Revisions without PDM

[darnell]

For whatever reason, our company is very slow when moving to a PDM system. For now, I would like some ideas on how to track revisions for vaulted parts. Should we track these in the properties? Do we keep the old version?

I would like some in general thoughts as we do not want to get into it too deep and realize, oops, we should have been doing something else.

I know, I know, PDM solves everything but that might not happen for us till next year (Hopefully)

Thanks

 

[SBaugh]

Tracking manually is going to be pain staking for you I'm afraid. I did it for 5 years and they were tracked was printed and placed in a book. From there, there was a Revision placed on the drawing and we could read it.

If your going to do it electronically then your going to have to remember to manually change your custom property every time you open it. Then when you change the drawing you could have it linked to a note and that note updates.

That's about the only way I can think of manually tracking a file at this point and this early in the . Don't rule out API though?

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[RawheadRex]

Hi,

At my previous employer we maintained only one version of a model for a given part number and "vaulted" PDF versions of revision controlled drawings.

We setup engineering work folders for all projects and worked live within them from start to finish. Standard components such as hardware and fasteners were reviewed, sanctioned, and maintained in a write-protected directory accessible by all SW users.

This arrangement worked quite well and still does from what I know for that company. My current employer is setup similarly though we do have PDMWorks which allows for vaulting of SW files when we complete a project.

I should mention that the number of installed SW seats isn't a particulary high number (~8-12 max) and type of work done at both my current and former employers is such that the amount of concurrent access to SW files required on a regular basis is relatively low. I could see where this might become at least somewhat problematic where sharing of engineering files is a prevalent practice.

I hope this was somehwat useful to addressing your current situation.

Regards,


Chris Gervais
Sr. Mechanical Designer
Lytron Corp.

 

[MElam]

You mentioned that PDM might (hopefully) happen next year. Do you have an idea on what PDM system(s) you are looking into? The different packages have different ways of handeling revisions.

If you look into PDM, you may be able to set up a revision tracking system in the meantime that will implement easily into the PDM system.

 

[MadMango]

My company does not use PDMworks. We tried using a gold partner, WTC ProductCenter. We had a very bad experience with that, and it has turned our entire company away from using any PDM software. Just a note, it was our implementation of the software and not the software itself that was the problem.

We have 15-20 seats of SW and manually control all of our SW files. Last count was near 45k files.

Development work is done in Project folders, where all files are kept in a single folder. After release to Production, the files are split into 36 “prime” folders on a limited access drive. Folders A-Z (26), plus 0-9 (10) hold all the released files that have file names that relate to one of the 36 folders. There are an additional 36 folders that hold revision history files for all parts, drawings and assemblies.

Our IT programmers wrote a program that searches all prime 36 folders when a person opens an assembly, to pull the latest revision file. So far we have been using this for the past 18 months with no problems at all. Our ECR/ECO processes ensure things work smoothly, along with strict redlining procedures, and “drawing” checks. The drawing checker also checks part and assembly files to ensure all custom property information is accurate and all information is present.

[blue]"But what... is it good for?"[/blue]
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
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[meintsi]

All drawing revisions here are first opened in RapidDraft format and then resaved via a "SaveAs" in an obsolete folder whose file structure mimics our active parts.

When doing the SaveAs, the drawing is then renamed as in the following example: partnumberRevA.

In this case, in the same folder, you should also be able to find: partnumberNoRev.

In the case of extermely complex models/revisions, occasionally we will also save a copy of the model/assembly.

Since this drawing has been saved in RapiDraft format, all information on the drawingremains intact, AS IS, and complete.

Then go ahead and make the revision changes, let the drawing automatically reflect these changes, and you still have an original in an electronic file.

When you open the "obsoleted" drawings, you get a warning "The following sheets contain drawing views which are out of date with their external model(s)", and the drawing views borders are blue to reflect this condition.
So as long as you don't right click the drawing view and select "Load Model" the drawing will always reflect the obsoleted revision.



Remember...
"If you don't use your head,
your going to have to use your feet."

 

[darnell]

MElam,

Our parent company, in Japan, will start using Smarteam soon. I was told it might be up to three years before we get something.

Thanks for the responses, it looks like there is no easy way to track models and drawings without a PDM