File Management - Advice sought

Hey all,


Here's the situation. Until now we've had a max of two engineers at a time. The file system was a mess withno part numbers used just vague names. Folders were ambiguous. We have now adopted the ATA 100 sytem as used in the aircraft industry. This number sytem covers all the workings in a hovercraft design we are working on so is quite suitable.


Recent decision has been made to have a single server with an ATA100 folder. Within that folder are chapter folders, ie 00-assemblies, 53-structure, 71-engine. Within these folders we can have part numbers ie 71-20-1021 which is an engine mount. Revison numbers and Mould Codes folow.


Anyway, back on topic.


We now have upto 5 engineers at a time.


One major assembly on the server, with several people designing various components. Sometimes they need to reference the assy, sometimes they don't. Currently they workwithin their own 'designer'folder ie ''designer 3'. When done i assign part numbers, shift into the ata100 folder, then update assy to include part. But what happens when they need to reference the main assy. currently they open it. Design from it but don't save it. however they save their individual component.


How do i setup something which allows them to design within assemblies without affecting the assembly?


Where do i start?


Can someone explin this colaborative environment thing.


Very new to Solidworks file managment so even the simplest of hints wold be appreciated.

Hello Ray,


I think that you are looking for something likethe multi-user environment. This is available in solidworksat the system options. Navigate: Tools => options => Collaberation. There you can enable the multi-user environment. (you have to activate this on every computer).


If you have activate this everyone can open the top assembly in read-only mode. If you want to change/ design some things you do that by right clicking the sub assy/part and select get write acces. After you change/design you save it. On the others computer they get an icon on the status bar (right lower corner). If they now reload the assy it will be updated with the changes the made.


If you want to open a sub assy while someone else is workingin it you get a warning that tells you who is editing the assy. If he/she is done they can save it and right click the sub assy and choose Make read-Only so you can open the latest version


In the past I was working with this option with 3 computers (2 other collegues) and it was working fine for us.


Please look at the help file carefully (topic: multi-user environment or collaboration options )or contact the your solidworks supplier about this.


With regards,


Joop


SW2006 SP5.1 / SW2007 SP4

Ray,


I've been in your shoes before... I hope you folks have PDMWorks. If not, look into it. It's worth the price and it's the easist to implement. First, develope a naming convension, i.e numbers only. something like the following XXXX = PROJECT NUMBER, XXXXXXXX PART NUMBER, The description and the rest have their own fields in PDMWorks. You will be able to set up directories, privilages, etc. It's quite simple. This will alow you to see what parts are checked out and by who, etc. You can use one of the computers as the Vault, or purchase another. It doesn't have to be a huge server. If you have any questions, let me know.


hope this helps


[email protected]

Cheers for relies guys.


We've adopted a number system which appears to be working well so far. We are planning to work without pdm for now at least so relying on disciplineand solidworks collab environment.





Ok some new questions but first some more background.


Here's a scenario. There are 10 parts, call them pt1, pt2, pt3 .....


There is one assembly, we'll call this assy1. Assy1 has all ten parts in it. Say pt2 & pt3 have features which reference Assy1.


Lets say another engineer wants to do some design work without interfering with Assy1 or the 10 parts. Maybe he wants to start a copied assy of assy1, make this assy2. He is also planning to modify pt2. After this we'd like to add Assy2 and pt2A to the servers part vault (we'll call it that for now)


How would you go about this?


One way i worked out today is..


With Assy1 open, go save, click references, highlight all, save all references and the Assy as Assy2 to another folder, say DESIGNER2 folder. Now designer #2 has a copy of the assy and all components in it. The designer makes changes to pt2 within Assy2. pt2 is saved as pt2A while Assy2 is open, this ensures it is pt2 that is called up in the assy.


Now to return the changed components to the server, Assy2 and pt2A are cut and paste into the server vault. All other parts in the Designer2 folder are deleted.


Now server has Assy1, Assy2, pt1, pt2, pt2A, pt3, pt4, pt5 . .....pt10. Next time Assy2 is opened though I have to go find all the original components that those copied to designer2 folder were a copy of. In this case with 10parts that aint so bad, but in reality there are many more parts in various subfolders etc.


How do you run a server, then have guys designing?


Do they take copies of everything to some external location where they can fiddle?


or do they just work in the server file system? This stuff is doing my head in.
Edited by: ray_t20

You are not using PDM Works obiously. You can do the same sinario with PDMWorks. However, when you check out Assy1 and Assy2, they will be checked out with the correct parts. Any chance of going to SW06, 07, 08 ? I say this because PDMWorks has improved since SW05.


good luck

Hello Ray


When you make a copy of assy1 to assy2 with all the parts you create a lot of directories and copies of parts. At a certain time it can becomedifficult to manage all these files


If I need to make a revision of a part which is used in a assy I work as follow. Copy the part to the new revision, for example pt2 to pt2a. When the assy is also getting a revision Icopy it too. (without the parts, the references of the parts are linked to the origenal parts). Then in assy2I replace pt2 with pt2A and save the assy2. When this is done I can make the changes to pt2A. This way I have the revision history of the part pt2. So in the directory are the folowing files now: assy1, assy2, pt1, pt2, pt2a, pt3 ..... (assy2 and pt2a can be in another directory if you prefer)


For coping, replacing and file managementI use Solidworks explorer 2007. I use this with files for SW2006 and SW2007 andI know that Solidworks explorer 2007 runs without any problem with SW2005 files. The explorer 2007 is much, much better than the 2005 version and it is a good alternative if you don't want to use a PDM system. Solidworks explorer is free and available for download on www.solidworks.com


With regards


Joop


SW2006SP5.1 & SW2007SP4.0

Oh brilliant. I tried sw explorer 2005 and thought it was pretty crap. Didn't realise 2007 explorer would work so will definitely try that. Thanks.





I'm keen to hear from anyone who has any info on how they're deisng files qare setup. Does everyone have access to the server. Do the deisngers make copies or work in orignial assys etc. Any stories fire away.

Hello,<?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />
Yes there exists a solution, CustomTools, a SolidWorks gold Partner.
With CustomTools, item codes can be automatically generated and files saved to the desired location, you just have to define where you want your files to be saved and CustomTools will do it automatically for you. The good thing about this add in is that you are able to generate sequence based on project or assemblies for example.
CustomTools works with databases, so that you are able to manage your data in unique way, the good thing is that via CustomTools, engineers are able to work together, as there is a server. For example Engineer X can work on part 1, and the file is updated with no delay to the rest of the team.
With the next version of CustomTools, CustomTools 2009, user are able to copy any file from SolidWorks, and new item number can be generated for those files.
Francois SIMON

I realize you stated before that pdm is not the way you want to go for now, but it would really solve all of these questions/issues you have. Pdmworks workgroup is a great tool and very simple to setup(assuming you have SW professional and above) it comes with this license. There is also the online tutorial for admins and users that will get you started very quickly. Fyi, pdm size will grow quite fast as you do checkins, I recommend extra hard drive space up front rather than getting it later.


There are online demos on SW website if you have not seen a demo yet, it would be useful I think.


Sorry for the broken record sound, but having been in the pdm arena for 14 years on 3 different cad systems, I couldn't say enough about it's benefit.





Good luck!

No broken record - thanks for your response. The boss is looking into buying new licenses so we'll probably end up with pdm works. Any more thoughts, advice etc welcome

We use a free software called SVN. It is integrated into Windows Explorer and works very well. But it will only prevent users for accidently overwriting each others work and it keeps a history of the files.


It has another advantage in that it is designed to transfer files securely over the internet.


Let me know if anyone would like further details.


Kevin

Interesting, what is the web addy? I would like to check it out.





thanks

We tried managing files manually for a while and when you depend on people to do the right thing (everytime) you are just setting yourself up for big problems. All it takes is one timecopying all the revised parts from a large assembly back into your vault and none of the old assemblies can be retrieved without major rework.The worst thing is if nobodyrealizes it and drawings are printed out and sent to vendors or manufacturingand they are not correct. You might not know about it until you get the actuall parts and then you could have several thousand scrap parts.You definately want your released drawingsto be 100% safe from accidental changes.


Iknow the thought ofa PDM can conjures up images offull time administrators andhours of phone support, just read some of the posts on this site alone. You might want to take a look atCheckOut 5.1as an alternative. It is easy to use and inexpensive.