What is a Windchill Workspace?

A common source of confusion for new Windchill users is the meaning of a Windchill "workspace". This term appears throughout the entire Windchill environment and is often misunderstood by users. The following attempts to explain the term "workspace" in an understandable way.

When working within a Creo Parametric workspace stand-alone; i.e. not connected to a Windchill server, best practice is "set your working directory" the moment you launch Creo. Typically, it is where parts, assemblies and drawings are commonly opened from. More importantly though, it is where new parts, assemblies and drawings will be automatically saved to the moment they are created in Creo and saved. Another thing, the default working directory defined by the "Start In:" property of Creo desktop icon, is also where it looks for configuration files when starting.

When working with Creo Parametric using Windchill; parts, assemblies, and drawings are not stored in a directory on the user's local computer.  Instead, they are stored in a central repository and downloaded as needed into a workspace instead.  In many ways, a workspace can be likened to a local directory however it is much more than that. Moreover, when outside of Windchill, although the functionality of Windows Explorer might be used to browse a directory structure containing Creo objects, it is typically not used to access a local workspace.

Every Windchill context has a default workspace, although it is recommended best practice for users to create their own windchill workspaces, which are linked to a specific product or library. At the time a workspace is created, Windchill actually creates two: one on the user's local machine also known as "local cache," and a second on the Windchill server. The interaction between these two is essential in understanding and effectively using Windchill.

Understanding the 2 Windchill Workspaces – The Users Local Computer and the Windchill Server

For the purpose of understanding this interaction, let us pretend that a user wants to make a change to a Creo part. They may begin by creating a new workspace that is related to the product context that the CAD object they are working on lives in on the Windchill server. Then find the object with either a Windchill search or by manually searching through the "common space" folder structure. Now, after it has been located assume they conduct an "Open in Creo" operation. Behind the scenes, Windchill would copy all associated CAD objects from the "common space" folders into the server side workspace, download them to the users' local workspace and then start Creo with the "found" object displayed in the graphics window.

At this point in time before any changes are made to the part in Creo, the contents of the server-side workspace will mirror the contents of the local workspace. The user makes a change and performs a "Save" operation from Creo. This will create a new copy of the object in the local workspace. After this first save, the local workspace no longer matches the server-side workspace since the saved part has only been placed in the local workspace but not copied to the server-side workspace. Remember also that all changes made are not viewable to other Windchill users until the object has been checked in. Provided that the user likes the changes made, it is performing a "check-in". At an internal level Windchill sends copied versions of objects changed over to the server-side workspace. And then the altered objects are written into the "common space." Others may observe the change that has occurred.

The user has the option to remove the objects from the workspace after the completion of the check-in process during the check-in process. In case the user removes them, Windchill will delete the objects from the server side workspace as well as the local workspace otherwise they remain in the workspaces.

Thus the "check-in" process is one way for objects in the local workspace to be copied to the server side workspace.  A second way is performing an "upload". When performing an upload, modified objects are only copied to the server side workspace but not to the "common space".

In reality, Windchill may well have been possible to design without the concept of a server-side workspace but simply using a common space and a local workspace. However, the server-side workspace does bring enormous advantage to users.  Even though Windchill servers are routinely backed up, few organizations will automatically back up the user's local computers. By uploading modified workspace objects at the end of the day those modifications will be backed up automatically thus providing a degree of protection.

A final point to remember about workspaces relates to the browser. Accessing Windchill from a stand-alone browser will only provide access to the "common space" and server-side workspace. To view the local workspace it has to be done within the embedded browser from Creo.

Best Practices – Workspaces

• Upload all local changes to the server-side workspace at the end of the day.
  

• Create workspaces as needed. Delete them when you are finished.
  

• If you do not delete a workspace and its contents after a check-in, perform a workspace “update” prior to doing more work out of it to ensure you have the latest versions of objects in the workspace.

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