I am looking to get a consensus on how everyone handles their file names related to revision level. Who adds the Rev level as part of the file name (123456-R0)? And if you don’t, how do you handle a situation when a customer requires you to put the Rev level in the file name? We use EPDM for both AutoCAD and SolidWorks files.

We have been using EPDM for about 5 years now. Prior to EPDM we used to retain the previous Rev of the file (AutoCAD at the time) and do a save as to change the file name to reflect the new Rev level so we could retain the historical information of previous Revs, much like EPDM creates versions. But now with EPDM we do not put the Rev level in the file name, since it’s always the same file no matter the Rev. We have paid our VAR to create a task/routine in EPDM that when a file reaches a particular state in EPDM it creates a copy of it in the native format, adds the Rev level to the file name and then also creates a PDF of this file and stores it in a different folder as the original file. Although this does work most of the time, we do experience errors and issues occasionally. Since depending on what the customer requires we sometimes have to provide a native format of the file or sometimes just a PDF will do, but in almost all cases the Rev level has to be in the file name. You see if we make a submittal to a customer that contains 150 drawings all at Rev 0 (Rev not in the file name) then a month later 30 of the 150 original drawings are now revised to Rev 1 and submit those files, the customer now has 2 files with the same names but different Revs and the Rev level cannot be determined unless the file is opened. And yes part of me feels that’s the customers problem, not ours, but that is a separate issue.

I feel like we are the only company that is struggling with this task, but I have to believe there are others out there that have addressed this issue. So please provide any input to the subject, thank you in advance for your participation.