Migrating Data into a PLM system is always a challenge since it needs a deep understanding of the background working mechanics of the application. Key factors include how the data is modeled and how the relations are build. with that it is also important to understand how placing data into one area may affecting the subsequent objects that come in the PLM process.
There have been earlier tools, but they are not suited for bulk transfers.
Windchill Bulk Migrator or WBM is a PTC application being developed for more than 10 years which provides a swift solution to all Windchill Data Migration Problems.
WBM provides ETL process for a wide array of CAD Authoring tools. This is one of the leading benefits of WBM. You do not have to understand the CAD object intricacies itself. WBM will extract all the CAD information including the CAD BOM and attributes.
For medium to large organizations, CAD is not all. Considering a Top-Down product development process, CAD is only one of the steps. Along with CAD, we enter the Product and Change Management which bring other objects into play. It has WTParts which is the Business Object in Windchill. Supporting documents for the product e.g SOPs, Catalogue documents, Manufacturing Documents. Key features provided by Windchill are the Derived Images, the 3D viewables of the actual CAD which greatly support Manufacturing decisions, shop floor teams. Parts from external Manufacturers and Vendors. Legacy Change Management decisions that came along with the Released Data.
Shifting data from Legacy applications into Windchill is highly surgical and development process. Shifting into a new application with a big bang is always challenging for organizations. This requires a highly road mapped solution for the migrating into a new Enterprise Application while slowly retiring the Legacy applications. WBM has been a solution for many organizations to get around this issue. It can migrate data incrementally in accordance with the solution roadmap.
CAD Data extraction is a very important part of migration since the accuracy of the product depends on it. WBM not only provides the accuracy but also efficiency, e.g if you have 4 million CAD data, you can run split it into 8 batches and run extraction simultaneously. WBM has a set of rules for data transformation which generates data to be easily migrated into Windchill. WBM Data Transformation rules are not a wide-spread information. Loading of data in Windchill is very flexible. Similar to Extraction you can have parallel loaders.
Validation is a multifaced aspect. We have Business Validation and we have a technical validation. Accurate Requirements result into accurate Loading of the business data model. On the technical side, WBM provides a Pre-Validator, which checks the transformed data against the modeled Windchill system for any errors. This results into a seamless loading since there is a chance of fixing any errors before the loading even starts.
We have been working with WBM for a decade and the development and efficiency of the tool has a long proven record not only with us but many fellow consultant teams. Being a tool from PTC itself, it is always a good way to go.
