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Assigning Files via Workflow to individuals

Question asked by Gary Hamm on Mar 21, 2017
Latest reply on Mar 27, 2017 by Gary Hamm

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I am creating a workflow where Engineers initiate the file, then transition to a detailer, I have many detailers, Currently i setup a transition called detailer 1 goes to State Detailer 1, transition detailer 2 goes to state detailer 2 and so on and So on.......as you can imagine the workflow gets pretty big with 10 detailers, but I want the ability for the detailers to run a search to see what is in their work cue, as well as for management to see, wondering though if this was the best way to setup the workflow,,,,????

thoughts.??

One of the down falls to my current method is Engineers have 10 transitions to select detailer 1, detailer 2, detailer 3, detailer 4, .........

Michael Dekoning Mar 21, 2017 8:07 PM

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Gary,

Another option is to have a dropdown list on your data card with the list of detailers tied to a "Detailers" variable (which can be searched on ). Then you can rename all of your transitions to "Send to detailer" and have a condition in each one where "Detailer" equal to <detailer's name>. You still have multiple transitions but user only sees one transition.

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Michael Dekoning Mar 21, 2017 8:07 PM

Gary,

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Craig Schultz Mar 22, 2017 11:17 AM

Agree with Michael on the drop down for detailer name....

You could set up the transition to detailing having a condition that the detailer name can't be empty. This way you can add the search card variable and the big bonus is only one transition.

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Greg Rupp Mar 22, 2017 7:33 PM

Hi Gary, I would not create several workflow paths for all the reasons you mentioned. There is a very nice / clean way to implement a prompt to the user with a combo box... Dispatch. You can make it trigger off of a workflow step or via a right button menu option. for the example below, I did just that. (this is off of my test server... so I took a few shortcuts).

This will make it much easier to add and remove people to the process (just add or remove names to the list).

** You may want to consider using version free variables to reduce the versions created. I do not show how to do this.**

First, Select the option in the rmb menu

Select a person from the drop down box

That's it! Now that I've assigned a designer to my file, I can run a search for all files assigned to me (or anyone else). (I cheated and used "Drawn by" for this example. For production I would create an "Assigned Drafter/Reviewer" on my card). Below you can see what a search result would look like

This is how it's done in Dispatch.

See attachment. (created in PDM 2016). you can load this into your vault and test it for yourself.

Attachments

Select Drafter.acn.zip491 bytes

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Amos Avery @ Greg Rupp on Mar 23, 2017 10:43 AM

We have done this the same exact way. We use two version free variables for AssignedTo and AssignedDateDue. We have columns in explorer to sort by these variables. We also use search favorites to find them quickly for each User.

In addition to the right-click menu choice, I actually incorporated this into our Workflow. This requires multiple Dispatch Actions because Dispatch only allows running an Action for entering a single State. But, once you create one, it's not too difficult to make many and link them all to their respective States. An added benefit is that the value lists for each State can be different. So when a file is going for detail design, I have a list of people who do detail design and when the file is ready for review, I have a different list of people qualified to do that. The result is that when a Transition is initiated, the small box pops up and asks for Assigned To and Due Date which populate the variables for all of the files in the Transition.

We have had this running since 2011 and it works well.

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Gary Hamm @ Amos Avery on Mar 27, 2017 12:28 PM

thanks.

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Gary Hamm @ Greg Rupp on Mar 27, 2017 12:28 PM

Thanks

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Gary Hamm Mar 27, 2017 12:29 PM

All were good and viable answers, but this is what i did for the particular workflow I created, does exactly what I wanted, I created automatic transitions that notify the detailer as well.

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Michael Dekoning Mar 21, 2017 8:07 PM
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Gary,
Another option is to have a dropdown list on your data card with the list of detailers tied to a "Detailers" variable (which can be searched on ). Then you can rename all of your transitions to "Send to detailer" and have a condition in each one where "Detailer" equal to <detailer's name>. You still have multiple transitions but user only sees one transition.
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Craig Schultz Mar 22, 2017 11:17 AM
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Agree with Michael on the drop down for detailer name....

You could set up the transition to detailing having a condition that the detailer name can't be empty. This way you can add the search card variable and the big bonus is only one transition.
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Greg Rupp Mar 22, 2017 7:33 PM
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Hi Gary, I would not create several workflow paths for all the reasons you mentioned. There is a very nice / clean way to implement a prompt to the user with a combo box... Dispatch. You can make it trigger off of a workflow step or via a right button menu option. for the example below, I did just that. (this is off of my test server... so I took a few shortcuts).

This will make it much easier to add and remove people to the process (just add or remove names to the list).

** You may want to consider using version free variables to reduce the versions created. I do not show how to do this.**

First, Select the option in the rmb menu

Select a person from the drop down box
That's it! Now that I've assigned a designer to my file, I can run a search for all files assigned to me (or anyone else). (I cheated and used "Drawn by" for this example. For production I would create an "Assigned Drafter/Reviewer" on my card). Below you can see what a search result would look like

This is how it's done in Dispatch.

See attachment. (created in PDM 2016). you can load this into your vault and test it for yourself.
Attachments
- Select Drafter.acn.zip491 bytes
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- Amos Avery @ Greg Rupp on Mar 23, 2017 10:43 AM
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  We have done this the same exact way. We use two version free variables for AssignedTo and AssignedDateDue. We have columns in explorer to sort by these variables. We also use search favorites to find them quickly for each User.
  In addition to the right-click menu choice, I actually incorporated this into our Workflow. This requires multiple Dispatch Actions because Dispatch only allows running an Action for entering a single State. But, once you create one, it's not too difficult to make many and link them all to their respective States. An added benefit is that the value lists for each State can be different. So when a file is going for detail design, I have a list of people who do detail design and when the file is ready for review, I have a different list of people qualified to do that. The result is that when a Transition is initiated, the small box pops up and asks for Assigned To and Due Date which populate the variables for all of the files in the Transition.
  We have had this running since 2011 and it works well.
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  - Gary Hamm @ Amos Avery on Mar 27, 2017 12:28 PM
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    thanks.
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- Gary Hamm @ Greg Rupp on Mar 27, 2017 12:28 PM
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  Thanks
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Gary Hamm Mar 27, 2017 12:29 PM
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All were good and viable answers, but this is what i did for the particular workflow I created, does exactly what I wanted, I created automatic transitions that notify the detailer as well.
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Assigning Files via Workflow to individuals

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