Are there any alternatives to PDM Link? Any recomendations?

[iceoli]

Hi,

I'm currently looking to find a suitable CAD file management solution. I work in a small company with 2 designers. We are currently running on Wildfire 2 but we have purchased wildfire 5 and will be switching as soon as it is practical.

Up until now we have been designing on our local machines however we are soon getting to the point where we'll need to add database control.

Can anyone recomend or give me the names of some alternatives to PDM link. I was just talking to our local PTC reseller and he gave us a ball park figure of £20,000 and there is absolutly no way of my company spending that amount of money on CAD database software.

However I'm still at the point where I need some form of database. I have found DESIGN DATABASE MANAGER are there any other options? I'm looking for a similar level of software to Intralink 3.4. Also I need to be able to publish the drgs to some form of viewer.

Also how does DESIGN DATABASE MANAGER perform when used in anger?

Thanks,
Oli

 

[geesamand]

Just curious: with that few designers most companies can manage files very well using network drives only. What is your reason for a file management database?

Keep in mind that all file management solutions will limit your ability to work with the file-file features in the software. It will also slow your daily productivity WAY down.

 

[looslib]

Intralink 10, while still expensive-but less than PDMLink, should do the CAD vaulting that you are looking for.

With only 2 designers, network shared drives and a controlled folder structure should work.

There is overhead associated with using a PDM system in time required to accomplish tasks.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[hygear]

It's very low tech, but I have had good success using the Subversion revision control software to track CAD data. Here is the basic idea:

1. Setup a Subversion repository to store all of your CAD data.
2. Check out a model and work on it.
3. When you are ready to check the model back in, run a script that copies the highest version Pro/E models (widget.prt.199)to a temporary folder and renames the extension back to ".1" (widget.prt.1).
4. "Commit" the model back to the Subversion repository, and Subversion will keep track of your revisions.

Using this method and a simple database, I was able to track several projects while I was doing contract work from home.

 

[anyoldname]

"Keep in mind that all file management solutions will limit your ability to work with the file-file features in the software"
-I can't speak for all file management software but with Windchill, Intralink and Teamcenter this definitely is not the case.


"It will also slow your daily productivity WAY down."
-That's also up for debate, there is definitely an overhead for getting a PDM/PLM set up and to maintain it, you need someone who'd fairly IT savvy to do this but if you're working with large assemblies and/or handling a large number of design releases etc then a PDM is definitely the way forward and will make you life easier, faster and you'll be much less prone to mistakes.