Updated PTC Windchill Interview Questions-2021

1. What is PTC Windchill?

PTC Windchill is a product lifecycle management (PLM) application suite that leverages a consolidated view of product information through multi-system data. It’s a systemic enterprise wide approach to maintaining product and process quality throughout the entire product lifecycle.

2. What are PTC products?

The PTC CAD product provides a set of Computer Aided Design capabilities.

Other products include:

• CREO parametric – formerly Pro/ENGINEER.
• CREO simulate – formerly Pro/MECHANICA.
• CREO direct – formerly CoCreate OneSpace Modeling.
• CREO options modeler.
• CREO illustrate schematics.
• CREO view.
• CREO illustrate.

3. What is Windchill PDM Essentials? 

PTC Windchill Product Data Management (PDM) Essentials is built on PTC’s production proven PTC Windchill software. Windchill PDM Essentials simplifies data management activities by transparently incorporating them into the design process. It manages all forms of information such as CAD drawings, customer requirements, schematics and Bill of Materials (BoMs) that are generated during product development.This modern product data management solution makes it easy to manage, share, and review your data. It’s finally possible to have a single view of the latest product data, along with tighter integration to major end CAD vendors, Microsoft Office, and desktop tools. Plus, it allows your users to save time with better version control, automated data release, and simple search capabilities.

4. What is Windchill Workgroup Manager?

Windchill Workgroup Manager is a client-based application developed by PTC that provides a common data link between a supported authoring application and a Windchill server. It features an embedded browser that enables you to access both a local workspace on your client as well as a shared project space on the server.

5. What is Windchill PDMLink? 

With an abundance of data dispersed throughout your organization, how do you maintain the integrity of your product information when multiple people are working on the same files, The solution is Windchill PDMLink. Windchill PDMLink is a Web-based, industry-proven Product Data Management (PDM) system that supports geographically dispersed teams while managing critical processes such as content, change and configuration management. Windchill PDMLink maintains the integrity of your product information by storing master data in a secure area where you can control, monitor, and record all changes. 

When a change is made to your data, Windchill PDMLink stores a modified copy of the data, signed and dated, in a secure area alongside the old data, which remains in its original form as a permanent record. In addition to providing change control management, Windchill PDMLink enables you to manage your product’s release cycle as well as its configuration.

6. What is Windchill ProjectLink?  

Windchill ProjectLink is a collaborative product development web-based environment  that automates and tracks projects. ProjectLink provides a common workspace where you and your team can share and discuss documents and product structures, hold meetings, and communicate and track progress on tasks. From private exchange environments to public business to business (B2B) exchanges, ProjectLink is a secure web-based system that can easily be used in any collaboration environment.

It can also be used well beyond the engineering and manufacturing departments of your organization. Any project that requires team members to share electronic information such as writing annual reports to creating training materials, can be managed with Windchill ProjectLink

7. What is Windchill Partslink? 

Windchill PartsLink is a module for PDMLink that adds part classification-based features. PartsLink enables you to perform parametric attribute searching and manage your results through convenient navigation and searching. You can search parts by typing a free-form product description or a part number in the search criteria text box. You can browse the hierarchically organized structure of your parts using text and images. You can also refine your search by constraining parameters in a parametric search. Windchill PartsLink enables your team to perform similar part searches, expanding your search to look for matching parts that have parametric attributes that are within a certain percentage or absolute tolerance of the selected part. Additionally, you can export the result set to a file. Many companies lack a comprehensive part search system and as a result they lose the benefits of reusing product components. Criteria-based searching limits the result set, which helps a great deal in reuse decisions. PTC Windchill PartsLink helps solve that problem.

8. What is Windchill Quality Solutions? 

Depending on your specific Windchill Quality Solutions suite (Windchill Quality Solutions 10.1 Desktop, Windchill Quality Solutions 10.1 Administrator, Windchill Quality Solutions 10.1 Web Access) you may have access to one or more applications. Windchill Quality Solutions, the desktop version, is the cornerstone of the Windchill Quality Solutions suite. It is available in both the team and enterprise additions and is the feature rich windows application for all of your reliability and maintainability activities. 

Available in the enterprise addition you will also find Windchill Quality Solutions Administrator which provides you options for administrative controls including options to support secure login. Windchill Quality Solutions Web Access available specifically for Windchill FMEA infractions in the enterprise edition allows you access for data entry, filtering, graphing, reporting and more.

9. What is end item in Windchill?

End item are parts in a product that are finally assembled or sold to a customer. When you create parts with end item attribute as yes, windchill assigns it as primary end item for the context. Primary end items get automatically collected to your changes.

10. Is there other Windchill Software for product data management and process management?

• Windchill MPMLink acts as an integral solution for Manufacturing Process Management.
• Windchill FlexPLM is a product lifecycle management solution that is widely used for retail, footwear & apparel and consumer product companies.
• Windchill Requirements Management is a combination of PTC’s Integrity product and Windchill PDMLink that manages product data software and hardware requirements.
• Windchill PPMLink is a program that provides portfolio management capabilities to discrete manufacturers.
• Windchill Service Information Manager creates associative, interactive service parts information used throughout a product’s serviceable lifecycle.
• Windchill Service Parts improves service operations by enabling service information to be organized and optimized for accuracy, applicability, and rich, graphics-driven delivery.

11. How does Windchill 9.0 fit within the PTC Product Development System (PDS)?

Windchill is a core component of PTC’s comprehensive Product Development System. It enables manufacturers to have a single repository capable of controlling all product information and to optimize key product development processes. With its integral, pure Internet and interoperable architecture, PTC’s Product Development System can be deployed quickly, offering a reduced total cost-of-ownership and lower risk of technological obsolescence over time. Get more information on the PTC Product Development System.

12. Briefly describe the usability, visualization and other Windchill 9.0 improvements.

New embedded visualization capabilities, delivered with Product View Lite 9.0, improve user productivity with dramatic performance improvements in loading, interacting and distributing visualization data Enhanced reporting capabilities with industry-leading Cognos 8 Business Intelligence that includes real-time, out-of-the box reports on change management activities, user task status and project progress

Powerful user interface configuration capabilities to tailor the functions and interactions available to a particular user according to their role and tasks. Effectively coordinate information with remote users and external partners with new smart replication capabilities that improve system performance and availability while reducing replication setup and administrative maintenance. Extended supportability options streamline installations and add additional system monitoring tools that utilize industry standard Java extensions and frameworks.

13. What new modules are available with Windchill 9.0?

Three new modules are being introduced with Windchill 9.0:

Windchill MPMLink – An optional, integral module to Windchill PDMLink, Windchill MPMLink offers digital Manufacturing Process Management (MPM) capabilities to help resolve the daily challenges that design and manufacturing engineers face in ensuring that process plans, manufacturing bill of materials (mBOMs) and work instructions accurately reflect the current engineering model and that design decisions consider manufacturing best practices.

Windchill Business Report Author– While Windchill 9.0 now includes enhanced business reporting capabilities,this optional module allows customers to use Cognos to create their own reports or modify existing ones.

Windchill Business Report Monitor – This optional module is also based on Cognos 8 Business Intelligence. It allows customers to create agents that define report parameters or metrics and the associated conditions to invoke when a report variable crosses one of these boundaries. For example, one could define that an e-mail should be sent if any user has more than ten overdue tasks.

14. What services are available for getting Windchill 9.0 solutions rapidly into production?

PTC Global Services provides a blend of strategic process consulting, system implementation services, and a unique education approach to help leading companies realize the full value of Windchill. These activities have been integrated together and executed using an innovative Realized Value Methodology, a collection of best practices and lessons learned from thousands of customer engagements to ensure that our customers realize the most value from their investment in the shortest possible timeframe. These assets are combined together into various standard solutions that are designed to meet the needs of a particular business process, industry or implementation stage.

15. How do you write a wind chill report?

• Login to Cognos using the <WBRHomeURL>.
• Navigate to “Public Folders > Windchill”.
• Launch “Report Studio”.
• Select <MyDataSource> as the Data Source for the report. …
• Use Cognos Report Studio features to complete the report.
• Save the report to top level “Public Folders > Windchill” folder as <MyReport>.
• Verify the report in Cognos. Refresh the “Public Folders > Windchill” folder and the <MyReport> object should be listed. Use the “Run with options…” action to run the report.
• Expose your report to Windchill. Launch Java Console from installed Windchill shortcuts. There are two ways to do this: 
• Connect to the Embedded Servlet Engine (based on Tomcat) JVM instance. Select reporting management bean from the MBeans tab, “com.ptc > Monitors > ReportingSystem”. From the Operations tab, click “exposeReports”. Select the Refresh Reports List button in Windchill Site/Reports to refresh the page.
• View the <MyReport> Report in Windchill. The object will be displayed in “Site Reports”. Note that the “Ready For Use” column shows “No” for this object. This means that other users with read-only access will not see this report. The “Ready For Use” attribute can be used to limit report access to end users while the report is being developed.
• Edit <MyReport> to make the Report accessible to end users. Select the Edit action, then Select Home for “Display Context(s)” and check the “Ready For Use” checkbox. Click OK to save these changes. <MyReport> will now be visible to all users with read access from both “Site > Report” and “Home > Reports”.
• Verify the report in Windchill. Navigate to “Home > Reports” and Select the “View Report” action for the <MyReport> object.

16. What’s New with Windchill 9.1 Release?

Windchill 9.1 offers improved support for key product development processes, plus a range of improvements in enterprise product content management, usability, and supportability.

17. How does Windchill 9.1 fit within the PTC product development system (PDS)?

Windchill is a core component of PTC’s comprehensive Product Development System. It enables manufacturers to have a single repository capable of controlling all product information and to optimize key product development processes. With its integral, pure Internet and interoperable architecture, PTC’s Product Development System can be deployed quickly, offering a reduced total cost-of-ownership and lower risk of technological obsolescence over time.

18. Briefly, which product development processes are enhanced in windchill 9.1?

Manufacturing Process Management (MPM). With Windchill 9.1, PTC improves the capabilities of Windchill MPMLink through the addition of out-of-the-box integrations to SAP and Oracle ERP systems, support for alternative bills-of-materials, and a new Gantt explorer for viewing/analyzing process plans and for exporting this information to Microsoft Project.

19. Briefly describe the usability and supportability improvements of Windchill 9.1.

Windchill 9.1 offers a host of usability improvements designed to make navigation and usage smooth and intuitive. Specific examples include column freeze and column resize. Windchill 9.1 also simplifies deployment with a much improved installation procedure. This update requires no data migration and is intended to greatly streamline the process of moving from Windchill 9.0 to Windchill 9.1.

20. Is Windchill a PDM or PLM?

PTC Windchill is a family of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software products that is offered by PTC.

21. What is Windchill software used for?

Windchill product lifecycle management software With easy, secure data access for multi-disciplinary and geographically-distributed teams, quality-focused processes, and a data driven approach to manufacturing, Windchill is elevating how product development gets done.

22. Is there other Windchill Software for product data management and process management?

• Windchill MPMLink acts as an integral solution for Manufacturing Process Management.
• Windchill FlexPLM is a product lifecycle management solution that is widely used for retail, footwear & apparel and consumer product companies.
• Windchill Requirements Management is a combination of PTC’s Integrity product and Windchill PDMLink that manages product data software and hardware requirements.
• Windchill PPMLink is a program that provides portfolio management capabilities to discrete manufacturers.
• Windchill Service Information Manager creates associative, interactive service parts information used throughout a product’s serviceable lifecycle.
• Windchill Service Parts improves service operations by enabling service information to be organized and optimized for accuracy, applicability, and rich, graphics-driven delivery.

23. What’s new with PTC Windchill 10.2? 

PTC Windchill 10.2 continues to build upon PTC Windchill 10.0 with more capabilities to help manufacturers optimize the management and evolution of the product’s definition.  Working in partnership with the FDA and major medical device manufacturers, the new PTC Windchill UDI module will help companies ensure compliance by automating the collection, editing, review, 

e-submission, change management and monitoring of FDA UDI submissions. To help meet the upcoming Conflict Minerals regulations, PTC Windchill 10.2 offers expanded capabilities to help you manage and analyze both part and supplier disclosure information.  Users can visually interrogate data relationships between more PTC Windchill objects as well as between PTC Windchill and PTC Integrity.  And ERP integration is expanded to include PTC Windchill logic that defines possible combinations/ permutations of products and manufacturing process plans.

24. What is happening with PTC Windchill support release?

To reduce the time and effort needed to stay up to date with the latest PTC Windchill software fixes, PTC Global Support will begin issuing monthly software releases called critical patch sets (CPS) in addition to the traditional support releases (e.g. PTC Windchill 10.2 M010).  These releases will begin with PTC Windchill 10.2 and will be limited to important software fixes.  Feature enhancements and user interface changes will only be part of PTC Windchill maintenance releases.

25. What versions of PTC Windchill can be directly upgraded to PTC Windchill 10.2 FCS?

Customers can upgrade directly to PTC Windchill 10.2 F000 from PTC Windchill 9.0, 9.1, 10.0, and 10.1.Customers on PTC Windchill 8.0 or earlier must first upgrade to one of the previously mentioned releases before they can upgrade to PTC Windchill 10.2.

26. What services are available for implementing PTC Windchill 10.2? 

PTC Global Services, the world’s largest dedicated PLM services organization, is uniquely suited to ensure implementation success in even the most complex organizational environment. Our Value Centric Engagement Model ensures cross-organizational alignment on key business objectives, with fully approved definitions of value, a detailed roadmap that connects business need with technical feasibility, and clear accountability for program governance and decision making Process-based design aligns our technology with strategic business requirements,best practice processes, organizational constraints, and PTC’s technology roadmap Off-the-shelf configuration adapts PTC technology to process priorities while minimizing deployment risks, accelerating time to value, and increasing flexibility for future organizational needs Role-based adoption programs accelerate team learning and business impact with a comprehensive, customized approach tied directly to the deployment roadmap and to individual and work group needs for process improvement

27. What are some of the specific capability enhancements offered with this release?

• Visually interrogate data relationships – Improve productivity by easily understanding the relationships between different product elements using graphical flowcharts.
• Share product configurations with ERP – Ensure that the same configuration rules are enforced across both PLM and ERP systems. 
• Visual Process Plans – Increase efficiency by visually constructing manufacturing process plans from the engineering part structure.
• Meet new FDA regulations on Unique Device Identification (UDI) – Dramatically reduce the effort needed to comply with the newly proposed FDA regulation for UDI (Unique Device Identifier) submissions
• Quality-driven change management – Accelerate problem resolution by initiating change requests from within any Windchill Quality Solutions module.
• Expanded Conflict Minerals Compliance- Automatically collect Supplier Conflict Mineral disclosures using the EICC/GeSI Conflict Mineral Reporting Template
• Intuitive Microsoft Office interactions – Improve usability by expanding PTC Windchill document management capabilities within the familiar Microsoft Windows and Microsoft office environments.
• Streamlining the Upgrade process -Over 50% of our PTC Windchill users have updated to PTC Windchill 10 and PTC Windchill 10.2 includes enhancements to make the upgrade even easier.
• Improved user experience for the everyday CAD user – PTC Windchill 10.2 helps improve engineer productivity by allowing users to upload any content in any state to the server workspace.
• Automatically execute project plans – To help improve user productivity while still maintaining control over project execution, PTC Windchill 10.2 allows you to automatically start activities within a project plan as well as automatically notify affected resources.
• New System Administration capabilities 
• Simplified and automated support of PTC Windchill within a cluster environment helps reduce the total cost-of-ownership (TCO) as well as the risk of system downtime.  
• PTC Windchill 10.2 reduces the time and administrative overhead associated with creating new test and development instances by providing repeatable, automated, re-hosting capabilities that are configurable to a specific customer configuration.
• Accelerate risk assessment – New capabilities include configurable risk matrices, Web-based fault trees to support Global Risk analysis, tracking FMEA actions to mitigate risks and incorporating user-defined calculations into FMEA worksheets. 

28. What Is Sharepoint?

SharePoint, specifically Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), is Microsoft’s technology infrastructure for collaboration and social computing. It is a ready-to-use application, but also a technology platform for the development of Web-based applications such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS). WSS is bundled with Windows Server.

29.  What Are The Key Capabilities And Benefits Of Sharepoint?

Microsoft positions WSS, the base SharePoint offering, as a team-based collaboration environment that enables users to create workspaces and then author, publish, store, share, and keep track of information. WSS also supports creative forums such as blogs and wikis, and offers integration with and offline synchronization through Outlook. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) is a secondary offering that enhances WSS to enable it to act as a document management system for Microsoft Office user communities, adding portal, content management, search, business process and forms, and business intelligence capabilities. Microsoft touts SharePoint’s easy-of-use, rapid deployment, and low total cost of ownership as its key benefits.

30. What Is Windchill Productpoint?

Analogous to how MOSS enhances WSS functionality to meet the document management requirements of more sophisticated Office users, Windchill ProductPoint enhances Microsoft SharePoint with richer capabilities to enable teams to manage and share complex and structured product development information. Examples of complex structured data common in product development include MCAD, ECAD, technical publishing, embedded software, and math and simulation tools.