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Seeking Advice: How to Keep Data Sets Separate

Question asked by Rob Condotta on Mar 24, 2009
Latest reply on Mar 27, 2009 by 1-YJ1IM

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Our site has a unique situation. Our office has been taken over by another company however we still have a close relationship with the old company. It's kind of like we have two different companies under one roof. Although the products of both companies are similar, and share common components, we need to have two separate inventories. So an M6 x 20 screw will have two part numbers, one for company A one for company B. Each part number stored in separate areas of the building. Parts for company A must never be used in an assembly for company B.

I'm looking for advice on how to keep the CAD files straight. We currently have a design library for off the shelf components like fasteners. Company A part numbers are custom properties in the library models. I figured for company B I'd create a new library B complete with company B part numbers.

I'm concerned that the other CAD users will use a part from library A in a company B assembly. How do I prevent this? They have a hard enough time figuring out when to take ownership of a part; but: I don't want to have to babysit them. Is it possible to have two separate concurrent vaults? When I'm working on something for company A, log into vault A; when working on something for company B, I log into company B?

Any thoughts????

Cheers,

Rob

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Troy Peterson Mar 24, 2009 6:53 PM
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Yes, you are allowed one vault per seat of Pro or Prem, so if you have 10 seats you can run 10 different vaults.

I would suggest to run each vault on its own server.
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- Rob Condotta @ Troy Peterson on Mar 24, 2009 6:58 PM
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  Troy Spencer wrote:
  
  Yes, you are allowed one vault per seat of Pro or Prem, so if you have 10 seats you can run 10 different vaults.
  
  I would suggest to run each vault on its own server.
  
  If I understand correctly that would mean each seat has it's own personal vault. We would need to allow each seat access to any vault at any time. Also I don't think that multiple servers are an option.
  
  Thanks for the reply!
  
  Rob
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  - Troy Peterson @ Rob Condotta on Mar 24, 2009 7:39 PM
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    Rob,
    
    Let me clarify; you don't need to run a vault for each user unless that's what you want to do. I was just letting you know how many vaults you are allowed to run at one time, so in the example before you can run 1 through 10 vaults legally.
    
    You can run multiple vaults on one server but it's easier if they are on separate systems for updating and speed reasons. When I say server I mean any desktop machine hooked up to a network with TCP/IP connections, you don't need to be running windows server, PDMW will run on XP.
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    - Jeff Holliday @ Troy Peterson on Mar 24, 2009 8:01 PM
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      We use PDMWorks Workgroup. I don't think there is a limit of 1 vault per license. Also, the specs I have been given state that there can only be one vault per server. The licensing would therefore allow different vaults to be accessed 1 at a time but they would need to be on different servers. The vault server software can only be on one machine per license but that license can access other vault locations.
      
      Troy - I have often wondered about the possibility of having multiple vaults on the same server. You may be correct, but that's not what the info states.
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      - Rob Condotta @ Jeff Holliday on Mar 25, 2009 3:20 PM
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        Jeff,
        
        Thanks for the thoughts. I think I'll contact my VAR about multiple vaults on the same server.
        
        Cheers,
        
        Rob
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        Joy Garon @ Rob Condotta on Mar 25, 2009 4:30 PM
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        Hello Rob -
        
        As Jeff Holliday noted earlier in his post:
        You CANNOT run multiple Workgroup PDM vaults on the same server.
        The vault server service can only service one vault.
        
        Best Regards,
        Joy
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1-YJ1IM Mar 24, 2009 8:23 PM
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I see some potential problems with this solution. Yes you can have multiple vaults.The problem is a client can only be connected to one vault at a time. I understand that you have common parts that are shared between the companies. Would these files be in both vaults so that a user would not have an assembly with parts from two vaults? If so, then how do you keep these common parts in sync?

Another possible solution would be to have one vault and control access so that engineers in company A would not see the components that are used by company B and engineers in company B would not see the components used by company A.
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- Troy Peterson @ 1-YJ1IM on Mar 24, 2009 8:43 PM
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  We keep common parts in a directory on the network called "Toolbox Parts" PDMW treats all the files in this directory as non revision controled parts and does not check them in.
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  - Rob Condotta @ Troy Peterson on Mar 25, 2009 3:19 PM
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    Troy Spencer wrote:
    
    We keep common parts in a directory on the network called "Toolbox Parts" PDMW treats all the files in this directory as non revision controled parts and does not check them in.
    
    So are the files in the Toolbox Parts folder read only. What if I need to add a configuration to one of the screw files becuase I now need a long length. How do I ensure that my updated file is not overridden by my co-worker? How do my co-worker see that the file has been updated?
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    - Troy Peterson @ Rob Condotta on Mar 26, 2009 3:40 PM
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      Rob Condotta wrote:
      
      So are the files in the Toolbox Parts folder read only. What if I need to add a configuration to one of the screw files becuase I now need a long length. How do I ensure that my updated file is not overridden by my co-worker? How do my co-worker see that the file has been updated?
      
      This is a separate folder for non-revision controlled common parts with full rights. This is not a directory for the actual toolbox parts created thru the toolbox add-in.
      
      If you are the PDMW admin you can go to the vault admin tool and click on the "Standard Libraries" tab and read the first three lines of text which describes the concept of non-revision controlled parts. If you want to use this you must check "Disable check in of documents" and optionally "display referenced files in a separate project"
      
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- Rob Condotta @ 1-YJ1IM on Mar 25, 2009 3:15 PM
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  Wayne Matus wrote:
  
  .... I understand that you have common parts that are shared between the companies. Would these files be in both vaults so that a user would not have an assembly with parts from two vaults? If so, then how do you keep these common parts in sync?...
  
  Wayne
  
  Actually, the situation is kinda the opposite. Users need access to both data sets (vaults). If there is an identical part in each data set they need to be treated as different parts with different part numbers. (Example: An M6 x 20mm lg SHCS is used in both companies products, but in company A its part number is 123456, in company B its part number is 456789.) I don't have a problem with a model for an M6 x 20mm lg SHCS residing in each data set, 'cause as far as inventory is concerned they are two separate things. I just need to make suse that the CAD users use the right part in the right assembly.
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1-YJ1IM Mar 27, 2009 12:11 PM
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Rob,

You can configure Toolbox to clone the standard. As an example you could copy the Ansi Inch to Company A and to Company B. Configure Company A to add it's part numbers and do the same thing for Company B. You can configure Toolbox so that the people in Company A can only use it's standard and people in Company B to use it's standard. This would make it so people in Company A would use their part numbers and Company B people would use theirs.

Then follow Troy's suggestion and not check in Toolbox parts so that you will not be checking duplicate Toolbox files.
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Seeking Advice: How to Keep Data Sets Separate

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