PDMWorks Workgroup folder structur

[Beltoft]

Hi

In our company we are about to start using PDMWorks Workgroup, we have to decide how the folder structure should be, how many folders, project folders, standard part folder ect..

The advice from the Solid Works supplier is to have as few folders as possible, 5 to 10, however from reading on Eng-Tips I don’t think it is as good an idea as the supplier says.

What is your experience with this, how have you organized your folders. ?

Regards
Beltoft

 

[NL8]

We organized on vault structure the same way as we had our network folder structure prior to PDM. I'm currently in the process of parring down the number of projects primarily because each subassembly and it's unique parts had their own folder, something that isn't necessary for organization in PDM because it actually monitors the parent/child relationship between parents and puts the children under the parent in the vault tree. I wouldn't go any deeper than two, at the very most three, sub projects levels, and even then, only when needed. I can tell you that more projects meets a slower vault. So while you might not need to go as low as 5 or 10 I would keep it down to the absolute minimum that you do need for reasonable use and organization.

Joe Hasik, CSWP
SW 08 x64, SP 3.0
Dell T3400
Intel Core2 Quad
Q6700 2.66 GHz
3.93 GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600

 

[Standing]

What I am finding with our Vault folder structure is the larger the folder the longer it takes to search. (Which; by the way is not long at all). We create a folder for every project number. When the project gets release we move it into a “Prod Release” folder. The bottom line is that Joe Hasik’s ideas are good and I would follow them.

As a side note keep the Project name and Project descriptions consistent. In our Vault we have several projects as “Project name” using numbers, then we also have “Project name” using text descriptions. All of our projects have numbers and then a text description.


Bradley
SolidWorks Pro 2008 x64, SP3.0
PDMWorks Workgroup, SolidWorks BOM,
Dell XPS Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 5 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB,
nVidia Quadro FX 3400
Use SolidWorks BOM
e-mail is Lotus Notes

 

[smcadman]

We have 2 top-level folders, an "In design" (prototype) folder and once a project is finalized it goes into the "Production" folder.

Inside those folders are project folders. We only use 1 folder per project and throw all parts, assemblies, drawings of that project into that folder.

It is very simple (at least for us) to use.


Flores

 

[rporter]

We have 2 top level folders that we use a folder for common machine tooling and a folder for product.

There is a sub folder for each product that we produce that contains all the files for that product and that is over 150 at this time. We have not experianced any proglem with speed.

 

[NL8]

We're recycling enough standard parts that having to go and dig them out of other assemblies would be a real pain. Right now we have them grouped by part number type. we use a sequence of 11 digits for inventory parts (xxxx-XXXX-xxx) with projects being named for the first four digits and components placed in them for easy reference. So far it's worked out pretty well.

Joe Hasik, CSWP
SW 08 x64, SP 3.0
Dell T3400
Intel Core2 Quad
Q6700 2.66 GHz
3.93 GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600

 

[fcsuper]

The more files within a project, the long it takes to search it. This is an error introduced with Solidworks 2005. So, my recommendation is more projects, fewer files within each project.

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

 

[zirtapoz]

So
Lets make a decision,
more projects with fewer files or fewer projects with more files????

 

[Beltoft]

Hi

I am now sure that we will have a folder structur in PDMWorks Workgroup that is similar to our network structur conserning standard parts.
Our project folder structur we will have to change a little we have to many sub folders.

Thank you all for the input.

Regards
Beltoft

 

[NL8]

zirtapoz,

I'm going to hold to fewer projects, though I know there is a ceiling to how many parts PDMWorkgroups can handle before it becomes to unwieldy to work with practically.

Joe Hasik, CSWP
SW 08 x64, SP 3.0
Dell T3400
Intel Core2 Quad
Q6700 2.66 GHz
3.93 GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600