Good day,
The two departments of our company that access the drawings coming out of our design department have experienced issue where the drawing files we are looking at do not match the same drawings when viewed on a designer's computer. I (in the manufacturing department) access the actual .slddrw files and open them in SolidWorks, whereas the service department goes online while in house, accesses the job they are about to be sent out to install at the customer facility, then goes offline again before they leave. They then view the drawings in eDrawings. And yes, WE ALWAYS GET THE LATEST VERSION.
Because I am not in the design department, I am not able to vouch for their order of operations, However, I do know that there is not a specific order of operations that they follow (particularly regarding PDM use) when releasing a job for production. I also know that the design department does not always fully rebuild all parts and assemblies before release and suspect that may be part of the issue. From my perspective (not knowing exactly how or in what sequence PDM functions are being used) I suspect that an incorrect order of operations may be at least a partial cause of our issues.
I found the following thread describing a similar problem but I'm not sure the answers provided apply to my case. I am part of a group that was put together to diagnose and solve the problems we are encountering, so please offer any advice you have that may be relevant. I suspect this is either a simple operation error in our design department, or an indication of a much bigger software glitch.
https://forum.solidworks.com/message/66835#66835
So from what I gather in reading that thread, if you don't follow a particular sequence when checking in, rebuilding, saving, approving etc. of part models/drawings/assemblies it does create the risk of display errors, with no indication of such given (will still show as latest version, will show as being rebuilt).
If I can provide any more details that might help with the diagnoses, please ask away. I will offer as much information as I can to make the issue more clear.
As usual, thanks.
Hi Tanner,
I am a mechanical engineer by training and education but am the document release manager and EPDM manager so not only can I sympathize with your plight, but I have also seen this before and concludede it is an issue of process.
2 options:
That being said, I have taken an entirely different approach to sharing data to supply chain, production, and vendors.
Option 2. ONE self-contained, all-inclusive, wrapped up, representative, snapshot of the approved data that 99.9% of users can easily read...an EXE or PDF.
I manage the document release department that ensures every PDF gets released and shared to the proper area in EPDM. You could easily implement either option 1 or 2 so your installer could get the EXE or PDF as the released snapshot.
This wraps up all the data representing a drawing into a format every computer can easily read without worrying about references or settings. This approach wraps up all the design work into a "snapshot" of the data being released and becomes the vehicle all operations relies on. When you have a SolidWorks slddrw to worry about, there are numerous complexities and references that may appear differently to everyone in the facility.
This also promotes a core philosophy that if that is the data we rely on to approve, build from, buy from, and install from. And engineering can make these easily.
What this means to operations:
I may have missed the mark but hopefully it will help. I offer this solution as "fewer headaches" to implement than trying to rely on engineering to ensure order of operations is right and could still mess your guys up.
Tim