PDM Vault Folder Structure 1

[daveparkinson]

Afternoon all,

I was wondering what peoples views on the best practice for folder structure within the PDM Workgroup vault are.

Initially, I attempted to create folders for each of our product types, and then sub folders in each of those to separate different configurations etc.

After a while I realised I was spending far too much time trying to think of new folder names, and trying to decide where to check files in etc.

How is your vault organised?

Cheers!

 

[NL8]

Parts>Sub types
Subassemblies>models and drawings
Production systems>Type and size
Submittal packages

I operate on the policy that they shallower and small the folder structure the better. So far having cut the amount of time it takes the vault to rebuild itself after a reboot of of the server I've not been proven wrong.

Joe Hasik, CSWP/SMTL
SW 09 x64, SP 3.0
Dell T3400
Intel Core2 Quad
Q6700 2.66 GHz
3.93 GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600

 

[NomLaser]

smaller folders is good practice but it all depends on your company and the products that you design. We have folders for prefixes and sub-folders for each 100 number blocks. Your VAR should tell you that you want to keep your parts under 2000 per folder if you can. It is supposed to help performance, at least that's what I was told back in 2004.

 

[daveparkinson]

I like the idea of creating folders per 100 jobs or so. I use a 4 digit project number prefix before each assembly/part file number so that would be an easy way to find project files in my vault. (I did try entirely dumb part numbers but it didn't work for me.)

Thanks, that's helped a lot!

 

[macduff]

Dave,
Attached is a snapshot of our vault. Bottom line, like the other folks said, keep it simple. At first I had Sustaining and R & D engineering split into two separate folder areas and was hard to manage. I decided to put everything in there product lines, and control the folders by security access for R & D and Sustaining.

Hope this helps,

Colin

Colin Fitzpatrick (aka Macduff)
Mechanical Designer
Solidworks 2009 SP 3.0
Dell 490 XP Pro SP 2
Xeon CPU 3.00 GHz 3.00 GB of RAM
nVida Quadro FX 3450 512 MB
3D Connexion-SpaceExplorer

 

[rgrayclamps]

Hi, Daveparkinson:

I am unable to upload an image of our vault from my computer at work. Our PDM has folder structures as follows:

>New Vault
>>_Checkin
>>_Working
>>Assemblies
>>>Assy 00000
>>>Assy 00001
>>Parts
>>>Part 00000
>>>Part 00001
>>>Part 00002
>>>Part 00003
>>>Part 00004
>>>Part 00005
>>>Part 00006
>>>Part 00007
>>>Part 00008
>>_Standard
>>_Toolbox parts

We use ten characters (non-intelligent) for part models (drawings) beginning with "P-". We use ten characters (non-intelligent) for assembly models (drawings) beginning with "A-". Each folder holds a thousand of part numbers or assembly numbers.

Alex

 

[fcsuper]

We run ours on just part type alone. Our parts are used across multiple products, so it never made since to randomly bury them in random projects all over the place. PDMWorks used to handle this method well, but since 2005, PDMWorks doesn't handle large folders as well anymore, but this system still works best for us.

Matt Lorono
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group
and Mechnical.Engineering Yahoo! Group