Our company is project-based. Most of our jobs are built to order. Some are engineer to order.
We're investigating Workgroup PDM. I'm convinced that we need to use it, but have some questions about the vault folder structure.
My thought is that we'd create WPDM projects for each order. The top level assembly and top level drawing(s) would be saved in this project folder, but parts and subassembiles (and associated drawings) would be saved in a different structure, by item type, as these are common parts used in many different products.
So if I have the following part categories (for example)
#33-XXXX: Castings
#35-XXXX: Extrusions
#55-XXXX: Weldments
...each of these would also be set up as a project in WPDM?
I do not want to mass import our current files into the Vault - I want to clean up our files job by job and enter as we go so I know what's in there is good. So as I check in projects, for files that don't exist yet in the vault, I'd have to select the proper project to put it in (the extruded part goes in the "Extrusions" project, etc.), correct?
I know this might be common sense or intuitive to those of you that have used WPDM, but I haven't, and it's important to me that I understand how it works and set it up properly.
Any help would be appreciated. Thank you,
Brian
Brian,
You may find this discussion on a similar matter helpful:
https://forum.solidworks.com/message/349876#349876
As pointed out in the linked discussion, you can set up your vault structure in whatever way makes sense with your company. The general guidelines found in the Help / WPDM / Best Practices are good advice. Breaking your vault structure into more folders with fewer files per folder helps performance.
I highly recommend implementing a PDM system. If you have WPDM available, by all means use it. Like any tool, there will be a learning curve and the resistance to change in your company. But the learning curve is relatively small. WPDM has some limitations compared to more complex products like EPDM. But for what it does, it does a pretty good job.
Your overall structure sounds workable. The vault will take care of all the references. Anything unique to your specific project should be in the project folder structure. Anything standard should be in the standard folders area. If your standards are truely fixed you might even consider placing them in a network shared library...
A mass import is a significant undertaking. Import as you need is a very workable solution. Training your folks to locate the imports how you want may be the hardest part. Nobody gets it quite right the first time. But understanding the issues, as it appears you are trying to do, helps reduce the rework.
Daen