Help!
We purchase made-to-print stampings which we then bring in-house toperform additional machining operations. Both the stamped part andthe machined part have unique part numbers and drawings andtherefore have separate revisions. We need to maintain aparent/child relationship between the files so modifications to thestamped part will translate to the machined part. We want to managethese parts using PDMWorks.
The way I was doing this was to create a part file which containedall of the geometry for the stamped part (e.g. STAMPED.SLDPRT).Then I would create an assembly containing this part file, andpeform several assembly-level cuts without propagating them to thepart level. This file (e.g. MACHINED.SLDASM) would be given its ownpart number. When I vault the drawings for both the assembly andpart in PDMWorks (e.g. STAMPED.SLDDRW and MACHINED.SLDDRW), thevault view would show the correct BOM-type of structure:
MACHINED.SLDASM
--MACHINED.SLDDRW
--STAMPED.SLDPRT
----STAMPED.SLDDRW
Thus an accurate parent/child association is maintained while alsoallowing each file to be uniquely revision managed. (The need forunique revisions is what prevents me from using configurations -PDMWorks can't revision manage configurations separately. - thatenhancement request has been submitted.)
I thought I had cheated the system, but there is one catch thatwe've recently discovered: Surfcam can't read the assembly-levelcut features. When the assembly file is loaded in Surfcam, the partfile geometry is loaded, but all assembly-level features are not.We've been working with our local Surfcam representative on this,but they do not appear to have a solution to make this work.
The only way I have been able to get Surfcam to read all of thedata is to save the assembly as a part file (e.g. MACHINED.SLDPRT).This file has no parent/child associativity with the originalfiles, so when it is vaulted it has no reference to them - they'rejust dumb solids. Every time a change is made to the originaldocuments, the "dumb" parts will have to be manually recreatedsince the changes won't automatically propagate. Because they haveno parent/child link to the original assembly or part files,managing them in PDM could be a real headache. I fear a significantamount of time will be spent managing this process to ensuremistakes aren't made.
Has anyone had a similar issue? Is there another option that Ihaven't thought of? I would appreciate any suggestions.
Thank you,
Mike Weiland
Sr. Design EngineerSolidworksWorkgroup Pdm
We purchase made-to-print stampings which we then bring in-house toperform additional machining operations. Both the stamped part andthe machined part have unique part numbers and drawings andtherefore have separate revisions. We need to maintain aparent/child relationship between the files so modifications to thestamped part will translate to the machined part. We want to managethese parts using PDMWorks.
The way I was doing this was to create a part file which containedall of the geometry for the stamped part (e.g. STAMPED.SLDPRT).Then I would create an assembly containing this part file, andpeform several assembly-level cuts without propagating them to thepart level. This file (e.g. MACHINED.SLDASM) would be given its ownpart number. When I vault the drawings for both the assembly andpart in PDMWorks (e.g. STAMPED.SLDDRW and MACHINED.SLDDRW), thevault view would show the correct BOM-type of structure:
MACHINED.SLDASM
--MACHINED.SLDDRW
--STAMPED.SLDPRT
----STAMPED.SLDDRW
Thus an accurate parent/child association is maintained while alsoallowing each file to be uniquely revision managed. (The need forunique revisions is what prevents me from using configurations -PDMWorks can't revision manage configurations separately. - thatenhancement request has been submitted.)
I thought I had cheated the system, but there is one catch thatwe've recently discovered: Surfcam can't read the assembly-levelcut features. When the assembly file is loaded in Surfcam, the partfile geometry is loaded, but all assembly-level features are not.We've been working with our local Surfcam representative on this,but they do not appear to have a solution to make this work.
The only way I have been able to get Surfcam to read all of thedata is to save the assembly as a part file (e.g. MACHINED.SLDPRT).This file has no parent/child associativity with the originalfiles, so when it is vaulted it has no reference to them - they'rejust dumb solids. Every time a change is made to the originaldocuments, the "dumb" parts will have to be manually recreatedsince the changes won't automatically propagate. Because they haveno parent/child link to the original assembly or part files,managing them in PDM could be a real headache. I fear a significantamount of time will be spent managing this process to ensuremistakes aren't made.
Has anyone had a similar issue? Is there another option that Ihaven't thought of? I would appreciate any suggestions.
Thank you,
Mike Weiland
Sr. Design EngineerSolidworksWorkgroup Pdm
