Installing PDM works

[wingman70]

I see alot of knowledge on this site, and thought that I might get some insight on PDM.

Solidworks was installed by a colleague at my current job about 6 months before I started. PDM was not used (and still is not in use), so basically everything is on C drives and backed up on to the network when people remember. We are not a huge design company (Me and my colleague are the 2 engineers).
I was just at a training class recently where the instructor talked about the advantages of PDM, and it sounded pretty good to me. I asked him what it would take to get this implenented at our facility, and he stated 5 - half days of on site training. The cost dosent bother me as much as the time.
I am looking for pros and cons to this system, and is the implementation/installation of this that bad?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Paul

 

[Badwolf]

Hi, We have been using PDMWorks for a few years now. It is quite an easy system to maintain and is very robust. It manages to be at the same time, too open and too restrictive. Overall, it's not a bad piece of kit. The five and half days sounds a bit excessive, unless that includes evaluation, installation and training time.
Time spent working out what is required and sorting out the revision schemes and lifecycles beforehand is time very very well spent as they are difficult to change later. When you have the system in place I would advise using it for a couple of weeks on test before letting in loose on production drawings etc.

The downsides for me are that some options (eg deleting documents) are only able to be given to Admin/all users/nobody.

My other concern is that maybe it will become very much the second system now that workgroup.

Unless you can afford to go with Enterprise or some similar system, I would recommend it.

 

[Badwolf]

oops to correct my 2nd to last sentence...

Im concerned that PDMWorks workgroup will suffer from a lack of development in favour of Enterprise.

 

[Finethread]

Regarding PDMWorks..
I have sent a number of users to the PDMWorks training and found it to be less than stellar for a number of reasons.

One of you is going to have to act as the PDMWorks admin. I would suggest that whoever this is, contact your SW VAR and find out if there are any other local customers you might visit to gain insight into setting up the vault and making decisions regarding the use of Lifecycle etc. My experience is that although VARs can answer questions about specific PDMWorks functions, they're somewhat cavalier about setting up the vault, revision schemes and the use of lifecycle.

For user training, I highly recommend Solid Professor. It's less than a couple of hundred, users can go through it at their own pace and the content is well designed and organized.

Good luck.

 

[Cheeseburger]

You were told 5-1/2 days of on-site training ??? That sounds like a bit much. Maybe you're being quoted for installation, training, and file transfer. But unless you've got several thousands of drawings and files you're going to put in your vault that still sounds excessive.

I learned how to use the software in 30 minutes. Then I sat in on a "formal" class to learn a lot more and also to become the Vault Admin for half-a-day.

To set it up you should map it out first. Get it down on paper such as Revision Scheme, Life-Cycle, Do you want to allow users to be able to overwrite existing revision, etc. Basically what I am saying is plan out the implementation of PDMWorks Workgroup.

It sounds like you work for a small company ... (In my opinion) Workgroup sounds like it would be a perfect fit. Enterprise (while it may be more powerful) would actually hinder your company as it would be too restrictive.

Brian Mazejka, CSWP
Documentation Control Manager
Microline Pentax, Inc.

 

[Standing]

Paul,
Check out the FAQ at faq559-1227

Bradley
SolidWorks Pro 2008 x64 SP3.0
PDMWorks Workgroup, Dell XPS Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 5 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB, nVidia 3400
e-mail is Lotus Notes