Can someone just upload a screenshot of project and sub
project folders in vault so that I get a better idea of how it
alllooks when there are a lot of projects in the Vault.
cheers D
Here is a screen shot of our vault (I run a dual head display
soSolidworks is not visible). I'm not sure how familiar you
arewith PDMworks so I'll clarify that the orange items in the
vaultare locked out as 'read-only' by my lifecycle settings.
Thisprevents me from screwing up any design-controlled
parts/assembliesby accident. Please excuse the girly windows
wallpaper
Thanks Megan
That looks good. Can you give me some more advice please???
Is it possible to keep the drawing files in a subproject
folder oftheir own so that I don't have to do tedious search for
them.
As I understand it, if i check in a drawing file, all the
partfiles or assemblies are checked into the same folder or sub
folderand as I may have over 100 drawing files I would like to be
able tofind them with ease
cheers D
I believe you could, in theory handle your drawings this
way. I'm sure that there are people on the forum who
do. Personally i find it a bit inconvenient for the
followingreasons:
1. When you check in a whole assembly it is much easier to
selectone project for all of the documents (assemblies, parts,
drawings)than to select out all of the drawings and check them into
adifferent project. As far as I know there is no easy way
inthe check in dialog to select only drawings. You
certainlycould hand-select only the drawings but in an assembly
withhundreds of parts this gets very tedious.
2. Even if you do check all of the drawings into their
ownsubproject they will still appear as links attached to the
partsthat they reference. Your 'parts' project will look the
sameregardless of where the drawings are located in the vault.
3. While it is true that drawings would be easier to locate
andprint if they were all together in the same folder the batch
printutility can easily separate out and automate the printing of
all ofthe drawings in a project. (as an aside, when I set up
ourvault I set up each project with a subproject named
"'projectname' obsolete". We put all of our files that are
nolonger part of the main level assembly, or any ones that we
don'twant to batch print into this project. That way the
batchprint utility will not print them when printing the drawings
thatwe do want.)
See my repy to the topic
"PDM tools ???" in this forum. I think this is what you are
trying to do. Attached (I hope) is a screen shot of our vault. For
us, this works quite well.
Thanks Guys
That helps a lot, also do you check in documents from your
localdrive at the end of the day or on completion of the
project?Another thing I would like to ask is about when checking
out apart or an assembly, it creates another part file on
my localdrive, and depending on how many parts or assemblies I
check outthere could be quite alot of files left on my local drive.
Whatwould I do to set up PDMworks to minimise the number of files
on mylocal drive??
cheers D
I tend to check in documents whenever it is convenient during
theday. But I am always careful that everything is checked
backin at the end of each day. It is surprisingly easy to
forgetto check something in when you are working on a large number
ofprojects. The other reason that I am careful about this
isthat I purge my 'working copies' folder every friday using the
'myPDMworks workgroup cleanup' utility. I find that if I
don'tpurge this folder all of the parts that were not changed from
anassembly and hence are not deleted on check-in really stack up
inthe 'working copy' folder
Our vault is set up a little differently that those listed
here.
We manufacture wire decks like what go on warehouse shelving.
Basically the wire decks you see at Lowes or Home Depot or Sam's
Club. Many of our customers order custom size decks. Usually the
custom aspect is in the support type, or grid pattern, so we end up
with many decks having the same outside dimensions. As a result we
have many common parts in out products.
Our system has the Drawings and Assemblies checked into a project
folder of their own, and the componenet parts go into a common
directory. Any custom project specific components are stored with
the main assembly in its project folder. Links point to the
components from there.
Attachments
That looks good. Can you give me some more advice please???
Is it possible to keep the drawing files in a subproject folder oftheir own so that I don't have to do tedious search for them.
As I understand it, if i check in a drawing file, all the partfiles or assemblies are checked into the same folder or sub folderand as I may have over 100 drawing files I would like to be able tofind them with ease
cheers D
1. When you check in a whole assembly it is much easier to selectone project for all of the documents (assemblies, parts, drawings)than to select out all of the drawings and check them into adifferent project. As far as I know there is no easy way inthe check in dialog to select only drawings. You certainlycould hand-select only the drawings but in an assembly withhundreds of parts this gets very tedious.
2. Even if you do check all of the drawings into their ownsubproject they will still appear as links attached to the partsthat they reference. Your 'parts' project will look the sameregardless of where the drawings are located in the vault.
3. While it is true that drawings would be easier to locate andprint if they were all together in the same folder the batch printutility can easily separate out and automate the printing of all ofthe drawings in a project. (as an aside, when I set up ourvault I set up each project with a subproject named "'projectname' obsolete". We put all of our files that are nolonger part of the main level assembly, or any ones that we don'twant to batch print into this project. That way the batchprint utility will not print them when printing the drawings thatwe do want.)
Hopefully this helps with your decision.
Megan
That helps a lot, also do you check in documents from your localdrive at the end of the day or on completion of the project?Another thing I would like to ask is about when checking out apart or an assembly, it creates another part file on my localdrive, and depending on how many parts or assemblies I check outthere could be quite alot of files left on my local drive. Whatwould I do to set up PDMworks to minimise the number of files on mylocal drive??
cheers D
We manufacture wire decks like what go on warehouse shelving. Basically the wire decks you see at Lowes or Home Depot or Sam's Club. Many of our customers order custom size decks. Usually the custom aspect is in the support type, or grid pattern, so we end up with many decks having the same outside dimensions. As a result we have many common parts in out products.
Our system has the Drawings and Assemblies checked into a project folder of their own, and the componenet parts go into a common directory. Any custom project specific components are stored with the main assembly in its project folder. Links point to the components from there.