Assistance Using Arbortext Products

Technical Support for Arbortext products includes the following types of assistance:

• Product updates
• Help with installation
• How to use a product feature
• Analysis of error messages
• Identification and isolation of the source of a product problem
• Technical information, workarounds, and patches
• Submission of product problems

Exceptions and Limitations

Technical Support is only for PTC Arbortext products unless specified otherwise in your license agreement. An overview of exceptions and limitations follows:

• Support for your operating system or third-party software - Only Arbortext products are supported, unless the product is specifically included in your license agreement.
• Unsupported platforms - Subject to the terms of your license agreement, you may use Arbortext products on undocumented platforms and versions. However, PTC does not provide support under those circumstances.
• Citrix (EXTEND) - PTC does not explicitly test or certify the use of Arbortext products in the Citrix environment. Customers may use these environments for their Arbortext deployments. In these cases, PTC will provide technical support for Arbortext products in that environment but cannot provide support or consultation on the configuration of that environment or on issues that are believed to be caused by the Citrix environment. PTC uses the following guidelines to determine whether an issue involving a Citrix environment is supported:
  • For issues directly related to Arbortext products, PTC Technical Support will provide support. If PTC suspects that the Citrix environment is the likely reason for the issue, you will be asked to contact your Citrix support representative for assistance.
  • For issues directly related to Citrix such as configuration and setup of the Citrix environment, PTC cannot provide technical support. You will be asked to contact your Citrix support representative for assistance.
• Virtual environments - PTC does not explicitly test or certify the use of Arbortext inside virtual environments such as VMWare, Xen, Microsoft Virtual PC, or any of the embedded UNIX virtualization technologies. Customers may use such environments for their Arbortext deployments, but the guest operating system must be supported by Arbortext and the Arbortext software must be correctly licensed. In these cases, PTC will provide technical support for Arbortext in a virtualized environment but cannot provide support or consultation on the configuration of the virtual environment or on issues that are believed to be caused by the virtual environment. PTC uses the following guidelines to determine whether an issue involving a virtual environment is supported:
  • For issues directly related to Arbortext products, PTC Technical Support will provide support. If PTC suspects that the virtualization environment is the likely reason for the issue, you will be asked to contact the vendor of your virtualization product for assistance. 
  • For issues directly related to the virtual machine such as configuration and set up of the virtual environment, image size, performance, device emulation, or network emulation, PTC cannot provide technical support. Contact the vendor of your virtualization product for assistance.
• Customized applications - Technical Support answers simple questions and provides limited assistance. They cannot answer questions such as “What’s the best way to design my application?” or “My custom application doesn’t work. Can you help me locate the source of the problem?” For help in these areas, contact your PTC Sales Representative to get assistance from our consulting group.
• Training - Technical Support answers how-to questions. However, PTC recommends product training from Training Services or Consulting Service for in-depth instruction.
• Techniques and workarounds - Solutions created by Technical Support are supported unless you are told explicitly to the contrary. PTC cannot guarantee that a workaround will not cause or solve other problems. A workaround that resolves a problem other than the one for which it was specifically developed is not supported.

Guidelines and Limitations for Support for Arbortext Advanced Print Publisher

Arbortext Advanced Print Publisher (AAPP and formerly known as 3B2) offers a wide set of tools, features, and a proprietary template language. With these methods to enhance functionality, you can create a highly adapted environment for specific needs. The guidelines and limitation for support follow.

Guidelines for AAPP Support

To provide for efficient processing of your AAPP support question, follow these guidelines:

• Isolate the issue you have in a simple document - Use the sample demo.3d file as a guide to provide a file with only the designated problem. Provide a detailed description of what you expect to happen and of the actual results. Including a PDF file will help isolate the problem.
  • Your sample file must be reproducible in the out-of-the-box version of Arbortext Advanced Print Publisher. Technical Support cannot replicate customized environments.
• Minimize customizations - If you cannot reproduce the problem in the sample demo.3d file, strip as much customization out of your template as possible.
• Strip down the sample document - Eliminate as much as possible from the sample demo.3d file. For example, remove unnecessary styles, pages, and content. Provide the sample files as a single AAPP document file where possible. Save the linked libraries or other linked objects within your file to avoid any problems with location path resolution.

Limitations for AAPP Support

Limitations for Arbortext Advanced Print Publisher support are described below. For technical assistance with customized environments, templates, programming code, OCX/ActiveX applications, and AAPP Enterprise applications, please contact PTC Global Services.

• Customized environments and templates - Customization of the AAPP environment and your templates is not directly supported. However, PTC can help with the usage of specific functions and features within AAPP that contribute to the creation of your customization or template.
• Programming languages - Support for Perl and XSLT/XPath coding is limited to advice. For example, code development or assistance in debugging or troubleshooting such code is not provided.
  • If you suspect an issue with the AAPP integration with these languages, file a Technical Support case. Provide a clear and concise description of the expected behavior and the actual behavior.
• OCX/ActiveX applications - AAPP is provided with an OCX/ActiveX build that can be integrated into other applications. The API for this application is described in the api.txt file in the install folder. Technical Support will answer questions related to the API but does not support custom applications written around it.
• AAPP Enterprise - AAPP Enterprise is a scalable resource management application that is used to manage the production of composition job queues. Technical support covers the Scheduler and Monitor applications and the Agents (AAPP composition resources). Also covered is the setup and configuration of this application. However, the use of custom socket listeners is not supported. As with the Desktop and Server applications, templates are supported as described in the first paragraph.

Data Needed to Reproduce the Issue

Before logging a case, gather the data to reproduce the issue. Specific suggestion for information to include follows. See Chapter 1, Sending Additional Data to Technical Support, for information on sending files.

• The module, or area, of your issue, such as Fonts.
• Exact text of any error message and the error number.
• Simple example of the conditions for triggering the error message. For large sample documents and complex applications, try to duplicate the problem with a smaller document, a distributed document type, or without your application files.
• The exact steps required to reproduce the problem. After documenting the steps, try them again. Make sure the steps are reproducible before sending them to Technical Support.
• Explanatory notes regarding the problem. For example, can you reproduce the problem or does it happen intermittently? Does the problem happen to all users or a select few? Does it happen on all workstations or only selected workstations? Does it happen with only one document or many?