Go to Post The game is leaking? That can only mean... - GeeTwo [more]
Home
Go Back   Chief Delphi > FIRST > General Forum
CD-Media   CD-Spy  
portal register members calendar search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read FAQ rules

 
Reply
Thread Tools Rate Thread Display Modes
  #46   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 08-07-2012, 18:10
AllenGregoryIV's Avatar
AllenGregoryIV AllenGregoryIV is offline
Engineering Coach
AKA: Allen "JAG" Gregory
FRC #3847 (Spectrum)
Team Role: Coach
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Rookie Year: 2003
Location: Texas
Posts: 2,563
AllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond reputeAllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond reputeAllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond reputeAllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond reputeAllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond reputeAllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond reputeAllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond reputeAllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond reputeAllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond reputeAllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond reputeAllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond repute
Send a message via AIM to AllenGregoryIV
Re: CAD Revision Control

Quote:
Originally Posted by Todd View Post
For any teams considering trying to use vault (or any other software that requires either a linux or real windows server) you can run a windows instance on the Amazon EC2 cloud for extremely competitive, hourly and usage based rates (very affordable to leave on 24/7). Amazon EC2 also provides tools to assist in backup and management of servers and I highly recommend for anyone wishing to host their own SVN server, website, or any other thing you would like to have running on a computer permanently.
I don't have any experience with Amazon EC2, how much would it cost to run a vault server 24/7 for a year? Just enough space to host a few seasons worth of CAD files, 10GB max.
__________________

Team 647 | Cyber Wolf Corps | Alumni | 2003-2006 | Shoemaker HS
Team 2587 | DiscoBots | Mentor | 2008-2011 | Rice University / Houston Food Bank
Team 3847 | Spectrum | Coach | 2012-20... | St Agnes Academy
LRI | Alamo Regional | 2014-20...
"Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
Reply With Quote
  #47   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 08-07-2012, 18:25
Todd's Avatar
Todd Todd is offline
Software Engineer
FRC #1071 (Team Max)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Rookie Year: 2004
Location: Connecticut, Wolcott
Posts: 51
Todd is just really niceTodd is just really niceTodd is just really niceTodd is just really niceTodd is just really nice
Re: CAD Revision Control

Quote:
Originally Posted by AllenGregoryIV View Post
I don't have any experience with Amazon EC2, how much would it cost to run a vault server 24/7 for a year? Just enough space to host a few seasons worth of CAD files, 10GB max.
It depends on alot of things. The way Amazon EC2 does pricing can be somewhat confusing at first. They offer concepts like 'spot instances' to allow websites to rapidly allocate additional non persistent serving potential.

They also offer 'Reserved' Instances, which allow you to pay an up front annual, or three year fee to allow for cheaper hourly rates.

To run amazon vault, I imagine at least a 'small' instance would be required.

If you took advantage of the annual leasing option, a small instance would be $69 up front, followed by $0.059 per hour, adding up to an average of 47 dollars a month, or $573 for the full year.

However, if you only wanted to run the server during competition season and not pay the upfront fee, it'd cost ~$82 a month.

Memory costs wouldn't be your problem, a small instance comes with 160 GB of storage space, however amazon charges bandwidth after the first gigabyte of out/inbound traffic at 12 cents a gigabyte. Depending on your use case/how efficient vault is this could run you a bit. IE if you have 40 work stations that all view all of your 10 GB worth of content.. etc .

It isn't free, but it is viable. It's also plausible that multiple teams could share a vault server.
Reply With Quote
  #48   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 08-07-2012, 21:21
Alan Anderson's Avatar
Alan Anderson Alan Anderson is offline
Software Architect
FRC #0045 (TechnoKats)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Rookie Year: 2004
Location: Kokomo, Indiana
Posts: 9,113
Alan Anderson has a reputation beyond reputeAlan Anderson has a reputation beyond reputeAlan Anderson has a reputation beyond reputeAlan Anderson has a reputation beyond reputeAlan Anderson has a reputation beyond reputeAlan Anderson has a reputation beyond reputeAlan Anderson has a reputation beyond reputeAlan Anderson has a reputation beyond reputeAlan Anderson has a reputation beyond reputeAlan Anderson has a reputation beyond reputeAlan Anderson has a reputation beyond repute
Re: CAD Revision Control

A newly created Amazon Web Services account is eligible for a free year of a certain class of service. It should be possible to run a "micro" instance of a Windows server for a year at no cost. After that year, however, you'll have to pay.
Reply With Quote
  #49   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 08-07-2012, 21:25
Todd's Avatar
Todd Todd is offline
Software Engineer
FRC #1071 (Team Max)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Rookie Year: 2004
Location: Connecticut, Wolcott
Posts: 51
Todd is just really niceTodd is just really niceTodd is just really niceTodd is just really niceTodd is just really nice
Re: CAD Revision Control

Micro instances are even cheaper than the above, though I have some concerns that a micro instance might be unable to run Vault.

For any other purpose, micro instances are exceedingly convenient.
Reply With Quote
  #50   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 08-07-2012, 21:55
daniel_dsouza daniel_dsouza is offline
does what needs to be done.
FRC #2449 (Out of Orbit Robotics)
Team Role: Alumni
 
Join Date: May 2011
Rookie Year: 2011
Location: Chandler, AZ
Posts: 231
daniel_dsouza has a spectacular aura aboutdaniel_dsouza has a spectacular aura about
Re: CAD Revision Control

If we use SolidWorks, does that mean that my options are Windchill or PDM?

PDM requires a server, and I don't want to mess up our school's server.
Unfortunately, our school's tech support will not help us. (I asked last year)
EDIT: found the video tutorials...I could do it, but only if Windchill doesn't work out.

Windchill sounds great, so I signed up my team, but have a few unanswered questions. Does anyone know how long it takes PTC to email you back? Are there speed issues? Were can I get the ProjectLink for Solidworks?

We used external-hard-drive-style organization last year, and it was terrible...especially when updating trivial features. I don't want to go back.
Reply With Quote
  #51   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 08-07-2012, 22:35
sandiegodan's Avatar
sandiegodan sandiegodan is offline
FTC Mentor, FRC Inspector
AKA: Dan Glenn
FTC #10092 (Green.Griffins;)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Rookie Year: 2007
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 50
sandiegodan is a name known to allsandiegodan is a name known to allsandiegodan is a name known to allsandiegodan is a name known to allsandiegodan is a name known to allsandiegodan is a name known to all
Re: CAD Revision Control

Quote:
Originally Posted by daniel_dsouza View Post
Windchill sounds great, so I signed up my team, but have a few unanswered questions. Does anyone know how long it takes PTC to email you back? Are there speed issues? Were can I get the ProjectLink for Solidworks?
You could also try posting questions here, there are plenty of Windchill users on Chief Delphi. There is also a user group for PTC products with very active forums at ptcuser.org. (I'm the portal admin and on the Board of Directors.) There is also a Community on PTC.com as well.
__________________
Dan Glenn
2015-16 FRC Chairman, San Diego Regional Planning Committee
2016 FRC Inspector, Orange County (LRI), Los Angeles, Carson Division
2015 FRC Inspector, Inland Empire (LRI), Central Valley, Los Angeles, Galileo Division
2015 FTC Mentor 10092 Green.Griffins; R&D Robotics Education
2014 FRC Inspector, Inland Empire, San Diego(LRI), Archimedes Division
2012-15 FTC Mentor Team 6565 Stuffed Dragons & 8489 Green Griffins Boys and Girls Club
2013 FRC Inspector, Central Valley, San Diego(LRI), Los Angeles, Inland Empire, Galileo Division
2012 FRC Inspector, San Diego, Los Angeles, Central Valley, Newton Division
2009-12 FRC Mentor Team 1622 Spyder Poway HS
2007-08 FRC Mentor Team 2658 Pedestrian Rancho Bernardo HS
Reply With Quote
  #52   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 09-07-2012, 07:02
tim-tim's Avatar
tim-tim tim-tim is offline
Simplicity by Design...
AKA: Tim Miedzinski
FRC #0836 (The RoboBees)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Rookie Year: 2004
Location: Hollywood
Posts: 605
tim-tim has a reputation beyond reputetim-tim has a reputation beyond reputetim-tim has a reputation beyond reputetim-tim has a reputation beyond reputetim-tim has a reputation beyond reputetim-tim has a reputation beyond reputetim-tim has a reputation beyond reputetim-tim has a reputation beyond reputetim-tim has a reputation beyond reputetim-tim has a reputation beyond reputetim-tim has a reputation beyond repute
Re: CAD Revision Control

Quote:
Originally Posted by daniel_dsouza View Post
If we use SolidWorks, does that mean that my options are Windchill or PDM?

PDM requires a server, and I don't want to mess up our school's server.
Unfortunately, our school's tech support will not help us. (I asked last year)
EDIT: found the video tutorials...I could do it, but only if Windchill doesn't work out.

Windchill sounds great, so I signed up my team, but have a few unanswered questions. Does anyone know how long it takes PTC to email you back? Are there speed issues? Were can I get the ProjectLink for Solidworks?

We used external-hard-drive-style organization last year, and it was terrible...especially when updating trivial features. I don't want to go back.
I don't want to say that your only options are SolidWorks PDM and WindChill. I am not too familiar with any of the other options.

WindChill answers:
How long it takes PTC to respond, it really depends. They are essentially setting up the server for you, so the initial response could take a few days. Other than that, I have had good response from them, usually the same day or within 24 hours. They don't really operate over the weekends, so you may experience more of a delay then.
Speed Issues - You will notice that WindChill may seem a bit slow, but do realize you are uploading content to a server somewhere else other than a local place. The speed is by no means slow, but it is lower than having a local network server. I have not noticed any performance issues with the speed from WindChill.
ProjectLink for SolidWorks - once you have been given a login to WindChill youwill be able to download it. Go to "Quick Links" in the upper right hand corner, and from there choose "Software Downloads". Click Accept and then a list of products to download appear. You will want to download "WindChill Workgroup Manager", which should be the last option.

I hope this answers your questions.

As a side note, the other options in the downloads are pretty neat as well. The plug-in for MS-Office is really handy, this is called "WindChill Desktop Integration". It allows you to save and check-in documents withouth leaving word, excel, powerpoint, etc. The plug-in for project will allow for a single schedule to be uploaded and synced with the project.

Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.
__________________
The RoboBees

Tim's Shortcuts Anderson Powerpoles and Crimper, Star/Tube Nuts
Reply With Quote
  #53   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 09-07-2012, 18:02
tim-tim's Avatar
tim-tim tim-tim is offline
Simplicity by Design...
AKA: Tim Miedzinski
FRC #0836 (The RoboBees)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Rookie Year: 2004
Location: Hollywood
Posts: 605
tim-tim has a reputation beyond reputetim-tim has a reputation beyond reputetim-tim has a reputation beyond reputetim-tim has a reputation beyond reputetim-tim has a reputation beyond reputetim-tim has a reputation beyond reputetim-tim has a reputation beyond reputetim-tim has a reputation beyond reputetim-tim has a reputation beyond reputetim-tim has a reputation beyond reputetim-tim has a reputation beyond repute
Re: CAD Revision Control

Quote:
Originally Posted by Joon Park View Post
At the PTC Booth in St. Louis I was introduced to Windchill, and my preliminary experiences with it have been good. Although, our team does use Inventor instead of Solidworks; does anyone know if Inventor integration is on par with the level of integration that Solidworks has with Windchill?

We've considered using Vault, but setting up a server was too much of a hassle for our tech department due to logistical reasons..
Just as anticipated, yes the integration of WindChill into Inventor is good to go (as far as I can tell, i didn't completely battle test it but it does have the same feel). PTC is the maker of Creo (formerly Pro/Engineer) and WindChill is a PTC product. The integration to the 'third party' software packages are the same for the most part.

I use PTC's Creo and WindChill at work. There is a little bit more functionality with this set up than the 'third party' applications. I was very pleased with the WindChill implementation of SolidWorks; and now Inventor.

Look through this other thread for my other posts on how to setup a WindChill account for the team and download the workgroup manager for Inventor.
__________________
The RoboBees

Tim's Shortcuts Anderson Powerpoles and Crimper, Star/Tube Nuts
Reply With Quote
  #54   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 15-07-2012, 12:17
Joon Park's Avatar
Joon Park Joon Park is offline
Joony13
FRC #0639 (Code Red Robotics)
Team Role: CAD
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Rookie Year: 2010
Location: Ithaca, NY
Posts: 99
Joon Park has much to be proud ofJoon Park has much to be proud ofJoon Park has much to be proud ofJoon Park has much to be proud ofJoon Park has much to be proud ofJoon Park has much to be proud ofJoon Park has much to be proud ofJoon Park has much to be proud of
Re: CAD Revision Control

Quote:
Originally Posted by tim-tim View Post
Just as anticipated, yes the integration of WindChill into Inventor is good to go (as far as I can tell, i didn't completely battle test it but it does have the same feel). PTC is the maker of Creo (formerly Pro/Engineer) and WindChill is a PTC product. The integration to the 'third party' software packages are the same for the most part.

I use PTC's Creo and WindChill at work. There is a little bit more functionality with this set up than the 'third party' applications. I was very pleased with the WindChill implementation of SolidWorks; and now Inventor.

Look through this other thread for my other posts on how to setup a WindChill account for the team and download the workgroup manager for Inventor.
Thanks so much for looking into that!
__________________
Team 639: Code Red Robotics
2013 Robot: The Red Raptor
2013 Archimedes Division
2013 Buckeye Regional Winner
2013 Buckeye Spirit Award
2013 FLR Spirit Award
2012 Newton Division Finalist
2012 FLR Semi-Finalist, Engineering Inspiration Award
2012 DC Quarter-Finalist, Industrial Design Award
2011 FLR Quarter-Finalist
2011 Boston Quarter-Finalist, Imagery Award
2010 FLR Quarter-Finalist, Innovation in Control Award
2010 Philladelphia Semi-Finalist, Gracious Professionalism Award
Reply With Quote
  #55   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 02-12-2012, 14:09
FluxCapacitor's Avatar
FluxCapacitor FluxCapacitor is offline
Caddie
AKA: John
FRC #4146 (Sabercats)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Rookie Year: 2012
Location: United States
Posts: 1
FluxCapacitor is an unknown quantity at this point
Re: CAD Revision Control

Quote:
Originally Posted by mplanchard View Post
In the SolidWorks 2012-2013 Sponsorship package this fall we will provide SolidWorks Workgroup PDM. This is an easy solution to revision control.

You can do it now in 2011-2012. We created a couple of videos to help on YouTube. Here are the instructions.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6D664170B28FCCDF

You do need one computer to act as the server.

Always try a simple solution first. Marie
Is there a way to use the Workgroup PDM off-site logged in? Would we need a VPN? Do you have any suggestions?
Reply With Quote
  #56   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 17-12-2012, 20:57
AllenGregoryIV's Avatar
AllenGregoryIV AllenGregoryIV is offline
Engineering Coach
AKA: Allen "JAG" Gregory
FRC #3847 (Spectrum)
Team Role: Coach
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Rookie Year: 2003
Location: Texas
Posts: 2,563
AllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond reputeAllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond reputeAllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond reputeAllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond reputeAllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond reputeAllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond reputeAllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond reputeAllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond reputeAllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond reputeAllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond reputeAllenGregoryIV has a reputation beyond repute
Send a message via AIM to AllenGregoryIV
Re: CAD Revision Control

In case any other teams are wondering PTC is supporting Solidworks 2012 in Windchill for this season. They are planning to roll out the upgraded Work Group Manager sometime after the holidays to the FRC windchill server.

"first_support at ptc.com" is the place to ask questions about Windchill and using other PTC products in FRC.
__________________

Team 647 | Cyber Wolf Corps | Alumni | 2003-2006 | Shoemaker HS
Team 2587 | DiscoBots | Mentor | 2008-2011 | Rice University / Houston Food Bank
Team 3847 | Spectrum | Coach | 2012-20... | St Agnes Academy
LRI | Alamo Regional | 2014-20...
"Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
Reply With Quote
  #57   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 17-12-2012, 21:28
daniel_dsouza daniel_dsouza is offline
does what needs to be done.
FRC #2449 (Out of Orbit Robotics)
Team Role: Alumni
 
Join Date: May 2011
Rookie Year: 2011
Location: Chandler, AZ
Posts: 231
daniel_dsouza has a spectacular aura aboutdaniel_dsouza has a spectacular aura about
Re: CAD Revision Control

Ok, so I have spent the past few months playing around with Windchill and Solidworks PDM.

Windchill:
Pros:
The account system was easy to use. Inviting new members was easy.
When our management account lost its privileges, (my mistake), the people at PTC were very helpful and prompt to fix my mistakes.
Revision control worked well, I could roll back parts easily.
It's online, so anyone can access it. However it is a bit slow...more on that later.
Workgroup Manager is deeply integrated into SolidWorks 2011
Importing my massive CAD library was easy.
Cons:
The Workgroup Manager can take a long time to download and build, give it an hour or so (if you are building it).
When our team received our new SolidWorks 2012 copies, we found out that Workgroup Manager was not compatible with it, and would not be until well after build season.
When I installed Workgroup Manager on our school workstations (whose internet connection is not the best), Windchill was almost unusable. Its a great piece of software, but only if you can reach it!

Overall, If I ever switch to PTC Wildfire, then I know exactly which PDM to use!

SolidWorks PDM:
Alas, our mentors and students did not want to switch to PTC products, so Windchill will be laid to rest for now.

We obtained a copy of Windows Server 2012 Datacenter through MS DreamSpark, and installation went without a hitch. (Just happened to have an old chassis lying around )). The one thing about Solidworks PDM is that is seems to require IIS (Internet Information Services... I think) and an older version of .net. This means that it may not require Windows Server to run the vault, just a Professional or higher edition of Windows. Again, not fully sure about this. The trick to using the PDM is to remember to install the server products, and to install SolidWorks Explorer and Vault Admin (from the individual installation option).

Pros:
Quite fast. We have a wired Gigabit network...
Integrated extensively into SolidWorks (What else would you expect)?
Easy to upload and version parts.
Very easy to use.
Admin tools versatile.

Cons:
Many options are only available from the Vault Admin. This is to be expected from a business product though. Only the Admin should be capable of making a mess.
Still haven't figured out why batch uploading files does not work.
Local. Unless we use a VPN (ddwrt?) to connect to our local network, then we will have trouble cadding at home. Which is fine for us; all the i7 workstations are at school anyway.

Good luck with whichever options you choose, and feel free to PM me with questions.
Reply With Quote
  #58   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 10-01-2013, 13:11
bachster's Avatar
bachster bachster is offline
Registered User
AKA: Katie Bach
FRC #2052 (KnightKrawler)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Rookie Year: 2008
Location: Minneapolis
Posts: 61
bachster has a brilliant futurebachster has a brilliant futurebachster has a brilliant futurebachster has a brilliant futurebachster has a brilliant futurebachster has a brilliant futurebachster has a brilliant futurebachster has a brilliant futurebachster has a brilliant futurebachster has a brilliant futurebachster has a brilliant future
Autodesk Vault File Structure and Training

CD community,

I am wondering if anyone has a quick reference guide to setting up a Project file and folder structure for use with Autodesk Vault in Inventor, as well as any training materials for students on how to check in/check out files within the Vault structure.

Some quick background: I know just enough to be dangerous in Inventor, and am not well-versed in using the project file and working directory myself. Our team CAD work to this point has been largely single-user, one-off efforts with no file management or version control. I would like to elevate the team’s use of CAD for design work and would like to implement the use of Vault with Inventor.

Our team owns one computer which runs Vault Server 2011 (I found the install disc from the 2011 KOP). This will also be the primary “working” computer for our CAD team working in Inventor 2011. The school’s computer lab has Inventor 2011 installed, so we have chosen to work in 2011 on our team computer to enable students to transfer their work back and forth. The school computers have Vault client installed, and are able to successfully connect to our server, but do not appear to have the Inventor plug-in for Vault installed (the Vault check-in/check-out menu is not available). I will pursue working with the IT dept to see if we can get them to run the Inventor Vault plug-in, but for now we may have to transfer files with a jump drive to the main computer to check them in (our CAD team is not too large, so this should be manageable for now if we can get the workflow correct).

I am struggling a bit to understand the relationship between the location of the Vault folder, Inventor project file, working directory, Content Center files, libraries, etc. and how these should be set up on our main computer to keep things clean and usable. I currently have errors when starting a new part that the texture files cannot be found, and I believe last year we had some file reference issues when trying to use downloaded parts in our assembly. I believe this could be because the default installation of Inventor created a directory location within “My Documents.” In general, we would like to store most of our files (especially all of our Vault files) on the K drive, which is a larger storage partition. The “My Documents” target has been moved from the standard location on the boot partition (C), to the K drive. We also have two user accounts (Mentor and Student) set up on the computer. In addition to 2011, we also have Inventor 2012 installed, which may be complicating things more by creating duplicate directories. I am considering uninstalling both Inventor versions and starting fresh to be able to carefully set up the proper locations from scratch, but I’m not sure what the recommended setup should be. I’m also looking for recommendations on how to set up our Project file structure. Should we have one project per year? One for prototyping then one for robot design? Just one overall project file with separate sub-folders under it? Should I try to set up the 2013 KOP as a library? Any recommendations (or screen shots of a setup that works for you) would be much appreciated. Thank you!

Katie
Mentor, FRC 2052 KnightKrawler
Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 18:27.

The Chief Delphi Forums are sponsored by Innovation First International, Inc.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright © Chief Delphi