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Unfamiliar Data Management software

M

markp

New member
I received an email message from a company called HCS. They were introducing me to their data management software called CheckOut 5.0. I went to their website to check it out. Says they have been working with PTC since the 80s. I have been using Pro/E since the middle 90s and I have never heard of this software.

Has anyone else heard of or used this software? If so, can you tell me about your experience?

The reason I ask is that our owner is balking at getting Intralink or PDMLink. He wants to hear about the alternative data management softwares that are out there.
 
I don't know about CheckOut 5.0, but if you are after some feedback on data management altnertives to PTC offerings, I've just started using Design Data Manager (DDM) from CSI.

I'm just getting into it but it seems to be pretty good so far. You can download a trial and the first license is free, although if you start to use it in anger, I'm not sure how easy it would be to jump ships. That said, it is generally rated well by users and my experience so far suggests its good solution. If you havn't already, have a search for it on this site, there are quite a few discussions about the same subject.

Sam


Edited by: SW
 
The HCS CheckOut program was created using unix scripting inside a Black and Decker company called Kwikset (door locks) back in the 80's. They just used it to manage their own Pro/e data and did nothave it on the market for sale. Then in the late 90's when the applications engineer that had designed it left Kwikset he rewrote it from the ground up to work in the Windows enviroment. It was then installedas a beta product at a few companiesand went through several revisionsfor about 10 years. The product has just recently been released for sale to the general public.


The basic conceptit uses to manage the Pro/E data is that when you are in a drawing and do the Pro/E "backup" command from the file menu to an empty directory, it will save a copy of everything needed by that drawing to bring it up again. Try it if you have never done it, you will get the format (.frm), parts (.prt), assemblies (.asm), drawing (drw) files in that directory.So CheckOut uses this feature in Pro/E when a drawing is ready to be released.


Then the CheckOut program uses the zip command to zip all the files in that directory up into one manageable file. The name of the zip file is your part number underscore revision (12345_a.zip). This file is then stored in a secured directory so that anytime in the future you can copy the contents of that file into a new directory and bring up the drawing just as it was when the zip file was first made.


CheckOut also hasa small MSAccess database that only keeps track ofthe transactions that take place such as Checking a file out and submitting it and releasing it.


This is the just a very basic description of how it works and a little history of where it came from.


I hope this helps,


Tracy
 
Thanks tracehae,

Does it have the Where Used function?

I am trying GoPDM, where there is such a function, but you have to build the link by yourself.
 
SW said:
I don't know about CheckOut 5.0, but if you are after some feedback data management altnertives to PTC offerings, I've just started using Design Data Manager (DDM) from CSI.
Click to expand...

DDM looked so good from the demo, that we asked for a quotation, but the company kindly told us that, as they are also distributors of CoCreate products and as CoCreate is now PTC, they are no more selling DDM to pro/engineer users... Too bad!

Paolo
 
We use DDM and it works great. Bought it before that wonderful relationship between CSI and PTC emerged. You can always buy it for your other CAD products. It will work great for those too (hmm?).
 
The HCS program does have the "Where Used" function. There is no special thing you have to do to have that functionality, it builds the databaseas you submit assemblies. It is by farthe easiest PDM program to use and install that I have ever seen anddoesn'tcost much either.
 
Hi orac,
That would be the same DDM.

As zpaolo indicated, when the company that develops DDM became a PTC reseller they agreed not to solicit new Pro/E-based customers who had active maintenance agreements with PTC. However, any existing Pro/E-based DDM users could continue to use the software without any issue.
In other words, the Pro/E integration was never stripped-out of DDM, but DDM became unavailable to new Pro/E-based users on active maintenance.

Regards,
Ewan

Edited by: esmith
 
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