We're finally talking about using a naming convention here at work (you cant imagine the mess we have right now..it's about time), but i was wondering what you guys use, and what would be best for our situation. I'll explain what we need the convention to be able to do for us and what we're (somewhat) proposing.
First of all, we'll need some sort of identification number (say..
123456) to identify the part/product. This is where it already gets confusing.. Should we use a new number for every part? sub assembly? assembly? project? We're a machine shop (conventional mills, lathes, CNC's, welding) that's dabbling in somewhat large assembly designs (automated assembly lines, large heavy gauge sheet metal dies, etc), so we do everything from small single part designs, to ~500+ part designs..
Next would be a sub-assembly/part number like -001, -002 (ie the full number would then be 123456-001).. should we use this as a way of giving a unique number to all parts, assemblies and drawings? or should drawings use the same number as the part/assembly they represent? Our plant manager comes from a more autocad background and is more used to working with only drawings. Using solidworks increases the management to parts and assemblies, which is somewhat foreign to him, and therefore confuses the system just that much more :). Up to now, i've been using unique numbers for every part and assembly, then if i did a drawing, i'd use that same number so that i can easily associate them together (for example, part 123456-001-01 would have a drawing named 123456-001-01 also, and not 123456-002-01 or some other secondary number (last number being revision number, explained further down)). It was brought up that we might want to give the drawigns a unique number, and that within the drawing you'd point to the part name thats being shown..That makes it somewhat difficult to figure out what drawing represents a part/assembly though when looking at a folder of files.
Next would be a revision number, -00, -01, etc.. The full number would now become 123456-001-00. Do we keep all older revisions in the same folder? do we archive them somewhere else? (we dont current have any PDM software, i actually haven't looked at PDMWorks, how much is the upgrade to office professional? we have office here..) If a part is used in more than one assembly, how do i know this when it comes time to update the part revision? should i be doing that? The reason i ask this question is that we keep some parts in stock, and if they have a different revision number, it automatically negates interchangability, which may not always be true.. the new revision might just as well fit in that other assembly..but it's still referencing the old revision..
My other problem comes when updating everything to a new revision.. If i change a part's features, and save as a new file name (since it's a new revision) can the drawing associated with it be easily "updated" to that new part file? (if it wasn't open when i was saving these changes, it'll still point to the first revision). From my limited experience, i haven't found a "replace part" in drawings like there is in assemblies..
Well, thats all for now..It might be a bit of a long post, but I'd be greatful for any insight into the proposed system, and how to use it, or even a new system altogether. This system was brought up only after a few discussions on the subject here.. so it's nothing very indepth, but i dont know how to proceed from here.. None of us really have that much experience in setting up a system like this.
Thanks,
André Richard