PDMWORKS Q?

Discussion in 'SolidWorks' started by ksbawa, May 10, 2005.

  1. ksbawa

    ksbawa Guest

    Hi all,

    I am new to pdmworks and so is our company. I am having a little
    problem with revision scheme and life cycle. Everytime I want to share
    a part with someone I guess I have to check in the vault and other
    person has to take the ownership. And by the time we freeze the part
    for prototype or production, it has already bumped a lot of revisions.
    Our company uses two lifecycles i.e. prototype with revision A to Z and
    production with revision 01 to 99 which has to be reflected in the
    titleblock of the drawing.
    VAR hasn't been too helpful and I guess realtime users will be more
    than a help.

    Thanks in advance
    Kav
     
    ksbawa, May 10, 2005
    #1
  2. ksbawa

    matt Guest

    I'm sorry for being so dense, but I can't see what your question is.

    Getting the revision on the drawing title block is as easy as setting up a
    "format" (drawing border) which uses notes which reference custom
    properties. Strangely enough, the revision level is stored in the SW part
    in a custom property called "Revision".

    You need to set up a primary and secondary revision scheme to go along with
    the settings in your Lifecycle. Lifecycle can be kind of tricky to set up
    and use properly.

    There's a thing called "Working Copy" which you might want to use if you
    don't want to have a lot of intermediate revisions run the rev level up
    quickly.

    If you're interested in professional implementation help with this, go to
    www.dezignstuff.com.

    Matt


    wrote in @f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:
     
    matt, May 10, 2005
    #2
  3. ksbawa

    ksbawa Guest

    Hi Matt,

    thanks for an early reply. I know how to link the custom properties
    with drawing format. But coming back to my first question.... Lets say
    two people are working on a project which is one assembly with five
    parts. One person creates a part with ten features now the other person
    has to add some features. So how do they share the same part? As per my
    understanding, first person will have to check it in the vault for the
    other person to accesss it. And the second person has to check out the
    part do the modifications and check it in again. If they do it couple
    of times, the revision of the part is gone up but the part is still not
    ready to be released. The first release should have rev A or 01 not not
    starting for somewhere in between. I hope I am clear this time.
    It will be great if you answer this. I will go thro' the website you
    have mentioned.

    thanks
    Kav
     
    ksbawa, May 10, 2005
    #3
  4. ksbawa

    matt Guest

    The best way to handle this would be with the "working copy". So the first
    revision in your revision scheme is "-", and then you would go to "-+" (the
    + is the working copy designator). Then each person could check the part
    in at "-+" until you are ready to go to "A" or "01". The drawback to the
    working copy is that you lose all of your intermediate working copy
    revisions, they are over written.

    Another way of handling this which does not overwrite intermediate working
    copy revs would be to have a separate revision scheme for development.
    Maybe a designator like "DEV01". If you want it to work correctly, you
    shouldn't have rev schemes that have the same revision names.

    Matt



    wrote in @o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com:
     
    matt, May 10, 2005
    #4
  5. ksbawa

    Kav Guest

    Thanks Matt..

    That did help to a large extent.

    Another question...

    If I have a part with two configurations and have two separate drawings
    for each. How do I control the different revision level for each?

    Thanks in advance
    Kav
     
    Kav, May 11, 2005
    #5
  6. ksbawa

    Kav Guest

    Thanks Matt..

    That did help to a large extent.

    Another question...

    If I have a part with two configurations and have two separate drawings
    for each. How do I control the different revision level for each?

    Thanks in advance
    Kav
     
    Kav, May 11, 2005
    #6
  7. ksbawa

    matt Guest

    Each drawing has its own config, but the part with two configs only has 1
    revision in PDMW.

    I usually recommend that you don't try to keep the part and the drawing at
    the same rev level anyway, it's just too much hassle.
     
    matt, May 11, 2005
    #7
  8. ksbawa

    adam Guest

    You should look at DBWorks it solves all these problems in an out of the box
    solution that uses a database www.mechworks.com ..
     
    adam, May 11, 2005
    #8
  9. ksbawa

    Kav Guest

    Hi matt,

    It means that the drawings will have a different revision levels than
    parts? Title block in the drawings will have there revision column
    linked to properties of drawings and not of parts? Revision level of
    parts does not reflect anywhere at all?...

    kav
     
    Kav, May 12, 2005
    #9
  10. ksbawa

    matt Guest

    It's good practice to show the model revision on the drawing, probably in
    small 8 pt font so there is no confusion with the drawing revision. But
    yeah, the model and the drawing rarely have the same rev. I've seen people
    try to keep them the same, but in the end, there really isn't any driving
    need for that, and it's just creating unnecessary work for yourself.
     
    matt, May 12, 2005
    #10
  11. ksbawa

    Kav Guest

    Hi,
    I am still not very clear whether the part or its drawing should
    control the actual revisions? What happens to the part files with
    different configurations and different revisions? And what happens to
    the drawing with multiple sheets with different revisions. We have all
    those data to put on to pdmworks. Hi all pdwmork users what do you
    follow? please pour in...

    TIA
    Kav
     
    Kav, May 13, 2005
    #11
  12. ksbawa

    remy martin Guest


    - Drawing controls part.
    - Configurations not supported in pdmw. Even if they were, this would just
    seem to make things more complicated.
    - Multi-sheet drawings with different rev levels, massive complications.
    The shorter route is not always the best.
     
    remy martin, May 13, 2005
    #12
  13. ksbawa

    matt Guest

    The Drawing should control the Drawing rev, and the model rev (part or
    assembly) should be referenced in smallish print on the drawing.
     
    matt, May 13, 2005
    #13
  14. ksbawa

    matt Guest

    woops, didn't see the rest of the post...


    Don't do that. Configurations are so interrelated, I would never attempt
    to assign revisions to separate part configs. PDMWorks will show you the
    configs inside a part or assembly file, but will only assign a revision to
    the part, not to the configs. A change to any configuration will up-rev
    the entire part file.

    Now if you have drawings of the configs in different drawing files, you can
    assign separate revisions to those, and still reference the part rev on the
    drawing.

    Well, you won't do that with PDMWorks unless you save the separate sheets
    out as separate files, which isn't such a bad idea anyway. This debate
    comes up every now and then, the philosophical vs the practical.
    Regardless of whethter it is a good idea to make multisheet drawings with
    per-sheet revisions, PDMWorks only assigns revisions to individual
    electronic documents, the way we did things 30 years ago on paper
    notwithstanding.


    You will have to re-think some of your processes if you're going to try to
    use PDMWorks in this environment.
     
    matt, May 13, 2005
    #14
  15. ksbawa

    Kav Guest

    Thanks

    That makes me a bit clear how to start my bits. But I guess there is a
    massive work for whole lotta old data which needs to be inline with
    what pdmworks understand. Do all the PDM softwares with other cad
    packages Pro/e, catia, ug work in the same fashion? They also find it
    difficult to handle multiple configs or multiple sheets?

    Kav
     
    Kav, May 13, 2005
    #15
  16. ksbawa

    remy martin Guest


    I don't know about the other cad packages, but there are other PDM systems
    for Solidworks. 2 have been highly regarded and discussed in this ng, they
    are DBWorks & Conisio. Do a search via Google for past discussions.
    DBWorks was mentioned in the middle of this thread.

    Using configs and multi-sheet drawings is ok per say with PDMW. It's the
    context in which they are used that matters. Config's are great for
    assembly drawings, hiding/suppressing items to illustrate sequencial steps
    required to assemble a component or to show different positional layouts.
    Multi-sheet drawings are a necessity. However, all sheets should be
    associated to the same assembly or part, which in turn means the rev for
    each sheet is the same.

    Don't have time to go further in depth.
     
    remy martin, May 13, 2005
    #16
  17. ksbawa

    TOP Guest

    I struggled with this for a long time too. Then I had a long chat with
    my VAR who happens to be very good at PDMWorks. You have to think of
    the revision that PDMWorks assigns as a version number and then
    establish a custom property with another name like RealRevision to
    contain your revision number. That field is under manual control. Once
    you do this you don't have to worry about PDMWorks updating the
    revision number when you do some cosmetic change to a drawing or do
    some SWcentric background file operation.
     
    TOP, May 13, 2005
    #17
  18. ksbawa

    Kav Guest

    What about NUMBER and DESCRIPTION? Should they be linked to drawing
    properties like revisions or to the respective part or assembly
    drawings?
    Kav
     
    Kav, May 13, 2005
    #18
  19. ksbawa

    lmar Guest

    Kav,

    There appears to be a lack of understanding regarding PDM systems and
    SW configurations.
    The following explanation demonstrates how DBWorks handles them. This
    is how E-data Solutions sets up their clients.

    1. DBWorks has a set of options to control configuration states and
    revsions. They are turned on.
    2. DBWorks has a set of options to link models and drawings. They are
    turned on.
    3. DBWorks has options to ignore specifically named configurations. I
    have it set up to ignore configurations beginning with REF_ and
    FLAT-PATTERN.(More on this later).
    4. I have DBWorks link the configuration_revision of the model to
    drawings.
    5. File revisions are meaningless when using configurations.
    6. DBWorks can intercept the creation of configurations to assign a
    unique ID to it. The drawing assumes the same number when created.
    7. DBworks has option settings to force the increment of revsions or
    use existing revsion level. The latter is for administrative or "typo"
    revisions of drawings. Since DBWorks logs all actions - ISO auditors
    will be happy when you tell them when, where, and why changes were
    made.

    The process.
    Create a new part. Hit save. DBworks autoassignes a new number 12345 to
    this file and part.First file revision and configuration will be X1
    Create a new drawing. Drag and drop the part into drawing and hit save.
    Drawing picks up number, material, etc... and fills in titleblock.
    Create a new configuration called REF_Simplified. DBWorks will ignore
    this configuration as it is used for geometry purposes only. The same
    applies for flat patterns of sheet metal parts.
    Approve the part.
    Check out the part - file revision will be X2. DBWorks will check out
    the related drawing at the same time.
    Create new configuration. DBWorks will automatically assign new number
    12346 and set configuration revision to X1.
    Create drawing of new revision. If you need a second drawing for this
    part DBWorks will tell you one exists and ask if you want to use it. If
    no, it creates and links a new drawing called 12346_0. Thus, second
    configuration has two drawings 12346 and 12346_0 linked to it.

    Approve model/drawings at this time.

    Time to release 12345 to production.
    Check out drawing 12345. Linked model 12345 will come out and the file
    revision will be A.
    Change the configuration revision of 12345 from X1 to A.
    Check-in and approve this file.

    Results:

    File 12345 contains two active configurations and on reference
    configuration.
    File revision is at A.
    Part 12345 and its drawing are at configuration revision A (Production)
    Part 12346 and its two drawings 12346 and 12346_0 are at X1
    (Prototype).

    Because one of the configurations has been released to production the
    file has been approved and locked. Any work to bring the second
    configuration up to production status will require an checking out the
    file (Revsion A.1) and bumping up the second configuration revision to
    A.

    When approved, DBWorks will fill out the revsion block with the
    appropriate approval name, date, revision description and confguration
    description.

    This sounds fairly complicated but with some practice it becomes second
    nature. Just concentrate on configuration revisions and ignore the file
    revsion. By checking out the drawing you are intrested in - DBWorks
    figures out which linked file needs to be open to allow the necessary
    changes to occur.

    Drawings, autonumbers, file/drawing relationships, revision blocks,
    etc... are all taken care of automatically. I even have DBWorks
    controlling a watermark on the drawing that distiguishes between an
    "approved prototype" and "Released to Production".
    Playing with the new master document mode that automatically creates
    linked PDF files of the drawing during check-in.


    Hopes this clears up some confusion.

    Cheers,

    Len K. Mar, P.Eng.
    President
    E-data Solutions.
     
    lmar, May 13, 2005
    #19
  20. ksbawa

    matt Guest

    wrote in @z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:
    The poster asked specifically about PDMWorks, and the other answers were
    given with his question in mind. I'm sorry you think this shows a lack of
    understanding.

    DBWorks sounds interesting. Since you are a salesman, why don't you give us
    pricing?
     
    matt, May 13, 2005
    #20
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