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What is best. Shared Parts location, or shared from another Assm

Question asked by Joseph Ankers on Mar 8, 2011
Latest reply on Mar 30, 2011 by Scott McFadden

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Some input would be great here is i have tried both, and they seem to work, however i am hoping someone who has alot of experiance in PDM will be able to advise.

Option 1

Use Parts and assemblies in there original "first" assemblies, and then any assemblies using these parts or sub assemblies then look at the first instance.

Option 2

All parts and sub assemblies are located in Parts, and sub assembly banks. and both (or more) aseemblies would then Shortcut to the parts bank.

Its really a question of should the original part or assembly be stored within a assembly or as a stand alone part?

Scott McFadden Mar 16, 2011 6:31 AM

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Joe,

Since you are setting up a vault, like it was mentioned before, folders are cheap.

But I remember from PDM training they frowned upon making your folders too

deep in structure. It makes sense to have your shared parts in their own folder.

Kind of like hardware and other purchased off the shelf type parts.

But I would get your hands on a PDM vault setup manual. If you don't already have one.

http://files.solidworks.com/Supportfiles/SW_Installation_Guide/2011/English/install_guide.pdf

See the reply in context

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Scott McFadden Mar 8, 2011 9:43 AM
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Joe,
If you are talking about directory structure I vote
that the parts and associated assemblies be files together in the vault.
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John Matrishon Mar 8, 2011 9:52 AM
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Joseph, I imagine you are talking Project Folders.

I would think about how you would be looking for the files if you didn't have the part number and had to search manually.

Also remember that the more Project folders you have, the better performance you'll get.

Don't create just 3 project folders called Assy, Parts, and Drawings

Come up with a logical stucture that everyone using the vault can understand, hold a meeting you'll be thankful you did!

Remember this is very important data you are controlling, you want to think long term usage.
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- Joseph Ankers @ John Matrishon on Mar 8, 2011 10:28 AM
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  sorry guys maybe i didnt not quite explaine the problem well enought. we are setting up a new PDM vault.
  
  we have folders such as.
  
  Products
  
       Product A
  
       Product B
  
  and so on.
  
  Now if Product A and Product B shared a part or a sub-assm. If Product "A" was build First Product B would "shortcut" to a shared part or sub assembly, which would actually be in Product A.
  
  or should i have the Vault As.
  
  Products
  
       Product A
  
       Product B
  
  Assemblies
  
       "here are the origanal sub assemblies for all products"
  
  Parts
  
       "here are the Parts for the above sub assembly"
  
  So both product A and product B both "look" at the Part folders.
  
  the reason for doing this is that, if we have 10 products all sharing a single part - who knows where the original "non-shortcuted" version is.
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  - John Matrishon @ Joseph Ankers on Mar 8, 2011 10:50 AM
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    Why not create another folder for shared parts? Folders are cheap, don't restrict yourself? Plus you can always change project folders easily.
    
    What happens if a part starts off as just in one assembly, then you decide later to use it elsewhere?
    
    I think you may be overthinking the shortcut icon.
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    - Joseph Ankers @ John Matrishon on Mar 8, 2011 10:56 AM
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      Thats what i ment,
      
      a folder for all Shared parts within that product range. Like a Part bank that has All of the "origianls" in.
      
      The idea would be that.
      
      All parts/sub assemblies, go into the "shared" folder, which the Assemblies are made of.
      
      i need to overthink it because i need to Write a work procedure for Others, with explinations.
      
      I think it will work fine and i have tested it, but i just want to make sure there are or adverse effects!
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      - John Matrishon @ Joseph Ankers on Mar 8, 2011 11:04 AM
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        only adverse affects are creating large project folders, this slows down the vault. Also, you can't have two folders with the same name.
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      - Kenneth Barrentine @ Joseph Ankers on Mar 8, 2011 11:13 AM
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        this has been discussed before but just a reminder, projects have only 2 functions.
        
        1) ability to find something without the need to use search tool (requires p/n's with minimal amount of intelligence).
        2) performance, just like windows starts to crawl with a couple thousand files in one folder so does pdmw, only more so. i would limit to 500~1000 max.
        
        i've attached a few jpeg's.
        although it might seem overkill it makes finding things very easy.
        
        one thing in the jpegs is the use of numbers in actual project name to force sort order.
        kind of nice to have this ability but it can be somewhat of a pain.
        
        the documents project is where all the drawings are located.
        it's very nice to see this clean list.
        Attachments
        3_ProjectStructureUsingActual.jpg102.2 KB
        1_Initial View.jpg37.4 KB
        2_ProjectStructureUsingDesc.jpg102.8 KB
        4_Results.jpg110.0 KB
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        Joseph Ankers @ Kenneth Barrentine on Mar 9, 2011 4:54 AM
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        Sub Deviding the folders seem like a great idea, thanks for the tip,
        
        However in your Structure, you have just your Drawings in one file, Parts/Assm in another i take it?
        
        I was planning on just Using a Structure where the Drawings are just located with the parts/Assemblies.
        
        However you have a choice.
        
        For example.
        
        Like Capture222 attahced - All original parts in the Product folder. Any new product wanting to share a part or sub assembly can "shortcut" to this folder (in long term can make locating the origial hard)
        
        Or like Capture333
        
        Where you have a Parts and assembly bank (which will be Sub-foldered to 0000-0500, 0500-1000 (as discussed before)
        
        The originals (non-shortcut are Kept In the Parts bank or is sub assembly, in the Sub assembly bank)
        
        Product A now uses the shortcuts
        
        Im planning on using the second way. this is what i wanted to know if anyone was using this with any negitive effects. (also just the drawing being attached to the part)
        Attachments
        Capture3333.JPG59.2 KB
        Capture222.JPG69.2 KB
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      - Jiral Parikh @ Joseph Ankers on Mar 8, 2011 11:12 AM
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        You can sub-devide shared folder as well and separate parts and sub-assemblies. In fact, if you gonna have lot of parts, further sub-devide that also.
        We have all parts of vault in "details" folder. "details" folder is sub-devided in group of thousand parts. like "6205000 - 6206000", "6206000 - 6207000" and so on.
        They are easy to find this way.
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      - Scott McFadden @ Joseph Ankers on Mar 16, 2011 6:31 AM
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        Joe,
        Since you are setting up a vault, like it was mentioned before, folders are cheap.
        But I remember from PDM training they frowned upon making your folders too
        deep in structure. It makes sense to have your shared parts in their own folder.
        Kind of like hardware and other purchased off the shelf type parts.
        But I would get your hands on a PDM vault setup manual. If you don't already have one.
        
        http://files.solidworks.com/Supportfiles/SW_Installation_Guide/2011/English/install_guide.pdf
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Hardie Johnson Mar 10, 2011 5:54 PM
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I keep common parts in their own directory called "SolidworksShared" Unique parts go into a folder with the assembly and drawings. Modified commonn parts get a part number and are stored with the assembly.
I would never grab a unique part from another assembly and use it as is somewhere else withour renaming it.
"just my way"
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- Joseph Ankers @ Hardie Johnson on Mar 16, 2011 6:26 AM
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  thanks Scott i had seen that, good guide,
  
  i think i am going to go for the option with a "all parts/asm bank" split into 500 part splits. where the "originals" are kept, give another option of being able to find a Part by number easy to which we wouldnt have before.
  
  Thanks for you input guys.
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  - Scott McFadden @ Joseph Ankers on Mar 16, 2011 6:32 AM
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    Your welcome Joe,
    I am glad you found a method that works for you.
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    - Joseph Ankers @ Scott McFadden on Mar 29, 2011 6:08 AM
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      Hi guys sorry to bump this, but i have now come across a new problem with this.
      
      Its fine if you want to have all of your "parts" in a Part Bank.
      
      But if you want a Assembly bank. How do you stop the Sub-assemblies Treeing inside each other? making them out of order and hard to find.
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      - Scott McFadden @ Joseph Ankers on Mar 29, 2011 7:36 AM
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        Joe,
        When you say treeing inside of each other are you talking about within the session
        of Solidworks? or in the vault?
        In the vault there is the advanced search inside of a session of solidworks at the very top
        of the feature manager is a filter command line. If you know the file name of the subassembly
        or part you can type it in there and it will filter out whatever isn't matching with what you are typing.
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        Joseph Ankers @ Scott McFadden on Mar 29, 2011 8:59 AM
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        Sorry Scott im not sure if i made it clear what i mean.
        
        My new vault set up is split into 2 sections,
        
        Manufacturing (which has the assemblies for manufacture).
        
        And a parts and assembly bank where there parts and assemblies used within the manufacturing section are kept (the originals)
        
        But when i keep Assemblies in the bank is where the problem occures, because if i put a assembly in there, and then put some sub assemblies in there aswell. (all of these i want to be available for use in other assemblies) but PDM realises that in the Manufacturing section the Sub-assemblies belong in each other, so it puts them in a Tree. when because this is a bank i just want them to be just flat.
        
        if that makes sence. if not ill try and demonstrate.
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        Scott McFadden @ Joseph Ankers on Mar 29, 2011 9:26 AM
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        Joe,
        I think I understand what you are saying.
        Are you talking about how PDM when it trees the where used linking you want to be flat?
        In other words, almost like these subassemblies have not where used?
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        Joseph Ankers @ Scott McFadden on Mar 30, 2011 3:34 AM
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        yes but only for the "parts/assm bank sections"
        
        Its hard to try and explain it. unless you can see it. Because in the "bank" bank you need all the sub assemblies "individually" but if they have sub assemblies inside them they need to be a shortcut to the actual one in the bank. ill try and explane it below, (s) represents a Shortcut symbol.
        
        Manufactuing
        
        Assem1
             (s)Assem2
                      (s)Part1
                      (s)Part2
                      (s)Part3
             (s)Assem3
                      (s) Assm4
                            (s)Part5
                            (s)Part6
                      (s)Assm5
                            (s)Part7
                            (s)Part8
        
        Parts and Assem Bank
        
        Assem2
                      (s)Part1
                      (s)Part2
                      (s)Part3
        
        Assem3
                      (s) Assm4
                            (s)Part5
                            (s)Part6
                      (s)Assm5
                            (s)Part7
                            (s)Part8
        
        Assm4
                            (s)Part5
                            (s)Part6
        
        Assm5
                            (s)Part7
                            (s)Part8
        
        Part1
        Part2
        Part3
        Part4
        Part5
        Part6
        Part7
        Part8
        
        we are thinking about putting sub assemblies and parts in seperate files. the "parts" are easy to do as when you have them on there own they have no "where used" the problem as discussd is the Sub assemblies because the way i have the parts and assembly bank above does not work because they want to go back to the same as in the "Manufactuing" Tree.
        
        This layout for example if i wanted to use assembly 3 in another desgin it would be easy to locate and i can just drag it in to my new desgin. where as i would have to search in tha manufactuing to find it.
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        Scott McFadden @ Joseph Ankers on Mar 30, 2011 8:16 AM
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        Joe,
        I know in thoery what you are trying to do.
        I don't remember from the beginning of the thread if the vault is something your
        company is new to, but remember that PDM can not be setup exactly like windows explorer.
        What I mean by that is in workgroup and I believe to some degree in Enterprise as well
        that duplicated names are not allowed whether it be files names or folder names.
        Looking at your example you have both. The vault will not allow that.
        The only way this can be accomplished is to have 2 seperate vaults.
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