Continue to Site

Welcome to MCAD Central

Join our MCAD Central community forums, the largest resource for MCAD (Mechanical Computer-Aided Design) professionals, including files, forums, jobs, articles, calendar, and more.

Add rev. to the assembly and part name

DIGGSJD

New member
I'm using WF 3.0 and would like to add a revision to the file name that is already in use. Ex. 0702-513.asm_1. 1 is the revision level. My kicker is I already have have 1,000 or more files drawn and they are linked to eachother. Meaning if I would change a prt. file name that is in the 0702-513.asm to show the revision addition. WF 3.0 can't find it because it's still looking for the old prt file. Also another kicker is these revisions change frequently. Please help, I need an solution by March 2013.
 
There's no easy solution unless you are using some sort of PDM software. You can rename a file consistently if you open all the assemblies and drawings that use that part in session, then rename it. But if you (like me) have a hundred of assemblies using the part that's going to be renamed then it's going to be a tough work.
 
You can't make a change after the first dot, PDM or not. Better to use a parameter in the part.

i need to add a revision to the files so non wf users can make sure that the file is the latest...there are a lot of asm that use a lot of prt files, i'd rather not keep having to rename them...i don't really use parameters, can you walk me through it
 
If they are not using WF what are they using???? WF will always retrieve the newest version unless you specifically look for earlier versions. Renaming parts in WF is definitely NOT recommended practice.

You really need a PDM system for want you want to do. $$$ and a major PITA implementing it.
 
How are they opening pro e files in autocad? If your exporting a drawing then put the rev in the file name when you export and it should be good.
 
In my view you need a more robust rev control policy. Do some digging in the help, PTC's website, here and at ptcuser.org on the use of parameters in part & assemblies and reporting them on your drawings. You should then create a drawing of your part or assy (which you need anyway to export to Acad as DXF or DWG) and the revision should be reported on the drawing in the title block. You can also then rename the DXF / DWG file to include the revision. You can automate this, but it requires a pretty involved mapkey and some batch files.

Instruct your WF users to keep the title block up to date and instruct your ACAD users to look in the title block for the proper rev.
 
We just use WF 3.0 for 3d software only and we use autocadd 2002 for all our 2d drawings. The autcadd users aren't opening the WF files they are just making sure the WF files are the most up to date files. So the problem I'm thinking about in my head is if we would get a new WF model with revision B but our autocadd drawing is still on revision A. We don't have anyway to show that the WF model is on revision B to the non WF users.
 
Gotcha. Don't think there's a real easy solution. The one thing I can think of is with each revision you save it as a copy ie partgizmo-a.prt is rev a, partgizmo-b.prt is rev b and so on. Works with parts and assemblies. If its a top level assembly then no worries, rename and move on, however if it is part of an assembly you'd have to replace the old part with the new part, hence the tedious section of the task. Is it the end of the world? Not really unless you're changing thousands of parts a day but it gets old after a while. I've done this in the past when I misnamed a whole series of parts for an assembly I was making because I wasn't paying attention and named them after the wrong machine. It was a pain but a half hour later and it was done. That was for around 15 parts so one in an assembly shouldn't take long.

Maybe someone else will have a better solution.
 
The only way we managed this sort of thing was to save a copy of the old WF file with the version, before revising - this meant that we didn't need to change xxx assemblies, and that it was easy to see if there was a later revision of a part, ie. just look in the old issues directory to see what revision the part is at, if it's not there it's still at revision A.
 
I'm trying to avoid changing thousands of parts daily...I had an idea myself but I can't find the config setting...If you save a file and don't delete the old files then you are left with a copy ie. partgizmo.prt.5 and after saved partgizmo.prt.6...I'm just going to treat the .6 as the revision but like I said I can't find the config setting to display the .6...Something else I just thought about is what if I'm on save .6 but my revision is 1

Seems like I'm finding more questions than answers!
 
The only way we managed this sort of thing was to save a copy of the old WF file with the version, before revising - this meant that we didn't need to change xxx assemblies, and that it was easy to see if there was a later revision of a part, ie. just look in the old issues directory to see what revision the part is at, if it's not there it's still at revision A.

so you save every file and don't delete anything?
 
well i just figured out how to show the .6 in the file name...it was in the control panel settings...i'm left with the problem of starting with a .0 for a brand new file name though
 
You are really making life hard on yourself by breaking the associativity between the models and drawings. That's how we used Pro/e 20 years ago before it had a drafting package. I would never go back. The extra work you are doing manually and the chance of making mistakes would more than pay for some more seats of Pro/E.
 

Sponsor

Articles From 3DCAD World

Back
Top