Need File name Organizational Help 1

[tmalinski]

I have been using solidWorks for a few years now and am pretty comfortable with it. However, I find myself struggling mostly with file name and organization at the folder level with certain types of projects. When I model a small project containing a few assemblies and parts I have no problem because its easy to name files discriptively to relate to their content. However, larger projects especially prototype projects where I have many revisions of the same part as necessary for product development the naming of the files usually boil down to a simple letter number code as a BOM would have, But I don't use BOMs. Many of my projects do not have formal assemblies, just a ton of tooling details with small assemblies as required for clarity.
I'm not sure if this makes sense to anybody, but I'm looking for an easy way to find a particular part file without an assembly file to open it from. I was thinking of maybe using the Comment field in the "file open" dialog box properties / summary tab to hold a more descriptive name or sentence and adding the Comment tab along side the Name tab in the dialog box, this way I could sort by Comment and then just click to open the file.
Does anybody have a similar issue or better suggestions?

Tom Malinski
Sr Design Engineer
OKay Industries
New Britain CT

 

[ctopher]

When opening from SW, you can select which file type to open. In IE, sort the files to list parts together, assy's together or dwgs together. OR, my suggestion is to start using PDM (PDMWorks).

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-05)

 

[tmalinski]

Chris, I just did purchase PDM works haven't installed it yet. Training and setup is scheduled for mid June. Will PDM works help me understand file content or help me structure file names within a single project better?

Tom Malinski
Sr Design Engineer
OKay Industries
New Britain CT

 

[ctopher]

Yes. You can create project folders. I'm not sure what you mean if it will help you understand file content, but PDMW will structure the files for you to help you find them easier and update revs for you.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-05)

 

[fcsuper]

Ditto on the PDMWorks recommendation.

 

[tmalinski]

Chris, when I look at a folder with 400 part files all having names like 101a, 101b, 102 etc... they don't mean anything to me. Many of our jobs are all electronic and we have no hard copy prints to reference. In days past with autocad we would draw everything in one autocad file so you could add notes or put tooling details near each other and visually see everything at a glance this made it much easier to find a detailed component on the CAD. In SolidWorks all parts are in seperate files, if I don't have a formal assembly I'm lost.. When I'm browsing the project folder to look for a part all I have is the file name. I tried using clever file names, but always get tied up with having to rename files if its descriptive name needs to be changed

Tom Malinski
Sr Design Engineer
OKay Industries
New Britain CT

 

[ctopher]

I would use some type of clever file naming. Your company has to standardize on how it is done.
In PDMW, when you select a file name you see a preview of what it looks like.
Remember, you are working in the 3D world now. Wipe out ACAD thinking when working with SW. (2D vs 3D)

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-05)

 

[tmalinski]

the clever filenaming seems to be the ticket, but as I mentioned in my first post I would prefer to use a comment field in the file properties so file renaming and links is not an issue..Sometimes seeing the preview of the model prior to opening it isn't enough. Many of our components are very small with subtle differences.

Tom Malinski
Sr Design Engineer
OKay Industries
New Britain CT

 

[ctopher]

If you want comments to show in Win Exp, in SW go to File/Properties and fill in the Comments box. Then go to Win Exp, go to the folder where SW files are located, show as "details", right-click on column names, select "comments". The SW file comments will show.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-05)

 

[Sprocket59]

Tom,

With PDM, you can also display the part description (that you added in File Properties) along with the file name.

 

[tmalinski]

Thanks guys, it sounds like using properties fields will work with or without PDM. I think we can make this work for a description of the part or other pertinent info without having to resort to longwinded file names
thanks,
Tom...

Tom Malinski
Sr Design Engineer
OKay Industries
New Britain CT

 

[ctopher]

Good. I hope it works for you.
I still suggest looking into PDMW.
Good luck.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-05)

 

[SnowCrash]

I am faced with a similar situation. The boss likes text names for parts. We had about seven "slide holders." I now apply a two digit project prefix, and a four digit part number. His text label follows that. Everything sorts by the part number. Drawing file names drop the text part of the file name. In file explorer when you float over the file name you can see the descriptor, too.
I have a folder of project folders, sequentially numbered. Assemblies have a leading zero, parts are sequential from 1000 up.
P29-0100 Assembly; P29-1000 First Part, for example.
I am sure disaster waits for us around the corner.

--
Hardie "Crashj" Johnson
SW 2005 SP 4.0 (reluctant to change)
Matrox Millenium G550
AMD Athalon 1.8 GHz 512 Meg RAM

 

[ctopher]

Yes. It is just a matter of time when the numbers will overlap or be too similar. Disaster awaits. The sooner the better for some PDM software.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-05)

 

[kcarpenter]

I'm of the rank that believes file names should be unique and all descriptive information should be contained within the file or metadata about the file within a DB or PDM system.

If your company has no standards for file naming OR descriptions, this is where you should start. Hammer out those standards then start up your PDM and configure it accordingly. The more work you put into getting your file names and descriptions standardized the less trouble you'll have down the road.

Kevin Carpenter
CAD Systems Specialist
Invacare Corp.