Experts ideas on Filenaming Conventions with Native 1

[BOPdesigner]

Going through a lengthy discussion right now regarding file naming conventions in NX to come up with a standard. Don't have CAD management or vaulting yet (about 1 year away). The options being debated are:
1) <unique nonsignificant number>.prt
or
2) <unique nonsignificant number-Part Description>.prt

If you have gone through this pain. Please share you thoughts on the pros and cons of each approach as you have experienced this in your organizations.

 

[ewh]

Thanks for sharing that, Hudson. I wish I had a better grasp on how to implement file naming sans any revision indicator, model or dwg file, as has been the practice at a couple of large companies that I have worked for. I think that even bring the subject up here would cause a couple of coronaries.

"Good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor." - [small]Robert Hunter[/small]

 

[hudson888]

There are two things that I always tell people, and by tell I mean I occasionally mean hammer home.

The first is that if you're buying and using a sophisticated CAD system then sooner or later the design content is contained within the 3D math data. Failing to understand that the model IS the master probably means that somebody is wasting time officiously dimensioning and maintaining drawings when it is somewhere between simply more productive and absolutely necessary to hand over the data the manufacturing people.

The second thing is what I described above about the practical advantage of being able better manage drawing updates when necessary, especially in the case of assemblies. But the real kicker is that you may well update the model more frequently than the drawing. You do this on new projects before you create drawings. You may do it during the process of deciding between two change options. Most of all you do it because more than one person can work with the data in a common directory where the file permissions don't allow you to overwrite each other. So if they need to change another's work they simply increment the point version and work on a separate copy. The common directory allows you to shorten your search paths and to ensure that load latest works properly. There are limitations in native that simply don't do well to find the latest across multiple user directories.

In combination being able to iterate the model release between drawing releases emphasises what I regard to be the unavoidable fact that the model is what you're working on, and saves you a good deal of time and money in unnecessarily maintaining drawings. Once you understand it and can slate that improvement home to greater efficiency and cost savings then it is actually pretty hard for any boss to resist.

Best Regards

Hudson

www.jamb.com.au

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