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Updating to WF2

goosemonster

New member
My company is starting to think about moving from 2001 to WF2. We are also moving from PDM to Windchill.


Are there an problems we should expect? How compatable are the two?
 
I cannot comment on the Windchill but I have upgraded to WF2 and I still am doing it!



Updating from 2001 to WF is a lengthy process for a few reasons:

<ul>
[*]almost completely new interface. commands have moved and I'd
guess more than 50% of the tasks you did before are done differently
(menu picks, and methods)
[*]mapkeys and such from 2001 won't translate to WF2, I think I've lost about 80% of my customized keys
[*]menu customizations with menudef.pro are next to obsolete
[/list]


You will experience a learning curve with existing users. The method in
which you engage with WF2 to navigate the model is different. Feature
creation is quite different from setting up your sketch plane to
transforming surfaces.
 
It might make sense to get a few users up and running on WF2 forawhile before the switch. Make sure they have a good grasp on it and don't mind showing everyone else what to do because there are some big changes that more often than not might require some one on one instruction. No offense to the training mills that provide update courses, but those courses are basic overviews that leave users with more questions than answers.
 
We went from R20 to WF2.0 and took the 2 day update course. I thought the course was great. It helped that there were only 3 of us (all from my company) so we could ask lots of specific questions. I have found the transition to be a lot less painful that I expected. I did have to recreate most of the mapkeys but we don't use much in the way of menu customization so that wasn't an issue. Th important stuff, like can you open and edit the old drawings and models works very well. Every once in a while I have a hard time finding a command but that is getting less and less.
 
As already mentioned, the switch from 2001 to WF2 is a pretty big
one. Make sure your people know what to expect when the wildfire
hits. We went to WF1 early this year & ran 2001 & WF
side-by-side from Intralink for a while. Note that once you've
saved in WF, 2001 won't open the files... so it's a forward-step
by everyone.



See this blog entry & this article - both about WF 2.



The PDM to Windchill switch is a similarly large step. Do you
know if you're going to Windchill PDMLink or plain Windchill?
PDMLink is touted as the replacement to Intralink & is still
relatively new in industry.
 

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