Today, I would like to speak to those of you out there familiar with Product Data Management (PDM) environments and are moving to the platform. Those of you who have worked in a PDM environment are probably familiar with the terms revisions and versions (...or minor revision?). Just to make sure we are on the “same page”, let me take a moment to define them here:
Revisions:
In the engineering world, we revise things so that anyone can understand changes. Once mature, we “release’ these revisions. These “released” revisions take you to the published level where you apply effectivity and produce a product.
Versions:
Versions are not visible to every user. They track incremental changes made by one or more stakeholders during a designs evolution. Generally, a designer creates versions in the context of CAD design. Versioning benefits the development process by allowing designers to capture their design work in such a way that they can move backwards and forwards in changes between two revisions as needed. Many designers called this process a “check in” or “backup” since they see it as a way to protect what they had accomplished during a workday or week.
Now let’s consider the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. It is a business and innovation platform that provides you with a real-time view of your business activity and product development. The platform provides a comprehensive Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) capability designed to involve stakeholders across the entire development process of your products. Although the system has grown well beyond PLM, this functionality continues to evolve. Over the last several years, it has seen several changes that directly relate to the need to address the revisions and versions of the PDM world. Before we begin to discuss the capabilities, let’s look at the terminology as it compares to your existing PDM environment.
Life Cycle | |||||
General Concepts | PDM solution (File-based) | 3DEXPERIENCE solution (No File) | |||
Topic | Description | Topic | Description | Topic | Description |
Iteration | Transparent, system-managed modification tracking that provides the foundation for a collaborative version. Useful to retrieve previous state of a version. | Version | A version is a simple number (always starting at 1) which will be unique to every document in your vault whether it’s a part, assembly, word document or another file type. This number will increment every time you check out the file, make a change and check it back in. | Iteration | User gets access to the iterations from the related collaborative business revision. Iteration is not a collaborative business object. |
Version | Incremental collaborative state in the work-in-progress development (informal) | N/A | N/A | Revision | Activating “Primary and Secondary” format allows you to identify the incremental informal revisions with the “Secondary” format. |
Revision | A specific collaborative version for release (formal) | Revision | Revisions are another way to keep track of changes to a file but rather than being controlled via physical changes to the file (by check out and in), the Revision is controlled through the workflow of the file. This is useful as you most likely want a way to keep track of which ‘version’ you are sending to manufacture. | Revision | Removing the “Secondary” format when a maturity state is changed to “Released” to allow you to identify the formal revision. |
The Collaborative Spaces Configuration Center app in the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, provides you with the tools to control the revision scheme on the platform. Among other capabilities, it offers the ability to set three revisions schemes
- Primary
- Primary and Secondary
- Primary and Secondary for 3DEXPERIENCE content with SOLIDWORKS master
The Primary behavior is the default that addresses the standard revision scheme that meets the needs of most users throughout the product lifecycle from a PLM perspective.
The Primary and Secondary option offers you the ability to bring the PLM and PDM world closer together. It maintains the values of the Primary environment mentioned, with the expanded capability to track incremental changes made by one or more stakeholders during a designs evolution. Since all iterations are revisions, filtering and the related access would be through the maturity states of the individual revisions.
The Primary and Secondary for 3DEXPERIENCE content with SOLIDWORKS master was an earlier methodology used by SOLIDWORKS customers. Customers upgrading from 21x FD07 can take advantage of this option but it is not recommended for other customers. For further specifics on this capability, contact your SOLIDWORKS representative.
In summary, the development process on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform greatly expands the number of stakeholders that have access to your design data. This exposure requires a need for controlled access to that information while still maintaining the capabilities that you have become accustomed to in your prior PDM environment.
