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Using "Where Used" to populate drawings title blocks?

Question asked by David Heverin on Sep 20, 2013
Latest reply on Oct 2, 2013 by David Heverin

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Currently, on my drawing title blocks I have a "where used" section. This is populated via EPDM data card input. As it now stands, users enter TEXT to state the next assembly where the particular part/sub-assembly is used.

I would like to make use of the "where used" data in EPDM and reference THAT data to populate the data card, which in turn, populates the drawing title blocks.

I was thinking that is there was a like an "SW" variable in EPDM that I could reference that would be the key.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

dave

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Jeremiah Feist Sep 20, 2013 3:44 PM
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I imagine this will be quite dificult, if even possible. maybe with a macro?

1) this information would have to be based off of the model - the drawing is NOT used anywhere. (unless you "paste as reference" which would be a pain)
2) the where used information can easily change without this file's version changing, so keeping it up to date would require additional check out/ check ins.
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Michael Dekoning Sep 20, 2013 6:03 PM
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You would have to write an addin that uses IEdmReference. The drawing is actually the parent of the model it was created from. You would use the GetFirstChildRefernce and GetNextChild methods to get the model the drawing references. Once you have that, you can use the GetFirstParent and GetNextParent methods to get the 'where used" files. You'll need to remove the drawing from the list.
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Mike Sveda Sep 24, 2013 9:20 AM
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Would be a cool thing to have if someone can code it
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Jim Sculley Sep 24, 2013 11:00 AM
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What do you do when a part is used in more than one place? We put such information on our drawings a long time ago. We eventually realized that it was not very helpful and simply duplicated information that was readily available elsewhere such as the ERP system or the Where Used tab of EPDM.

I guess the question is, what problem are you trying to solve by having that information on a drawing?

Jim S.
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- Michael Dekoning @ Jim Sculley on Sep 24, 2013 4:32 PM
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  Jim,
  
  While I agree with you in most cases, we out-source quite a bit of our fabrication. When we used AutoCAD, it was "too much trouble" to produce a bill of material so the vendor had to gather this information from the parts list on the drawings. With the "where used" information on the drawing, it gave them the ability to group the prints of detail parts with the assembly. I know it sounds archaic, but that's the way it was (and sometimes still is).
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David Heverin Oct 2, 2013 9:38 AM
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Thanks to all for the comments and suggestions.

To the question from Jim Sculley, "what is the problem you are trying to solve by having that information on the drawing?".

We add the "next assembly" information to our title blocks by entering the next higher assembly drawing number via the data card. It was suggested by an individual in our company that it would be nice to have THAT information linked to the actual "where used" in EPDM. I agreed and began a search for how to do this.

But, reading the comments here, it seems like this would not be a good idea when also considering version and revision control of drawings. IF the "where used" in EPDM could be sourced for an active "next assembly" on the drawings there could be situations arise where that information could change without having a revision occur. That would ne a big "no-no".

So, while is did sound like a good idea at first, upon further thought, the old fashoined way of manually entering it in the data card is probably best.
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Using "Where Used" to populate drawings title blocks?

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