I am about 5 weeks old into using SolidWorks and have fallen into a good opportunity for organizing an existing file structure and establishing a workflow standard moving forward for the company. To capture the current situation the following is what I am dealing with:
1. The company utilizes a numerical six digit part number/file name to designate assemblies, purchased parts and fabricated items.
2. Drawing file name structure, both AutoCad and SolidWorks where file structure is a mixed bag. Most of the file names do not designate file revision but, some use alpha, some use numeric and some use alpha with a "rev" prefix.(111111reva.sldprt)
3. I am in the process of justifying the need for integrating PDM into the organization, and need to better understand how PDM is integrated into a company that already has a significant number of files without the drawing control that PDM will eventually give us.
Questions:
1. Is much preparation required in organizing the current structure for the integration of PDM?
2. When drawings, parts or files are revised in PDM does the filename denote the revision and can a "rev" prefix be denoted? I have to ask this question, because our current borders are using the filename to autofill the part number field.
Thanks so much for your replies and I am sure there will be more questions.
1. This isn't an easy question to answer. It could be as simple as a drag and drop to generate the new structure, or it could be quite a bit more. Either way, I think it may be too hard to tackle a general question like this in a forum. Perhaps it would be helpful to be more specific.
2. Though technically possible, the nice thing about EPDM is that you don't have to include the revision within the file name. (Renaming files is quite a bit of work keep references up to date .... besides revision control is typically a main reason why you buy a PDM. Let the PDM to that hard tedious stuff.)
When I do a migration that sounds similar to the one you are describing, We'll typically choose a common revision and naming schema and we'll programmatically fix the files as we migrate them into the vault. -It is very confusing to have some files with letter revisions, some with numbers, some with the revision in the file name, etc.
No question you could just drag and drop the files in, and continue as you always have, but this is likely the best opportunity you may have in a while to get your data back in order.