I currently have convert to PDF tasks that execute during transitions when drawings move from a "work in progress" state to an "approved" state. The PDFs are created just fine without any trouble. The problem I have is that they get placed into the vault in my initial workflow state of "work in progress". This causes confusion and now the PDFs that have been approved for production are in a state where anyone could edit/delete them. What's the proper way to get an automatically generated PDF from an approved drawing to match the approved drawing's state? I'm sure I could make a separate workflow where all PDFs go straight to an "approved" state, but that quickly defeats the purpose when someone adds a PDF on their own.
Is there some kind of setting I'm missing along the lines of "if this file was automatically created by a task during transition then match it's workflow state to the parent file"?
Thanks in advance,
Matt
Hi Matt,
Here's an approach I've used before:
On your PDF file card, add a variable called "File Destination" or something similar.
In the workflow transition from "work in progress" to "approved" you may have to add a secondary transition for "slddrw" files only and add a set variable action to set the variable "File Destination" to "approved".
In your convert to PDF task, in the step "File Card", set the variable value of the output file's card "File Destination" variable to the source file "File Destination" variable.
Lastly, add an automatic transition from the initial state in the workflow to the "approved" state with 2 conditions 1) Filepath %.PDF and 2) "File Destination" variable value "approved". This should restrict the transition to only files your programming has made prior arrangements for.
Make sure the workflow governing the folder where the PDF gets created is the workflow you add the automatic transition.
This should do the trick. Try it and let us know if it does the trick.
Tim