EnterprisePDM - Migrating Legacy Data (Update References)

For customers moving to EnterprisePDM from an unmanaged environment the question of how best to add legacy projects which share common files to the vault can be a tricky one. You don’t want to create duplicate copies of shared parts, yet you may not be migrating all your data at once.
A nice enhancement in EPDM 2011 was the ability to ‘Update Broken File References’ when adding data to the Vault. This allows us to make use of a simple process when dragging a set of files into the vault, minus the common parts for semi-automatically updating the references to the common files already added to the vault. Any files not previously added to the Vault and in a known location on the users file system can also be selectively added to the Vault or replaced with another file in a controlled manner.
In the movie attached to this post you will see how I add and repair an Assembly that references files previously copied into the vault and structured within a “Library Parts” folder structure.

The demonstration shows the following process.

1. Drag your files into the required location within the Vault
2. Select the Top Level Assembly to check it in and note the ‘missing files’
3. With the Assembly still selected, choose ‘Update references’ from the ‘Tools’ menu
4. Click ‘Find Files’ and browse to the ‘Library’ folder inside which I want to search for files with the same name.
5. Most of the missing files are found, but one which isn’t I can then ‘Replace’ and ‘Add to the Vault’ placing it in a Library folder also.
6. Once all the References are updated I can then apply the changes and check in the Assembly with all its references.

 

 

Thanks for your time....

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Wayne Marshall | PDM Support Manager