Drawing File Organization

[bigbadbtr]

I have just started at a sheetmetal company that was recently bought out. All of the drawings are sorted by client, but from there they are thrown together in a huge pile and you just search for the correct file. We recieve drawings in all kinds of formats.

I have been delegated the task of sorting through this mess of files and coming up with something coherent. My initial idea of buying a nice software package like windchill (a VERY good idea) has been turned down. So, I'm stuck searching for an alternative. I'd rather not spend the next year of my life copying every file from one place to another, chasing broken links, or any of that other junk.

Any ideas???

Thanks,
BTR

 

[3dlogix]

Before you start searching for software, find out if there is any budget for this task. Usualy there is none from the sounds of it at your company.

How are files called now? Is there an order to them? Are files saved by client, filename or grouped by similarity? Give us some more details.



Steve

http://www.sprdesign.com

http://www.3dlogix.com

 

[bigbadbtr]

As you assumed, there is no budget for this task. We are a manufacturing company, and we don't have a definitive numbering method for all of our files. Ususally, the customer sends their files to us via email, and then we take all of those files and dump them directly into a folder with that customers name on it. So lets say PEM sends us drawings, we would put those drawings in Z:\PEM and call it good (at this point). This is no good because newer revisions are rewriting older revisions, etc...

Each customer has their own way of naming their files, and we don't have all of that customers files, so there are large gaps in numbering sequences.

 

[3dlogix]

BTR;

What type of files do customers send to you? Do you make ProE parts based on other CAD formats that you get in? Or is it mostly native ProE?

In my experience, renaming files as they come in to suit your needs is a good approach. If you make a folder for a customer, make a sub-folder for their newer files, and only move them when they have been validated.

Try to keep your serach path directlies limited, you dont want ProE to search all folders and potentially overwrite 2 different parts that share the same name.

Steve

http://www.sprdesign.com

http://www.3dlogix.com

 

[bigbadbtr]

We get Pro-E, Solidworks, AutoCAD, edrawings, pdfs, tiffs, parasolids, IGES, and probably a few more I have forgotten. We get pretty much the entire spectrum of drawings. The Pro-E files are usually sent to us in huge batches so that we definitely have all of the files for that certain part. We usually do not convert any drawings from one format to another (except printing to pdf). I would say approximately half of our incoming drawings are in Pro-E format, and about 30% come as solidworks. The rest are usually 2D drawings in pdf or tiff format.

 

[RGS1]

BIGBADBTR:

I work for a Sheetmetal Manufacturer (basically a job shop)also. Since CAD implementation 18 years ago, we have had the same problem, and it still persists. Being a "job shop", we have over 200 customers at any one time, sending in all kinds of files from .pdf, .cal, .pcb to .dw2 (have you heard of that one?). Pro-E, SolidWorks and AutoCAD and .pdf are the most prevalent. We found it best to file by customer name, then by date received (i.e. 05-1208a...year-month/day..."a" being first file from customer that day..."b" being second file from customer that day, and so on). Sometimes a customer will "back-up" the Pro-E assembly which makes overwriting the previous files obsolete (since the ".1" is a newer file...stupid Pro-E). Anyway try customer and date. It means your storage space requirements will be enormous and you will have duplicate files, but you will never build to and old file. We purge every year and put all purged files onto a CD, and also keep the files on local drive not backed-up (in case we need to access).

Good luck.