straw poll: pdmw users & model/drawing revisions

ooops, let me try again. brain and hands not in sync. :)

1) do you allow model and drawing revisions to become unsynchronized (different)?

2) if yes to 1), do you use sw bom (or excel) in assembly drawing?

3) if yes to 2), do you have a column in bom to display revision?

4) if yes to 3), where is revision being pulled from?

Yes, as the drawing may have a missing dim added, but the part hasn't changed.

No, we don't track revision in the BOM.

Yes we use PDMworks to work in a multi user enviroment so model file may be at rev 30 while drawing is at 1

SW bom

No

not what i wanted to hear.

so it's basically not possible to use a bom when using components whose drawing may be at a different rev level (a main feature pdmw).

seems like this is a major oversight on sw's behalf. at least from the perspective of someone who needs the functionality

In the way of full disclosure, I'm not technically a PDMW user, but I am an implementer, and I recommend settings and procedures for companies regularly.

Although I did a modeling project a couple of weeks ago where I did use PDMW to keep revisions straight.

Anyay, here are the answers I'd recommend if you were a company where I was helping you implement PDMW:

Yes. Trying to keep them synched would be unnecessarily tedious and error prone.

Yes, I recommend this, but several users don't do it (doesn't matter which format). Many companies rely on ERP/MRP for BOM. You can also use a PDMW report to get BOM info.

Not typically, again, this is possible with the report, and usually handled through MRP. Still, it's not a bad idea. Depends on who's driving the bus, engineering or mfg/purch. If engineering is driving the bus, and they have strong knowledge of SW and PDMW, much of this can be handled in PDMW. If mfg or purch is driving the bus, then typically all (or almost all) non- geometric product data is driven by MRP. MRP people get very protective of their turf, and even without that, it's a bad idea to duplicate data entry points for the same data.

Revision data for BOM on SW drw can be pulled from the part custom property conveniently called "Revision" of all things.

matt

ok, let's say it's an idea that i would like to pursue.

figured that out a while back, thanks. :)

so if someone wants to, a) keep model & drawings revisions independent of each other b) use a sw bom in assembly drawing c) have a revision column in assembly bom d) need help with getting correct revision :( (drawings should lead the way, not the model in this scenario)

and since it doesn't look like a viable solution for d) from above exists, it would be nice to have an option in pdmwadmin to keep model/drawing in sync so user doesn't have to remember.

comments?

kenneth

K,

this tends to be a little confusing, I think, but it is perfectly manageable. I'm not sure I understand what your question is exactly, but I do know where people tend to get hung up right about here, so I'll address that and maybe by accident I'll answer your question.

Let's say you finally have rev C of your part ready, and you make your drawing, and it goes into the vault at rev A. Part = C, Drw = A. Now you make a couple more revisions to your part, so it's now at E. Drw still at A. If you get the Drw out of the vault, and are not careful, you can get Rev A of the drawing showing Rev E of the part. The default for references is "Latest Version". You can change this to "As Built". As Built remembers which rev of the part was attached to which rev of the drw.

So now you make a change to the drawing, such as add a view, and an annotation, and check it back in at B, so Part = E, Drw = B. Now the Latest and As Built are the same, until you make another change to the part without changing the drw. You need to be careful about that switch, and set the default in the user options.

If you're doing that with an assembly drawing, you've got an additional layer to worry about. You have to make sure that the right rev of the assy gets used with the right rev of the drw, and that the right revs of the parts are used in the assy. Still, the As Built switch should be able to help you with that.

And then you have to make sure that none of the parts that you're opening is already open and can't be overwritten in the workspace area.

This becomes most complicated when you're using SW to open files, which will associatively update a drawing when changes have been made to the model, but if you're just using the SW Viewer or eDrawings, or if you use "Detached Drawings" (Rapid Draft renamed), these errors tend to become less scary.

If you're suggesting that you want a way for the software to force the drawing and the part to lockstep together, well, I'm gonna disagree with you there. You don't want to up rev the drawing every time you check in the part, and you don't want to just overwrite previous revs of the part. If you use the model file for CNC programming, I can see where it might get even more confusing, with the model at one rev, and the drawing at another, but they really are two separate documents. If your machinists save their CNC data, then they have different revs of the g- code or CAM file which relate to different revs of the model, and the drawing, and you can't just say they're all going to be the same rev.

Anyway, PDMW can keep track of it all for you, just as long as every body knows that different kinds of data will have different revision levels.

matt

matt,

our drawing revisions' are "always" either greater than or equal to the models' revision. most of our changes are due to missing information on the drawing, hence the reason drawings are likely to be ahead of the model.

i want to, keep model & drawings revisions independent of each other and use a sw bom with a revision column in the assembly drawing. drawings should lead the way in this scenario, not the model. the question is, how would you populate the revision column?

i realize there is no way to pull a property from a drawing into a model or a bom. i just thought it would be a reasonable option to have the ability to keep model and drawing revisions in sync. it's possible that not many would use this option.

right now, i feel stranded and quite annoyed by sw not seeing this shortcoming. i can't believe that no one else has ever brought this situation up.

kenneth