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Intralink no more?

Lazar

New member
Hey guys,


I heard a rumour that Intralink is going the way of the Dodo and being replaced by PDMlink. While this rumour is not necessarily new,I have been hearing it more frequently.


Does anyone know if thisrumourhas any teeth?
 
That's what my rep told me. He did say that Intralink would be supported for a while
smiley2.gif
.
 
PDMlink, is this just another Marketing lingo for Intralink 4.0? Just like Wildfire is realy Pro/E 2002. This is the first timeI've heard of this.
 
From what I recall Windchill and Intralinkare completely separate data management tools. PDMLink is Windchill without the collaborative tools.


Feel free to correct me, as most of what I heard onthe differencesb/w Intralink and Windchillis somewhat dated as well as coming from second-hand parties.
 
Lazar is correct, PDM/Link is more closer to Windchill that Intralink, meaning that it can do much more that just be a safe for Pro/E files.


And, if I might add, this is the third or forth (I lost count) attempt by PTC to capture that market (revision/version control of CAD data).
 
Does anyone know what the time line is? How many more versions of Intralink will PTC go tobefore were having to change to PDMLink? Has anyone had any experience with PDMLink? .......so many questions.
 
The real question is.....


Will PTC provide a migration tool to go from Intralink to PDMLink


My guess is that we are good for a few more years with Ilink.


PDMLink is good tool but I am not familiar in detail with how it's replication scheme works (is it better then Package Replication??)


Joe
 
My understanding.


WindChill is a Foundation Tool to manage any document (file) and/or metadata related to engineering parts/assemblies. As a Foundation Tool you have to make it do what you wish through customization - everything you want it to do.


PDM Link is WindChill with about 80% of the customization PTC has done to WindChill for past customers. So "typical" workflows and processes are already functional in PDM Link with no, or only minor, customization - as long as PTC's "typical" processes work for you.


Both WindChill and PDM Link has Gateways to INTRALINK (so Pro/E files can remain in INTRALINK) and other CAD systems, plus Office tools like MS Office. Both can use PROJECT Link for collaboration with persons outside of engineering. Both manage part, BOMand document data. Both are request driven to add or change part and document data, using workflows to electronically approve or reject processes of a new release or change order. Both will "post" Item Master and BOM data to a ERP/MRP system. One requires a whole lot of customization, the other should not.


INTRALINK is a vanilla DMS (file management) tool that works well for Pro/E data, but I am told is not well suited for non-Pro/E files.


I was told that PDM Link will be renamed to WindChill, the latest version is to include most INTRALINK functions, and that INTRALINK will become a "lite" version of this new version of WindChill, yet to be named.
 
As stated, PDMLink is part of Windchill and it is a totallyseperate product from INTRALINK (Oracle based but a complete different data structure...etc.). INTRALINK will be phased out eventually. To put a timeline to it is tough, but 4 or 5years is a good guess.


There will be tools to convert from INTRALINK to PDMLink - ease and cost of migration are the big questions.


Regards


Rick
Edited by: rpassolt
 
why do these rumours start?



If you take the time to read the roadmap PTC lays out every year you
would see Intralink is a long term product. While I wasn't at the last
PTC User event, I am told Intralink was given a renewed roadmap past v4.



PDMLink and Pro/INTRALINK are two entirely different products with
different focus. Pro/INTRALINK is a workgroup PDM for Pro/ENGINEER
designer, whereas PDMLink is an Enterprise wide tool to incorporate
Pro/ENGINEER data into an ERP, coincidentally Windchill ;).



There are also gateways for Pro/INTRALINK to Windchill so you can still
utilize Pro/INTRALINK without migrating to PDMLink. In fact 3.3 and 3.4
improve the integration of Pro/INTRALINK to ERP systems utilizing new
parameters.



-Jason
 
Unfortunately, I think that a lot of these rumours get started by sales reps. That is basically where I first heard about Intralink obsolence, butthat was years ago just before Windchill first came out.


The rumours I heard recently (and more frequently) were from colleagues who got the information from their sales rep, or other colleagues of theirs who were talking to other sales reps (and so on, and so on, and so on....).


I guess this may be a method to generate new sales, but I do not think it is very effective as just generates more confusion than it does sales revenue.
 
The talk in Nashville was thatan INTRALINK V4 type release will have PDMLink as a back-end. This will require the
 
Also from Nashville on the Pro/E blog:



- about Intralink to PDMLink



- quote "Intralink is going nowhere"



I know of one local company who's struggling thru a PDMLink
implementation with a lot of help from PTC. The PDMLink
technology still appears to be pretty new to most people (including
PTC)...



We're on Intralink & Windchill Found. & will be trying to get the gateway working again soon with WC7.0...
 
The information I got at the European world event end of October 04 from PTC PM:


Next Spring there will be a new Intralink Version8! This is 8 because it isareducedPDM/Link version. The licencing of Intralink will be continuous.


Intralink3.4 will be the latest Intralink version on the actualtechnologie, but it will be supported at least another one or two years.


PTC is working verry hard on conversion tools, and bringing PDM/Link to have all the functionality of todays Intralink.


Kurt
 
Thats right provan. It was stated at the PTC Conference in Nashville that Intralink is not going away. They did say that there would likely be no more functionality added to it such as new interfaces, just bug fixes and oracle engine updates.
 
From my understanding, Intralink will only have improvemsnts made for bugs (are there bugs?) and any Pro/E changes that would affect Intralink data management. So, no further development of Intralink is expected. More date codes may come out but that would be because of Wildfire updates.


Migration tools are being developed to make the transition from Intralink to PDMLink and are only available to the PTC Global Services Group at this time. They are planning a tool that will be released.


Stay tuned for more fun.....
smiley2.gif
 
As I understand it, they will continue withthe Pro/INTRALINK product name, but it will have PDMLink as the back-end.


The "enterprise" features/functions included in PDMLink will not be available in the Pro/I version. The Pro/I version will match closely with today's Pro/I 3.X features/functions.


PTC is working onmigration tools, but I have no clue about how well they will work or how available they will be to customer vs global services...etc.
 

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