Butchered Databases 2

[tz101]

Just me, or does anyone else go to work for companies where the previous engineers and/or CAD jockeys were either total novices with SolidWorks or just careless with their modeling/drawing/file saving conventions? Seems like everywhere I go, I spend a good amount of time repairing model files that were not created with sound methodology, detail drawings that are an embarrassment to send out to vendors, and models/drawings saved in multiple locations on the file server due to "AutoCAD mentality" of no parametric relationships between files.

 

[3DDave]

Not just you. I worked one place where individual assemblies were saved in separate folders; that meant that subassemblies were also in separate folders. So updating a sub assembly meant also opening and separately changing each higher assembly.

One guess as to the results.

Also typical was "I can't figure out how this feature works, so I'll delete it and create a new one." So all the higher level assembly connections now fail. Nice.

Mostly it's about being rewarded for quick work. It let's the drawings/models get put out quickly and it burdens co-workers to slow them by comparison.

 

[ctopher]

This is very common. I run into at every company. The problem I see is managers don't want to pay for training, they assume all CAD is easy to learn. They say just learn on YouTube or have a coworker show you. Then they share/learn bad habits, and become frustrated/bored because they are pushed to their limits based on dates they miss because of poor CAD management skills.

ctopher, CSWP
SolidWorks '17
ctophers home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[Jboggs]

Or just plain laziness. The excuse I heard here for years was that the guiding principle was "minimum essential design". I eventually learned that was just an excuse for "minimum essential effort". Seems like some folks never learn. They won't take a minute to look at a drawing they made and ask themselves "Could I make this clearer?" or "Will this confuse the shop?". But they will spend hours on the phone trying to "clarify" what they really meant. Ugh!

And when they run into something they don't understand or are unable to get the software to automatically do what they need, they don't take a minute to learn the right way to do it. They just force it and move on. Only to commit the very same mistake over and over and over and over...

 

[tz101]

The problem I see is managers don't want to pay for training, they assume all CAD is easy to learn.

A couple places I worked bought into the CAD is easy to learn philosophy and brought shop floor production workers into engineering to learn the ropes. I am highly suspicious of plans like that because I am well aware those production guys are not getting paid anything near my salary, so I don't offer many tips for my possible replacements. The results of those "cost saving" schemes usually end up creating more work down the road, but squeaky cheap companies often cannot see the forest for the trees.

 

[Jboggs]

Some companies hire engineers and designers. Some companies hire "rent-a-pencils". They are not the same.

 

[drawoh]

tz101,

Been there done that. I have worked for a company that had strict CAD standards, and design checking by the mechanical department. It really was a pleasure.

It is amazing what CAD monkeys will do a SolidWorks model.

--
JHG

 

[tz101]

I have worked for a company that had strict CAD standards, and design checking by the mechanical department.

Only one place in all my years had a formal checking department. I was a drawing/design checker there for a while. That is a major part of why it drives me nuts these days the laziness/sloppiness I witness everywhere.

 

[tz101]

I worked one place where individual assemblies were saved in separate folders; that meant that subassemblies were also in separate folders.

I don't necessarily see the problem with the practice of saving subassemblies in separate file folders on the network drive from the detail components and/or top level assembly files. SolidWorks is intelligent enough to know where to look to update the necessary files. Pack n Go function grabs everything quite nicely if/when you would need to send all files within or outside the organization.

 

[MikeHalloran]

SW is not intelligent enough to find its files after the IT monkeys have moved project and library directories from one server to another, without using SW to do the moving.



Mike Halloran
Corinth, NY, USA

 

[3DDave]

tz101 - You missed it - they duplicated all the part files in each of the subassembly folders and then would update each set of folder part files independently. That way the changes were intentionally forced to not climb up the assembly chain meaning the same work had to be done over and over and over for a single part change.

 

[Sparweb]

TZ101
You are in the 1% who cares.
Nobody else does.
They aren't paid to care - they're just paid to make pretty pictures.

Unfortunately, I come in and make CAD seem "easy" to my managers and supervisors, so they think what I did can be replicated (or revised) by somebody else like the flip of a coin.

No.

No they can't.

Yes, the managers still think it's nice to spend ###,000$ on complex CAD and PDM software packages that promise all these features... We must be getting value because it automatically does all this neat stuff...

The connection between software function and user skill. Not important I guess. It must be me who is wrong. It's my fault, for using all these features that confuse the other CAD jockeys. I really should stop.

TZ101, and everyone else, stop trying to convince me it matters.

Pass me the Crayolas.

http://www.sparweb.ca

 

[SBaugh]

Do you know what the solution is?

You are the CAD admin for PDM and the Designer\Engineer and you are it no one else. I am thankful that it is just me having to manage myself and all CAD and Vault files. It is a blessing. I have previous designer files, but they are out of the vault until something from the past comes up.



Scott Baugh, CSWP
CAD Systems Manager
Evapar

http://www.evapar.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

faq731-376

 

[drawoh]

SW is not intelligent enough to find its files after the IT monkeys have moved project and library directories from one server to another, without using SW to do the moving.

That happened to me with AutoDesk Mechanical Desktop. If you are running any application that hyperlinks files, you must control the file server, or you need PDM. Perhaps you need be in control of the PDM!

--
JHG

 

[drawoh]

TZ101
You are in the 1% who cares.
Nobody else does.
They aren't paid to care - they're just paid to make pretty pictures.

Unfortunately, I come in and make CAD seem "easy" to my managers and supervisors, so they think what I did can be replicated (or revised) by somebody else like the flip of a coin.

...

Pass me the Crayolas.

The down-side of SolidWorks, and I am sure, other 3D[ ]CAD packages, is that it is not the least bit idiot resistant. The good things happen only when you use the tool properly. SolidWorks does an excellent job of modelling confusion and incompetence.

--
JHG

 

[MikeHalloran]

you must control the file server

Yeah. One place, I was assigned to use the fastest computer.
... which happened also to be _the_ file server.
The owner had a bazillion standard details filed as blocks (AutoCAD house),
all stored in a shared directory on the file server.

When _I_ edited a file with a standard block, the vector to the block became C:...
instead of R:..., as everyone else saw it. I never figured out if it was Windows or AutoCAD doing
the screwing up, but I could not stop the system from outsmarting itself like that.

Could not get The Boss to lock the fileserver in a closet, either.





Mike Halloran
Corinth, NY, USA

 

[3DDave]

Oh, yeah. In the old days, had one of the fast machines. Also used as a file server. Others would fill it up until the disk thrashing eliminated the entire benefit of having a fast machine.

 

[tz101]

You are the CAD admin for PDM and the Designer\Engineer and you are it no one else.

That is me at my present place. I am it, so I make the rules, which were basically nonexistent before I got here two years ago. Trouble is the legacy data is atrocious, even drawings and models we are currently producing parts and assemblies to. I find myself in constant cleanup mode. We have no PDM, and are too cheap to get it, so I have to police the file server and make certain folders do not inadvertently get moved around.