International Journal of Engineering Technology, Management and Applied Sciences
www.ijetmas.com November 2014, Volume 2 Issue 6, ISSN 2349-4476
Automatic Migration of Files from Pro/Engineer to Windchill
Server by Integrating Pro/Engineer with Visual C++ using
Pro/Toolkit
Nikhil.Daslaniya
Yogesh N. Dangar
Software Engineer
L & T Technology Services Limited,
Gujarat
Assistant Professor
G. H. Patel College of Engineering and
Technology
Abstract - Modern manufacturers rely on strong enterprise systems to stay competitive in today’s
global, challenging, and uncertain markets. Of all solutions that manufacturers employ, PLM is the
primary system driving product profitability. Customization in PLM is a software application
development activity. Generally repetitive tasks with predefined logic can easily be taken care of, by
developing customized PLM software. Such work is often carried out in segments of various
Engineering activities like Machine/Equipment, Design, Fabrication, Tool Design, Automotive,
Piping and Tubing, Process control equipments. There are many ways of customization such as
Knowledge Base Engineering, Parametric Modelling in 3D CAD software, Utilities in 3D or 2D
CAD software. Data migration is required when an organization overtakes, upgrades PLM or starts
new PLM practice; it has to have existing CAD data into one common PLM server. We have
proposed one methodology which is CAD DataLoader, which is a data migration tool which uploads
bulk CAD data from a Windows file system to Windchill server through native application.
Keywords-component – CAD DataLoader, PLM, Windchill, Pro/Engineer, Creo
In this paper, we organized the content into five sections as follows. First we introduce Product Life
cycle Management’s role in industries. It is followed by the discussion on how to optimize process
cycle by applying customization into existing PLM-CAD Software in second section. Proposed
application methodology using Cad data loader application developed by us is described in third
section. In section four and five we conclude with proposed methodology with existing manual
process by results and conclusion.
I INTRODUCTION
“PLM” is an acronym for “Product Lifecycle Management” which can be best understood when read
backwards, that is, “Management of Lifecycle of a Product”. Our definition of Product is anything
which is engineered from resources around us; from Nano-transistors to Space Stations, everything
around and beyond us can be coined as a product. Lifecycle of a product can be categorized into 5
phases:
Phase 1: Ideation & Feasibility Study
Phase 2: Design
Phase 3: Implementation
Phase 4: Support & Service
Phase 5: Obsolescence or Continuous Improvement
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Nikhil.Daslaniya, Yogesh N. Dangar
International Journal of Engineering Technology, Management and Applied Sciences
www.ijetmas.com November 2014, Volume 2 Issue 6, ISSN 2349-4476
Phase 1: Ideation & Feasibility Study
This involves “New Product Introduction” (NPI) and “New Product Variant Introduction” (NPVI).
In this Phase business as well as technical feasibility study of the product idea is done.
Phase 2: Design
This phase involves both engineering as well as manufacturing design and defines the application,
resources, process required for realization of product.
Phase 3: Implementation
Implementation is about bringing Product idea to reality, based on the design which is finalized. This
broadly involves manufacturing tools, processes and resources.
Phase 4: Support & Service
This phase involves support and services when product is out in the market, which broadly involves
catalogue management, inventory management, spare management and supplier management.
Phase5: Obsolescence
This involves proper disposal or reuse of the material used in the product so that it does not pollute
the environment. PLM should not be confused with lifecycle of product in actual when they are out
in the market. Product lifecycle in the market follows flat bell curve whereas PLM is all about
managing product lifecycle from ideation to obsolescence.
So, we brief about PLM’s role in industries. Of course most manufacturers aren’t able to implement
all of these capabilities at once, but instead take a “PLM Program” approach to put in the basics and
grow from there. PLM helps manufacturers to design, develop, and launch profitable products. Now,
if companies are using PLM to deliver products and services to their customers; one way to build the
sustainable competitive advantage is by optimizing the internal processes used to develop and deliver
these products and services. A multitude of solutions exists to help companies achieve this goal. But
best way to optimize process is to automate or customize the existing processes. This paper presents
the customization of PLM software. [1]
II CAD CUSTOMIZATION
In current times, customization is required to optimize a process. If any industry is using
CAD software then definitely customization can be applied, but in our mind questions like why is it
required arise. Is it fruitful? And will it satisfy customer needs? Practically there is no limitation as
such to where the customization can be done. Any industry like Mechanical, Electrical or Civil etc.
can be considered for the customized software solutions. CAD customization is a software
application development activity. These applications typically automate some processes reducing
manual effort. CAD customization is an add-on application developed to work in CAD software
environment.
Now second Challenge is identifying such tasks. Generally customized software is used for
repetitive tasks with predefined logic. This type of work is primarily carried out in segments of
various Engineering activities such as Machine/Equipment, Design, Fabrication, Tool Design,
Automotive, Piping and Tubing, Process control equipment's, PLM (Product Life Cycle
Management). As for customization, there are many ways like KBE (Knowledge Base Engineering),
Parametric Modelling in 3D CAD software’s, Utilities in 3D or 2D CAD software’s. [2]
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Nikhil.Daslaniya, Yogesh N. Dangar
International Journal of Engineering Technology, Management and Applied Sciences
www.ijetmas.com November 2014, Volume 2 Issue 6, ISSN 2349-4476
The proposed methodology focuses on combined domains of Knowledge Base Engineering
and Parametric Modelling in 3D CAD software. Here we identify such tasks which involve Data
Migration. Data migration is a key element to consider for any company or organization when
adopting any new system to replace an older system, either through purchase or new development. It
would be easy to assume that any two systems, old and new, that maintain similar data must perform
similar tasks. Consequently, information from one system should map to the other with ease. In
reality, this is rarely the case. Although migrating data can be a fairly time-consuming process, here
is why the solution is needed for such tasks listed below:
1. Reduces the migration cycle time.
2. Assures the accuracy in migration.
3. Reduces the required level of expertise.
4. Effective use and distribution of Migration Knowledge
5. Protects the Intellectual property.
6. Value addition in Migration Process.
7. Increase the overall Productivity.
8. Reduces human errors and increases efficiency.
Now Customers having issues after migrating data from different CAD Platforms and also
proposed data health checker kind of solution for correcting the data (Instance Rename, etc..) and
also validating (Geometry comparison, Drawing Checks , etc.. ) by automated check tools and
generate reports.
Fig 1: PLM Industries Scenario
As per scenario of current era, customer wants to migrate files to common PLM software, update
files as per organization standards and also validate, generate standard reports that show 100%
reliability for this process. This requirement is described above by block diagram.
Integration of Pro/Engineer to Windchill Server with Visual C++ using Pro/Toolkit for design
automation: Most of the CAD systems in industry have their own macro language or API’s as
defined in their proprietary native toolkit environment (Rohm, 2001). This approach allows the user
to perform all of the functionalities that the CAD system’s graphical user interface offers. This gives
user the benefit of repeatability, handling errors, requesting user input and accessing databases. The
programmatic approach has given engineers the ability to modify existing models quickly by
changing a few pre-defined parameters and hence reducing production time. However, despite these
benefits, one of the biggest issues is the time consuming learning curve that engineers have to
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Nikhil.Daslaniya, Yogesh N. Dangar
International Journal of Engineering Technology, Management and Applied Sciences
www.ijetmas.com November 2014, Volume 2 Issue 6, ISSN 2349-4476
undergo. Figure 1 illustrates how a programming language interacts with a CAD package through an
API toolkit [1]
Fig 2: Programming language and CAD interface
The purpose of this paper is to develop applications, using code written in C/C++
programming language using visual studio platform and integrate these into Pro/Engineer and wind
chill server to perform various data migration tasks. Pro/Toolkit, the customization toolkit API for
Pro/Engineer, is used to enable this integration.
III CURRENT METHODOLOGY
When an organization migrates to PLM practice or updates it; it needs to have the existing
CAD data in one common PLM server. Before bulk CAD data is moved to new/common PLM, it
needs cleaning and is updated with native CAD application as per the organization standards or
attributes. Updating attributes of bulk CAD data is organization specific, time consuming and prone
to human errors. If CAD files from the native CAD application (like Pro/Engineer 4.0) have to be
uploaded one at a time from windows system to windchill server. For these processes total six steps
are required, which are described in below block diagram. If there are hundreds of such files that
needs to be uploaded one at a time and then check in into windchill workspace. This gets very
tedious and is also prone to human errors.
Open File in ProE
Add Parameter
Open Tools
Parameters and Add
Parameter
Save file
Save File to
Windchill
Workspace
Upload File(s)
File Check-In done
Check-In File(s)
Fig 3: Manually Uploading Process from ProEngineer to Windchill Server
Since bulk CAD data loading into PLM is time consuming and cumbersome, every Industry wants a
one click solution for it.
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Nikhil.Daslaniya, Yogesh N. Dangar
International Journal of Engineering Technology, Management and Applied Sciences
www.ijetmas.com November 2014, Volume 2 Issue 6, ISSN 2349-4476
IV PROPOSED METHODOLOGY
We propose a data migration tool which uploads bulk CAD data from a windows file system to
windchill server through a native application which is CAD DataLoader. This methodology has
successfully migrated Pro/Engineer files from Pro/Engineer to Windchill for PLM Industries. CAD
DataLoader is a one click solution for checking in Bulk CAD Data into Windchill server. CAD data
loader is developed & delivered by L&T Technology Services and offers a swift and reliable way of
migrating, uploading and check-in a large quantity of CAD data from Windows file system into PLM
system. It updates the attributes of bulk CAD data through native CAD application when provided
with an excel file containing attributes & file name as input and at one shot eliminating human
errors. It also validates existing or dependent CAD files from Windchill and identifies conflicts in
advance, by doing so CAD data loader optimizes server side conflicts. Bulk CAD data loader
facilitates to upload files into batch mode which enhance the scheduling of upload process and
complete utilization of data upload process. A simple and modernized UI makes the uploading
process quick and effective. Moreover data migration is a process that not only involves use of tools
but also has a migration methodology. Proposed methodology describe in below block diagram.
Input Excel
File
CAD Files Stored
in Server
CAD
DataLoader
Report
Generated
CAD Files
Fig 4: Proposed Methodology for uploading Process from ProEngineer to Windchill Server
V RESULTS AND COMPARISON
Will this concept optimize the file handling of industries? Yes, indeed it has been
implemented by one of customers. They have successfully cleaned up and migrated, 12000
Pro/Engineer files from Windchill 8.0 to Windchill 9.1 with minimal effort. Here are comparisons of
manual process with proposed methodology. We consider factors of time and money for the
comparison.
VI CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, the object and definition of PLM and Customization role in PLM industries is
addressed. We also give a brief introduction to customization on CAD Software and how it will help
to extend his tasks. We also proposed customization on data migration for Windchill server. This
technique of developing an interface using Pro/Toolkit also provides new openings to explore
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Nikhil.Daslaniya, Yogesh N. Dangar
International Journal of Engineering Technology, Management and Applied Sciences
www.ijetmas.com November 2014, Volume 2 Issue 6, ISSN 2349-4476
capabilities in the area of migration of wind chill server automation. A possible area would be to link
a Pro/Toolkit application with other CAD packages using an external program to create an
optimization process of uploading.
Data Migration from Pro/Engineer 4.0 to
Windchill Server 9.1
No. of
Cost per
Parts per
Time
hour(*20$ per
Method
Parameter Consuming hour)
10
parameter
5000
Manual
for 100
minutes
Method
files
~84 Hours
1680$
10
parameter
Proposed
for 100
Method
files
10 minutes
4$
VII FUTURE WORK
As mentioned in this paper, a large amount of research is undergoing in the area of PLM
Automation. These continued efforts of automation can be classified as improvements on the first
step of the topology to CAD modelling and uploading cycle. Improvements on the current
implementation of the method would include development of more complex iteration and design
cycle. These methods could be used to fit shapes to much more distributed work, Reduce Design
Iterations, Improve efficiency and work smartly with new methods of integration of ProEngineer
with CAD server.
REFERENCES
[1] PLM Matters, News Latter, L&T Technology Services, Tuesday, February 18, 2014.
[2] Pro/Engineer Wildfire 4.0 Pro/Toolkit Users guide (2010). Pro/Engineer Wildfire 4.0
Documentation. (Comes with the software package).
[3] Rohm, T., (2001) Graphical Creation of CAD Parametric Application Programs. M.S. Thesis,
Brigham Young University.
[4] Sabareeshan, K. C., (2010) Integration of Pro/Engineer with Microsoft Visual C++ using
Pro/Toolkit. M.S Thesis, Clarkson University.
AUTHORS
Nikhil Daslaniya: has completed his B.E. in Information Technology, from Sardar Patel University,
V.V. Nagar, Gujarat, in 2011. He is working in L&T Technology Services as Software Engineer in
Product Lifecycle Management practice, Gujarat, India, since 2012.
Yogesh N. Dangar: has completed his B.E. in Information Technology, from Sardar Patel
University, V.V. Nagar, Gujarat, in year 2011. He Received the M.E. degree in, Information and
Technology, from Gujarat Technological University in year 2013. He is working as Assistant
Professor in Information Technology department at G. H. Patel College of Engineering and
Technology since July 2013.
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Nikhil.Daslaniya, Yogesh N. Dangar