PDM and revision managment

[SMOKES]

first off
I am currently moving a range products that have been badly managed by the drawing office in autocad to solidworks. And redrawing the parts and assemblies to make sure what is drawn is what we get supplied.

I am wondering if it would be best practice to up issue the redrawn parts one revision and send them to the suppliers so that we are are working from the same sheet.


Has anybody managed to set, PDM to link and engineering change request number to a revision so that one engineering change request can be used on mutiple parts/ assembly that are affected by it? Is this gonna a case of coding a VBA Form up to manage this?

Can the data for the change request e.g reason who requested affected drawing and who checked off the drawings be held in the PDM data base? Again is this gonna a case of coding a VBA Form up to manage this?

Or would it have to be an excel sheet? Also How do I set up an auto number facilty so that each time an new part is created it uses the next drawing number available in sequence so it can be used as a primary data base key.

What is the recommend way to store the drawing part assembly template for mutiple users? vault?

Is there a way of setting up the drawings so there is a not for prodution banner on it until it has been checked off and checked into the vault for to be released for production?

Also part configurations and PDM is it worth it? I.E have several drawing of part linked to one part model?

I am asking these questions because I used a different system that did all this.


Thanks

 

[fcsuper]

Your requests sound very specific to your sitatution, which a wide range of choices that have already been made for you that lock you into particular solutions. As such, you may wish to hire a SolidWorks API consultant to set up a streamline system for you to use during the transition period. In other words, yes it does seem what you are loooking for is possible, but it will take a considerable amount of work to set up. (My may wish to conduct real ROI studies to determine your best course of action.)

Matt Lorono, CSWP
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources & SolidWorks Legion
Follow me on Twitter

 

[SMOKES]

I really just want to implement some form of document control but I have to convince the board to spend the cash on a epdm or temacenter.

 

[Simon205]

"Has anybody managed to set, PDM to link and engineering change request number to a revision so that one engineering change request can be used on mutiple parts/ assembly that are affected by it? Is this gonna a case of coding a VBA Form up to manage this?"
Why not just add an ECR column to your revision table?

"What is the recommend way to store the drawing part assembly template for mutiple users? vault?"
Yes, if everyone has a PDM viewer. If not, save copies (PDFs etc...) to a common location on a server.

"Is there a way of setting up the drawings so there is a not for prodution banner on it until it has been checked off and checked into the vault for to be released for production?"
Do some research into 'lifecycles' in PDMworks.

If you do some digging around I think a lot of your questions may already be answered in this forum.

Cheers,


Simon