help? first time working with two other designers with PDM 4

[tmalinski]

Recently I have added two other users to our PDM vault. How do I set up PDM to work within a team of designers so we can share files and alternate with read write access. I am working on a large project where I am creating the parts and assemblies and they are creating detailed drawings. We are also working concurrently to expedite the project

thanks
Tom

Tom Malinski

http://www.okayind.com/

Dell Prec T5400, dual Xeon 3.16,
4GB Ram, Nvidia Quadra FX 5600
SWorks Premium 2009 SP 1 PDMWorks

 

[Finethread]

Tom,
What are you trying to accomplish? What do you mean by "alternate with read write access"?

Without knowing more, you can control file access and permissions within PDMWorks using folder permissions and lifecycle mgt. Take a look at the PDMWorks Help.

 

[tmalinski]

For example,
I have the main assembly checked out with all of the part models too because I am still working on the overall design and I need the assembly to show all components.
But we need to do concurrent design and drawing detailing, so if a team member needs to start a drawing from a part I have checked out can he check it out also as read only? and what if he needs to update the properties of the part model so they will populate custom notes and things in his drawing but he doesn't have write permission. Is there a way to simply swap read write permissions on any component without rechecking it in and back out of PDMW?

I guess I'm confused as to how PDMW can help us rather than hinder us when I have three team members detailing and designing at the same time same job. Is there a best practices document on this? and what about options in the PDMW admin tool to enable or dissable the proper switches to help me with this

thanks,
Tom

Tom Malinski

http://www.okayind.com/

Dell Prec T5400, dual Xeon 3.16,
4GB Ram, Nvidia Quadra FX 5600
SWorks Premium 2009 SP 1 PDMWorks

 

[JMirisola]

The answer can get kind of complicated but, in a nutshell:

You can check out an assembly without taking ownership of its parts. This will allow you to modify the assembly while others modify the parts.
If/when you have the assembly checked out, and ownership, others can still check it out with read-only access allowing them to create drawings.
If someone needs ownership of something you have ownership on, you can right click on it in the vault and select release ownership.
Under Tools->Options->Collaboration, make sure it's turned on. When you're working on the assembly, you'll be notified when someone checks in a newer version of a component in the assembly.
While you can modify parts/assemblies/drawings (including properties) without ownership, you won't be able to check it back into the vault.
Number one recommendation: only take ownership of that which you'll be changing.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP, Certified DriveWorks AE

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

 

[EEnd]

PDMWorks does two things for you. It stores previous versions and it enforces exclusive write access. If only one person has write access to the file at a time, and if everyone else checks out the current version of the file before making changes, then no changes should be lost. It works in theory, but is not fool proof.

As JMirisola pointed out, to allow your detailers the ability to gain write access to the models that they are creating drawings for, you should restrict yourself to taking ownership of the minimal set of files that you need to accomplish your current task.

You may also want to check out: faq559-1227.

Eric

 

[Standing]

Jeff,
Well written, a star for you.
Eric,
Thanks for reading PDM Rules to Live by: A star for you.


Bradley
SolidWorks Pro 2009 x64, SP2.0
PDMWorks Workgroup, SolidWorks BOM,
HP xw8600,
64-bit Windows Vista Business
Service Pack 1
Intel Xeon CPU, 3.00 GHz, 16 GB RAM, Virtual memory 166682 MB,
nVidia Quadro FX 4600 Driver 7.15.11.6956

 

[tmalinski]

Thanks for all of your help.
I think we are good to go
Tom

Tom Malinski

http://www.okayind.com/

Dell Prec T5400, dual Xeon 3.16,
4GB Ram, Nvidia Quadra FX 5600
SWorks Premium 2009 SP 1 PDMWorks

 

[tmalinski]

Oh, a star for you both, thanks
Tom

Tom Malinski

http://www.okayind.com/

Dell Prec T5400, dual Xeon 3.16,
4GB Ram, Nvidia Quadra FX 5600
SWorks Premium 2009 SP 1 PDMWorks

 

[tmalinski]

One more thing,
In the vault admin should either of these be checked or un checked to go along with JMirisola's post above?
1) Set file System read only attribute if not owner
2) Bind ownership to Solidworks read-write / read-only access

Thanks,
Tom

Tom Malinski

http://www.okayind.com/

Dell Prec T5400, dual Xeon 3.16,
4GB Ram, Nvidia Quadra FX 5600
SWorks Premium 2009 SP 1 PDMWorks

 

[tmalinski]

OK, I just read the PDM rules to live by, and it answered my questions. Thanks everybody

Tom Malinski

http://www.okayind.com/

Dell Prec T5400, dual Xeon 3.16,
4GB Ram, Nvidia Quadra FX 5600
SWorks Premium 2009 SP 1 PDMWorks