I'm new to the forum, but have browsed all of the EPDM topicsand it seems that there are a few folks out there using (ordeveloping) EPDM for general document control and changemanagement. I'm looking to do this with EPDM as well, but have afundamental question that I'm curious to hear how others haveapproached the issue.
We're currently using EPDM to manage our Solidworks data and have ageneral drawing checking and approval workflow that seems to workwell. With a forthcoming transition to electronic master records,I'm curious if others are using the native Solidworks data as themaster or attaching PDFs to the change order to be used as thecontrolled master document.
(It may be important to note that we're a medical device companyand have a need to be able to associate the change order with allof the items affected by the change. "Paste as reference" worksgreat for this in general. I would also like to route all documentsassociate with the change order together as a package.)
At this point I'm leaning toward PDFs for two key reasons.
1. More easily able to control what's linked to the change order.(e.g. if an assembly is changed as part of a change order, but someor all of the parts contained in that assembly are not, there's noway to separate them. So it's really an all or nothingproposition.)
2. PDFs are much more easily viewed, packaged and sent to others inthe organization and out. (Even if we create a PDF copy for non-PDMusers, the amount of time it takes to get all of the current filesassociated with larger assemblies is problematic. Plus, then what'sthe point since you have suppliers and key internal associatesreferencing the "copy" instead of the "master" anyway.)
If there are any folks out there who have implemented systems likethis, I would appreciate your thoughts and comments on native vs.PDF.
Thank you in advance.SolidworksSolidworks Pdm enterprise Pdm
We're currently using EPDM to manage our Solidworks data and have ageneral drawing checking and approval workflow that seems to workwell. With a forthcoming transition to electronic master records,I'm curious if others are using the native Solidworks data as themaster or attaching PDFs to the change order to be used as thecontrolled master document.
(It may be important to note that we're a medical device companyand have a need to be able to associate the change order with allof the items affected by the change. "Paste as reference" worksgreat for this in general. I would also like to route all documentsassociate with the change order together as a package.)
At this point I'm leaning toward PDFs for two key reasons.
1. More easily able to control what's linked to the change order.(e.g. if an assembly is changed as part of a change order, but someor all of the parts contained in that assembly are not, there's noway to separate them. So it's really an all or nothingproposition.)
2. PDFs are much more easily viewed, packaged and sent to others inthe organization and out. (Even if we create a PDF copy for non-PDMusers, the amount of time it takes to get all of the current filesassociated with larger assemblies is problematic. Plus, then what'sthe point since you have suppliers and key internal associatesreferencing the "copy" instead of the "master" anyway.)
If there are any folks out there who have implemented systems likethis, I would appreciate your thoughts and comments on native vs.PDF.
Thank you in advance.SolidworksSolidworks Pdm enterprise Pdm
