Another Intralink question

I open Intralink, start pro in a workspace, and then open a drawing
from a dir. outside of intralink. The drawing loads fine. I can save
the drawing fine. I can check in the drawing using the quick check in.
I erase the drawing from session. Minimize the pro window, then select
the workspace window, pick the file I was working in then everything
goes down hill. When the workspace opens I get this message.
Could not launch the external application "loadinpro". This can happen
if external application is not found or incorrect parameters are passed
to the application "loadinpro" application is used by Pro/intralink to
communicate with Pro/Engineer which must already be running.
I have contacted Pro Help on this but they never gave me an answer.
Because of this I have to close Pro down each time in order to see the
workspace. Do I need a more robust machine or hopefully there is
just something I have missed in the setup somewhere?

Thanks Again
Frank

 

Sorry for the duplicate question, when I sent this one this site gave
me a message of server error. Didn't think it went through.

 

Frank,

It is hard to understand your question but it seems that you are either
trying to fool the system somehow or you have done it inadvertantely. What
you should do is avoid going in and out of your workspace in the future.
The only time I perform a similar process is when I get files from outside
my business and need to import them into Pro/Intralink. (I have never even
tried a "quick check in" and don't plan to in the near future either.) In
those cases, I start Pro/Engineer in the desired workspace (usually a
special one created just for this task). Then, I open the subject file.
Finally, I save the file to the workspace.

Naturally, you would think that that is the end of it. Well, you would be
wrong. At this point, you should (but probably
don't have to) close Pro/Engineer and get to work on the workspace. The
first thing you have to do is find out if you managed to duplicate file
names that already exist or use file names that are illegal. Then, you have
to fill in all the necessary parameters for your particular Pro/Intralink
set-up. In my case, I must select a folder for the files or nothing works.
(I set up our system this way to avoid problems with people not selecting a
folder). Make all the necessary changes and entries before attempting to
check in the files.

During this process you might find any number of errors. I mentioned file
name conflicts. This is quite common and one reason we use Pro/Intralink in
the first place. Of course the other big reason is version / revision
control. And, a nearly invisible thing it is good for is keeping all the
drawing sheet formats from being corrupted. Each time you attempt to save a
drawing Pro/Engineer will attempt to save the part / assembly, the format
and the drawing. The special format files are usually set-up in a
commonspace folder with special protections. That's at least three seperate
files any of which can create a conflict which must be repaired before
check-in can succeed.

If none of these is the problem than it is quite simply an incorrect
installation of Pro/Intralink in the first place. Your Pro/Intralink
administrator simply has to reconfigure it (run "ptcsetup" in the
Pro/Intralink client directory ... no CD or additional setup files are
necessary). Although I have done this dozens of times I can just barely
remember how to do this. It will be quite obvious because there is a point
in the set-up where you fill in where the Pro/Engineer startup batch files
are. All of your workspaces can inadvertantly be corrupted during this
process so be carefull.

Now that I think about your problem a little more this last is probably your
issue. I have had to delete and re-create a couple of bad batch files in
the past to make the Pro/Intralink installation work. This is really easy
for the administrator to take care of but unless you are very familiar with
what you are doing I don't recomend you try this without assistance.

 

Frank

My company have been working with various Intralink/ProE versions (in
combination) over the last years and i have never seen the behaviour.
I think a fresh install of Pro/E and the Ilink client will solve the
problem, if not check on a different computer if you get the same
problem.

Hugo

 

The first thing I don't understand is this atypical behavior: you open Pro/e in a
workspace then open a file ignoring the workspace. The typical way to do this is
to use 'File>Import/Export' to get files in and out of workspace, to communicate
with the world outside of Intralink/Oracle. The advantage, besides giving your
data tracking software a heads up as to what you are doing and letting it do its
bookkeeping, is that you get to assign Intralink parameters right from the start:
revision level is a good thing for Intralink to know and the imperative Folders
parameter. You also give Intralink a chance to examine the file and tell you
things about it, like whether it already exists in Commonspace, what it's CS
status is and what it's WS and Compare statuses are, whether it's released,
pending or locked. When you open a file as you did, without the intervention of
Intralink, you risk all kinds of trouble as well as risking subverting the good
functioning of a $100k software package. And it really doesn't need any help at
all in crapping out on you. Also, by way of aiding its correct functioning and not
helping it crap out on you: never (and I'm sure no one needs to be told this but
JIC) go into the .proi/workspace folder and mess with WS files with a system file
management function, like renaming, moving, deleting, copying files with Windows
Explorer. You make Oracle sick and unhappy if you do.

Again, anomalous behavior: Quick checkin? when you haven't seen this file in WS,
haven't set any parameters, including and especially a folder!?! Well, lets say
that Intralink knew about this file, knew its rev, release level, folder, etc.:
this further assumes that the release level wasn't set to Pending or the file
would have had to be manually set to WIP in WS; it further assumes that it also
wasn't a released file which would have necessitated changing the revision, none
of which can be done while in Pro/e, all of which requires that the file be
available in WS (which it is not at this point). There you would F2-Modify the
file to change revision or release level, but this would have to be done before
checking the file in if there were any incompatibility between the file in Pro/e
and tyhe file in CS. If there were no incompatibility and checkin were allowed,
the file would have to already be in CS and with a compatible revision and release
level, otherwise, checkin would have bombed.

Now, this 'File>Checkin>Automatic' (the socalled "quick" checkin) does two things:
it saves the file to CS and it saves a new version to WS (hopefully). But, does
it, actually in this case. The Pro/e-Intralink combo has three methods available
for deciding where to save a file: the typical Pro/e "working directory", the
builtin WF2 Browser to locate and open files and the Intralink WS. When one opens
Pro/e in a WS, one would think that files would automatically be saved in this
area, yet, when one opens a file outside of WS, I can't confirm, nor has Frank
confirmed, that the file actually gets saved in WS. If Pro/e used the "working
directory" method, it would probably save the file in the top level of the .proi
folder. If Pro/e used the Browser method to decide where to save the file, it
could save it in the directory from which the file was opened. The anomalous
checkin behavior only confirms this uncertainty. If the file had been saved and
the WS opened from Intralink, parameters set/confirmed there and from there,
checked in, I'd say that the file's existence in WS and proper check in were a lot
more certain. In Frank's narrative, it is not certain at all where the file went
or what happened to it.

Could it be that a more conventional approach would avoid all this heartache and
aberrant behavior: 1) open Intralink, pick the WS button, Open an existing WS or
Create a New one; 2)populate the WS with files using CS Locate or Import; 3) when
needed file is available in WS, check status, modify revision or release level,
set folder, etc., as needed; 4) highlight file and do Ctrl-O or RMB 'Open'. This
will launch Pro/e in the WS with the file in session; 5) modify the file in Pro/e
and, if a single part file, do 'File>Check in>Automatic' or simply save the
changes to WS, then, within the WS, select the file and do RMB 'Check in'. If this
is an assembly and any component files are plussed that you did not deliberately
modify, select and 'Update' them. Then check in the drawing/assembly. Never try to
check in an assembly/drawing when dependent parts/components have been modified
without confirming that the modifications are not unintended geometry changes and
that they are being made to WIP parts at the same revision. If you work in this
way, you should have no trouble "seeing" workspaces, nor in checking in files to
CS. If you persist in trying to circumvent Intralink, you do nothing but make
trouble for yourself.

David Janes

 

My whole point here is the fact that after I save a drawing in pro,
(that is loaded with-in a workspace), I have to exit pro-e in order to
get to the workspace, so I can check the drawing in. Why do I have to
exit Pro-e? I should be able to minimize it then re-open the pro-e
window so I can continue to work. But, NO..., I have to reload pro-e
each time, after using the workspace. With more than 3,000 files to put
into interlink, opening pro, closing pro, is getting old fast.
Frank

 

I don't know. I use Pro/e and Intralink every day. I use 'File>Checkin>Auto' for
drawings of parts because there are never any conflicts that have to be fixed as
there often are with assembly drawings. For assembly drawings, I open the
workspace where the drawing/assembly/parts were saved, select and Update anything
that I know won't check in because it's Pending, Released or Locked so that these
file do not enter the check in list. I select the remaining, plussed files and
check them in. I don't exit or minimize Pro/e. I also don't exit Pro/e to change
workspaces; I just use 'Tools>Server registry' to switch to another WS. Your
problem may be that you have so many files tght the system/Intralink/Proe hangs,
waiting for something in the WS to update. Could be a memory problem, i.e., not
enough. One thing that can greatly speed up redisplaying the contents of WS is to
simplify your table view, strip this down, give it the bare minimum of pieces of
information to to update. Once you've done something to alter the contents of a
WS, Intralink goes dutifully about verifying the values of every paramter, in
every column, for every file in WS. So, create a minimalist view that shows the
file names/dates, maybe version #, nothing more. The less information, the quicker
it'll display. When you're sure it's all good, switch to the data intensive view.
It could be other things, too, like your Intralink setup. But this is the main
reason I can think of that a whole lot of files will bog down your system and make
you exit Pro/e to 'unfreeze' and make visible your WS.

David Janes

 

Thanks for the Help. WF, we have not loaded WF2. I will add the
extension to the script ASAP. But on the other hand, is it valid to add
that to the script in WF?