Cad department organization 5

[matamaticas]

Hi, all

Have you had any experience in starting a cad department
for Engineering? (mechanical,process, electrical drawings)

have you had any experiences?

To have the cad drafters after them a cad supervisor?
and then the engineers? should be a three steps process
to approve a drawing?

to draw,revise,an revise and approve?

The drafter should be a technician, the reviser a technician also or Engineer?
----------------------------------------
What about to coordinate between disciplines the engineering drawings management?

Can you lead me to get information about how the engineering process should be done?

Let´s say procedures,standards and so on to be complied by all the participants in a project.
(managers,drafters,engineers,project managers, etc.)
procedures like: document control, minutes of meetings
changes of scope, etc.


Sorry for many question, I hope you can help me

Thanks too much

 

[JsTyLz]

I agree ewh,
Though, I no longer have to model that much because designers do most of that work for me. But when I used be a design engineer it was required of me to make the models and make most if not all of my prints. Any inconsistency between the model and the print I always went back through and fixed. It always upset me when one coworker in particular would go through and just redimension things on the print using the out of scale feature of I-DEAS. Considering that only, I would always use the print as the final say, but hated that I had to double check what assembly I had made just because one of the components I checked out of the library may not be modeled exactly as printed. If there was a checker that not only checked for drawing standards, but for model consistencies and standards.... I would be in heaven. But I still think that management will always think of checking as the job of the producer. I mean in manufacturing 100% inspection is waisted cost, because if you put the processes in place to not allow an error, than you shouldn't have to double check. Not necessarily my opinion, but again managment in general.

 

[KENAT]

Well, seems management here agree with the philosophy of 'who needs checkers'. Ours just got laid off.

 

[drawoh]

fcsuper,

You asked about online checking.

Any time I am asked to check drawings, I require prints. I can work with reduced sized prints, but I prefer full size. I have a highlighter, prefereably blue, and a red pen.

I look at the assembly drawing and parts list, and I work through the fabrication drawings in sequence. Each fabricated detail is compared with its mating part. This means I have the assembly drawing and at least two fabrication drawings open at any time. When the features line up and otherwise work, I highlight all the dimensions and tolerances. If there is a problem, I mark it up with a red pen. If the problem is not simple, I will write a set of accompanying notes.

Once a drawing is covered in blue highlighter, I know it is done.

I go through the drawings in numerical sequence because I want some sort of systematic sequence. It really does not matter what order I find out dimensions are correct in.

On a complex mechanical assembly, I mark global coordinates for all the features on the assembly drawing. This saves a lot of recalculating.

I have seen procedures described more detailed and systematic than this, but this allows me to see every single dimension in the system and form a complete picture of how it operates.

Online checking software supports the red pen functionality, but it does not support the blue highlighter. Also, I have yet to see a CAD system or graphics display that allows you to manipulate three large drawings efficiently on the computer screen. Even if you did have such a thing, it would not be much use unless the drafter had one too, and you had one in the company conference room, and perhaps one on the boss' desk. Yet another one on your shop foreman's desk would enable you to discuss this stuff down in the shop.

Paper works.

Quite a long time ago, I checked a package of drawings, and I advised management that it was a pressure vessel, and that the designer was not qualified to work on it. I have not been asked to check anything since.

JHG

 

[ewh]

I agree with drawoh's drawing check methodology. Yes, I should be able to check drawings on a computer. I take the easy (and for me, most efficient) way out. I find that having the required prints in front of me to flip through and notate to be much easier than trying to do the same on a moniter. This is definitely one of the drawbacks I have with MBD.

 

[KENAT]

Info on Drawing Check

http://www.cad-portal.com/articles/art_details.php?ID=17

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...