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Best Practice Drawing Date

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Twullf

Mechanical
Jan 24, 2012
196
I have worked at locations that have done this both ways and I was wondering what was considered the best practice.

For a drawing, the date drawn:

Should this date be the last data modified, so if you run through tree Work In Progress revisions, should the date be representative of the last time it was modified? In this Case WIP 1.

Or

Should the date show the first date that the revision process was begun for that rev of the drawing? In this case the date should show the date WIP 1 was begun.

Also are there ISO or other internationally accepted standards for this or similar subjects?

Thanks for your input.
 
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A drawing is a contract, and as such I fell that the original title block information should be maintained.
Revision dates are recorded on the change documentation and often in the revision block. I have usually seen it recorded as the date the revision was approved, not started.

“Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.”
-Dalai Lama XIV
 
I guess I've seen that both ways too, where the original date the drawing was created was maintained in the revision block (which can be bumped off if there are enough revisions) and the drawn date in the title block is the date that rev was done.

Then the other version was where the drawing creator and date was maintained in the title black with the current author and date in the rev block.

I'm maintaining standards at my company and we currently use the first option, but I'd like feedback oh what seems to work best.
 
Title block, original drawn date...does not change.
Revision block, new date for each revision.
If the drawing is redrawn or replaced, the original names and dates are retyped.
This is an older document that specifies it.Link

Chris, CSWA
SolidWorks 13
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion
 
Date drawn - The date of the first release

Any other date before this is an arbitrary point in time as far as the person using the drawing is concerned.

If you date something when you start it, then a revision of a drafting standard is released, then you release your drawing, you are declaring it to be in conformance with the old revision of the drafting standard. If you date it when released, you are declaring confromance with the new revision of the standard unless you state otherwise.

I dont know if its referenced in ISO standards anywhere but ISO 8601 tells you the format to write your date in, which everyone calls me pedantic for trying to enforce.

Designer of machine tools - user of modified screws
 
When using CAD connected to a PLM system, the drawn date is usually pulled from the PLM system and is the date the file is first checked in. This may not be the date the drawing is finally released. We have had drawings started and not finished for 2 years before released. Usually the engineering manager signs the drawings when it is complete and ready for release and that date is also captured in the titleblock.

Titleblock data is always the signatures and dates of the original document release for that document type. In our case, we use alpha revisions for pre-production releases and nukmeric for production releases. Revs A and 0 both have clean titleblock and no revision data. Some parts may have 3-5 pre-production revisions before the part is converted to rev 0 and released for production.


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

Ben Loosli
 
Back in the good old days on the drawing board, when working on military contracts we were directed to fill in the date we first commenced work on a drawing. The release date was usually the same as the approval date. I can't quote which military standard this came from, but it was practiced at this company.

“Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.”
-Dalai Lama XIV
 
So to summarize the discussion so far:

Original date of the drawing should be maintained through out the revisions.

For each revision the date maintained varies with the system, with some doing the date the revision was begun and others doing the date it was first checked, but so far none that have the drawn date and the release date for that revision as the same.

There does not appear to be a standard ISO or otherwise maintained as an over arching standard of practice, however there are standards in place that are used by NASA or other government agencies which have been adopted by multiple companies.

Is that about right?
 
Just scanned through BS8888:2011, that has "Date of issue" as a mandatory requirement for the title block and is defined as 'point in time at which all interested parties agree that the technical product specification can be considered finalized to the extend that manufacturing can commence'

This is referencing 'ISO 7200:2004 - Technical product documentation – Data fields in title blocks and document headers', of which I don't have a copy to hand.

Designer of machine tools - user of modified screws
 
We have 4 dates on ours. The drawn, checked & approved dates go along with signatures and never get changed. The issue (rev) date gets changed every time the drawing gets revised.

I think the most important thing is that you have a documented standard way to deal with it and you stick to your procedure.

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The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.
 
you don't document the date that each rev was approved?
 
Only the current rev. We don't put the change record on the drawing, that is a separate document. Keeps the drawings cleaner and allows a much more detailed alteration record. I can't stand having the change record on the drawing, either it is so brief as to be useless (changed dims) or takes up way too much of the drawing. We tend to have production drawings that last decades and have lots of revisions. I just looked at one that was drawn in 1988 and is at issue 102. The alteration record is 12 pages long but I can tell you every change made over those 26 years. This is a tabulated drawing with 55 part instances that go into ~170 different finished products.

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The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.
 
You just put drawing changes in the alteration record instead of the drawing, no more work, it's actually easier. Any clerk can do it, don't need CAD software & training.

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The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.
 
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