PDM Question - FileVault and Save As of Drawings and Assemblies

[LeRepeteur]

Hello Everyone,

I am a Design Engineer for my company that is very small and have been tasked with overseeing our PDM process and management. We have a designer who is doing "Save As" for drawings and then renaming it to the larger size model we are making drawings for. I am worried this is causing a larger issue within PDM since I am unable to check out a model without checking out every single model we are doing drawings for. We are using SolidWorks 2020 and are using FileVault

How would one make this stop? Picture shows what I am seeing when I'm asked if I want to check the assembly out. I am working on the 7x17 and there are no assemblies in the model from the 7x19, 7x21, 7x23. He is unable to work on the 21/23 since I have everything checked out even though I am only working on the 7x17.

Cheers.

 

[jassco]

Hi, LeRepeteur:

Could you please explain the statement below in details?

"We have a designer who is doing "Save As" for drawings and then renaming it to the larger size model we are making drawings for."

Best regards,

Alex

 

[LeRepeteur]

Designer creates a drawing for a specific model, for example a 8x17 trailer, from there he will save the file under a different name, for ex 8x19. He then will replace the 8x17 model in the new drawing he just saved with the needed 8x19 model but I am afraid that him doing this is causing PDM to link the two drawings as the one is referenced from the 8x17/first drawing.

Trying to see if I can break this reference somehow or gain an explanation as to why this is happening. He will check out the 8x17 drawing but the 8x19 drawing is contained in the check out process when it shouldn't since the 8x17 doesn't have anything from the 8x19.

Cheers.

 

[ctopher]

Seems like some file management training is needed.
We had a couple people here that would save models to their desktop, then overwrite the file in PDM. This would break the associativity in the dwg.
A few meetings and explaining why it's a bad idea, most finally came to their senses. The ones that didn't, no longer here.

Chris, CSWP
SolidWorks
ctophers home

 

[drawoh]

LeRepeteur,

If I load a file from SolidWorks PDM and I save-as, I create a new file. PDM will recognize it as a new file. I need to save-as the model immediately underneath that, so that the new drawing references the new part. The failure mode is to have two fabrication drawings attached to the same part model. The PDM will track all of this quite niceley.

--
JHG

 

[jassco]

Hi, LeRepeteur:

Your colleague is a "power user". So, he or she can do whatever they want to do. This is not supposed to happen if they know what to do.

You have a drawing (*.slddrw) for a "8x17 trailer" (*.sldasm).

If you want to create a new design for "8x19", you pull the drawing for "8x17 trailer" and rename (by using SaveAs command) both of the print and assembly model as "8x19 trailer" simultaneously. Solidworks will take care of the association automatically.

Best regards,

Alex

 

[SBaugh]

If I am following his process correctly then it is not a problem. I do this often and it does not cause PDM any issues that I am aware of I have been doing this since the release of SW in 1995.

If I have a drawing and assembly and they are close to the same thing. Such as an 8x17 and I have a new assembly 8x19, but no drawing. I will ensure that the 8x17 assembly is closed. open the drawing and do a file "save as" and change the name to 8x19. Then I will do a File\open and within that file open menu, I will select the 8x19 drawing I just made and change the references to 8x19. Open the 8x19 file and save it, that way it changes the reference to the new assy file "8x19". check the files into the vault and now you have an 8x17 drawing and an 8x19 drawing that needs some cleaning up.

If the folders are in different places that's not a big deal either you can either save the file to that directory or move it afterwards.

I hope that makes sense.

Scott Baugh, CSWP
Mechanical Engineer
Ciholas

https://www.ciholas.com/

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

faq731-376

 

[LeRepeteur]

I appreciate everyone's insight, I am the first person to go through this companies Design Department and actually standardize it. PDM is something I don't have a great understanding on when it comes to the references and linkage between part/assembly/drawings so it was a first when I came across the problem.

Any recommendations on how to combat this through PDM Administrator or through a workflow change within PDM Administrator?

Just looking for some information on how to better our current process and system as this caused a huge delay as multiple people couldn't work on two completely different drawings not using the same assemblies.

 

[ctopher]

My suggestion is whoever is going to be the PDM Admin, go to Admin training.

Chris, CSWP
SolidWorks
ctophers home

 

[3DDave]

1) Instruct the users in how to create an unlinked duplicate.

2) Explain the problem to the project leader and how the users are causing it.

3) Optionally take away the ability for the offender to check any work in and explain why.

Typically there is a function in a PDM to make the duplicate and allow the user to reuse or create independent named copies for just this purpose.

eg:

A.dwg -> new B.dwg
A.asm -> new B.asm
C.prt -> new C.prt (if the assembly change is to use an altered version of C.prt)
D.prt -> reuse
E.prt -> reuse
etc.

 

[jassco]

OP just needs a "police" for his PDM.

 

[drawoh]

LeRepeteur,

I have just finished setting up SolidWorks PDM.

Ask yourself how you and your co-workers will interfact with your PDM when they have work do to. Most of the things you need to do will become fairly obvious.

--
JHG