Anyone using Windchill ProjectLink

[deltamikael]

My company consider a purchase of the PDM-system Windchill ProjectLink.


I wonder if anyone out there are using it, and if you are, what's your experience from it? I searched the site for postings but could not find any...

 

[pro_javi]

We have projectlink but have not used itso far.We are too busy setting pdmlink up :-( Watching the demos we liked some features but missed more integration with pdmlink. I mean, you have to manually feed the system when you may expect not to do so. It depends on what do youwant from the system. We differ from our VAR about themeaning of 'project'. One colleague says it doesn

 

[deltamikael]

Thanks for your reply!


As we are in the consulting business, we will use ProjectLink to manage projects when working in-house with smaller companys (which not using PDM-systems themselves) as customers.


We are also impressed by the nice festures, e.g the easy way to visualise,theability to manage different CAD-systems and that the system isweb-based. But as it is a PTC-product (...) we thought we better look it upevenmore carefully than usual.


Most important is that it is easy for our customers to use.


Is ProjectLink the right choice for us?

 

[pro_javi]

Probably. One of the largest communication company in Spain uses projectlinkbecause ofits capabilities managing projects, people, docs,permissions, etc. And they don

 

[shipley00]

What are you wanting to use it for? If you are wanting to use it to manage active CAD (models) designs, then I would say no. PDMLink is intended for actual CAD manangement. Project Link is great place to share data to different groups. You can "share" files from the PDMLink side in order to allows others to see the desing without seeing all your work on the PDM size. Also great for Document storage.

 

[deltamikael]

What are you wanting to use it for? If you are wanting to use it to manage active CAD (models) designs, then I would say no. PDMLink is intended for actual CAD manangement. Project Link is great place to share data to different groups. You can "share" files from the PDMLink side in order to allows others to see the desing without seeing all your work on the PDM size. Also great for Document storage.

Our intentby using Projectlink is to manage small amount of CAD-data in different project, along with Word-, Excel, pdf-documents etc. We have, so far, no product development on our own (and therefore no own CAD-data to manage).


In our region, thers is a huge amount of small companys sited in middle of nowhere, that has no or a very small P&D-department, no PDM-system on their own and havinga hard time recruit designers. (Cause nobody wants to live in the small towns and villages were they are sited.) These companys are our potentially customers, and we want to offer an distant easy-to-use P&D-solution for them, that works just as we were in the office next door. ProjectLink looks like the best solution so far.


Explained enough? What do you think, is ProjectLink our solution?

 

[Mike_T]

There is a free Project-based PLM from Aras that I believe is worth consideration. Although it does not directly integrate with CAD, it is easier and less costly to implement than ProjectLink. I also think it is more extensible.


http://www.aras.com

 

[shipley00]

What are you wanting to use it for? If you are wanting to use it to manage active CAD (models) designs, then I would say no. PDMLink is intended for actual CAD manangement. Project Link is great place to share data to different groups. You can "share" files from the PDMLink side in order to allows others to see the desing without seeing all your work on the PDM size. Also great for Document storage.

Our intentby using Projectlink is to manage small amount of CAD-data in different project, along with Word-, Excel, pdf-documents etc. We have, so far, no product development on our own (and therefore no own CAD-data to manage).


In our region, thers is a huge amount of small companys sited in middle of nowhere, that has no or a very small P&D-department, no PDM-system on their own and havinga hard time recruit designers. (Cause nobody wants to live in the small towns and villages were they are sited.) These companys are our potentially customers, and we want to offer an distant easy-to-use P&D-solution for them, that works just as we were in the office next door. ProjectLink looks like the best solution so far.


Explained enough? What do you think, is ProjectLink our solution?

If you're only using it for small amounts of data, it work fine for you. Keep in mind there are no change management or life cycle management functionality within Project Link.

 

[Mike_T]

Based on shipley00's response, I would highly recommend Aras. With Windchill you would have to but two products (PDMLink and ProjectLink) to get what is virtually free with Innovator from Aras.

 

[tgill]

I implemented the Aras Innovator project management solution at my last company. It worked very well. It's been in production over 4 years, and has several thousand active projects, and has put close to 1000 automotive components into production. It is a complete PLM Software system. It is open source, and you can download install and run in production without even talking to Aras. Like many open source companies, they charge for support and consulting. It's worth looking at if for no other reason than as a negotiating tactic. You can download at http://<A href="http://www.aras.com" target="_blank">www.aras.com/download</A>


cheers





Tom

 

[MuffinMan]

What are you wanting to use it for?

 

[MuffinMan]

I am the PLM administrator for my company and for the
last 18 months have used use both the Product Link and
ProjectLink products. I could speak volumes about the
disappointment of Windchill in general as a PLM
solution, but my greatest disappointment has to be the
ProjectLink product.

Don't be enthralled by all the Project Management bells
and whistles that PTC will attempt to get you excited
about, as a document management tool to house you
Project related information it does a very poor job.
There is absolutely no version control of documents
within this product. States and iteration control are
provided within ProjectLink, but they mean absolutely
nothing. For example if you want to create a CAD
document in a Project container, the system will allow
this behavior and will track iteration history of your
check in/check out history. ProjectLink will even allow
you to Release the document, but wait, it doesn't do
anything. The product simply does not manage documents
with Version Control even though it provides the menu
selections. Users are forced to perform a "Send to PDM"
function to PDMLink were get this, the iterative history
of the CAD data is changed as you move the document
from one module to another. If your data for instance
is at A.7, when moved the iterative history is changed
to A.1 again in PDMLink. Your only recourse is to
design in PDMLink, then share out the document to a
particular project, but then you start asking yourself
the value added in performing this function.

In short never purchase ProjectLink for management of
any CAD related data; it simply is not designed for
version management of documents. Even taking CAD out of
the equation, as a pure Project Management tool there
are far better solutions on the market for much greater
value. As in most other areas of Windchill, the product
suffers from poor interface design and reliability
issues. Absolutely the only reason to even consider
Windchill as a PLM solution is if your company is still
using ProE as your primary CAD system. Even then I would
look at alternatives.

 

[tgill]

Interesting post Muffinman.

As I stated before, I was quite happy with the Aras project management implementaton I did at my last company. CAD integrations for all the major MCAD and ECAD tools are now available from multiple partners. Pro/E is one of the supported systems. Versioning is fully supported, and the CAD files and assemblies are easy to integrate as activity deliverables on a project. It's worth taking a look. If you are still looking at PTC after the previous post, benchmark Aras anyway. Bringing an open source vendor to the table is a good negotiating strategy. The lack of license charges puts a lot of pressure on the other vendors.

Tom