Using the PPD Tools Collection (abbreviated as ppdtc in the following) can simplify technical support and speed up troubleshooting and job evaluation. Furthermore, the entire configuration of the Workflow can be read and, if necessary, changed. In addition, several small tools have been integrated to make life easier for technical support.

The PPD Tools are used to faster identify problems in the system. The Tools Collection contains only a few exceptions that can be used to automatically find errors in the system. It is therefore essential to know the search requirements and to understand the basic connections in the Workflow.

The PPD Tools Collection can executed as follows:

1. Press the key combination Windows + R or enter ppdtc in the command line.
2. The program is located at C:\Program Files\PPD\Install [1].
3. Click on the application [2] to open the corresponding PPD Tools Collection dialog [3].

Figure 1: The open PPD Tools Collection dialog

After you have installed the PPD Tools Collection, the following buttons are available in the main menu, which are described below or via more detailed and linked articles:

• File – Here the PPD Tools Collection can be restarted and reset by the administrator.
• Applications – here various PPD Tools Collection applications can be run – such as the Production Job Export Analyzer – and access via https can be set up.
• Help – here you will find information and help on Workflow, as well as the option to update to the latest version of the PPD Tools Collection.
• File Analyzer – open log files and other text files and filter the content according to certain criteria. Filtering only displays the relevant information from a file. This makes files easier to read and understand overall.
• DW Services – All workflow services can be started and stopped here. Furthermore, the various frontends of the services can be opened. For debugging purposes, it is possible to start a service in the console.
• Status, Cleanup and Integrity Check – in case that fundamental problems occur in a Workflow, this feature should be started first. This provides an overview of the status of the DW services, hard disk utilization, and RAM and CPU utilization. Furthermore, the system can be cleaned up and unnecessary files and folders deleted. The Integrity Check checks the most important files and folders of a DW installation for their existence and checks whether the services are set up and started correctly. If the button is green, the system is running correctly. If the button is orange, an error has occurred in the integrity test. If the button is red, a serious error has been detected.

Figure 3: The main menu of the PPDTC

To update the latest version of the PPD Tools Collection tools, click Help > Update to latest version.

Figure 2: The Help tab with the Update to latest version function

Artikel update: 12/2024