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Hello, We are planning to move from SW 2009 to 2012. We have to "refile" our drawing files due to the version upgrade. Request for Advice.

Question asked by Maqdoom Rahman Syed on Oct 12, 2012
Latest reply on Oct 13, 2012 by Maqdoom Rahman Syed

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Hello Experts,

We are moving from 2009 to 2012.

I believe we need to refile all the solid work files we have (We have about 30,000 files, include part, assembly, etc ...).

We use SW in conjunction with Siemens PLM Teamcenter.

Could the experts out there advice me on the following:

Solid works provides a conversion wizard to "refile" a SW file from 2009 to 2012 version - Is this right?
If such a conversion wizard exists:
1. How can we automate above wizard to take our files in bulk and process them automatically?
2. Are there some open API's available to use to integrate a custom utility to the wizard provided by SW?
3. Should we be writing some macros to get this job done?
What are the elements that need to be considered to do this above operation?
Is there any documentation that we can use to do this?

Thank you for time!

Regards,

Maqdoom ....

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Jeff Holliday Oct 12, 2012 1:27 PM
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SolidWorks Task Scheduler may help you but I don't know whether it will work with Team Center's operation.
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Troy Peterson Oct 12, 2012 1:35 PM
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Not sure why you deleted your last post that was similar, but you are going to get the same answers. Updating the whole Teamcenter vault at one time is not possible.
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- Maqdoom Rahman Syed @ Troy Peterson on Oct 12, 2012 1:47 PM
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  Ok Here is what we are planning to do:
  
  Export out all files from TC to a staging location (say a directory in a local OS)
  Provide the files from the staging location to the converting wizard
  
  The question here is how can we automate the step 2?
  Should we write a macro to feed in files from the staging location to the wizard?
  
  Troy I had few answers from Raghavendra Bhagwan and you - I do not see them in the thread ... I did not manually click on any delete button ...
  
  Thanks for the help!
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  - Troy Peterson @ Maqdoom Rahman Syed on Oct 12, 2012 1:57 PM
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    Interesting, not sure how the other replies got deleted, very strange.
    
    Seems like a lot of work for no value added but yes you can do it that way. Not sure if this way might mess with the links of the files in Teamcenter.
    
    Just run the task scheduler on your staging location to update all of the files.
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    - Raghavendra Bhagwan @ Troy Peterson on Oct 12, 2012 2:00 PM
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      Guys !
      
      Sorry, I thought i would delete my post and inturn your response was also deleted. Excuse me for that.
      
      Regards,
      Raghav.
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    - Maqdoom Rahman Syed @ Troy Peterson on Oct 12, 2012 3:08 PM
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      Thank You Troy and Other Experts for your time and comments!
      
      To summarize:
      
      Download the files from TC Volume to local OS drive
      Provide the Task Scheduler with the files in the local OS drive - From the above link you gave, I am assuming it is the Convert Files utility that needs to be invoked
      Once the above operation is successfull, upload the files back to TC (ensure the links of the files to the datasets in TC are maintained)
      
      Had a few points in step 2:
      
      What other actions does step 2 do - Apart from successfully upgrading the file to new version?
      
      Does it rename the file?
      Does it change the size of the file?
      How long does it take to convert about 30,000 files?
      
      Regading the Task Scheduler:
      
      Is this a wizard like functioanlity or GUI?
      Is it flexible to take the input files?
      For large number of files like in our case (~ 30,000) should we write our own macro / batch file to feed files?
      
      Yes you have a valid point in your previous comment: "... Not sure if this way might mess with the links of the files in Teamcenter.."
      
      I believe we have several SOA and API's published to handle this ... Or we could also maintain a mapping table of ItemRevision - Dataset and correspondingly upload it back ...
      
      For my education - Is "refiling" a NX confined term? What is the universal term for this conversions of a CAD file from x version x+2 version?
      
      Thank You for your time!
      Best Regards,
      Maqdoom ...
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      - Raghavendra Bhagwan @ Maqdoom Rahman Syed on Oct 12, 2012 3:23 PM
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        Maqdoom,
        
        1)When you meant download to local drive ? you meant check out from TC vault ?
        2) You will need SolidWorks 2012 Installed on the machine where you intend to run this conversion process.
        3) once this is installed, you would have to invoke solidworks task scheduler from programs>solidworks 2012>solidworks tools>solidworks task scheduler.
        4) Invoke solidworks task scheduler > select convert files task> in the pop up window, add the path where you have checked out files.
        5) set the timings and the other options in the dialogue box
        6) Once this is done you check-in the files.
        
        Coming to your doubts :
        
        1. It doesn't rename the files.
        2. File size may not change (80 % sure)
        3. Time depends on the hardware and i guess anywhere between 5-8 Hours (Guestimate)
        
        Regarding the task scheduler.
        
        1. It has GUI and self explanotory using the help file.
        2 & 3. You could add the whole folder or individually add the files to convert
        
        In SolidWorks terminology i often call it convert the files to latest version..
        
        Attaching the snap shot of the task scheduler for the conver tasks for your better understanding.
        
        Hope this Helps !
        
        Raghav.
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        Task Scheduler.docx1.3 MB
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        Maqdoom Rahman Syed @ Raghavendra Bhagwan on Oct 12, 2012 3:54 PM
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        Hello Raghav,
        
        By ".. download to local drive" I meant that physically copy the file TC Volume to a machine where we have the Solidworks 2012 ...
        
        The problem here is that there is no feature in Teamcenter to check out the file from the volume.
        
        While you could check the object that references the file, but you can not check out the file per se from the TC Volume.
        
        Compounding to this, is the issue that the Teamcenter Volume (where the physical file resides) is on Unix while we have the SW on Windows.
        
        Whats your opinion?
        
        Br,
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        John Burrill @ Maqdoom Rahman Syed on Oct 12, 2012 4:15 PM
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        Maqdoom, does Team center work by serving controlled copies from a vault to a client or do clients directly open the files in the vault across the network?
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        Maqdoom Rahman Syed @ John Burrill on Oct 13, 2012 4:51 AM
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        John, Teamcenter clients directly open the files in the vault across the network.
        
        To illustrate -
        
        Vault A - on Unix holds all the physical files
        
        Teamcenter Clients L,M,N,O all access Vault A to access files ...
        
        The file holding object in Teamcenter (Dataset, Named Reference) control the check out of the file ...
        
        Br,
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        Troy Peterson @ Maqdoom Rahman Syed on Oct 12, 2012 4:26 PM
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        Not sure about NX but with solidworks there really is no need to update the files all at one time. The first time you checkout a file from TC and open then save in solidworks the files will be converted. I know our Teamcenter vault has files 5 or 6 versions back and we have no issues with TC or SW.
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Jeff Holliday Oct 12, 2012 4:12 PM
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I don't know if anyone asked this - is there any real good reason to update the files? You really don't need to until you actually use any particular file. SWorks 2009 files will open in any later release, so maybe you can save a lot of trouble. The file may take slightly longer to open in a future version but only until it is saved at that point. You can't open a newer file in an old version but opening in a future version is not a problem.
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- John Burrill @ Jeff Holliday on Oct 12, 2012 4:30 PM
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  Jeff, from an administrative standpoint, there are a couple of reasons to perform the update in one shot instead of doing it piece meal.
  Namely:
  Solidworks files take extra time to open and save the first time they are converted, so updating everything in one go during down time will mean improved performance for the users
  Second, it makes the update a distinct item in the revision history of the file, making issues related to the update easy to pinpoint.
  A lot of engineering departments are run with the attitude that software version changes shouldn't be tracked-that they don't affect the design, but I think they should for the same reason that redrawing a paper document should be recorded-maybe not with a fullout eco but with an administrative change or note.
  Afterall, software updates contain modeler updates which affects geometry.
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- Maqdoom Rahman Syed @ Jeff Holliday on Oct 13, 2012 4:53 AM
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  Jeff, The main reason why we are conerting the files is to avoid user inconveniance ... I believe that messages are popped and so on and so forth ... More of a usability issue being resolved here ... Br,
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Hello, We are planning to move from SW 2009 to 2012. We have to "refile" our drawing files due to the version upgrade. Request for Advice.

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