Drawing: is month/year enough or is the day really necessary ? 1

[Kall545]

Hi
In drawing's date: Is month/year enough or is the day really necessary ?

Why people just say "write all day/month/year" ?
I don't see why anybody would want the day in it ?
I'm confused I have always used month/year only in my drawings and since
revisions are done so rarely it is not right to me to write the date so precisely...

 

[tbuelna]

Do you really consider typing two extra numbers in the release/revision date of record entry an unacceptable amount of effort? Very strange question.

 

[Kall545]

I have an NX automatic template that I set every month 1.2017, 2.2017...
Now I have to manually enter like 1.1.2017, 2.1.2017, 3.1.2017 and such everyday. So it is a big deal because I draw everyday.
Is there autodate code function in NX 9.0 to get day ?

 

[IRstuff]

Wouldn't this be more relevant in the NX forum?

The fact that you are creating new versions of drawings every day would suggest that a day indicator is indicated. Otherwise, how are you tell apart the daily versions of the drawings?

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[Kall545]

This is just a question if anybody else uses month/year ?
I only ask the other NX-code question in "Siemens official forum".

Why big companies demand days ?
When project is created:
It is done in like 1/2year:
- Part 1: 1.2017 month
- Part 2: 2.2017 month
and such. No need for high accuracy like:
- Part 1: 15.1.2017 day/month
- Part 2: 5.2.2017 day/month

Why the demand and who needs the day information ?

 

[Artisi]

Guess as you are in charge you can do what even you want, why even bother with the date - just label them 1 2 3 5 .

It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. (Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.)

 

[Metalfixer]

Where I work drawings are a legal document, and require Month/Day/Year.
Quotes are usually good for 30 or 60 days, not 30 or 60 months.

 

[ctopher]

Legal docs do include the day, drawings can be legal docs.

Chris, CSWP
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[dgallup]

My CAD tool (not NX) automatically fills in dates with day/month/year, the format can be customized but I don't think the day can be eliminated. I have changed many a drawing in less than 30 days. Changing templates every month is a waste of time (and potential error). Surely NX has a function to generate the current date, every CAD tool I've ever used can do it automatically.

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[mcgyvr]

Yes..
I add the day to any drawing and every drawing I've ever seen has had the day in the date..
That way I know what day the change went into effect.. Without the day I can only react month by month and that seems silly..
If things can change from day to day then OBVIOUSLY the day would need to be specified.

I don't use NX and have no idea what your procedure or an automatic template is but I cannot believe that any CAD software does not put a day into any date field..

 

[3DDave]

The best format is year/month/day; yyyy/mm/dd where all fields are the given lengths - 2017/01/01, for example. This ensures the dates are in sortation order.

As a contrast, within PDM systems documents are identified to the hour, minute, and second in order to identify their contents with regard to the approval process.

 

[RolMec]

"Day" as in Business or Working day are THE time units on which industry / business runs, economically as well as legally.
Economically: to gauge added value or define due dates,
Legally: to follow up the cause/effect chain of events: ...that input on day X lead to this result on day Y etc.
I'd even voluntarily put in the day, as a measure of honesty and self-preservation.

On a lighter note... Siemens is basically german, so I'd strongly assume there's a put-in-the-day-icon stacked somewhere (neatly) away. Why not ask the provider of the software? ;-)



Roland Heilmann
Lpz FRG

 

[SwinnyGG]

All I will say is this: If a vendor of mine sent me drawings without month day and year, they would be returned as not acceptable.

Many a time I have detected problems with vendors sending incorrect (old) drawing revisions by checking drawing dates against each other.

 

[KENAT]

Could I just point out that 'auto date fill' doesn't necessarily give the correct date for the drawing.

What date do you put, the date you started working on the drawing, the date you finished the drawing prior to review, the day you finish incorporating feed back, the date you officially 'release' the drawing, or the date you opened the CAD file?

ASME actually gives a preferred date format as I recall, and it's not the one most US folks use.

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[dgallup]

The date by "DRAWN BY" is the date the drawing was started. The date by the REVISION LEVEL is the date the drawing was released. In our CAD system the date is automatically inserted when you run the command but it DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY UPDATE when you reopen the drawing. I know MS Word has a most horrible date code that will change every time the document is opened, completely worthless.

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[tbuelna]

KalleBoy,

I don't know what standard practices (if any) you might be working to. I work in the US aerospace industry, and the most common standard for engineering drawing practices is ASME Y14.100. ASME Y14.100 section 4.28 is pretty clear on the format to be used for dating drawings: "The method of specifying dates on drawings shall be numerical by year-month-day for entry in the “DATE” block. For example, June 10, 1989 would be indicated as 1989-06-10, 89-06-10, 19890610, 890610, 1989/06/10,or 89/06/10."

Hope that helps.
Terry

 

[SwinnyGG]

What date do you put, the date you started working on the drawing, the date you finished the drawing prior to review, the day you finish incorporating feed back, the date you officially 'release' the drawing, or the date you opened the CAD file?

You put the date of release. No one cares when you first opened the file to start working or whatever.

Then you put the date of any revisions in the revision block. That's what revision blocks are for.

 

[KENAT]

jgKRI - you are giving a different answer from dgallup which suggests it may not be so commonly accepted what the 'Drawn By' date is.

Even date of 'release' is a bit arbitrary given that release processes often take a while - is it the date it's formally submitted for ECO incorporation, or the date it's put in the 'vault' for production to use or...

On top of this, the 'MW Word' style auto date which just inserts the current date (and I've seen pulled into drawing templates) will change based on when you open the CAD file.

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[SwinnyGG]

The difference between my answer dgallup's comes down to the design of a title block and how many date entries are available and how they are labeled.

The title blocks I use (which were designed by me) contain the following:

"Drawn By" box in which the designer puts their employee number (some people us initials. I don't like that. employee numbers are unique, initials are not) which is input automatically via PDM.

Below that box is a box labeled 'Date' into which the designer or engineer puts the date the drawing is released at rev A (or rev 0 or whatever system you use). Once the drawing is released, this date does NOT change, ever.

Revisions beyond A are captured in a revision block which contains a single line per revision with revision code, employee number, short description, and date. Our PDM system automatically generates everything except the short description. The date is not editable. The system captures the date (and time, though this extra information is stored in PDM under the rev level only and does not appear on the drawing)

The way our system works (and the way it was constructed before we implemented PDM and all of this was done manually) is the same as described by dgallup- the system automatically generates a date code for each rev, but only when the rev command is run. The drawing can be opened as many times as necessary ad nauseam and until the rev command is run, no date codes are altered.

Looking at the 'date modified' value in the file system tells me nothing. If someone moves the file to a new folder, that date changes. If someone renames the file or whatever, it changes. That value is useless.

You have to look at things from the customer point of view- as a customer, I simply do not care when a drawing was 'started'. With regard to what is captured on a drawing, I do not care about how long it took the designer to develop the design. All I care about is that when I order a part, I'm ordering the correct revision and that a newer one is not available. So all I care about is the date of initial release (meaning the date the part became saleable to me) and the dates of any subsequent revisions.

Setting up the system so that the 'drawn on' date, or any other date, is altered every time the drawing is opened is a bad idea. If I opened a drawing from a customer and the 'drawn on' date is later than any of the revisions, once again I am sending that drawing back for clarification.

 

[itsmoked]

Geez. I not only put the DAY in my drawings I include the hour and minute! Every time the file is saved I update the time.

Keith Cress
kcress -

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