Assembly Folders

How do you organize your work? Where do you keep bolts, nuts, washers and things like that...

I've heard of this cheap way of doing product configuration only second hand, never did it myself, so my comments are prejudiced and suspect. But, here goes: a.. Folders or any form of organization is a good thing, helpful, necessary, but for any task beyond a single product, woefully inadequate. Just try keeping track of six configurations of the SAME product which vary only one varying component and some mounting hardware with this method b.. Pro/e is capable of leading you to groups of folders where your library part might be stored, but only leading you through every highway and byway, path and detour on the itinerary. PATH statements can take your through the whole directory structure, looking for files, but this can take an awfully long time to come up empty. c.. If you already know Java, you may already have your answer, as large parts of the interface are given over to it. If you know Java, j-link may be the answer to a lot of UI programming questions. David Janes

Tomislav Cabraja je napisao/la:

Hello Tomislav, Of course, you can build an assembly from parts in different folders. You can put your bolts, nuts, ... in any place in your LAN, share it and put search_path line in config.pro.

You can use search_path (in options). First make txt file which containing paths to folders with your parts. Then in config.pro (options) add option "serach_path" with valueof full name of your txt file.

Tomislav, It is highly important that you are aware that search_path statements can greatly slow file open or file new commands. If you choose to use search_path statements, keep the list relatively short and keep those folders as clean and compact as possible.

A few well-intentioned folks have built systems of handling directories using search_path statements, but quickly ran into performance problems since they used them too liberally. My experience with Windows is that network shares can get a little slow sometimes; if you are using search_path such problems will be greatly amplified.

I see search_path used as useful extensions of the library function. Just don't get carried away with it.

Dave

Wow... that sux pretty hard.

I'm fairly new to Pro/e... so you're saying that without a lot of hoop- jumping, all the parts in an assembly (including fasteners) have to be in the same directory?

I'm accustomed (SolidWorks) to having a Fasteners Directory on the root with all my nuts, screws, rivets.... that every assembly has in common. That way I don't waste time recreating it all.

Maybe I'm missing something here.

Wow... that sux pretty hard.

I'm fairly new to Pro/e... so you're saying that without a lot of hoop- jumping, all the parts in an assembly (including fasteners) have to be in the same directory?

I'm accustomed (SolidWorks) to having a Fasteners Directory on the root with all my nuts, screws, rivets.... that every assembly has in common. That way I don't waste time recreating it all.

Maybe I'm missing something here.

Mostly what everyone's missing here is a professional file keeping system with a tracking database (where the file is, who's using it, what release state it's in and other confirguration management issues) where that database system is Oracle and the tracking software is Intralink. That's essentially what you are missing. Working in such a system means a whole different way of thinking, a whole different file management approach, and many decsisions you didn't have to make before, that take you to top down configuration management product structure issues that need to be addressed before a part is created (because it doesn't really exist until it's part of a structure). And, yeah, hardware libraries need to fit in there (and so do COTs libraries.)

David Janes

It's hard enough to get the Bosses to put out the cash for a pencil sharpener. Can't wait till I tell them we need another software package that probably costs as much as the initial Pro/e license.

And then someone has to manage the database.... ME... and I don't have a clue about Oracle.

It's hard enough to get the Bosses to put out the cash for a pencil sharpener. Can't wait till I tell them we need another software package that probably costs as much as the initial Pro/e license.

And then someone has to manage the database.... ME... and I don't have a clue about Oracle.

I haven't done anything like some elaborate price/value comparison. I just know that if you get WF3, that, at some level, they throw in Intralink (with embedded Oracle) and the hard part is set up and administration (i.e., they hire another guy, a sysadmin expert), but life gets good for users, product gets out the door and overhead is reduced. And the only down side is "INITIAL INVESTMENT" (yeah, like these guys were actually entrepreneurs [cheese 'n rice, jeez, sheesh, zhee, tsee, jhee, sheewoo, hoheehoohahahaha!]). Sorry, Boss, ya gotta spend money ta make money. They don't just hand it to ya for bein' another pretty face with a perfect pedigree. (oooo, poooh boy, wee owe symparaahs, to be show, buhcha know, Boss, y'blow big fahhts oucha assho, u'huh, ya stink and besize, ya stoopid y'all).

David Janes, Participant (with that 'f*ck the cheapasses' attitude {or let them f*ck theyownselves, they good at it, gahblessem!!!! })

chicago dave {CD}