Filenaming and Archiving

[ddeck]

Hi,

We're a new company and we are at a stage where we are about to start numbering are parts and releasing them and creating drawings.

We need to keep a copy of all are solid edge files (par, asm, dft) for every revision as we go. ie Part 123 current REV is D and we still have the part files A through C.

Are thoughts are to have a "Active" folder and an "Archive" folder. The questions we have are

-do we put the REV letter in the filename of file (PART-123-D.par) for active parts? We plan to for the archive folder so that we can have all the revs of each part in one folder (ie can't have the same filename)

-do people use the "Status" in the File Properties to lock a file by going to Released?

-if we "up" the REV of a part, we don't want to up the REV of the assemblies its in. But if the assembly is locked/Released, what happens if you need to redo some relations since you changed the part?

If you guys got anwsers to these questions or just post how you system works it would be great!
Thanks

 

[wes616]

Hi,

My general procedure for this is to have an active file for

part assembly and drawing. The drawing should always reference the same same name. Do not add rev to filename.

As you archive your files, make copies of them to a rev folder, and (using windows explorer) rename the old files (I use .old cause I only keep the last rev, but you could give them .a, .b, .c and soforth)

Hope it helps...

Also see the forum on configuration management...

Wes C.

 

[swertel]

Solid Edge actually is developed to use a revision letter in the filename. That's why in Revision Manager/Insight Connect there is a field for Revision Deliminator. When using the built-in tools for making revisions, it looks for that deliminator in the filename.

When using the status property, the way to move the status is to create a new file and changing the rev letter on the filename is an easy way to do that. Of course, the assemblies don't automatically find the latest version of a part. Then again, do you want it to without an ECO driving the process so you can capture any upline changes that may not have been found when only changing the part?

--Scott

For some pleasure reading, try FAQ731-376

 

[ddeck]

swertel,

we do want to be able to change the REV of a lower level part and not have to update the assemblies its in. So if we change a tolerance on the drawing of a lower level part, we up the REV of the part and the drawing, but by keeping the REV out of the filename we can just take the old one out to our archive (rename it to have its REV in the filename) and then put the new version in the original folder with the part number only in the filename. That way the links are all updated.

Do you guys only up the REV on the drawing and not the part? If so would the part file actually ever be REVed up?

 

[swertel]

I would prefer that we only revise the draft, and not the part file, when only the tolerance changes. But, some people can't visualize that a model file can be at a different rev (filename) than the draft file so we rev everything.

After we revise the part, we put the old revision in an archive folder and use the link management file to automatically resolve the broken link caused by moving the file. When we open the assembly, it still references the old part, but because we use status, it is flagged for us and then we can replace with the current rev. This allows us to capture that information on the assembly's ECO. Since only the tolerance changed, and revision is not used in the BOM, there is no reason to update the assembly just for a part tolerance change. Nothing in the assembly should change.

--Scott

For some pleasure reading, try FAQ731-376

 

[ddeck]

If you have the Assembly saved as "Released" by changing the "Status", how can you edit its links without uping the rev?

 

[swertel]

You can't.

The work around is to open it up, save as the same name under a different folder. Then move the copy to the original location overwriting the existing released file.

--Scott

--Scott

For some pleasure reading, try FAQ731-376