PTC Windchill 10.

x Client Requirements
Technical Brief
Contents
About This Document........................................................................................... 2
Supported Releases and Products ................................................................................................ 2
Audience ........................................................................................................................................ 2

Challenge ............................................................................................................... 2
Solution ................................................................................................................. 3
Non-CAD User Minimum and Recommended Client System Requirements ................................ 4
CAD User Minimum and Recommended System Requirements .................................................. 5
Windchill Client Tuning Recommendations ................................................................................... 6
Windchill Client Inspector ......................................................................................................... 6

Additional Information.......................................................................................... 8

October 2013

Enterprise Deployment Resource

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PTC Windchill 10.x Client Requirements

About This Document

This document provides the minimum and recommended Windows client
requirements for CAD and non-CAD users of Windchill PDMLink, Windchill
ProjectLink, Pro/INTRALINK 10.x, and FlexPLM 10.x. The requirements include
specifications for operating system, memory, CPU, and web browser. Windchill
client tuning recommendations and the application of the Windchill Client
Inspector is also discussed.

Supported Releases and Products

PTC Windchill 10.x

PTC Windchill PDMLink

PTC Windchill ProjectLink

PTC Pro/INTRALINK 10.x

PTC Arbortext Content Manager

PTC Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0

PTC Creo Elements/Pro 5.0

PTC Creo Parametric 1.0 and 2.0
PTC FlexPLM 10.x

Audience
This document is intended for managers, architects, system administrators,
system implementers, and both CAD and non-CAD Windchill users.
It assumes that the reader has some working knowledge of the technology and
concepts associated with the following:

Operating systems, web browsers, and hardware platforms

Windchill fundamentals

Windchill CAD data management fundamentals

Windchill system administration

Challenge
System response time is a crucial factor influencing the productivity of Windchill
users and the adoption of the system. Windchill 10.x delivers state of the art
client application-like capabilities with a rich and dynamic user interface through
standard supported web browsers. The system response time of Windchills
JavaScript rich user interface depends on the operating system, available
memory (RAM), CPU cores and speed, and the type of web browser. Client
hardware and system configuration can have a significant influence on Windchill
client performance and scalability.
The larger datasets sizes and complexity of capabilities used by Windchill CAD
users demand more client resources to provide acceptable performance than are
typically needed for non-CAD users.

In the document, 10.x represents the 10.0 release and all subsequent point releases that
are supported.

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PTC Technical Brief

PTC Windchill 10.x Client Requirements

Determining what hardware to provide to CAD and non-CAD users and how to
optimally configure the system to ensure Windchill users are productive can be
difficult unless you are willing to test and evaluate a variety of client hardware
and system configurations.

Solution
The Windchill 10.x Software Matrices and the Windchill Future Platform Support
Summary detail the full scope of current and future supported platforms. To
simplify the process of determining the appropriate client requirements, this
document provides minimum and recommended client requirements for CAD and
non-CAD Windchill users.
This section provides the minimum and recommended Windows client system
requirements for CAD and non-CAD users of Windchill PDMLink, Windchill
ProjectLink, Pro/INTRALINK 10.x, and FlexPLM 10.x. The requirements include
specifications for operating system, memory, CPU, and web browser.
The listed system requirements are provided to help companies ensure that the
client systems they provide their Windchill users will either:

Minimally support Windchill 10.x (minimum requirements)

Adequately support Windchill 10.x (recommended requirements)

The specifications do not replace or supersede platform support information

provided in the:

PTC Technical Brief

Windchill 10.x Software Matrices

Creo Parametric 2.0 Hardware Notes

Creo Parametric 1.0 Hardware Notes

Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0 and Creo Elements/Pro 5.0 Platform

Support Hardware Notes

Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0 Client Platform Support Hardware Notes

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PTC Windchill 10.x Client Requirements

Non-CAD User Minimum and Recommended Client System Requirements

Non-CAD User System Requirements

Minimum

Operating System

Windows XP 32 bit

RAM

2 GB

4 GB

CPU

2 GHz

2.5 GHz or higher

Web Browser

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0

Mozilla Firefox ESR 10.0.x

for Windchill 10.0

Mozilla Firefox ESR 17.0.x

for Windchill 10.1 and 10.2

Microsoft Internet Explorer

9.0

Windows 7- 64 bit

Display

Minimum resolution setting of 1280x1024

Client Tuning

For details, refer to the Windchill Client Tuning Recommendations

section of this document.

Preference
Table size limit
1.

4 of 8

Recommended

500 rows

3,000 rows

Refer to the Client Platform Support section of the Windchill 10.x Software Matrices for more information about
the supported client operating systems.

PTC Technical Brief

PTC Windchill 10.x Client Requirements

CAD User Minimum and Recommended System Requirements

CAD User System Requirements

Minimum

Recommended
1,2

1,2

Operating System

Windows XP - 32bit

RAM

4 GB

8 GB or higher

CPU

2 GHz

Quad 3 GHz or higher

Microsoft Internet
Explorer 9.0

Mozilla Firefox ESR 10.0.x for Windchill

10.0

Mozilla Firefox ESR 17.0.x for Windchill

10.1 and 10.2

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0

Mozilla based browser (embedded with

Creo Elements/Pro 5.0 and Creo
4
Parametric 1.0 and 2.0)

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0

Windows 7- 64bit

Web Browser
Standalone

Embedded

Microsoft Internet
Explorer 9.0

Display

Minimum resolution setting of 1280x1024

Client Tuning

For details, refer to the Windchill Client Tuning Recommendations

section of this document.

Preference
Table size
limit

1.
2.

3.

Microsoft Internet
Explorer 9.0: 500 rows

Mozilla Firefox 3.6.x: 3000 rows

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0:

2000 rows

Mozilla based browser (embedded with

Creo Elements/Pro 5.0 and Creo
Parametric 1.0 and 2.0): 2000 rows

Refer to the Client Platform Support section of the Windchill 10.x Software Matrices for more information about
the supported client operating systems
Refer to the System Requirements sections of the Creo 1.0, Creo 2.0, Creo Elements/Pro 5.0 and
Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0 Client Platform Support Hardware Notes for additional information about supported
Creo, Pro/ENGINEER, and Creo Elements/Pro platforms
For Windows XP 32-bit systems, the memory limit is 2.0 GB and you must enable the /3GB switch in order to
expand the available memory heap available for a single process. Due to inherent hardware memory limitations
of 32-bit platforms, PTC will no longer offer technical support for out of memory conditions on 32-bit hardware
for Creo 2.0 in cases where /3GB switch is utilized. Customers planning on upgrading to Creo 2.0 must carefully
examine whether their current 32-bit hardware will be adequate for their large assembly needs and consider

PTC Technical Brief

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PTC Windchill 10.x Client Requirements

4.

switching to 64-bit hardware. Please see the following documents for more details - Hardware Notes Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0, Hardware Notes - Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0 and Creo Elements/Pro 5.0,
Hardware Notes - Creo 1.0 Parametric, Direct and Simulate , Hardware Notes - Creo 2.0
Creo Elements/Pro 5.0 and Creo Parametric 1.0 and 2.0, by default, use the version of Microsoft Internet
Explorer available on your Windows computer. The Creo and Microsoft Internet Explorer sessions are run as a
single system process.
To use the Mozilla based browser (recommended), set the following config.pro property:
windows_browser_type= mozilla_based_browser
To run Microsoft Internet Explorer as a separate process from Creo (recommended if you are not using the
Mozilla based browser) set the following config.pro property:
windows_browser_type=ie_in_sep_process

Windchill Client Tuning Recommendations

System configuration can have a significant influence on Windchill client
performance and scalability. In addition to depending on the operating system,
available memory (RAM), CPU cores and speed, and the type of web browser,
the system response time of Windchill can be influenced by the following
categories of client settings:

Operating system configuration options

Client hardware configuration options for network, disk storage, memory,

video and display

Third party software version and configuration options

Web browser configuration options

Config.pro options

Windchill preferences

Therefore, to ensure that Windchill users experience optimal system response

time, PTC recommends that you:
1. Configure client settings per PTC recommendations
2. Regularly audit the settings of Windchill clients
3. Implement any new Windchill client recommendations suggested by PTC
The Windchill Client Inspector provides the recommended Windchill Client
settings for you to implement and provides the means for you to audit the
compliance of an individual workstation or workstations across your company.

Windchill Client Inspector

The Windchill Client Inspector inspects relevant Creo, Pro/ENGINEER, and Creo
Elements/Pro and Windchill settings on client machines and stores the values in
a results XML file. After generating results files from client machines, you can
use the extraction tool that is included with the Windchill Client Inspector
installation to present the results in either an XLS or CSV formatted file.
The Windchill Client Inspector includes the following:
1. Windchill Client Inspector Deployment and Administration Guide - PDF
2. Windchill Client Inspector Software
3. Windchill Client Inspector reference XML file (defines what is inspected)

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PTC Technical Brief

PTC Windchill 10.x Client Requirements

In addition to checks for the operating system, processor, memory, storage,

mouse, network, video and display configuration, and installed software, the
installed reference XML file contains group checks related to issues that have
been discovered and documented using Windchill TPIs and TANs. As issues are
discovered, PTC may update the definition XML file to add check groups for
checking additional settings. Ensure that you are using the latest reference file
that is available by downloading the latest WCClientInspector.zip file that is
available on the PTC web site.
You can use the client inspector in the following ways:

Install and run the inspector on individual machines. This allows you to
quickly record existing settings from that machine. After collecting the results,
you can view the results in the XML results file or extract the collected
information into one row of a spreadsheet or comma-delimited text file.

Install and run the inspector from a common location. Running the inspector
from a common location allows you to set up an environment to record the
results collected from a group of machines in a common location. After the
results are collected from all machines, you can extract the collected
information from the results files and insert the results into a spreadsheet or
comma-delimited text file.

Configure client machines to run the client inspector once upon login. Work
with your IT department to determine how to best set up and execute the
client inspector automatically on clients. One way of setting this up is to set
the following variable on clients to the command that runs the inspector:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

The client inspector does not make any changes to client settings.
After reviewing the results that are extracted, direct individual users to make
recommended changes to settings on their client machines.
Downloading the Windchill Client Inspector
You can download the WCClientInspector.zip file containing the media content
from the PTC Software Downloads page. Start by accessing the Technical
Support page using the following URL: http://www.ptc.com/support/index.htm.
From the Windchill support tab, you can navigate to the page where you can
download the Windchill Client Inspector. For example:
1. Click Download Center and then click the Order or Download
Software Updates link.
2. Enter your customer number and click Next.
3. Navigate to the Windchill Client Inspector media downloads site as
follows:
a. Select the WINDCHILL PDMLINK product family.
b. Click the plus symbol (+) to expand the appropriate release
(Release 9.0, 9.1, 10.0, 10.1, or 10.2). The Windchill Client
Inspector is in the software listed.
c. Click + to expand Windchill Client Inspector for 10.x & 9.x and
click + to expand Most Recent Datecode.
d. Then click either HTTPS or Download Manager to download the
ZIP file. For example, selecting Download Manager opens the
File Download window from which you can either open or save
the ZIP file.
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PTC Windchill 10.x Client Requirements

Additional Information
PTC Windchill Future Platform Support Summary:
http://www.ptc.com/view?im_dbkey=69784
PTC Windchill 10.2 Software Matrices (refer to Client Platform Support)
https://www.ptc.com/view?im_dbkey=156056
Windchill 10.1 Software Matrices (refer to Client Platform Support)
http://www.ptc.com/view?im_dbkey=137733
Windchill 10.0 Software Matrices (refer to Client Platform Support)
http://www.ptc.com/view?im_dbkey=124477
Hardware Notes - Creo 2.0
http://www.ptc.com/WCMS/files/135225/en/creo2_hw_notes.pdf
Hardware Notes - Creo 1.0 Parametric, Direct and Simulate
http://www.ptc.com/WCMS/files/127428/en/creo1_hw_notes.pdf
Hardware Notes - Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0 and Creo Elements/Pro 5.0
http://www.ptc.com/view?im_dbkey=77552
Hardware Notes - Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0
http://www.ptc.com/view?im_dbkey=52592
Windchill Client Inspector Deployment and Administration Guide
https://www.ptc.com/view?im_dbkey=119034
PTC Windchill Web Browser Comparison Technical Brief
http://www.ptc.com/view?im_dbkey=125513
Windchill Installation and Configuration Resource Page
http://www.ptc.com/appserver/wcms/standards/support_resource_page.jsp?&im_
dbkey=90970&icg_dbkey=917
Windchill CAD Workgroup Manager Resource Page
http://www.ptc.com/appserver/wcms/standards/textmultiimgfilelinkfull.jsp?im_dbk
ey=95496&icg_dbkey=867

2013 PTC Inc. (PTC). The information contained herein is provided for informational use
and is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for PTC products and
services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products
and services and nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional
warranty. PTC shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained
herein. For important Copyright, Trademark, Patent, Licensing and Data Collection
Information see the About Box, or Copyright Notice, of your PTC software.

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