Pro/E Wildfire Connectivity Architecture

PDMLink Integration
Pro/E Wildfire Connectivity Architecture

Major Components of the Architecture

User Model
File Management
Communications Architecture
Architecture Goals

2006 PTC
Major Components Of The Architecture
The next few slides will cover the following major Architectural components in
more detail:
User Model
The Console
Pro/E Menus
Navigator
Model Tree Windchill Server
Html UI
File Management
File Abstraction
Location http

Cache
Cache
Communications storage

SOAP Services
Data
storage

Workstation Pro/ENGINEER
Disk Session

2006 PTC
User Model PDMLink Access Points

PDMLink Access points

Pro/E Menus

The Navigator

The Model Tree

The Browser

2006 PTC
User Model - TheConsole

Because many operations occur

asynchronously, a console is required. The
console
Provides progress for and logs output from
asynchronous activities for later review by the
user
Identifies any conflicts with suggested
resolutions and tasks to be resubmitted
Is accessed from the Pro/E UI
Tools->Console Menu
Console icon ( ) in Pro/E status bar
Shows in the browser
One for each registered server
Can be configured to show Errors, Warnings,
Information, Status and Debug level information

2006 PTC
File Management Architecture

File Abstraction
Pro/E uses file system files to persist model data
(e.g. .prt, .asm)
Pro/E Wildfire added location drivers for
Internet Locations (ftp, http, Windchill) Pro/ENGINEER
application
Allows existing Pro/E functionality (e.g. Component- layer
>Assemble) to be extended to Internet locations
Pro/E requests a file from a location & the driver
implements the logic to get the file for Pro/E Location independent
PFA abstract file
management layer

Location specific
driver

Disk FTP HTTP Windchill

Existing New drivers

file system added with
driver Pro/E Wildfire

2006 PTC
File Management Architecture Location Drivers

Declaring a New Location

Location drivers get initialized by Pro/E when a
user adds a new Location

1. Select
Tools-> Server Registry

2. Select Add

3. Enter an alias
And the server URL

 The new location now appears to Pro/E ProjectLink Project

as a new disk and is accessible
through File->Open, File->Save, PDMLink Server
Component->Assemble etc. making the
nature of the location transparent to the
Second PDMLink Server
Pro/E user.
Windchill Foundation Server

FTP Site

Hard Disk
2006 PTC
 File Management Architecture - Caching

Pro/E Wildfire utilizes a cache to:

Improve system responsiveness
Optimize data upload/download
Ensue data integrity

Windchill Server

1. User chooses
File->Checkin 3. User can continue
from Pro/E menu to work in Pro/E http

2. Pro/E writes the

data to the cache 4. Pro/E uploads the data
in a background thread(s)

Cache
Pro/ENGINEER
Session 5. Results of the transaction
storage are written to the Pro/E console

Data
storage

Workstation
Disk

2006 PTC
File Management Architecture - Caching

Windchill
Server
Cache
storage

Pro/ENGINEER Workstation Private Shared

Session Disk Folder Folder

Save
Upload

Checkin

Save & Upload

Download

Checkout

2006 PTC
Architecture: Runtime View (Open in Pro/E)

Client (Pro/Engineer) PDMLink Server

Pro/ENGINEER Workspace
Session

Pro/ENGINEER
Opens from cache

In N In Y
Retrieve from Retrieve from
Cache? Workspace? Workspace
Workspace

Y
Retrieve from
cache

Windchill Public Folder

Cache
storage
N
Add to
workspace from
Public Folder

2006 PTC
Architecture: Runtime View (Open from html page)

Client (Pro/Engineer) PDMLink Server

Java
Script
Bridge
Open in Pro/Engineer Download

JScript.OpenModel (http://URL) Download

Service
Metadata and
URL for content

URL

Client
Connector Replica Site
CAD files
2006 PTC
Communications Architecture

Communications to the server use the built-in browser

All communications to the server use the browsers TCP/IP connection
Only http (or https) is used (no Java RMI*)
Pro/E can call the browser programmatically
The browser can load pages that call Pro/E programmatically
Authentication is through the browser
Remote calls are made to the server using (SOAP)
SOAP = Simple Object Access Protocol
XML over http allows structured data to be sent to the server

*Except if required by Windchill applets

2006 PTC
Communications Architecture - S.O.A.P Example
User Opens the
File Open SOAP Services on
dialog the server receive the
In Pro/E to find a request, deserialize it
model and execute the
In Windchill appropriate Java Methods

To get the contents <SOAP-> Java Classes query the

of the folder, Pro/E <> database and return
writes out a <get-contents> the results
SOAP request </get-contents>
and sends it to <>
the browser </SOAP>
http Results are serialized
into SOAP and returned
The browser forwards
to the client
the request to
the server
http <SOAP->
<>
<>
<>
Pro/E deserializes </SOAP>
the SOAP message into
C++ Classes and
displays the result into
the File->Open dialog box

2006 PTC
Architecture Goals
Internet/Intranet Enabled
Firewall safe
Use only standard protocols (http & https)
on standard ports
Server cannot initiate a call to client
Eliminate RMI (use SOAP for complex data
operations)
Use the browsers API for all network
communications
Work with proxies and reverse proxies
Respect customers security models
Inherit security settings from users existing
browser (e.g. Tools->Internet options in IE)
Rule of thumb:
If your browser can do it,
Pro/E can do it, if your
browser cant then Pro/E
shouldnt
Loosely coupled client & server
Use http requests not hard API calls
Server functionality injected into Pro/E via downloaded
pages
Pro/E can connect to different Windchill solutions
(PDMLInk, ProjectLink etc) and utilize the existing UI
Enables version interoperability with one version of Pro/E
able to work with different versions of Windchill
Familiar user model
Make use of familiar user interactions
Bookmarks, hyperlinks, history, forward, back etc.
Component technology
Make use of existing component technology where
possible
IE, Mozilla
2006 PTC
Business Configuration Flowchart

Register Server Setup External

Add Prinicipals
Start within Pro/ Vaulting for CAD
(Users and Groups)
ENGINEER Documents

Update Pro/
Enable CAD
Add Creators within ENGINEER Start
Document Auto-
Organization Parts with defined
numbering
Parameters

Update Pro/
Create Product(s) ENGINEER Enable Parameter
End
and Libraries Formats with to IBA Publication
titleblock attributes

Add Teams to Update Pro/

Products and ENGINEER
Libraries config.pro file

2006 PTC
Pro/ENGINEER Start Part Modifications
The primary modifications typically necessary to a Pro/ENGINEER start part
(and start assembly, etc.) include defining a standard set of designated
parameters to enable bi-directional attribute modification with the Windchill
application and to provide a valuable, searchable field within the Windchill
application.

2006 PTC
Pro/ENGINEER Drawing Format Modifications
To ensure that the Pro/ENGINEER drawing formats reference the accurate
value of attributes stored by the Windchill PDMLink system, it is important to
update the drawing formats that are in use. Some of the system attributes that
can be added to the drawing format may include those listed in Table 1.

2006 PTC
 Type Parameter Name Description

Drawing Name &dwg_name Name of the drawing file

Model Name &model_name Name of the model used to build the drawing views

Sheet Scale &scale Scale of the drawing

Current Sheet Number &current_sheet Current sheet number

Number of Total Sheets &total_sheets Total number of sheets in the drawing

Windchill Revision &ptc_wm_revision Revision as identified by the Windchill system

Windchill Iteration &ptc_wm_iteration Iteration as identified by the Windchill system

Windchill Version &ptc_wm_version Concatenation of the Revision and Iteration separated by

a .

Windchill Lifecycle State &ptc_wm_lifecycle_state Lifecycle State as identified by the Windchill system

Windchill Lifecycle &ptc_wm_lifecycle Lifecycle as identified by the Windchill system (as

assigned by the OIR)

Windchill Location &ptc_wm_location Context and Folder as identified by the Windchill system

Created By &ptc_wm_created_by Username of the initial creator

Created On &ptc_wm_created_on Date of initial creation

Modified By &ptc_wm_modified_by Username of the creator of the current iteration

Modified On &ptc_wm_modified_on Date of creation of the current iteration

2006 PTC
Update Active Drawings with New Formats

The process of updating drawings that are currently in work with the newly
modified formats can be a tedious one and should typically be left up to the
customers design engineers. This process involves retrieving the drawing into
session and updating the format with the newly created format (in
Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire, this is done through the Drawings File>Page
Setup dialog). Obviously, for many released drawings, this modification may
require a change request and is probably best left to the customer to be
performed on an as-needed basis.

2006 PTC
 Pro/ENGINEER config.pro Modifications

Pro/ENGINEER allows the usage of standard configuration settings through a config.pro file. These configurations can
be applied to all users all the time (via config.sup), to all users as an initial default, or based upon their specific working
directory and current working session, depending upon the location of the config.pro file. As a rule, the following
settings should be assessed by the implementation team and the customer to determine to what extent this standard
should be rolled out to the user base.
The config.pro options in Table 2 relate specifically to the management of Pro/ENGINEER data within the Windchill
PDMLink or Pro/INTRALINK system and should be considered for implementation. For an extensive list of all of the
Data Management-specific config.pro options

Configuration Option Description

dm_remember_server If yes, Pro/ENGINEER automatically attempts to reconnect to the primary server at startup.
=yes
=no
dm_http_compression_level Enables compression of data for upload and download. Use cautiously as higher
=0 for LAN clients compression levels will put more burden on client and server CPU.
>0 (up to 10) for WAN clients

dm_upload_objects Automatic will perform an automatic upload of content to server upon file>save within
=Explicit Wildfire. Explicit is the default.
=Automatic

2006 PTC
Pro/ENGINEER config.pro Modifications Contd

It is possible, and recommended, that to store template start parts within Windchill. This
provides revision and access authorization control over these standard documents.
These template files should be created and maintained by a Librarian within a Library
inside of Windchill. The options in Table 3 specify the various template file settings.

Note: If multiple start parts of the same type are used, the end user will need to use the
Pro/ENGINEER Copy From Source functionality instead of the new part dialog

2006 PTC
 Configuration Option Description
start_model_dir Specify the complete path to a folder containing start parts and assemblies.
Sample syntax:
start_model_dir wtpub://<server>/Libraries/Pro Standards/Start Parts
where <server> is the name as configured through the server registry.

Template_solidpart Specify the model to use as the default part template.

Sample syntax:
template_solidpart wtpub://<server>/Libraries/Pro Standards/Start Parts/START_PART.prt
where <server> is the name as configured through the server registry.

template_designasm Specify the assembly to use as the default assembly template.

template_drawing Specify the drawing to use as the default drawing template.
template_ecadasm Specify the model to use as the default ECAD assembly template.
template_ecadpart Specify the model to use as the default ECAD part template.
template_mfgcast Specify the model to use as the default manufacturing cast template.
template_mfgcmm Specify the model to use as the default manufacturing cmm template.
template_mfgemo Specify the model to use as the default manufacturing expert machinist template.
template_mfgmold Specify the model to use as the default manufacturing mold template.
template_mfgnc Specify the model to use as the default manufacturing assembly template.
template_mold_layout Specify the model to use as the default mold layout template.
template_sheetmetalpart Specify the model to use as the default sheetmetal part template.
force_new_file_options_dialog Set this to yes to automatically point the user to the template start parts

2006 PTC