What is the Best Way to Create a Local Design Library of Parts?

What is the best way to create a local design library of parts?


I'm planning on improving my current local library of parts from a complex hierarchy of folders to a single level which is easily searchable using the solid works search bar. I need to make a library from which designers can pick from purchased parts and those purchased parts already have a file name, a description, vendor information, a vendor's part number, etc. And, I need the standards of this library high enough that if designers don't find what they need, they will download or draft a new part for the library and make sure the file name, description, vendor info, part number, etc are up to the standards before saving it to the library.

How can I move from the current library of unusable folder-tree with unfinished parts?

I'm considering giving each part a property called 'KW' (for Key Words), where I can enter all the tags that the part might be associated with. For example, a 1/2" pipe elbow might have keywords '0.5 NPT PIPE ELBOW FEMALE FITTING PNEUMATIC 150PSI'. So, in the SolidWorks search bar, a designer could type 'kw: pipe kw: elbow' to see all the pipe elbows in the library.

Do you have any advice on how to create this library?

Do you have experience doing something like this?

Can you foresee the limitations this method will have?

What problems have you ran into when using the solidworks search bar to search custom properties?

Thanks,

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Jason Schmidt

SolidworksToolbox