DB Works

Any one in here familiar with DB Works. I work for a company that is
about to implement it is scaring everyone here. I have used SmartTeam
in the past, I am thinking it may be similar to that.

Regards,
Stew

 

Stew

Check with Chris MacCormick at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/solidworks/
He runs a SWUG for DBWorks.

Matt
http://sw.fcsuper.com
Co-moderator of http://groups.yahoo.com/group/solidworks/

 

if you know scripting, vb & sql it will be a piece of cake.
otherwise ... fork up some more money to hire DBW or someone to help with
customizing.

there's so much flexibility that doing even the simplest tweek requires the
aforementioned knowledge. this annoys me to some degree. ok, i'll confess,
it annoys me a lot.

we're just now getting up and running with zero customization.
once our feet are wet we will start to customize.


we also had a few issues importing from pdmw.

- out memory errors (sw issue) when registering large projects.
solution: break large projects into smaller ones.
- mapping id field to p/n or number property.
solution: do not map anything to the id field, the filename will auto
default instead (wish we had known this before hand).
- generic attachments did not reattach.
solution: DBWorks has a new .dll that corrects this (unfortunately this
didn't get resolved until i was down to my last project conversion).

we had about 75 projects with approximately 12,000 files. it took about
35-40 hours to convert using sw2006/dbw2006.

2007 has some enhanced capabilities (speed) for pdmw conversions. but i
decided to forgo using it (beta).

kenneth

 

dbWorks is a pretty decent package. It is highly customizable so your
company must pay a lot of attention as to how they customize it for
you. Scripting, SQL and a very good understanding of what you actually
do with files are what are required to implement successfully. You
must also plan on spending time to get files in order. Garbage in,
garbage out.

Pay attention during training. Use it right away. You will get to know
one screen very well.

TOP

 

Out of interest, what is a ball park figure for the cost per seat of DBWorks
(and its maintenance cost)?

Regards,
John H

 

Ballpart, the base version is well under $1,000 and the Enterprise
version is over $1,300 IIRC. There can be adders also, but it is
pretty well equipped by itself. Adders come in for special auto part
numbering and ERP integration, etc.

TOP

 

FYI:

AutoNumber Generator (DBTools) is free from Integrated Partner
Solutions while the ERP add-in will cost you.
I've noticed 2007 now includes the PDMWorks converter which as the
name implies will convert the PDMWorks file based application to the
DBWorks database application. If you have the premium version of SW
which includes PDMWorks you could be entitled to a 25% discount on
DBWorks Enterprise Seats.

Len K. Mar, P.Eng.
President
E-data Solutions

 

Here is a little trick you can try in dbWorks:

1. In an assembly create a new part using dbWorks insert part. In the
part make two or more bodies.
2. Save the part using dbWorks save (of course the configuration name
of the part will be the same as the filename)
3. Open the part (A).
4. Insert Feature Split
5. Save all bodies (dbWorks will autonumber them as new parts)
6. Close the split feature
7. RMB the split feature and create an assembly. Give it the same name
as part (A) if you want.

dbWorks will now track all the parts made from the original inserted
part, will track the assembly split feature made from that part and
will track the inserted part in the assembly. It will also autonumber
all the parts SW made. See if your garden variety PDM can do that.

TOP

 

i'm sure you know this and along those same lines, parts with in-context
features can be be tracked just like mirrored parts.

did you do that with link mode off or on?

 

I believe we have link mode on. Haven;t been in the config file
lately.

TOP

 

correction, i meant track derived parts option.
i'm guessing you have this on.

 

Yup, it is on. Just checked.