I have been using Solidworks 2009 PDM for a number of months, storing data during development. The company that I work for (a startup) has recently adopted some standards regading revision levels and I would like to change the revision scheme under PDM to these new standards.
What things should I be concerned about, and what actions should I take to make this transition as smooth as possible?
===============================================================
The current revision scheme has a list of PRIMARY revisions like this:
X1
X2
X3
......
X99
A
B
C
D (Skipping O I Q X Z)
E
....
Y
AA
BB
.....
YY
=====================================
I would like to change it to
PRIMARY LIST SECONDARY LIST
X 00
A 01
B 02
C .......
D 99
...
Y
Dangers are 2 that I can think of;
- autodetect next revision
- rollback
Can't think of any best practices.
Adding the secondary scheme is a non-issue.
X
X1
X2
X3
X4
----
X99 (remove from here backwards any unused X(n) series, see below)
A
B
C
D (skipping O, I, Q, S & X) you confused S & Z
You only have a minor issue since Alpha characters are still used.
Do you know what the highest X(n) revision is/was (X7, X8, ...)?
If so, in Revision Scheme, remove the unused X(n) revisions starting from the next highest X(n) rev. This will shorten your list. Do not leave gaps.
If rolling back is going to be needed these X(n)revisions will have to remain. If you don't feel rolling back is going to be needed then remove all of the X(n) revisions.
However, if you remove all of the X(n) revisions, then when the time comes to roll an X(n) revision you will be prompted for the next revision. The system will not be able to autodetect the next logical revision. This is a one time nuance, once in the new scheme the autodetect feature will return.
You could remove all the X(n) revisions and then put them back in when you need to rollback.
hth