I've been challenged with finding a better way to share drawings within the company. Currently drawings are always at one of three stages: In Progress, To Be Approved, and Final.
Once a drawing becomes final, we save it as pdf and post it in a folder that the entire company has read access to. This way, anybody can print a current drawing at any time. If that drawing changes, we update the pdf and send an update notice out via email.
There is currently no process in place for In Progress/TBA drawings, but we want to put one in place. The first thought was to do the same as we do with the Final drawings, but the problem with that is that In Progress/TBA drawings are revised much, much more often than Final, and we'd spend half our day just saving pdf's and sending emails.
What I want is a system where anybody in the company can see if a drawing (file) has been modified. Then they have the option to look at the drawing and see what has changed. Instead of saving to pdf, we'd give read access to the folder that contains the drawing, and they can use some sort of viewing program to open the file. This sort of puts the burden on them to keep track of the changes, rather than the draftsmen having to constantly update a pdf file.
Do any of you have a system like this? Any suggestions for alternatives that would work? I'm open to anything. The basic need is for 'anybody' in the company to be able to get their hands on a copy of a drawing in any stage. I look forward to your responses. Thanks.
Brian