Release levels in ilink 3.4 - Process

[harichennai]

Hi all,


How are you all managing the release levels in Ilink 3.4? Please discuss the best practises and problems faced...


I have1 specific questions as well..


What is the process to have a new revision?


In my office, we have WIP, REL as 2 release levels


Wewill demote first from commonspace, then in WIP we will work and check in (Changing the revision to next is done manually in Workspace, how ever it is actually possible to check in to same revision also!). I think it is not a good practise..


Hope we exchange a good deal ..


thanks

 

[apekim]

Hi Hari,


First off configure your workspace to sort items withassemblies first, then drawings, finally parts.


Also configure the other setting(forgot the name of it) in this order: type name, name, revision, version.


configure column display to be: Workspace status, name (Part number), revision, version, descriptions, whatever else you need here as well.





How you manage the release of items in Intralinkreally depends onthe procedures in your company. Specifically, who will bedesigning, checking, and releasing files (drawings, parts, and assemblies in Intralink). These rights are configured roles in Intralink.


Intralink offersa lot of flexibility. In a simple typical engineering scenario you would have designers, detailers, and engineers. The designers would create the part and assembly files.The designer would then check the files into Intralink with a WIP status and a Revision. The detailer can then start (or finish) the detail drawing at a WIP status. After all items are complete the Engineer would review all the drawings. If everything is good, the engineer would change the status on the files to Released. This establishes the baseline for the product and files.


What I like about Intralink is the ability formultiple users to check out the same file, it really makes concurrent engineering simple. Intralink also allows design freedom to check out files and just start making changes to them without any regard to the revision or release status.Once you decide it is time to re-identfy components, you can easily do so by just selecting the modified parts and replacing them with new components...all from the workspace window.


But, you must also have some rules. Although not required, users that intend on changing a part (to eventually up-reving, or just in a concurrent engineering environment) should be locking the parts by settingan "intent to modify" statuson the parts. This indicates to other users that someone is making a change.


With regards to your comment about checking in to the same revision: I really like this feature because there are times when this functionality is very helpful. Example: Lets saya user created a purchased part in Pro/E and did not put in all the fine detail...maybe it was unnecessary. And when you reused this item in another design you realize that your design really needs to have that extra detail or mounting provision in that model. Well you can easily check it out, change it, and check it back in at the same revision. Also, if you were making some parameter updates to a drawing file, and you are really not chanaging the detail data on the drawing then you can do so a check it back in at the same revision.In any Pro/E file you may decide that you need to add parameters to a file tofor some other reason orWhat if a user put a slightly smallerhole in a part than intended, but the detail drawing called out the correct hole size. You can easily change the part at the same revision and check it back in.What I am getting at is there is moredata contained in a Pro/E file than what is shown on a drawing. As long as you dont change what is shown on a drawing thenit is still valid.


I hope this helps,


Mike