Which product to choose

[MFegenbush]

I work for a small company, and have had little need for a database
package, however, recently, we hired a new engineer. This raises
questions about how to operate our engineering team (previously
consisting of just me).



What I would like to know, and have had little luck fumbling through
the jargon, is what product do I need to install so that I don't have
to worry about different versions of projects running around?
Intralink? Windchill?



Next. Would I need to install this program on our server?
Would my licenses of Pro also need to be run from the same server?



Any information would be appreciated.



MFegenbush

 

[looslib]

With the latest version of Intralink, V8, it is based on Windchill, just like PDMLink. It just doesn't have the full power of PDMLink.


Servers for the master data is a definite. Servers for the licenses depends on your licensing of Pro/E.

 

[AHA-D]

This is a BIG company, they have Intralink, but it's not active in the department I work for. Yet there are different people in different countries working on the products. Until some months ago there could be as much as 5 people in this local unit alone working together, without problems, I can say.


I agree that a document management system certainly has values but you don't need it as a "de facto" standard because there's more than one person accessing the CAD directory. Normal file management goes a long way.


Alex

 

[BigD]

Why not check out some other PDM systems that may be more appropriate to a small company? We started up with 3 Pro/E seats and no data management at all. We all had experience of Intralink and Windchill at previous companies, but eventually went for a PDM system that was not so resource hungry.The one we bought runs on MSDE, which is the free version of SQL server. You can install it on a PC running XP Pro, rather than a server box, if you're worried about overheads.


There are a few of these PDM systems that I have found, but if you want any info on the one we chose, Design Data Manager (www.designdatamanager.com), let me know

 

[MFegenbush]

So, what I'm hearing is that Intralink may not be the solution that the
reseller would tell me it is. However, PDM Link may be something
to look into.



A little more elaboration on our setup. My boss would like to
implement a master drawing file directory on our file server. I
have no problem with this except that he would not follow the operating
procedure that would need to be in place to make this work with just a
file mangement system. I would like something that's, honestly, a
little difficult to use. This would make it so that he must be
very conscious of what he is doing and not check out all the drawings
so that the rest of us couldn't do our job. This would be most
evident in the check out a drawing on Monday, check out a different
drawing on Tuesday, etc, but never check them back in.



I've pretty much settled on whatever I choose, he won't use it.
Honestly, he won't use the network printer, he has a direct plug in to
a printer in his office.



If I had any hair to spare, I'd be pulling it out.



MFegenbush

 

[SSLaser]

Alex,


Do you mind shedding some light on how you are able to have so many people share work on a project without problems? I work for a small (but growing) company without PDM for the moment, and it seems whenever two or more people work on a product, everything falls apart.


Peter

 

[caddie]

I would not rule intralink out. I have used it for 5 years now and on all sites I have seen (and that's plenty!) it works just as it should. No real strange errors or downtimes, and the users can take just a half day to a day trainingcourse to getup and running. Also remember that you can go from intralink to pdmlink butnot the other way around.


At my current company we have intralinkwith close to 100 users connected, and it works fine (I am incad-support, so I know). We have a small add-onthat auto-converts drawings to TIFF and places them in a separatearchivesoftware. This would be the place for your boss to review the drawings (once released) without tampering with the ProE data.

 

[BigD]

We used our intralink server for 60+ users, with Windchill sitting on top, linking various intralink servers across the world, so manufacturing etc could accessany data. When we started up our own company with 3 users, our PTC guy suggested Intralink was overkill. Got an Oracle database administrator on staff?


If you've got 2 Pro/E users. Intralink/PDMLink isn't the only option. DDM automatically creates pdf (or HPGL) viewables of drawings, screen grabs of the 3D model, which shows up when you highlight the item in your search return and also a 3D viewable, if you've got a 3D viewer on your PC. Even a CEO could manage to handle this! Plus it keeps the bosses fingers out of the CAD data.


DDM is quite low maintenance. I'm engineering, not CAD admin and I've been doing all the maintenance for 5 active users and frankly, there isn't a great deal to do. Floating licence mechanisms, ECNs are all there.


It is not the only package out there, so look further than link products.

 

[Pro E Bureau]

MFegenbush



Have you been told about IBM PLM On Demand? No servers. No set up. Minimal web based training for users. Basically, IBM do all the hard stuff. You can choose how you use it as it is a subscription based service. Ask your PTC or reseller rep.


[url]http://www.ptc.com/appserver/mkt/products/home.jsp?&k=33 10[/url]


Why not attend a PTC PLM On Demand web demo to find out more?


[url]http://www.ptc.com/appserver/wcms/events/series.jsp?&im_ dbkey=31190&icg_dbkey=141[/url]


Hope this gives you some more options.

 

[IH275]

Intralink is a very good solution for even a small company.


The majority of my clients are between 1 and 10 users. And they are relly satisfied.


Since i do the administration part at this client i have a pretty good experience of huw much time i takes to administer the system.


An example i system with 2 ProE users. I quess they buy ~20 hour of consulting from me every year. Which is less than they spent on thee printers. If there is need for a major upgrade then there might be 40-60h more.


Hope this will give you some clue of the system admin costs.


For a brand new installation of 3.4 or 8.0 we calculate ~40h set up time. Then of course there will be the time to load all the old proe data. But that is alvays customer specific.


/M

 

[dawie]

We are running ProE and opted for a 3rd party PDM system that works with any software -including ProE. And it is really simple to use. Check out www.pulsesystems.net This is cheap compared to Intralink or Windchill!