout more of the organization than ever before
• Improve next-generation designs with visibility into fielded product performance

Join us on Thursday, May 26th, at 11:00am EST and take part in the live Q&A.

Hopefully you were able to attend LiveWorx last week and learn more about PTC Navigate and role-based apps. In case you missed it, did you know that PTC Navigate helps unleash product data to everyone at their point of need? Everyone has access to product data, including Engineering, Manufacturing, Service, and even Sales. PTC Navigate provides complete, contextual, and up-to-date product data from enterprise systems like PLM, ALM, and others.

Join us for the live webcast, “PTC Navigate: Easy Access to Enterprise Product Data”, on Thursday, June 30^th at 11:00am EST, to see a demonstration of how intuitive and easy PTC Navigate apps are to:

• View documents
• View drawings
• View part properties
• View parts lists
• View part structures
• View design files
• View and measure in 3D
• View requirements

Don’t miss this opportunity for a live Q&A with PTC Experts, Chris Bergquist, Senior Solutions Director, PLM, and Derek Piette, Product Management Director, ALM.

REGISTER FOR THE WEBCAST