Loosing info on drawings

[swale74]

Hello, We're currently using NX 6.0.5.3 on windows xp and randomly we seem to loose weld symbols and dimension lines loose their associativity. We moved from I-deas to NX a while ago and the guys don't think the drafting package is as user friendly as I-deas was. These issues with dimensions needing updating and weld symbols completely being deleted are not helping. Also some models work on some computers but if another user (different pc) opens the same file there are issues. Sometime you get errors or parts are missing or do not load properly. All our load options are set to as saved.

Does anyone see these issues and is there an suggestions as to where to start to fix? We're preparing to move up to NX 8.0, Windows 7, 64 bit and Teamcenter. Hoping that the Teamcenter TDM helps out on data management. The change in software is driven from our head office and installation and setup is being handed down from another site which is on the outside of the pond.

 

[cowski]

Since you are "preparing to move to Teamcenter", I assume you are currently not using any sort of PDM? If so, this is known as 'native' NX, or some would say 'naive' NX. This type of setup allows users to save files anywhere they have write permissions to (and believe me they will). You will probably find important files in locations not everyone else has access to (eg a user's local drive or a network 'home' drive). Worse, it allows different files to have the same name saved to different locations. The 'as-saved' load option is convenient but is not meant as any sort of version control and can mask underlying problems.

I'd start by getting everyone to move their files to a common network drive and get a duplicate file finder tool (use your favorite search engine there are some good ones that are free/low cost or have a free trial period) and run it, you may be surprised at the results.

 

[swale74]

I'll search out the duplicate file finder.

Currently we do all save in a network U:\Library drive. Yes the lack of data management is an issue. Sometimes the same user opens the drawing a few days later and dimensions/symbols are missing. Could this all be just from the lack of PDM?

 

[looslib]

It could be from a missing component becaue all users don't have the same load options.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[cowski]

I have seen dimension associativity lost but there has always been a reason, I've not seen dimensions go 'stale' simply because they have not been used for a few days. When that happens you should check the part history (Information -> Part... -> Part history) this will show you who saved the file last and when, this will provide some insight into what is really happening. It may be that 2 people have the file open and edits by one person are overwriting the other. An all too common occurrence in native NX, and a major reason to use teamcenter.

A side note on saving assemblies:
When working on an assembly, the 'save' function will try to save every component of the assembly that you have write access to (which in native, may well be every component). This can lead to some undesirable consequences. It is safer to use 'save work part only' and save only the files that you intend to.