Engineering Documentation 1

[ellen1]

Hello,
I am in the pharmaceutical industry and we are trying to decide how to setup our engineering documentation system(drawings mainly). Currently there is a quality assurance documentation department that maintains control over all standard operating procedures and specifications. When I say control I mean they keep hard copies under lock and key and maintain revision and change control. This is fine with documents that are in Word, but what about CAD drawings? We would like to setup a separate system of revision control for all drawings and be able to specify the features of the drawing that are important to us, for example the title block, line weights, layers, etc. WOuld we need a standard operating procedure to specify how it works? What else would we need? Does anyone have any experience with this? Thanks, Ellen

 

[RDK]

I always wonder what the value is in having the only “true” copy under lock and key?

If it’s locked up how can anyone get at it to see if they have a real copy?

All this boils down to is some petty power games in the workplace. “I have this information and you cannot have it.”

Put the revision number on every page of a document and publish widely a revision list so anyone can get the true copy. The only reason to have “true” copies is so everyone is working out of the same playbook, not to enhance someone’s pitiful status by having the only copy under lock and key.

Set some standard for the drawings, in terms of line weights, title blocks etc and make the latest copy freely available to anyone who needs it.

The easiest way is to print the document to adobe PDF format and use some nomenclature that allows it to be identified and actually used for the purposes intended.




Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng

Construction Project Management
From conception to completion

http://www.kitsonengineering.com

 

[usaidit]

First set your title sheet (.dwt) file so you have your drawing requirements pre-set for all drawings, line weight, dim style, tolerancing, text font and size. Build your title block w/bill of materials, Company name logo everything you need. you can add layers for dimensioning,line types, colors, so many things, the more complete you make this the beter control you will have.
Save this to your .dwt file, this is very basic of course as you work on this you will find things you want to add.
My findings have proven for us that it is best to start a part number system befor you do anything else, form this you can creat a data base with ECO history, list the material requirements. A whole host of other information.
MOST IMPORTANT IS GET AS GOOD BACK-UP SYSTEM.

 

[chr5331]

Hello Ellen
I suggest you to take a look at this free document management system

http://www.oasys-software.com/product/dm/columbus/

We do not use it ourselves as we have already another system, but i feel every tempted to try it anyway, i have had it installed for about a year and the program records who wievs and edits each drawing.

We have a system where every time a change is made,
The revision number is increased,
A little description about the change is written in the drawing together with the revision number.
A change order is filled in describing the change and what to do with parts in stock or in production.
An official copy of the drawing is copied to the public library
At the same time a plot file is issued and can be reprented as often as required.
All previous revisions are stored in folders reflecting the revision number e.g. //drawings /1 for all revision 1 drawings //drawings /2 for all revision 2 drawings e.t.c


Everything may sound a bit complicated, but we have used the sytem through nearly 10 years now with 4500 drawing files where approximately 10000 changes has been made, and we still feel quite comfortable with the system