Parameter designate: why?

Does anyone know what the "designate" functionality is all about? I see Pro/e parts and assemblies with dozens of parameters, most "designated". I ask around, what is this for, no one seems to know. I feel like the modern person, "discovering" Stonehenge or the horrified observer of the six blind men and the elephant.

The reason I ask, I keep coming across very disruptive "conflict" messages from PDMLink. I can't trace these things to anything but "designated" parameters (or ones that "should" be, because 9.1 expects them to be, but aren't).

I know how they get designated in Pro. How do they get so in PDMLink? How can I stop these "conflict" messages (they are very disruptive)?

David Janes

 

As best as I can recall, back in Pro/INTRALINK, designated parameter
values were made available to see and sort in the Intralink interface.
So in PDMLink it's probably the same idea - if the conflict messages are
related to parameters it would only be designated parameters since it
ignores all others.

Maybe you already know that, but hopefully that helps.

David

 

As the previous reply stated, in Intralink 3.4 having parameters
"DESIGNATED" allows them to be searched for in commonspace with the
LOCATE function. Without being designated, finding models with just a
NAME is tough. Try and guess how I know this. Since we have yet to
migrate to PDMLink, I can't say for sure if this explaination is
applicable in that environment.

Bruce.

 

As the previous reply stated, in Intralink 3.4 having parameters
"DESIGNATED" allows them to be searched for in commonspace with the
LOCATE function. Without being designated, finding models with just a
NAME is tough. Try and guess how I know this. Since we have yet to
migrate to PDMLink, I can't say for sure if this explaination is
applicable in that environment.

Bruce.

Thanks, guys. So what I'm getting from this is what I kinda remember from Pro/PDM about designate=searchable. It corresponds to what the Help files say about designating parameters on both server and client sides, a form of parameter communication.

But, of course, that implies deliberateness and deliberation, some criteria, some thought and some thought process. I see no signs of any of this. What I see is ignorance, superstition and mantras, like "to be on the safe side". I think that's how everything got checked "designate".

Much obliged. I'll pass this along.

David Janes

 

I recall in Intralink that best practice was definitely a matter of
deciding which parameters should be designated and do not designate any
which are not going to be used. Otherwise the metadata and database
performance is adversely affected.

David

 

I recall in Intralink that best practice was definitely a matter of
deciding which parameters should be designated and do not designate any
which are not going to be used. Otherwise the metadata and database
performance is adversely affected.

David


Definitely a point worth further exploration. Here's hoping I find someone who knows the technical side, the metadata side of PDMLink and how it hooks up to Pro/e. I have heard, however, that folder size adversely effects performance.

David Janes