Are you experiencing poor server performance managing Pro/E, Creo or Windchill Workgroup Manager (CAD) data in Windchill?

Are users complaining that when working with CAD data, interaction with Windchill or the Workspace is slow?

Do you wonder what you should do to setup or tune a Windchill server for interaction with clients working with CAD data?

Initial performance tuning of a Windchill server doesn't have to be overly complicated and time consuming process.  Time spent tuning the Windchill server will improve performance and ensure users have the best possible interaction with the Windchill.  Let's walk through the following:

• Resources that are available to guide you during tuning
• Server properties and preferences to set
• Database tuning
• Other considerations
  

Resources

• Technical Support Article CS24192 [TS KP] Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire, Creo or Windchill Workgroup Manager Interaction with PDMLink - Recommended Initial Performance Server Settings contains all the suggestions we'll be walking through and more.  I'd suggest you review and bookmark it for use while tuning your server.
• Click Add a comment at the bottom of this blog post and I'll do my best to answer your question
• Ask PTC Community
• Perform a Technical Support Search as the Knowledge base is full of useful information
• Open a Technical Support Case online or make a call to a Worldwide Support office

Server Properties and Preferences

Some settings and preferences are general in nature while others are specific to a particular Windchill version.  Although the steps to tune a 9.1, 10.0, 10.1 and 10.2 server vary (typically more to do with older releases), I'll cover the typical steps you'll do with most installations (eg. 10.x releases).  Refer to CS24192 for full detail for each Windchill release from 9.1 to 10.2 and MOR releases in between.

• Configure common Windchill properties using the Windchill Configuration Assistant (WCA)

The WCA will inspect the server (identify available resources like CPUs, RAM, etc.) and suggest changes to wt.properties and other property files.  Note that WCA execution is done automatically when installing using the 10.0 and later PTC Solution Installer.  If you've upgraded/changed hardware since initial installation or it didn't run on initial installation, you'll want to run it again.  See CS40846 and CS153338 for additional detail.

• Set optimal collection preferences for common operations via Preference Management

Set defaults for operations like Add to Workspace, Check Out, Check In, Revise, Save As, etc. to collect minimal dependencies (None or Required):

If users need different default values, they can make changes in personal preferences or in the Basic/Advanced collectors when performing the operation.

• Create or edit the default Workspace table Views so that they display a minimal amount of information

For releases prior to 10.2 M030, avoid default table displays with additional status columns (eg. Compare Status, Out of Date, etc.) as when those columns are included, the client must make additional and expensive requests to the server when refreshing the Workspace.  See CS150977 for additional information.

• If Save As performance is poor, set preference save.as.trace.circular.dependents=false

For some datasets, circular dependency processing when performing Save As can sometimes be an issue (take a long time).  Configure to not trace circular dependents if performance issues have been observed performing Save As.  See CS51570 and CS3348 for additional information.

• Set wt.properties com.ptc.core.collectionsrv.engine.isIntralinkTracingEnabled=true if using later 10.x releases

Out of the box, Windchill can in some case trace dependencies for objects not explicitly requested by the user (eg. perform full dependency tracing for drawing dependents when the drawing is included in collection via Include Drawings).  This can in some cases result in long time waiting for the server to process collection requests (eg. when performing an Add to Workspace).  Making this change will disable the additional dependency tracing and should improve performance .  See CS57721& CS127319 for additional detail.

• Consider custom values for wt.properties com.ptc.core.collectionsrv.engine.limitDependencyTracing and com.ptc.core.collectionsrv.engine.collected_result_limit if using later 10.x releases

Dependency tracing for large or complex datasets can in some cases cause server performance issues.  If you observe performance issues with collection of dependents, see CS99609 and CS16012 for additional information.

• Set wvs.properties publish.retrievallfiles=false, publish.retrieveallfiles.PROE=false or publish.retrieveallfiles.CATIAV5=false if publishing with filesync CAD workers

The out of the box WVS dependency tracing publish.retrievallfiles=all setting is only needed for non-filesync CAD workers and can result in longer than necessary publishing times and put unnecessary load on the server and database.  If you're using filesync workers (most customers are or should be!), make this setting for improved performance.  See CS76293 and CS34783 for additional information.

• Configure the webserver with a 60 second KeepAliveTimeout

This setting keeps the network port between a client and server open longer than the 5 or 15 second default and allows the client to reuse an open network connection for up to 60 seconds.  As a result, response times for SSL and HTTP connections is improved.  As a side benifit, Internet Explorer doesn't work well with KeepAliveTimeout values ≠ 60.  Setting this value to 60 will reduce the number of offline client sessions as well.  See CS19706 and CS65884 for additional detail.

• Review Windchill Configuration Settings Which Aid in Scaling to Production and make changes to <Windchill>\db\db.properties or database settings to prevent runaway queries that can impact server performance

The Methodserver and database will in most cases try to process all requests that are made regardless of whether or not the request may overload the Methodserver and database.  Making a couple changes to db.properties can improve performance as it prevents high load, long running transactions from consuming all resources.

Database Tuning

The Windchill database is a primary component in any Windchill installation as requests made to the Windchill Methodserver invariably have to be processed by the database.  Having a properly sized (enough memory) and functioning database (proper database indexes) is key to good overall performance.

• Create database indexes to improve database performance

The database frequently is a performance bottleneck when Windchill is processing information for CAD objects.  Start with CS75632 and CS151400 for Windchill 9.1 installations and CS98135 for Windchill 10.0, 10.1 and 10.2 installations as they contain indexes that are known to improve database performance for not only CAD object processing but other operations.

• Periodically review and monitorSite > Utilities > Server Status for high percentage of Method Context Time is spent in JDBC Callsor PTC System Monitor (PSM)to determine if a high percentage of time is reported as being spent in the database (if there is a suggestion that the database is performing poorly):

Here's an example of Server Status showing a large amount of time in JDBC (database) calls:

Here's an example of PSM showing a much smaller amount of time spent in the database for a user transaction:

• Additional diagnosis, tuning and sizing of the database by all means can be done, but is outside of the scope of this blog post.  Refer to the following or collect Performance task detail from System Configuration Collector (Windchill System Configuration Collector (SCC) FAQ) along with test results and contact Technical Support if you're interested in taking a deeper look at the database:
  • CS51777 - Tuning Oracle and Interpreting the Oracle Gather Info Script Output
  • CS46060 - Where is the Oracle "gather_info_script.sql" located in Windchill
  • CS123644 - Where to find SQLServer diagnostic script for Windchill
  • CS139203 - SQL Statements taking too long in Oracle
  • CS49024 - Are there some best practices around SQL server database and Windchill PDMLink ?

Other Considerations

There are many other things that can be done to improve, diagnose and monitor performance.  Depending on your environment, some may have a large impact while others may not.  Take a look and let me know if you have any questions or comments:

• Client tuning

See the following blog post: Configuring Creo Parametric and Windchill Workgroup Manager Clients for CAD Data Management Performance

• Vaulting and Replication to WAN File Servers

Staging and maintaining File Servers can be a bit more involved from an administration perspective but for WAN users, being able to upload and download content from a local File Server is a big benefit.  See Windchill Vaulting and Replication Planning - Technical Brief for additional information.

• Implement a clustered environment for high load installations

Customers with many users can easily generate enough activity that a clustered Windchill environment (configuring multiple machines with multiple Method servers) to service client requests is necessary.  See Windchill Architecture Overview for additional information.

• For WAN clients with high latency and low bandwidth, implement caching proxy and/or WAN accelerator

Even if you have WAN File Servers that are local to WAN users, WAN clients still interact with the master Methodserver over the WAN for all information and requests other than content.  If you latency is high (eg. 250+ ms) and bandwidth low, consider implementing caching proxies and WAN accelerators to improve interaction with the Windchill server.  Refer to WAN Accelerators and Windchill Performance - Technical Brief for additional information.

• Monitor and diagnose server performance with PTC System Monitor (PSM)

PSM is free and powerful tool available that can be used to easily monitor activity and performance of Windchill servers.  Refer to the following for more detail:

• PSM resource page
• CS126670 - How to use the PTC System Monitor (PSM) in Workgroup Manager Transaction Performance Diagnosis

• Benchmark the system before and after tuning and/or compare to PTC Performance QA results

Last but not least, collecting a benchmark of system performance before and after tuning is important as it allows you to gauge the impact of your tuning activity.  Collect detail and/or test with a standard Creo dataset available from PTC and review posted results from PTC QA.  See the following for additional detail:

• Windchill Creo Data Management Performance Benchmark Test - Instructions
• Windchill Creo Data Management Performance Benchmark Test – Preliminary Dataset (82 KB)
• Windchill Creo Data Management Performance Benchmark Test - Data Sheet
• Windchill Creo Data Management Performance Benchmark Test – World Car Dataset (295 MB)

If benchmark results with the Windchill Creo Data Management Performance Benchmark Test Dataset are not close to or better than PTC QA results reported in the Windchill Creo Data Management Performance Benchmark Test - Data Sheet or performance with other datasets does not meet expectations, collect Performance task detail from System Configuration Collector (Windchill System Configuration Collector (SCC) FAQ) along with test results and contact Technical Support.

That's it!  I hope you find this information interesting and of use.  As always, comments and feedback are very welcome.

I realize I am very late to the party but we are just now upgrading to PDMLink 10. Am I missing something or is it not possible to open the links from a search result into multiple tabs?

IE if I search on a part number and I want to open the CAD object and the WT object that the search results returned in separate tabs is that possible?

Again, very late to the PDMLink 10 party here ... In PDMLink 9 there was an option to open all files when ProductView was launched. This meant that components for assemblies opened upon launch rather than having to manually click a radio box to load them.

Does anyone know if there is a way to achieve the same thing in PDMLink 10 / Creo View? Seems a little silly to me not to auto load the files. If I clicked on an assembly visualization then chances are really good I wanted to actually load it and see it.

Hi

We have more than 20,000 library parts, out of that 15,000 part successfully moved into windchill library folder .

The remaining 5000 parts when I am moving to windchill from local drive, it is showing "CAD Part is not unique".

Because of this issue , we were not able to upload the assembly .

Windchill implementation team working on this issue last one month but still not able to find the root cause.

Note:Those 5000 parts are not present anywhere inside windchill.

After generating an MBOM in MPM link I wish to move parts within the lower levels and not have them in part number order.

Does anybody know if this is possible and how it is done, is it just a configuration/set up issue?

Many thanks, Dale.

I have recently been doing a lot of testing and learning in Windchill. Having no real training, and being tasked to solve a number of problems for our business units has led to me making some mistakes and having to fix them. Of course all of this is happening on our production server as well, because we don't have a test server. I've now caused one issue that I cannot figure out how to fix.

I believe that by using Set for Build, I have pushed the WTPart structure to the CAD Structure. This results in all of my models being removed from my assemblies when I open them. I need to reverse this and force the CAD Structure to populate the WTPart structure. How do I do this? I find myself getting confused about which way information is being pushed in the Compare CAD to WTPart and Compare WTPart to CAD windows, and I'm truly just fumbling around trying to learn (which I have learned a ton) since I cannot find good training information.

Thank you.

Hello,

We are trying to pull the tree structure of two of the Nonconformance attributes "NC Category" & "NC Trending Categories", into Thingworx.

At Thingworx side, we can parse xml or json input; preferably with the tree (parent-child) details, and feed it to tree widget.

At Windchill side we need some help to develop the webject (xml or java code) to pass the attribute details.

Please let us know the right approach or API to get the above attributes along with parent-child (tree) details

Other details

Object - WCTYPE|com.ptc.qualitymanagement.nc.Nonconformance

Attribute Name - Nonconformance Category

Internal name - ncCategoryCode / ncCategoryPath

Object - com.ptc.qualitymanagement.nc.NCTrendingCode

Attribute Name - Nonconformance Trending Categories

Internal name - ncTrendingCode & ncTrendingPath

Please refer attached screenshots.

Thanks

Avinash

We would like to configure Windchill server with 7 File Servers to achieve the following requirement.

There is a Product container X and user A is from US and user B is from India.Both are members of this Product Container.

Both members are required to design two separate product lines using Creo.

If user A checks in Creo data it should be deposited in US FCS Master vault and if user B checks in data then it should be deposited in India FCS master vault.

Is there any good bractice to configure Replica Vaulting Rules according to this requirement? How can we make sure that data is not stored centrally?

Hi All,

i need to extarct all Groups, Group Member and user related information in tabular manner by using java code.

Please any one give me some idea how i can achive this requirement.

Thanks,

Vivek

I am trying to create a table UI on click on actions command on a popup page. Table is coming a plain page without table borders

Below are the steps followed,

Step 1: Added custom-actionmodels.xml

<model name="agileActions" resourceBundle="jp.co.lixil.individualbom.actions.ui.resource.NavigationRB">

  <action name="pushParts" type="object"/> <!-- Send Part -->

  <action name="pushBOM" type="object"/> <!-- Send BOM -->

  <action name="pushDrawing" type="object"/> <!-- Send Drawing --> 

  <action name="AgilePartsList" type="navigation"/>

</model>

Step 2: Added actions in custom-actions.xml

<objecttype name="navigation" class="" resourceBundle="com.co.ui.resource.NavigationRB">

  <action name="AgilePartsList">

              <component name="com.co.agile.parts" windowType="popup"/>

          </action> 

</objecttype>

Step 3: RB File Entry for this action in NavigationRB.java

@RBEntry("Parts List To Agile")

public static final String PRIVATE_CONSTANT_24 = "navigation.AgilePartsList.title";

@RBEntry("Parts List To Agile")

public static final String PRIVATE_CONSTANT_25 = "navigation.AgilePartsList.tooltip";

@RBEntry("Parts List To Agile")

  public static final String PRIVATE_CONSTANT_26 = "navigation.AgilePartsList.description";

Step 4: Added Entry in MVSDispatcherServlet.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!-- - Application context definition for "MVC" DispatcherServlet. -->

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation=“http://www.springframework.org/schema/beanshttp://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.5.xsd">

<import resource="classpath:config/mvc/mvc.xml" />

  <import resource="classpath:config/mvc/jca-mvc.xml" />

  <import resource="classpath:config/mvc/*-configs.xml" />

  <import resource="classpath:config/mvc/custom.xml" />

  <import resource="classpath:config/mvc/pac-custom.xml" />

  <bean id="defaultHandlerMappings“ class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertiesFactoryBean">

    <property name="locations">

    <list>

    <value> classpath:/config/mvc/*-urlMappings.properties</value>

  <value>classpath:/config/mvc/custom.properties</value>

  </list>

  </property>

  </bean>

  </beans>

Step 5: pac-custom.xml file created under codebase/config/mvc/pac-custom.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"  xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"  xmlns:mvc="http://www.ptc.com/schema/mvc"  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beanshttp://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.5.xsdhttp://www.springframework.org/schema/contexthttp://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-2.5.xsdhttp://www.ptc.com/schema/mvchttp://www.ptc.com/schema/mvc/mvc-10.0.xsd">  <!-- Configurations in this file override all other configurations --> 

<mvc:builder-scan base-package="com.co.agile.action.table.part" /></beans>

Step 6: Created a Folder under <WEB-INF>/jspcalled pac/pacPartsListTable.jsp

<%@tagliburi="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" prefix="c"%>

<%@ taglibtagdir="/WEB-INF/tags" prefix="tags"%>

<%@ tagliburi="http://www.ptc.com/windchill/taglib/jcaMvc" prefix="mvc"%>

<%@ include file="/netmarkets/jsp/util/begin_comp.jspf" %>

<mvc:tablecompId="com.pac.agile.parts"/>

<%@ include file="/netmarkets/jsp/util/end_comp.jspf"%>

Step 7: This is the table component code

package com.co.agile.action.table.part;

import com.ptc.mvc.components.AbstractComponentBuilder;

import com.ptc.mvc.components.ColumnConfig;

import com.ptc.mvc.components.ComponentBuilder;

import com.ptc.mvc.components.ComponentConfig;

import com.ptc.mvc.components.ComponentConfigFactory;

import com.ptc.mvc.components.ComponentParams;

import com.ptc.mvc.components.TableConfig;

import com.ptc.mvc.util.ClientMessageSource;

import wt.fc.PersistenceHelper;

import wt.part.WTPart;

import wt.pds.StatementSpec;

import wt.query.QuerySpec;

import wt.query.SearchCondition;

import wt.util.WTException;

import wt.vc.VersionIdentifier;

//This annotation is VERY important.

@ComponentBuilder("com.co.agile.parts")

public class AgilePublishPartsTableBuilder extends AbstractComponentBuilder {

    private static final String RESOURCE = "jp.co.ui.resource.NavigationRB";

    private final ClientMessageSource messageSource = getMessageSource(RESOURCE);

    @Override

    public ComponentConfig buildComponentConfig(ComponentParams paramComponentParams) throws WTException {

        //get the ComponentConfigFactory

        ComponentConfigFactory factory = getComponentConfigFactory();

        //get an instance of TableConfig

        TableConfig table = factory.newTableConfig();

        // General table properties

        table.setId("com.pac.agile.parts");

        table.setSelectable(true);

        table.setLabel(messageSource.getMessage("RELATED_PARTS"));

        table.setShowCount(true);

        //table.setActionModel("agilePushTableActions");

        //add columns

        //name

        ColumnConfig col1 = factory.newColumnConfig("name", true);

        col1.setSortable(true);

          table.addComponent(col1);

          //number

          ColumnConfig col2 = factory.newColumnConfig("number", false);

          col2.setInfoPageLink(true);

          col2.setSortable(true);

          table.addComponent(col2);

          //type

          ColumnConfig col3 = factory.newColumnConfig("type", true);

          table.addComponent(col3);

          // Last Modified

          ColumnConfig col4 = factory.newColumnConfig("thePersistInfo.modifyStamp", true);

          table.addComponent(col4);

          table.setShowCustomViewLink(false);

          // If you want different column name as Display name, use setLabel("New Name") function on column

          // If you data as link use setInfoPageLink(true) function on column

          table.setView("/pac/pacPartsListTable.jsp");

        return table;

    }

    @Override

    public Object buildComponentData(ComponentConfig paramComponentConfig, ComponentParams paramComponentParams) throws Exception {

        QuerySpec qs = new QuerySpec(WTPart.class);

        qs.appendWhere(new SearchCondition(wt.part.WTPart.class,WTPart.NUMBER,SearchCondition.LIKE,"%RD%"), null);

        return PersistenceHelper.manager.find(qs);

    }

}

Result is like this when I click on actions command,

Can someone help me to figure how to get the proper table here?

Many companies put Windchill Administrators (specifically "Business Administrators") in different organizational categories and departments.

Are they IT because they work in a software tool? Are they Engineering because it deals with engineering processes? Are they in Mechanical Engineering because "it's just a model storage tool" (by the way, it's not)? Are they CM because the tool maintains released data? Are they beyond definition?...

My own team has bounced around through various organizational groups, so I'm posting mostly out of curiosity.

So where are yours located?

I am relatively sure this is not possible, but has anyone had any success with creating a Windchill Replica Vault on a computer that does not run Windchill, for example, a laptop?

My company is working with replicating vaults for convenient transfer of data without passing it through a WAN, much like in this thread. Windchill Content Replication

Hi Everyone,

I've started Upgrade Windchill PDMLink from 10.1 to 11. I'm facing issue during Upgrade at Execute Standalone Migrators activity. I'm getting below error...

(wt.org.orgResource/54) wt.org.OrganizationServicesException: Cannot process participant xyz because a related disconnected participant wt.org.WTOrganization:374 exists in the database

Here Source system is rehosted one for which domain name has been changed.

Any suggestions will be really helpful to me.

Regards,

Krishna

My part lifecycle state includes Open - Under Review - Alpha Release - Beta Release - Production Release - Cancelled.

On revise from Alpha, Beta or Production Release states, the part comes in Open State.

I have 3 subtypes of Change Notice (CN_1,CN_2,CN_3).
If CN_1 is raised on the parts, resulting objects should be released to Alpha release, for CN_2 - Beta release, for CN_3 - Production Release.

Since change transition allows only one target state, How can i achieve this ?
I don't want user to select the release target. Instead release target should automatically change depending on the change notice type.

When I do a RIGHT CLICK to Build Associated Part, I will sometimes get this error.  Any suggestions?

The image attached, I'm basically Right Click, Build Associated Part, then I get that error.  The 12600453-6314.prt is RELEASED now, so not sure if the state change caused some issues.  I've had this happen before, and the only fix was to modify a part at released (basically do any random change to generate a new iteration), but that cannot be the soltution.

FYI, the 12600453-6314.prt is related as a IMAGE.  (We basically have a bunch of different tie wraps that are modeled and used to build the BOM).

Anyone know how to not display the "Define Impact" on a Varaince (step 2)?

I am using a sub-type of Variance for users to request Test Builds for validations and I don't need this section.

We are trying to automate the process of CR/CN daily reports to download to a network folder. Is there any way – Windchill can automatically download as an excel report of a custom report from query builder  ?

So I've been racking my brain since march, and literally no valuable help from PTC on this issue, but I need some input from the community at this point.  We've had a case open with PTC for 68 days and still no fix...

Environment:

Windows Server 2012R2

Windchill 11.0 M020 (also tried with M030) OOTB

-Apache 2.4 (bundled version)

Server (& AD Domain Controller) has policies that require contact to AD/DC to be NTLMv2 only.

Certificates are properly imported into Keystore & to the TRCA on the machine

Followed CS62326.

This configuration works perfectly with our production environment Windows Server 2008R2 / WC 10.2 M030 / Apache 2.2.

I am racking my brain here....

Any of you using Server 2012R2 & WC 11.0 yet?

Jim

We just received this yesterday.  Is anyone aware of this?  Or have you already updated your system?

Hi,

What is the different between a DynamicRole and RoleGroups in Windchill 11.0? Where can I find a documentation about the different group types?

Both are used in the Context Template xml (see snipped below). The ACLs are created with the UI.

... <AccessControlRule>    <domainName>/Default</domainName>    <externalTypeId>WCTYPE|wt.doc.WTDocument|priv.Domain.MyDocument</externalTypeId>    <lifecycleState>RELEASED</lifecycleState>    <WTPrincipalReference isInternal="true">      <groupName>DOCUMENT_MANAGEMENT</groupName>      <groupType>DynamicRole</groupType>    </WTPrincipalReference>    <grantPermissionSet><AccessPermissionSet>        <permissionField name="READ"></permissionField>        <permissionField name="REVISE"></permissionField>        <permissionField name="CHANGE_PERMISSIONS"></permissionField>        <permissionField name="DOWNLOAD"></permissionField>        <permissionField name="SET_STATE"></permissionField>      </AccessPermissionSet></grantPermissionSet>  </AccessControlRule>  <AccessControlRule>    <domainName>/Default</domainName>    <externalTypeId>WCTYPE|wt.doc.WTDocument|priv.Domain.MyDocument</externalTypeId>    <lifecycleState>RELEASED</lifecycleState>    <WTPrincipalReference isInternal="true">      <groupName>DOCUMENT_MANAGEMENT</groupName>      <groupType>roleGroups</groupType>    </WTPrincipalReference>    <grantPermissionSet><AccessPermissionSet>        <permissionField name="READ"></permissionField>        <permissionField name="CREATE"></permissionField>        <permissionField name="DOWNLOAD"></permissionField>        <permissionField name="SET_STATE"></permissionField>      </AccessPermissionSet></grantPermissionSet>  </AccessControlRule>
...

Thank you,

Tom