Drawing Translation = Revision?

[Jabberwocky]

Hello, I do not know if this question has been asked, but I apologize if it has and I could not find the thread.

I work for a company in the USA that has a French parent company. As such, many of our designs and drawings come from France, in French. This is not a huge issue as the math is the same (metric units) but there are always some notes that need translating on drawings.

My question is, does strict language translation require a drawing revision? So far it seems that we have not been creating a new revision of the plans for just language sake, but I am curious to see if there are any standards governing this practice.

Thank you for your input.

 

[MintJulep]

So what have you been doing?

Making a new drawing with English only?

Taking the latest rev of the French drawing and making in bi-lingual without changing the rev?

 

[Jabberwocky]

Basically a "save a copy" with English replacing the French to the best of our translation abilities. No dimensions are changing, just translation of the notes and a newly styled title block (with all the previous values retained)

 

[ctopher]

That is a good question. The only translation done her is dwgs sent to our China facility and the engineers there are translating to Chinese. I do not know what they do with the revs. But the originals are with us and the ECO does not state anything about updating China. Something I should look into. My guess is it would stay the same revision and maybe somehow reference the two to one another.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP2.0 / PDMWorks 05
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[MintJulep]

Sounds like a bad system to me.

The English drawing has the same number and rev. as the French? If a vendor calls for a new copy of drawing 123 rev. C, which one does he get?

How do you know if a French drawing has an English Equivalent?

If the French drawing changes, what do you do? Make "equivalent" changes to the already existing English drawing (if one exists and someone in France knows about it)? Take the new French revision and translate it all again?

If a US vendor points out an error or need for clarification what happens? Does only the English drawing get updated, or the French as well? Previous questions get asked again for this situation.

 

[Jabberwocky]

I agree our current system has much room for improvement. That is why I asked. If anybody has any ideas on how to streamline the process between such disparate offices I'd love to hear them.

My current idea is some sort of shared webspace that can be updated from either end (of the Atlantic.) Perhaps with an automatic update to "sync" the folder groups together.

We do have at least one copy of PDMworks around here, would that be able to cover inter-office revisions? Or is it only suited for intra-office management?

 

[MintJulep]

I most often see bi-lingual drawings.

 

[drawoh]

Jabberwocky,

I agree very strongly with MintJulep. What you are actually doing is forking your documentation. You generate 456_RevA from 123_RevC.

If you do it this way you can program your PDM system to record the fork. If someone in France wishes to revise drawing 123, he can call you and warn you.

JHG

 

[Jabberwocky]

Thank you both for the quite prompt responses. I will see what can be done in terms of sync-ing us up with France.

 

[MadMango]

I worked for a medical device company that had a partner in Israel. When we translated drawings we always assigned new document numbers and revs to control our translations, stating that the English version was for "reference only" and the other was the controling document. They did the same with our drawings, and we were both part of the others ECN/ECO work flow.

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[aamoroso]

We do the "Reference Only" thing with drawings we recieve from Norway. The major reason is nobody in the building can guarentee that we have the translations perfect. For this reason we use extensive communications in creating a "Functional Requirements" sheet on such projects to clear up any ambiguity.

Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. And scratch where it itches.

 

[RedPen]

Original source is the controlling document (either side of the Atlantic). Translated copy of original is for ref only but should be included in ECN/ECO changes.

About translations...back in 'the bad old days', our user manuals had been translated using the services of a professor at a well-known university. Our bi-lingual field staff could be heard howling with laughter in the background over the speaker phone. It seems the direct translation of a portion of the instructions was, at least risque, if not actually obscene. Once again, slang usage trumps formal definition.

RedPen

 

[DRC1]

If you are designing in the french document and building in the english drawing, it is a revision and should be marked as such. If it is not translated properly and an error results, a tracked drawing path is clear. If the drawing is being used for design or production, it is not for reference only. The note would be Rev 1: Translation of text from French to English.

 

[Hydroformer]

I've worked from Japanese OEM (automotive) drawings on several programs. They are always bi-lingual (Japanese/English. However, they always have a note reading, "In the event of a discrepancy between the English and Japanese text on this drawing, the Japanese shall take precedence."

regards,

Hydroformer

 

[drawoh]

"In the event of a discrepancy between the English and Japanese text on this drawing, the Japanese shall take precedence."

Hydroformer and MadMango,

If you are using translated drawings for fabrication, they have to be translated accurately. The concept of fabrication drawings being "for reference only" cannot work. Your options are to generate and maintain an accurate translated drawing, or do all fabrication in the country where the drawings originated.

JHG

 

[diamondjim]

We have the customer sign off on the translated
copy. It is our responsibility to see that the
translation is correct. We do reference the
other countries drawing and rev no. on our
drawing. Our revision blocks only reference
changes that we make. I have seen double borders
on a few drawings. The inside border is the country
of origin and the outside border would be ours but
in these cases we do not translate metric to inch.
We kind of imply with this method that we are simply
reselling the customer of origin's product but
ensure engineering support of that product.
I am certain that other methods work for other
companies. It just helps to be on the same page.