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How to Change State At Check In?

Question asked by Dwayne Quatier on Apr 26, 2012
Latest reply on May 2, 2012 by Jeremiah Feist

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My workflow and translations work very well for our organization with one exception. I have found that if I have a file that has been approved and released it will have a revision of say "A" and a state of "Production Released". If a user checks this file out and makes some changes and then checks it back in the properties remain as revision "A" and a state of "Production Released". Most times this isn't and issue if the user was intending to make the change and immediately submits to the "Change Board" state. But if a user forgets then I have a file that tells me it is at an approved configuration and state but really isn't since has been altered. Is there a way to send a file to a new state upon check in?

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Wayne Matus Apr 26, 2012 1:32 PM
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You would need to add a branch in your workflow to transition the file out of the Production Released state into a state such as "For Revision". and then depending on your process eventually transitioning the file back into the Production Rreleased state incrementing the revision in the process.
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- Dwayne Quatier @ Wayne Matus on Apr 26, 2012 1:44 PM
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  Thanks Wayne, but already have this set up in my workflow. The issue is how to automatically transition to a different state at check in. I want the file that was checked out under "Production Release" to automatically transition into a "Under Change" state when checked back in.
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  - Jeremiah Feist @ Dwayne Quatier on Apr 26, 2012 1:47 PM
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    I do not know of a way to do that.
    
    what we do, is to not allow check-out from the released state. the user has to change the state first, before they are able to check it out.
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Brian Dalton Apr 26, 2012 1:47 PM
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The version history should take care of this for you. When a file is checked out, saved and checked back in, a new version is created. The new version will not have the revision marking of the previous one.

Wayne is correct, though. The best way to handle this is to require a state change to occur before the Released file can be checked out. In our case, revision access must be requested and approved before the file is opened for further editing, but that may not be necessary in your company.
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Tim Read May 1, 2012 4:03 AM
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If you really want to automatically Transision on Checkin to the "Released" State then you need to have an automatic transision set on the "Released" state and create a Dispatch script that sets variables on the Datacard during Check Out or Check In. The automatic transision tests the variables you set on Checkin and if they match then it will transision.

Released State: -> Checkout

Released State: -> Checkin -> Set Datacard variable

Automatic Transision: Condition: variable "Status" = "Modified" -> Transision
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Stephen Lapic May 1, 2012 10:43 AM
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Personally, I think the best way is to not allow them to check it out if it is in the released state. They should change the state to "in design" or what ever, make the changes, have it checked and approved, the revision level would increase, then change the state back to released. This is a much more accountable way of doing a change that willl more easily show what is going on through comments and history.
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- Tim Read @ Stephen Lapic on May 1, 2012 11:07 AM
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  Agreed... Best to change State first but I do understand why it may be advantageous to do it this way. I would not
  
  The "What If?" scenario: Allow check out - make changes locally and then decide Yes or No to the change...
  
  If "Yes" Check-In. Part Transistions to "In-Design" State and proceed...
  If "No" Undo Check-Out. Latest Version in Database is still at "Released" State with a Revision.
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  - Stephen Lapic @ Tim Read on May 1, 2012 11:31 AM
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    In our workflows, we also have a little loop for a "quick change". Permissions are restricted to a few people but it allows someone to change the state to fix typos and such without going through the whole ECN process, etc.
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Einar Gulbrandsen May 2, 2012 7:06 AM
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To check in and change state in one operation you must press the arrow in the workflow, see picture .
Here the first time the file was checked in as Init (pig). Then automatically moved to the next state called Concept.

But we handle it in a different way. All documentation that are Approved is read only. Any change after approved state requires a state change to make the document possible to check out. The reason we do it this way is because PDM is integrated with Axapta and information is tranfered between the systems when documents are getting Approved.
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Dwayne Quatier May 2, 2012 11:45 AM
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I really appreciate the support here and these answers are helping me see what may work the best for our situation. So far I like the direction Tim is going with the datacard variable and automatic transition but in our case I think that the best scenario is to do this on the check in. My reasoning is that as Tim also pointed out, a file may be checked out with full intention to make changes but then a decision is made to discard the changes and leave as is. It looks like if you require a status change before check out then you also now will require the permissions, etc. to be able to undo this state change if the changes do not happen. There is also the situation where an assembly is checked out to make changes but not all of the components but during the change you realize that you have to make changes to a component. Now you can check the file out while in SolidWorks in the middle of the change. With the other scenario I'm not sure how you go about changing the state and then checking out while in the middle of a change.

I have not worked with Dispatch yet and still need to make a datacard that makes sense for our company so we have the default datacard in place today. Where is the place place to go to read up and get started with Dispatch?
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- Jeremiah Feist @ Dwayne Quatier on May 2, 2012 12:03 PM
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  if you are using the EPDM add-in in SW, then you can open the released assembly (read-only), make your what-if edits, and either a) close without saving to discard the changes. or b) used the add-in to change state and check out the files you have changed, while retaining the changes, make further changes if you like, and then check them in.
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