We have implemented a PDF conversion service in the Workflows developed for one of our customers.

The users create documents in PDMLink from Document Templates that have MS Office files as primary content. When the creator has edited his document, the Workflow process moves it through the approval process of the different reviewers. But before the reception of the document to te reviewers, the process converts the MS Office file contained as primary content to PDF. From this point, the primary content of the document is a PDF file, and the origianl MS Office file is stored as an attachment of the PDMLink document, to be restored as primary content if the creator needs to modify its document (if any of the reviewers rejects it).

The PDF conversion is performed in a different Windows server, so it converts all the details in the MS Office documents as indexes, hyperlinks… and the process does not overload the Windchill servers. This conversion service is in the production environment of one of our customers since 2004, and we have been updating and improving it continuously to have a stable system.

At the moment, most of the documents created in this customer (except CAD documents) have this PDF conversion in their Workflow processes, and one of its principal benefits is the reduction of the files size, helping the users to share information with customers and suppliers. Another advantage of the PDF format is the capability of opening the contents on platform independent web browsers.