We transitioned from WorkGroup PDM to Enterprise PDM a couple of weeks ago. I find it much more difficult to do most tasks than WorkGroup. I'm not seeing any great advantages of EPDM over WorkGroup PDM other than more control of our data. As the admin, I've spent most of my 2 weeks troubleshooting our 17 users problems than doing my regular job. I'm approaching a high level of frustration. So, is it just me or are the others that found EPDM a pain in the neck?
Steve
Let's say we purchased training. Our VAR came in and set up about everything for us, which I highly recommend for anyone making the switch. My admin training was watching the guy do the set up and a manual. User training is really what we are lacking. After the initial dog & pony show we didn't get much and no manuals. The tech guy gave us direct phone & email support for 2 weeks but now we're on our own plus the regular tech support. I've found the regular Help Files are not too bad but not like actual training.
I know this is the direction we have to go since WorkGroup PDM is no longer getting development, but it's really been a rough 2 weeks; not to mention I still have all my regular projects to get out.
Good to hear from an experienced user. I enjoy your blog, keep at it,
Steve
Thank you, Stephen. I'm glad you enjoy my blog, though it makes me question your sanity.
Your company should take a look at getting some online training through SolidProfessor or igetit. Video tutorial, IMO, are much better than books, and the ROI will be much quicker than the wad of cash you'd spend for VAR training.
Jeff -
I don't think SolidProfessor has EPDM training. Depending on the quality of the VAR resource, it is still money well spent to get a handle on the basics. Besides, I know the person who wrote the manuals so it can't be all bad
Sounds like Stephen got an implementation but not training. In any event, once you get your vault in place, you will most likely create your own end user training based on the setup you put in place.
I'm doing this now. I use Camtasia and I record videos of the processes and place them in a training folder in the vault.
Good Luck,
Joy
You're right, Joy. SolidProfessor has Workgroup but not EPDM. My bad.I know the person who wrote the manuals as well, and I'm amazed at the number of "r's" used, as well as the lack of colorful language.
Jeff, Joy, thanks much for your input. I know you're both well known and highlty respected by the SolidWorks Community. There is still the question about my sanity though...
Thanks,
Steve
They do have EPDM....see below
I didn't know that, thanks for the info!
Steve
Corey, I visited the SolidProfessor web page and was unable to find the info you posted. Do you have a link to it?
Thanks,
Steve
I couldn't find it either. However, I was able to find it in the task pane manager in SolidWorks. You need to actually already have SolidProfessor to find it and it appears to be a workshop versus an actual lesson.
I did a quick check and found that igetit has EPDM training: http://myigetit.com/vault/course-topic.aspx?id=27
Stephen, it actually took our Engineers/Designers a few months to stop complaining, we have some that still try to go around a more strict system, but I think that is just the nature of our industry, some people just don't like change.
Engineers don't seem to like extra steps. We have some resistence to it here on projects even though I've made projects fairly painless by not having much of a workflow, so they don't really have to transition anything, just checkin/out.
The problem seems to be the idea of checking files in/out, they don't like having to remember to do this. They are used to just going on the network and opening the files, change it, then save. The SolidWorks plug-in makes this a little easier as it will prompt you to check it out, though not to check it in (something else they forget to do often).
Other file types like Word and Excel are more troublesome has they often open the files and forget to check it out beforehand. Then they make all kinds of changes to it, then realize they can't save it. Unlike SolidWorks, they can't check it out without closing it first so they have to save the changed file to their desktop, then checkout the file in PDM, then drag the copy on their desktop back into ePDM and overwrite it.
As the WorkGroup admin I actually pushed for the change to EPDM due to the problems we were having. However, it has not been a painless process at all. I'm still spending way to much time on EPDM while my regular projects lag behind. Probably much of this is just growing pains and will eventually go away and perhaps we need to re-examine our workflow. Maybe it is unecessarily complex. I do think our VAR should have spent more time on user training but we probably got what we paid for.
Jeff, thanks for the link, I'll check it out.
Thanks for all,
Steve
When I first started using it, I thought it was a pain as well. However, now that I've been using it for a longer period of time, I know enjoy the control I have. It's definitely better than PDMW, even if the learning curve is greater.
Did you get any training?