PDM WORKS cleanup, space saving ?

[rgogac]

We finally finished the design of our machine with multiple revision on some part and assembly. We only need to keep the final revision in the vault for backup. My question is easy, how do I delete the previous revisions for smaler Kb space in the vault and for backup ?

 

[Standing]

rgogac,
As far as I remember you cannot delete previous revisions. One of our designers had a higher revision checked into the PDM than our standards allowed. If we delete the assembly and drawings from the PDM he would lose all history. He put the drawing and assembly model in his working directory. We deleted just the assembly and the drawing. He put the two files back into the PDM with corrected revisions. It worked, but he did lose several mates. He said things were suppressed in subassemblies.

Check with your VAR. If you try something like this I would do a complete backup of your vault. Then use the PDM to put everything to someone’s C: drive, models and all drawings. Delete the assemblies, parts and drawings, and check back in the files. Remember that everything that is suppressed will not come through. When done, open all drawings from PDM to make sure that everything came though before reusing the backup tape for something else.
The best idea is to buy more drive space.


Bradley

 

[rgogac]

Thanks Bradley for your clarification.


So if I understand well, you recommend that I save the top assembly and all of his children in a new project(directory) in the vault, to keep all the relation(mate). And after that, remove the old project (directory), where all th revisions where.

rgogac

 

[Standing]

Rgogac,
No don’t do that. You can have only one file in the vault. No matter where the file is and looks like a copy (with a link symbol), there is still only one file. When I said, “He put the drawing and assembly model in his working directory.” That means he had the files in his working directory on his c: drive. We have our PDM vault on a separate server, all to its own.
I am not an expert here, and it is difficult for me to get my point across in writing. Please check with you VAR.
A point to remember: is do not delete common files related to other projects. Try putting just one drawing and model in your working directory, without any suppress parts, if it is an assembly. Then just delete that drawing and model. Now put it back in with the revision you want. See how this works. You will get a better feel for it, without the risk of all your files. Please do a full backup of your vault before trying anything new like deleting files.


Bradley

 

[rgogac]

Bradley,

I get your point, you are right about the copy in another project in the vault. I will try a test on an dummy assembly to see how it react.
Thanks for your help.
Our vault is fully backup every day, so if I screw up, only one day of work may be wasted.

rgogac

 

[Standing]

It is good that your vault is backed up everyday. I thought ours was at one point, until I needed a file that I deleted by mistake. I was able to watch the I.S. guy try to bring back the file. He explained that yes he does do a backup every day, "only of the files that change". Then once a week he does a full backup. Now I keep my own backs ups of the files I work on. Located on my C: drive, I still have 70 G free.

Bradley

 

[eranz]

With PdmWorks 2004 you can archive old revisions and remove them from the vault. You might want to take a look at that (check with your VAR).