Introduction
Most often, design review cycles for products span a few weeks. If the product is not frozen or released before beginning the review, changes made in it during this review cycle can result in product-review misalignment. This leads to:
Difficulty in traceability during auditing
Inefficient collaboration
Incorrect context
Example:
The 3D Markup is utilized to evaluate the buttons on a car dashboard. However, the dashboard subassembly was not frozen prior to initiating the review. During the review, modifications were made to the infotainment system design, leading to changes in the button arrangement. Consequently, this caused discrepancies in the review.
Many customers & partners have requested a method to maintain a static record of a design review. Meaning, a way to ensure that the review annotations & comments remain linked to the exact state of the product at the time of the review.
This blog shares practical ideas to help you achieve that.
Maintaining Static Record of Review Made Using 3D Markup
It is crucial to understand that 3D Markup and the product being reviewed are independent objects in terms of the maturity state. Each of these objects operates according to its current maturity state. Meaning, the lifecycle of the Markup does not influence the lifecycle of the product being reviewed and vice versa.
To maintain a static record of reviews:
Ensure the product definition has reached the correct maturity for review and ensure that no changes will be made during the review period. Once achieved, promote the product to “Frozen” maturity state (manually or using a change process). This way, you ensure that the design review will be performed on a non-changeable revision of the design.
Initiate a design review process using the 3D Markup app.
Once the review is finalized and all review comments and annotations are complete, freeze or release the review object as required.
For any design changes identified during the review, raise an Issue or Change Action to create new revisions of the design and to track design modifications.
By doing this, you ensure that your review feedback and comments always reflect the exact state of the product during the review, providing a reliable and auditable history for future reference.
Maturity States
Let’s explore how the maturity states of the markup (Created using the 3D Markup app) and the Physical Product enable permissible actions for a successful review.
3D Markup: The following table explains the available actions for each maturity state of the Markup object.
Maturity State (Markup) | User’s Role (In Private Collaborative Space) | Permitted Actions (on the Markup) |
In Work | Authors, Contributors, Leader, Owner | Can modify markup, its comments, annotations and attributes. |
Frozen | Leader, Owner | Can modify markup, its comments, annotations and attributes if not locked by another user. |
| Authors, Contributors | Cannot modify review, its comments, annotations and attributes. |
Released | All Roles Except Administrator | Markup and attributes cannot be modified. |
Physical Product: The following table explains the available actions for each maturity state of the Physical Product object.
Maturity State (Physical product) | User’s Role (In Private Collaborative Space) | Permitted Actions (On the Physical Product) |
In Work | Authors, Contributors, Leader, Owner | Can modify product and its attributes |
Frozen | Leader, Owner | Can modify product and its attributes if not locked by another user. |
| Authors, Contributors | Cannot modify product and its attributes |
Released | All Roles Except Administrator | Product and its attributes cannot be modified. |
