It is not a database tyoe of application, rather it works off the file structure.
It is very easy to use, check in, check out, and rev documents.
I have been using it here for a while, and it doesn't seem to be too bad. I have been recently having a few issues when using palette features with it though. I feel that there must be some way to do this though I just need to figure it out!
But Its a very good product for small scale PDM applications
Regards,
Jon
jgbena@yahoo.com
What do you consider "samll scale" and what would you prefer for "large scale" applications?
My company is using WTC's ProductCenter, and I'm not too happy with it. "Happy the Hare at morning for she is ignorant to the Hunter's waking thoughts."
Well I guess I should have been more specific. I dont mean small scale in terms of users. In fact you can have as many users as you wish. The decision to make or break the decision to go with PDMworks is more of a "complexity" issue. Complexitiy in terms of how you want to integrate, and what you want to integrate.
PDMworks is very tightly intergrated with solidworks, and solidworks alone. There are no other interfaces offered. No you can check in othere types of documents such as word excel, and the like, but other systems have no "embedded" support for this package (drop down menus etc.)
PDMworks is an "as-is type of purchase, there is no way to customize it at all. If you want to have certain attributes to be seen in the profile cards, you're just out of luck...unable to add information. It works well for a lot of people out there, but mostly it depends upon your current internal procedures, and such. If you are at this point, I would most likely recommend going to a higher end product like Smart-Team.
Now the latest release of PDMworks does have API hooks in it (which could indeed afford some customization), I have not yet had a chance to look at it or evaluate how well it works, and what you can do with it.
I am unfamiliar with your Product Center, and I was just curious as to why you are dissatisfied with it. Is it too complex? Not enough Functionality? Does it not handle everything you want it to? What the story there? Maybe I can help. Regards,
Jon
jgbena@yahoo.com
We have been using PDM/Works for about 3 months now (27 seats). Some Engineers like it, some don’t. The ones that don’t say they do not have time to learn new software. I like PDM/Works a lot. We left SmarTeam, because the cost was too high and it was hard to learn. PDM/Works is easy to learn and setup. PDM/Works has custom properties. We did have to add two properties, “Description and Number” to our models and drawings. “Revision” property we already had. We used SolidWorks API to add the new properties. The cost is affordable. The only trouble we have had is that we were not using SmarTeam for so long that our models multiplied over the network. Meaning we would have 15 to 25 models of the same part. Which one do we use is our biggest question. It has nothing to do with PDM/Works. We also store AutoCAD drawings in PDM/Works.
Appeng, from what you descibed, we have the same limitations with ProductCenter (ProdCen) as you have with PDMworks. There is suppose to be a newer version of ProdCen coming out, which will allow us some more flexibility, but untill then, we are very limited.
We have a lot of our custom properties set-up in SWX, only to find that ProdCen couldn't/didn't read from them. A few hoops we had to jump through, but more disappointed with my company in selecting a PDM program without fully understanding what we had going on in SWX.
Some other problems we are encountering is when we check-out a model, sometimes the program says that it is already checked out, but when you check your work folders, there are no files there. It's just been a very painful (and slow) transition. "Happy the Hare at morning for she is ignorant to the Hunter's waking thoughts."
I just wanted to chime in a comment on PDM and managing SW data in general.
I have direct experience with PDM which I believe might contribute to the discussion on a general level. I did battle with SmarTeam on an intimate level for over a year as the "point man" in our installation (which failed in the end due to the complexity and relative unstability of the software). We actually got to the point that our VAR dropped the SmarTeam product altogether and steered us towards PDM/Works.
By that point though the consensus across our entire engineering organization was that PDM in general is the devil incarnate and we decided that a homegrown semi-manual system was safer and more predictable. With a combination of disciplined file naming conventions, SW custom properties, SolidWorks Explorer, a simple Access database (2 tables), and a CD burner/Jazz drive we did away with the huge investment in time and money that went into our SmarTeam installation.
I should qualify the above statemenst somewhat by pointing out that our installed SolidWorks base is only about 10 seats. That's really right in the range of what PDM/Works was marketing to originally. I've heard that they've got some pretty decent size installations since we looked at them when they pretty much first started out. Being a Massachusetts based also, our offices are located less than 10 minutes from one another so we were probably one of the first 25 or 50 companies to evaluate their package.
The moral of my story?
Whenever I hear or see the name SmarTeam mentioned I'm immediately compelled to cringe and wonder/ask whether the people looking into that package know what they're in for. While I'm not "down" on PDM at all believe it or not, I do believe that sharing my thoughts and experiences with others who're interested in the topic or are exploring the possiblity of implementing PDM can offer at least some insight on the subject.
The bottom line in my opinion is to do your homework if you're considering PDM. In closing I'm going to offer a few questions to try and answer if one's looking into PDM software.
1. Ask yourself whether you NEED it? (This question turned out not to be as easy for us to answer than it seemed after all was said and done with our SmarTeam debacle).
2. What kind of functionality do you NEED? File management, archiving, checkin/checkout, simple data management (based on its reputation PDM/Works is perfect for this)? Or do you NEED to tag additional data onto the SolidWorks files (vendor names, etc.) in addition to the file management, checkin/checkout capabilities (there are lots of players here looking to spend your money)?
3. I recommend an intense review of your current practices that you would like to translate into PDM. Simplify the (excuse my use of the word) HELL out of them because from experience translating them into PDM will NOT be a painless endeavor.
4. This is somewhat of a personal opinion based upon my own experience but I'm going to share it regardless. Don't believe ANYONE who tries to sell you on a system that's "out of the box." This is analagous to someone who tries to sell you the Brooklyn bridge.
OUT OF THE BOX PDM DOESN'T EXIST! I strongly urge anyone told otherwise to get up and run as fast as you can in the other direction.
Sorry for the "book" on the subject but I hope the information helps someone out there.
Best Regards,
Chris Gervais
Mechanical Designer
American Superconductor
I am a mechanical engineer , and we use smarteam version 4.0
it seems that saving in smarteam takes a lot of time.
does anyone now how i can reduce this?
Also the check in and out times are verry slow.
And it costs a lot of money.
should i be better that i use pdm works ?
Our company is looking to start using PDM/Works for our Solidworks files. Our main reason is due to the overwriting of the original files. We'd like to follow somewhat the same process as we do for our AutoCAD files. That is we have a folder on the network drive that holds one copy of each autocad drawing. That folder is read-only to everyone's station except for one user who has full access to it. When a change needs to be done to a drawing, a user will open the drawing from the network, save a copy on their own drive, make the change, then put it in a folder called 'archive'. Then the user who has full access overwrites the original file. the same process is used for new drawings. If we followed the same process with Solidworks. The references would have to be detached and then re-attached, overwriting files and whenever we tried this is made a big mess of all the assemblies and drawings. Right now if you start editing a part it is editing the orignal assembly and drawing. Would PDM/Works help with this process. Just looking for advice if we need to purchase this program. Sorry if this sounds a bit confusing bnut its rather hard to properly explain. Thanks a lot.
Sean Nutley
Carmanah Design and Manufacturing
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Sean,
Yes PDM Works will help you. If everyone who changes a S/W file takes ownership, they are not overwritten. The files are kept in a vault and users copy a drawing to their working directory after taking ownership. Then when they are done they check in the file at the next revision and release ownership. PDM Works keeps track of revisions and references. PDM Works is easy to use and does not cost a lot.
