CAD Datamangement

[Ben A]

Hello,

i have a question to all of you:

How do you manage the pool of CAD Data, without a PLM Software? Do have any useful tips? Today we use a dropbox as basic datatbase

How is your assembly strutur built?
How are your componet names are composed? Also with differet revisions?

perhabs like: Fs2012_001_005_upper_a_arm_asm??

I´m really interested in it because last year we have a few problems because with differnt revisions and other things like no sensible naming of components and so on. So i try to build up new rules for naming the parts and a few design rules. I would be very happy about some help and good tips.

Thank you.

Ben

[Ben A]

Hello,

i have a question to all of you:

How do you manage the pool of CAD Data, without a PLM Software? Do have any useful tips? Today we use a dropbox as basic datatbase

How is your assembly strutur built?
How are your componet names are composed? Also with differet revisions?

perhabs like: Fs2012_001_005_upper_a_arm_asm??

I´m really interested in it because last year we have a few problems because with differnt revisions and other things like no sensible naming of components and so on. So i try to build up new rules for naming the parts and a few design rules. I would be very happy about some help and good tips.

Thank you.

Ben

[Rex Chan]

This year (2011 car), the team had one person responsible for putting together all the CAD.

They also used SVN to keep the most up to date version of any part in a common folder.

[Chris B]

im not a fan of drop box myself. ive personally not used it before, but a mate of mine is in a group project trying to build a UAV and they have issues with version control because people keep taking things off their dropbox changing it and putting it back.

for that reason i dont want out team using drop box, as theres no real document control (from my understanding of it). at the moment we have like a gmail email system with a google docs archive. this works well as people can download stuff off the archive but only admins can post to it as far as im aware. this is used for reference material like past thesis work or text books.

for actual part designs, cad, assemblies, reports, etc we operate off a "need to know," basis. i.e the team leader and tech director, between them have all the data that we have for the team from the past few years and they then distribute it to those who need it to complete a job. this prevents first and second years downloading and changing stuff for the sake of it. it also stops ppl joining the team temporarily helping themselves to the teams IP and then buggering off. when the tech director and team leaders graduate they hand the data over to their successors. this has so far served us well.

[Spetsnazos]

I'm a fan of Google Doc's although last year's team captain didn't want to use it.

DropBox is kind of a horrible way to do this because of how it handles permissions. You could do it, but when you have 15+ people who have no clue what they're doing on the site, you can lose files pretty quick.

[Ben A]

Thanks for your answers.

I also think about to use a PLM System like Teamcenter express or so and a sperate Server.

How are your part and assembly names are composed?
Because at the moment i can´t get any good ideas from my head ;-). Wich code is the best to have a good overview in your CAD Software and on name the drawings correct and easy etc. and find it fast on the server?

Thanks

Ben

[GianVioli]

Dropbox is the way to do it.

Use shared folders the right way and it will be awesome.

We have been using it for 2 months and the work rate has gone higher a LOT!

You just gotta find the right way trough it, you cant allow acces to all files to the new members of the team for example. Besides, even if someone screws up and delete some files Dropbox will allow you to restore them, even if they have been deleted for a long while.

I recommend dropbox.

[Adambomb]

We've just used the team network drive. One time that went down, of all times the day before the design report was due, so luckily one of the guys managed to get a backup of the whole thing on an external drive which we then turned into an impromptu network drive (even using department administered, i.e. locked down permissions lab computers).

Although the most reliable solution I've ever seen for the whole car model was having the whole car model and every part saved exclusively on the hard drive of a dedicated "whole car model computer." Also works a lot better if only one person messes with it, otherwise the whole car model has a natural half life of like 3 months before it spontaneously dis-assembles itself as people modify, move and rename things on the network drive.

[RollingCamel]

There was a discussion about it before."Managing Your CAD Data" I think.

[Chris B]

as for naming conventions, urs is pretty self explanatory. say you have your 3rd rocker design for this years car, ours would be;

2011_front_rocker_v3
or
front_rocker_v3_2011

or something like that.

i.e what the part is, what year car its for and what revision

[SolidWorks EDU (Greg)]

Hey all! I see that a lot of you are looking for a new way to manage data for your teams projects. I am a student at the university of Massachusetts Amherst and work for the SolidWorks EDU team. With our student software we offer a Product Data Management package called Workgroup PDM. If you use SolidWorks, WPDM is the way to go. It allows all team members to communicate with version control as well as allows other files than just CAD to be uploaded. A LOT of other FSAE teams are using this awesome software. If you are interested, you can find us on facebook at www.facebook.com/solidedu (http://www.facebook.com/solidedu) or go to solidworks.com and look under the edu part of the website where there is also more info. Feel free to contact me directly at gmargolis@3ds.com HOPE THIS HELPS!