7 Replies Latest reply on Apr 29, 2015 12:58 PM by Adrian Velazquez

    File name including Serial Number and Revision

    M. G
    M. G Apr 29, 2015 7:32 AM

      Hi,

      Our organisation uses the following format of file names:

      Part Name XXXXXXXXXR, when "XXXXXXXXX" is the serial number and "R" is the revision number.

      Can Solidworks PDM keep this kind of numbering, including file name change when the revision is changed?

      Example:

      "Bracket 000000651A.sldprt" is updated, and the file name must change to "Bracket 000000651B".

      Thanks,

      Max

        • Re: File name including Serial Number and Revision
          Jim Sculley
          Jim Sculley Apr 29, 2015 8:36 AM (in response to M. G)

          If you are using EPDM, you should no longer need that sort of naming system.  You have access to every previous revision of a file, so you don't need to rename files to avoid losing old revisions.

           

          It is certainly possible to rename files when they transition from one state to another such as when they are revised.  I do this with an add-in I wrote (but not for the purpose of including the revision in the file name).  Others are probably doing it with a Dispatch script or the task addin.

           

          If you are not using EPDM at the moment, but you are planning on switching over, you should consider it as a golden opportunity to eliminate potential sources of errors and other inefficiencies caused by tradition file system limitations.  Including the revision in the file name is meaningless.  I can rename a file from 'Bracket 000000651A.sldprt' to 'Housing 1234567Z.sldprt', but when I open it, I will still be looking at the bracket.

           

          I am a big proponent of unintelligent part numbering.  Our part numbers are 6 digits, with no significance to any of them.  If I want to find a bracket, I use the EPDM search tool to search the part descriptions and 5.6 seconds later I have 1233 SolidWorks part files I can look through.  The file name does not matter.

           

          We do from time to time send files to outside clients or vendors.  For their benefit (since they do not have access to our EPDM system) I created an add-in that lets users copy files to a location outside the EPDM vault and it renames them to include the revision number.

           

          Jim S.

          • Re: File name including Serial Number and Revision
            Jim Stone
            Jim Stone Apr 29, 2015 8:38 AM (in response to M. G)

            I once worked for a company that did the same thing - include the revision as the last digit of the part number. But that only lasted while they were a small company being run on Excel spreadsheet macros and shared folders. We soon found that no "real" system could deal with that setup.

             

            Nor should it. From a doc control standpoint, part number and revision are two separate variables. I strongly suggest you detach the revision so it lives on its own. What seems like a convenience up front becomes a nightmare to manage. And you're considering renaming files for every revision? In PDM? Again, that was OK with AutoCAD in a shared folder, but you now have PDM to manage all those revisions and files for you. I don't know if you could make PDM do the renaming but I suspect that if you could, it would be far more hassle than it's worth.

             

            Detach the revision and use the power of the PDM tool that you have. You'll be happier in the long run.

              • Re: File name including Serial Number and Revision
                M. G
                M. G Apr 29, 2015 8:48 AM (in response to Jim Stone)

                We do that primarily for manufacturers so they don't use old files instead of new ones. Actually, this numbering system was introduced after multiple requests from manufacturers and a couple of cases when they failed to update the files and made wrong parts, which caused time and money loss... Is there any alternative?

                  • Re: File name including Serial Number and Revision
                    Jim Stone
                    Jim Stone Apr 29, 2015 8:57 AM (in response to M. G)

                    Follow Jim Sculley's add-in suggestion. It's a valid issue for the vendor. I manually append the revision to the PDF file name (or model if they need it for programming) before sharing the file but I like the idea of having a tool to do it.

                     

                    But definitely get away from including it in the actual drawing number. When we did that it was a shift in thinking for everyone, but well worth it in the end. We froze the last digit on all existing numbers and all new numbers were created with the last digit as a "1", which I would have been the initial preproduction revision. With an eight-digit number, that meant that we were then only using one eighth of our potential numbers. While that wasn't actually an issue, in hindsight we should probably have just opened it up completely and let that last digit increment as it normally would.

                     

                    Good luck!