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Search for Solidworks CEPA.....

~Corey Hinman, CEPA

Specialist Exams

I feel like these CSWP advanced exams are pretty tough. Weldments was challenging, but the Surfacing exam was much, much more challenging (for me at least). Keep pushing to CSWE.....still hoping someone at Solidworks will come up with a CEPE exam :)

~Corey Hinman, CEPA

Lagging on Right Click in ePDM

After upgrading to 2012 SP5.0 I noticed SEVERE lag time when right clicking on files inside the vault, or in trying to use the search tool.

Oddly enough this is due to having too many search favorites. ePDM doesn't like a long list to process I guess. You can log in as admin and right click on each favorite in the search tool to remover users' access and shorten their list.

~Corey Hinman, CEPA, CSWP

New & Improved? CEPA certificates

I was part of the first test group of CEPA test takers at solidworks world 2012, since they've formally released that test to the public they've released a new certificate, not that I the paper copy of it for anything, but at least it looks a little more professional

New:

~Corey Hinman, CEPA

Quiet = Busy!!

Been a little busier than normal around here, making finding new topics, or time to post more difficult.

I did just register for Solidworks World 2013 though, I am looking forward to this one as well so I can get a test drive of PDM 2013 capabilities!

~Corey Hinman, CEPA

Enterprise PDM Zero BOM Qty

I have a BOM that is showing some items as 0 qty items.They are not 0 qty items, they are not excluded from BOM. As built is not selected, the pictures are using the default configuration.

The zero qty items appear as yellow (meaning modified), so I backspace over the value, which reverts to it's real BOM count. But when I hit save on the BOM it reverts back to zero on 1 of the items. If I fix that one, and save, it reverts to zero on all items.

2012 sp3

If you're experiencing this, you'll need to wait for 2012 SP5.0 apparently.

~Corey Hinman, CEPA, CSWP

Using Dispatch to send email by card variable

I want to set users for specific tasks and then have enterprise send emails to those people without doing it through workflows (which I've done in the past). In this example it's a button on the data card, but I plan to send the emails once the files pass through a transition.

I'm not a programmer, I don't know how to use the API, but this is what I came up with. I'm looking for feedback and maybe some ways to improve upon this.

• First, the data card needs to have the variables for said tasks, I used the user login name for the list, which matches our windows user names, and also outlook.
  
  

• Second, create 2 files in the vault
  • File #1: email_template.txt
    • This file will be used by dispatch to output a command line prompt that includes variable values.
    • "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\OFFICE14\OUTLOOK.EXE" /c ipm.note /m "%ECO Val owner DFMEA%;%ECO Val owner Cust App%;%ECO Val owner DVPR%;%ECO Val owner CWO%;%ECO Val owner Risk%;%ECO Val owner Gage%;%ECO Val owner Times%?do=newpm&u=&subject=You have open Tasks in ECRxxxx"
    • This looks like a lot but it breaks down like this.....
      • enter the path to your outlook
        • "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\OFFICE14\OUTLOOK.EXE"
      • Add the following arguments:
        • /c ipm.note /m
      • Add the variables (usernames) separated by ; <this becomes TO data>
        • "%ECO Val owner DFMEA%;%ECO Val owner Cust App%;%ECO Val owner DVPR%;%ECO Val owner CWO%;%ECO Val owner Risk%;%ECO Val owner Gage%;%ECO Val owner Times%
      • End with the following:
        • ?do=newpm&u=&subject=You have open Tasks in ECRxxxx"

• File #2: tasks_email.bat
  • This is the parameter file that Dispatch will Create.
• Dispatch Setup

~Corey Hinman
CEPA, CSWP

Earned my CSWP!

With a little refresher from Solidprofessor, and by scouring the internet for practice exams, I took and passed all 3 CSWP segments on the first go round.

Segment 1: Modeling

This was about the same level as the CSWA, just with more modeling exercises. I was starting to get crunched for time so I did the last part in a way that worked, but wasn't the best way to get it done. If I had more time I probably would have done a few things different, but 100% on Segment 1.

Segment 2: Configurations

The configuration portion was a breeze, the modifying an existing part was more challenging. I missed the last part as I ran out of time. It didn't help I was interrupted during the test :)

Segment 3: Assemblys

This was a little challenging, lots to do, you need to be quick and pay attention to the coordinate systems. I wasn't asked to do any in-context stuff, which probably helped me. I missed the last question, apparently I did something wrong when I swapped out the base part.

Overall, I feel thoroughly tested, and satisified that I could add this to my resume!

~Corey Hinman, CEPA, CSWP

I got my Solidworks certification, now what?

Like many of you I have a few certifications from Solidworks Corp, but when I logged in to my account and looked in the directory of certified users, I did not see my name. There is a little account setting you need to enable for your name to appear in the listing (if that matters to you).

In the lower right corner click "Settings"

The check "YES" for "List in Online Directory"

And now you'll see your name in lights :)

~Corey Hinman, CEPA

CSWA Certified

I was a full time solidworks designer for about 3 years (autocad, Unigraphics, and IDEAS before that), and an occasional user the last 6 years. I want to get the CSWP certification tackled, but since I'm the PDM Admin, and CAD Manager, I don't do CAD work, I thought I'd start with the CSWA.

I worked through Solid Professor for some refresher courses, and they did a good job of reminding of functionality and technique.

One of my employees, who is a CAD designer is working towards CSWE and also started along this route. I thought CSWA was not really a "big deal", but the test itself was a little more than I expected it to be. It was certainly not "killer", but it was enough to feel like I was tested. I did score 240/240 so maybe I'm not so far from the CSWP as I think I am.

1 more certification down, 1 to go!

~Corey Hinman, CEPA

Tasks Not Clearing in PDM Admin Task List

I've ran into this several times now where tasks will not cancel, or are stuck at "suspending". To clear this out, log into the sql server, and run a query according to this information:

The tasks displayed in the Task list are found in the database table "TaskInstances” where "TaskStatus" is one of the following values: 1 [Waiting for host]
2 [Starting up]
3 [In process]
4 [Retrying]
5 [Suspended]
6 [Cancelling]
7 [OK]
8 [Cancelled]
9 [Failed]
10 [Suspending]
11 [Resuming]
If there are tasks that are stuck in the "Cancelling" state for example, run the following query to correct it (i.e. update all tasks with status 6 [Cancelling] to status 8 [Cancelled]):
UPDATE TaskInstances
SET TaskStatus = 8
WHERE TaskStatus = 6
Close and reopen the task list to see the update.  Update the query wih appropriate values seen in list above



~Corey Hinman, CEPA

Enterprise PDM Task Consistency

I was getting very inconsistent, and frustrating results running tasks on the archive server. Things like PDF and STEP generation were failing quite frequently, and often chewing up a large portion of the CPU on the server, and would occasionally require a reboot. None of those are good things.

I set up a solidworks workstation to serve as a "task server" and moved all of those tasks to be run from there, and so far the results are much improved.

Do yourself a favor and enable remote access to the computer and you'll be much happier!

Saludos,
~Corey Hinman, CEPA

Excluding new documents from Workflow in PDM

You should have some kind of "Uncontrolled" workflow that all files that don't meet certain criteria fall into, that workflow should have no restrictions on files to be added. So if you add a misc file to the vault it goes to uncontrolled.

I had some Sub-workflows that new files will never go into, but could be passed back and forth between other workflows. I didn't put any incoming criteria and was getting STL files put into a state of ECO validation (as an example) because the workflow was wide open.

What I needed to do was find a way to exclude files easily...here was my solution:

~Corey Hinman, CEPA

Setting Folder Options

I found that on my machine I can't set the windows folder options to show details while browsing in the vault. I wanted to set all folders to details but wasn't able to Apply to all folders.

You have to do it outside of the vault.

~Corey Hinman, CEPA

Adding PDM Vault Folders to Windows 7 Fav's

If you want to add specific vault folders to your windows 7 favorites...do this.

Make a folder (desktop or elsewhere) and call it Vault Favorites.

Inside your new folder add a new folder for each favorite location you want to add:

Now drag your folders over to your windows 7 favorites.

Right click on properties of each folder, and copy/paste in the location from ePDM

Your vault locations will now work from Windows 7 Favorites, and you can drag, drop, etc:

Add caption

**You can also add a favorite PDM search by changing the "Look in location" to a specific folder and saving that as a Favorite


~Corey Hinman, CEPA

Adding Workflow Images to Data Cards

I started to add this visual feature today, which just takes minimal setup

In my case I am adding this to a CAD Work Order, in which a word document serves as the traveler.

A few pre-requisites:

• A variable that shows the current state of your document. (hopefully it already exists)
• Images showing your states. 

I color coded my images in Visio. I made a tab for each state and saved the Visio file into the vault. You have to do a "save as" bmp of each of the images and save those somewhere for reference later.

On your data card, add a tab control, and make a tab for each State that you want to display an image for. Insert the image that goes with each tab of your new control, and set the tab control to "Controlled by variable" and select the prerequisite variable mentioned above.

In your workflow, you'll need to make sure that the variable is updated upon workflow transitions.

Decide where you want the tabbed images to show on your data card, and you should be good to go!

~Corey Hinman, CEPA

Random Mail Failures

If you ever experience PDM Enterprise Mail notifications failing, like I did today.....and you haven't changed any Messaging System settings all you need to do is:

Reboot, and try again!!!

I rebooted the SQL server and all queued up emails suddenly came out of hiding. Whilst I was troubleshooting I did the "test settings" within the admin tool and it would continually tell me the server was not found.

~Corey Hinman, CEPA

PDM Related Blogs I Read Daily

The best way to learn, and continue to learn about something is to get some exposure to it on a consistent basis....every morning before work starts I quickly read through several PDM related blogs, here's my current list:

http://blog.funtech.com/

http://blogs.solidworks.com/

http://solidworksheard.com/

http://www.3dvision.com/wordpress/

http://blog.inflow-tech.com/inflow/

http://www.javelin-tech.com/blog/

https://forum.solidworks.com/community/data_management/enterprise_pdm

http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/
just seeing if you're paying attention!!!

~Corey Hinman, CEPA

Now comes CADLink.....

I will be working with QBuild corporation to get CADLink running to transfer our data from PDM to Epicor 9.

Step 1: Create data card with all needed part configuration variables needed.

More to follow soon!!!

~Corey Hinman, CEPA

Tips for Automatic File Generation (Tasks)

I was having issues getting tasks to execute on our PDM archive server. In the end it was because of a conflict in user rights.

On the task, I correctly set it to execute as admin:

However, when I was remotely connected to the server, I was logged in using my windows username and id....ie corey.hinman.

So the task was to execute as Admin, but the vault was logged into as corey.hinman. I turned off automatic login based on current user id, and logged in as Admin. Tasks are now running nice and smooth.

~Corey Hinman, CEPA