PDM Question 1

[aamoroso]

Does PDM allow revision rollbacks. For instance if you have a part and you revise the model and the drawing, can you roll back from Revision F to Revision E or even several levels maybe. I am not very familiar with PDM but would be interested to know if it is capable of it. There have been discussions around workplace lately considering saving older revs either in a seperate file on a seperate server (space hoggin), or as configs within the model (not always practical). This is a topic for us because we have customers that call and ask for replacement parts for older versions of products and recently sales has started tracking which revision product ship to whom and when so we know re-manufacturing of older versions is just around the corner.

 

[engAlright]

I understand that this feature is included in PDMWorks 2005 - much anticipated by us as well!

In PDMWorks 2004, your only choice is to delete a document entirely as you can't delete specific revisions.

 

[sldwkmin]

Depending what PDM solution you choose some have this capability set up to be very user friendly and some it is very cumbersome and others do not have the capability. Looking at your situation from another angle. I'm unaware of your entire system, however using an engineering standard of only revising parts when that part can be used on all previous applications and when it cannot you have to replace the part number. This gives a clean cut solution...All revisions are backward compatible and all non backward compatible changes are given a new part number.

 

[aamoroso]

sldwkmin,

Thats a very valid point, we are currently going through the process of trying to catch up with the growth of the company and are about to activate a new database structure.

One difficulty is we sometimes revise an in house drawing for an outside customer and management feels the need to track which in house rev goes to a customer with each shipment.

Basically we are trying to straighten out the mess of old part numbering schemes and an over abundance of categories of part numbers. Some customers supply drawings and we have been pushed into using rev levels in their part numbers (their revs not ours) and other customrs do not supply drawings but use our rev level in thier part number, this whole system is out of control. We also make our own products in which the rev level is not involved in the part numbers at all.

 

[SBaugh]

I haven't tested this, but have you tried when checking the file in to select "Other" in the "Select Revision" drop down. I know this feature works for jumping ahead or skipping Revisions. I don't know if it would work in the way your wanting it too. Probably not but worth a try.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

If you are in the SW Forum Check out the FAQ section

To make the Best of Eng-Tips Forums FAQ731-376

 

[ctopher]

If you want to see an older rev in PDMW, select "open document" on the drawing or assy file, select the rev you want to open, select "as built" next to "retrieve checked references". Open to a new folder for this particular file. This will open the old revisions.

 

[aamoroso]

Scott, I dont even have PDM, but I am just begining to poke my nose into considering and that would be probably be the single biggest factor in determining if it is even mentioned here in a meeting.

 

[sldwkmin]

aamoroso

PDM is an excellent solution to several different areas. PDM capabilities vary from quite basic to quite complex. I would highly recommend a PDM in any SolidWorks situation where more than one user is involved. The thing to determine however is what your PDM system needs to do for you. There are very powerful enterprise solutions that can not only manage cad revisions but can manage other documentation as well and control all information that is contained within a project. Some also have workflow capability that is customizable to route projects through an approval or change process electronically. To name a few so you can get an idea of what's available and their capabilities. PDMWorks, DBWorks, ProductCenter, SmartTeam. There are others as well but these show a wide range of capability.

ColeM CSWP

 

[Standing]

aamoroso,
ctopher is right about how to see old Revisions. PDM\Works is a great tool to see old revisions. We sometimes make mistakes releasing a newer revision. Let’s say revision B was released by mistake. We open revision A as built. Write an ECN stating what we are doing, then save the revision A as a C. The drawing looks just like the revision A with a revision of C. Very easy and quick.
PDM\Works comes with SolidWorks professional.


Bradley

 

[chadn]

sldwkin is correct

You need to know what you are looking for before you select a PDM system. I have spent the last few years working in PDM and SolidWorks. It took us about 6 months to get one that worked for us with more than just engineering drawings and the fact that we will be using it in 3 countries. That was easy, getting all the other documents to tie into the engineering drawings was hard. We are now taking the next step and doing the PLM (life cycle).

Good luck