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To Save or Not Save Prior to Check-In

Question asked by Rich Harder on Mar 24, 2020
Latest reply on Mar 26, 2020 by Elmar Klammer

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It's funny, I have never thought about NOT saving prior to check-in. My habit has always been Ctrl+7 (Iso), F (Fit), Ctrl+Q (Rebuild), Ctrl+S (Save) and then Check-In. Then this week a user new to our company tells me he's randomly losing his changes. Not understanding I ask more questions and they state...

"I have been using EPDM since 2012 and I will often make a change to a checked out part and then check it in without hitting save first. Sometimes I save, sometimes I don’t. It depends on what I’m doing at the time."

Does or did this work, checking-in without saving? Or did their previous PDM have a setting allowing this where ours doesn't? This is something I'm unfamiliar with. I thought everyone saved prior to check-in!

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Solid Air Mar 24, 2020 7:34 PM
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We have found it will save sometimes but we have not investigated and to why it fails sometimes so our workflow is to always save first then check in. Also if the document does not flag the part as being "dirty" then when you check in, PDM will do an undo check out.
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- Rich Harder @ Solid Air on Mar 24, 2020 7:48 PM
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  Interesting. I believe what you are referring to, being dirty, is what our VAR asked us to keep an eye out for. They asked to keep an eye out for and confirm the green clock icon 'The local file is newer than the file in the vault' prior to check-in as a diagnostic aid. Maybe if its not being flagged for whatever reason, and the user does their check-in w/o saving after changes, this is why they are saying the new version has disappeared...or as you say, it did an undo check out.
  
  Moral of the story though, save often!
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  - Solid Air @ Rich Harder on Mar 24, 2020 7:56 PM
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    I suppose dirty is a term we use at work. Basically if the * appears after the file name in the title bar. Never thought about the local version newer than version in vault as another indicator. But that should work too!
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Francisco Guzman Mar 25, 2020 2:08 AM
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I would say separate the two. especially if you have a suspicion of an issue, large assemblies/models, many model changes in memory, or system issues or even network disconnects. you are supposed to be saving regularly anyway: This way, if there is a hang during save or a hang during a call from the PDM client to servers, your files are nice and secure in the HDD.

Yeah, sure, it works. But once you start to diverge from the common use of an application (any application for that matter) you enter a realm of uncertainty and potential bugs that will never get fixed. Up to you, I personally like to commit my changes to HDD regularly.

Tell your buddy this info is from a friend that has been fixing other people's PDM problems multiple times a day, every day, since 2012.. not just using it. More power to ya.

Good luck!

Francisco | CSWS-DMA
GoEngineer
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- Rich Harder @ Francisco Guzman on Mar 25, 2020 10:21 AM
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  Thanks Francisco. I appreciate your feedback. I tested the don't save/check-in method just to see for myself. IMO this needs to be disallowed, or give us the option to block it.
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Frederick Law Mar 25, 2020 10:58 AM
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Simple questions.
If user did not save the file before check in, which "file" get check in?
Most likely the one on drive which didn't get all the changes.

Would anyone close the files they changed without saving?
Yes, if you don't want to keep the changes.
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Arie Van Gelderen Mar 26, 2020 6:21 AM
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Always save before check in. Some property variable mappings require saving to work.
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Elmar Klammer Mar 26, 2020 7:14 AM
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Hi Rich,

We use a different PDM software and still see the same behavior. I have see crashes of SW when saving back into the vault. Not always but often enough that it warrants to do a regular SW save ahead of time in some cases. Saving into the vault is time consuming and saving prior to check-in usually adds to that. With all the extra time required saving into the vault I wouldn't recommend a die-hard approach. One needs to weigh the pro's & con's and the potential loss of time if a crash would happen. But often with large "moody" assembly files and cases where many changes have been accumulated without saving. I also take into consideration how many windows I have opened & closed since my last SW restart. SW has had a memory leak in the past and would tend to crash more likely if you have pushed the number of windows opening. Restarting SW will release the memory. On some batch operations I tend to limit that number to 50 or so before restarting depending on the complexity of the files. Too many windows will crash SW. That I know for sure.
Has been that way for a long time. Even on different work stations and various releases.
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To Save or Not Save Prior to Check-In

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