Getting Started with Lifecycle and Revision Control

What's Covered?

• Introduction to Revisions in 3DEXPERIENCE
• Introduction to the 3DEXPERIENCE design release cycle
• Design collaboration using Bookmarks

Applies to the following Roles:

• 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS Standard, Professional, Premium
• Collaborative Designer for SOLIDWORKS
• Collaborative Industry Innovator

Summary:

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform provides design teams with an inbuilt set of capabilities for managing both the revisions and the lifecycle of a design. The requirement to manage the lifecycle of a design in a controlled and efficient manner is typically one of the main reasons that a company chooses adopt 3DEXPERIENCE. Therefore, it’s important that the 3DEXPERIENCE environment is configured in the right way before any production work starts, in order to meet a client’s needs. The following guide discusses best practices for setting up and using the lifecycle and revision capabilities with SOLIDWORKS.

Revision History

Note
All SolidPractices are written as guidelines. It is a strong recommendation to use these documents only after properly evaluating your requirements. Distribution of this document is limited to Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks employees, VARs, and customers that are on active subscription. You may not post this document on blogs or any internal or external forums without prior written authorization from Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation.
This document was updated using 3DEXPERIENCE 2024X FD03. If you have questions or need assistance in understanding the content, please get in touch with your designated reseller.

Acknowledgments
This document was authored by GoEngineer and reviewed by Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation.

1) Preface

When an engineer or a SOLIDWORKS designer needs to make a change, or when releasing a part, assembly, drawing or other supporting documentation, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform allows for a seamless revision process.

It is possible to increment the revision level of each object along with the modified components and documentation. Both the primary Revision level and the secondary Revision level provide the opportunity to make changes depending on the settings in place for each organization.

It is also possible to implement a specific revision scheme, for example, numeric or alpha, and each object that you save or modify is dependent on this revision scheme. After saving an object into the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, you can create derived outputs, which allow for automatic the creation of PDF, STEP, and other format files.

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2) Revisions in 3DEXPERIENCE

a) Understanding What Revisions Are in the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform

i) Purpose

There are many factors for a company to revise their products including technological advancements, market demand and competition to name a few. Revisions help companies track the changes of a product along with its history.

For example, a company releases and manufactures revision A of a part and sells the part to customers. Then, because of a recent technological breakthrough, the company modifies the part and releases revision B. However, the service department still needs access to revision A to support maintenance because this version is already in the market.

Revisioning also helps companies duplicate, modify and build new products from existing designs. This helps reduce the costs associated labor and time to build new prototypes. Revisioning also provides valuable insights that help companies understand the evolution process, which helps with future designs.

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform provides a robust mechanism to manage revisions that is easy to set up and maintain. Features includes the selection of alpha or numeric revisions, control of visibility based on the revision status and enhanced search.

ii) Primary revisions vs secondary revisions

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform provides for primary and secondary revision values. The primary value is the main revision of the object that is used on a release. The secondary values represent subsequent iterations that are used before the object is ready. For example, when you create and save a new part, the revision starts with A.1. After an operation to modify and save the part, a new revision of the part increments the secondary value to A.2. The value A is the primary and the .1 and .2 revisions are the secondary values. If this part is released, the revision value becomes A.2. Primary revisions are made on content that has been released, while secondary revisions are made on content that has not been released. In summary, primary revisions are mainly used for a new major release of an object, whereas secondary revisions are used for new iterations of an object while in work prior to release.

iii) Revisions relationship to the lifecycle

In the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, the revision process has different options. Depending on the setup, the lifecycle of an object and its primary and secondary revisions can vary.

• Multiple revisions in work

Depending on your configuration settings for your 3DEXPERIENCE platform, you have the ability to have multiple revisions that are in the In Work maturity state (state) of the lifecycle process. If it is possible to create a new revision from an In Work state, the option shown below is available. If it is possible to create a new revision only from a Frozen or Released state, then you do not have the option to create multiple revisions from the In Work state.

• Best practices for lifecycles and revisions

When revising an object in the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, it is best to revise in a Released state. Having multiple revisions in an In Work state can lead to the overwriting of work. For example, Designer A is working on revision A for a part and Designer B creates a new revision of the same part, now labeled with revision B. Designer B has the ability to make changes to the part and then release it; the same applies for Designer A. At this point, there could be multiple revisions that become released but are different iterations of the same part. This can lead to confusion when other users attempt to use the part for a CAD assembly or production.

In addition, it is also best to not allow revision creation from a Frozen state. An object is typically in a Frozen state because it is under review. If there are modifications to that object during a Frozen state, the review becomes difficult for the approver because of the change in the state of the object. For the reviewer or approver to perform an accurate review of the proposed object, the object must remain in a Frozen state. If the approver rejects the changes to the object, they would move it back to an In Work state to allow further work, and then move it back to the Frozen state when the object is ready for review.

With regard to revisions, it is typical to create a new revision for an object that requires a major change. If a user opens an object that was modified and saved to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, the Is Last Revision column displays a red X. This indicates that the user does not have the latest revision of the file open. In this case, the user can then right-click the object and select Reload from Server to load the latest revision. When making a change to an object, it is essential to save the object to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform even if not creating a new revision.

b) Revision Format

i) Revision naming rules options

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform has two options, each with a second variant. The primary can either be numeric or alpha. If choosing a numeric option, you can either start at 1 or 0. If you choose an alpha option, you can have straight alpha letters such as A, B, C…, or you can begin with -, A, B, C… This scheme also skips I, O, Q, S, X and Z.

Extended Revision Sequences offer flexibility to create a custom Revision Scheme tailored to your specific needs. A file is uploaded with defined rules that outline the custom sequence. Once uploaded, your custom revision scheme appears alongside any predefined schemes, making it easy to select and apply as needed. The following example adds an alpha option, excluding I and O.

ii) Lifecycle and collaboration commands tied to revision

The standard revision increments following the release of a document, part or file. The item typically begins in the In Work state, it is promoted to the Frozen state and then to Released. Settings within the permission rules configuration controls when you can create new revisions and at what lifecycle.

You can select the Revision format in the Lifecycle and Collaboration settings. There are three revision behaviors: Primary, Primary and secondary, and Primary and secondary for 3DEXPERIENCE content with SOLIDWORKS master.

• Primary

This revision format displays only the primary revision. For example, A, B and C.

The primary revision increments every time a revision is created, independently from the maturity state of the object.

This is the recommended revision scheme if you do not operate in an iterative cycle. If you release and modify this object, the next revision becomes B, then C and so on. For example, your initial revision is A. If you modify that revision, the next revision is B, the next is C, etcetera.

• Primary and secondary

This revision format displays a secondary revision after the primary revision in the format [Revision.#].

The primary revision increments every time a revision is created from content in a Released state. The secondary revision resets to 1. This identifies major changes.

The secondary revision increments every time a revision is created from non-released content (a state of either In Work or Frozen). It is a recommendation to allow the creation of new revisions from an In Work state if enabling secondary revisions using this revision scheme.

For example, new revisions of the In Work or Frozen maturity states have the names A.1, A.2, A.3, etcetera, until released. A revision of the Released content has the name B.1 and follows the same revision naming rules.

The main reason to use the Primary and secondary revision scheme is for identifying design iterations.

• Primary and secondary for 3DEXPERIENCE content with SOLIDWORKS Master

This revision format displays a secondary revision after the primary revision before the minor revision [Revision _#.# ]. The behavior of this revision format is similar to the Primary and secondary format. NOTE: This is a legacy scheme and not intended or recommended for use by new customers.

iii) Revision naming rules best practices

• How each revision component increments

When revising components of a part or assembly, it is always a best practice to create a new revision of the modified parts and associated part drawings. After revising the parts upward, it is then best to also revision the assembly drawing upward to at the same time.

• Rules regarding secondary revision resets

Secondary revisions reset under one condition within the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. For the secondary revision to reset, you must enable the Primary and secondary revisions option in the configuration settings of the platform. If you choose this option, an option to increment and reset secondary revisions becomes available.

The reset of a secondary revision occurs when the object is in a Released state. If the object is in the In Work or Frozen state when creating a new revision, the secondary revision increments. If the object is in a Released state when creating a new revision, the secondary revision resets to 1.

The following image depicts an example of an object that is in the In Work state at the revision level -.1. Primary and secondary revisions are enabled in this environment. When a creating a new revision, notice how the secondary revision increments.

Notice that the primary revision remains at - and the secondary revisions increment as the object remains in a state of In Work.

After releasing the object and creating the next revision, the secondary revision resets to 1 and the primary revision changes to A as shown above.

• When to use primary and secondary

When it comes to the Primary, Secondary and other revision schemes, follow these best practices to obtain the best results.

• If a released object is going through a change of any sort, it is best to create a new revision to document those changes. All revisions of released content require a major revision to be created inside of 3DEXPERIENCE.
• Secondary revisions are made to non-released content and is commonly used for an iterative design process. If there are many different iterations to the object, it is best to have each iteration as a new secondary revision. After selecting one iteration as the best iteration, it can be released and the remaining revisions become irrelevant.
• Use secondary revisions for iterative changes throughout the design and development process prior to release of the object. These can be as minor as changing properties or adding additional content to products. The minor revisions can be used to track changes and compare different iterations as your team develops or alters products on the platform.

c) Accessing Revisions

i) Web browser

There are many ways to access revisions using a web browser, however, there are a few commonly used ways to retrieve this data. The first is to use the Search feature within the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. When performing a search using the web client, all revisions of an object appear in the search results.

If you want the search results to display only the latest revisions, you can change the settings to allow for that.

Selecting the Latest option in the Search Options dialog box returns the limited results for revisions as shown in the following image.

Another common way to access the revisions for a specific object is to use the Collaborative Lifecycle app. Once in the app, you can find the object and view all revisions in one area as shown in the next image.

ii) SOLIDWORKS (showing one at a time and all at once)

When in SOLIDWORKS, you can see all the revisions of the CAD object by clicking the Replace by Revision command.

As shown in the next image, all revisions for the object then appear in the Replace by Revision window, from which you can access them.

When in SOLIDWORKS, the Is Latest Revision column provides an indication of whether the object is the latest version or not. If a red X appears in the column, there is a newer revision of the object.

There is an option to automatically replace the current revision on save. To access this option, in the SOLIDWORKS Connector, go to Tools > Options as shown below.

Another best practice relates to the Update Revisions feature in SOLIDWORKS.

When in an assembly that contains several children, it is a best practice to use this feature to update all the children in the assembly structure to the latest released revision.

In the following images, you can see that the main assembly is revision B.2 and all its components are B.1. Because B.1 is in the In Work state, the latest released revision is A.1. This is the latest released revision in the dialog box using this feature. When you select the Replace by Latest Released Revision option from the menu, all subcomponents revert to A.1 to keep all revisions in order.

After accomplishing the replacement, the assembly contains only the latest released components as shown below.

SOLIDWORKS will recognize if more current data exists on the Platform. This includes newer revisions or changes to an existing revision. When opening old revisions, a message may be displayed indicating a newer revision exists on 3DEXPERIENCE with the option to update the revisions.

3) SOLIDWORKS Lifecycle

a) Lifecycle Definition

A lifecycle is the maturity state of an object and helps determine the business process for the CAD object.

i) Purpose of lifecycle

The main purpose for a lifecycle for a CAD object is to let people know the status of objects within the business process.

ii) Access to Data

Access to data depends on the type of Collaborative Space it is stored in (Protected, Private or Public), a user’s access level to content stored in the Collaborative Space (Contributor, Author, or Leader) and the lifecycle state of the object (see below).

Assign Contributor access rights in the Collaborative Space if the user will only view and open, read-only, the contents of the Collaborative Space. A Contributor cannot add data to the Collaborative Space and they cannot revise or change the maturity state of objects, Typically, the Contributor access level is generally assigned to users who need view-only access, upper management for example, allowing them to observe project details without making changes.

Assign Author access rights in the Collaborative Space to users who will add and own content in the Collaborative Space. Authors are limited to working with content in the Private, In Work and Frozen Maturity States. They cannot Release or Obsolete content. They cannot revise Released content. Typically, Author access level is generally assigned to staff CAD Designers and Engineers, allowing them to add and modify data but not manage data.

Leader access rights in the Collaborative Space will allow a user to revise, release and obsolete any content in the Collaborative Space. Typically, Leader access level is generally assigned to Lead Project Engineers and/or CAD Administrators, allowing them to add, modify and manage data.

As a best practice, it is a recommendation to always save data in a Protected or Private collaborative space. The Common space is primarily used for administrative purposes. It is best to not use a common space to house live data or CAD data that requires a lifecycle operation. Protected spaces are available to all members of the platform. Only those who are members of the protected space can see objects in any lifecycle state. If a user is not a member of the protected collaborative space, they can only see Released and Obsolete objects within that collaborative space.

b) Interacting with the Lifecycle

i) SOLIDWORKS client application

When using the SOLIDWORKS application, there is a lifecycle option to promote the maturity state of the CAD object.

Another way to change the lifecycle of the object is to right-click the object from the task pane and then select Maturity. The same options then become available to move forward with the lifecycle of the object.

ii) Web widgets

From the web browser when logged in to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, there are multiple options available to interact with the lifecycle of an object. One option is the Collaborative Lifecycle widget.

This widget provides users with the ability to interact with the lifecycle of the object in addition to any of its revisions. Apart from the Collaborative Lifecycle widget, there are other apps that support lifecycle control. For example, Bookmark Editor and Engineering Release.

c) Lifecycle Security

i) Moving from In Work to Released

Users have the ability to move the lifecycle of an object from In Work to Released by promoting it manually through the Collaborative Lifecycle widget. Users also have the option to move an object from In Work to Frozen if set up in that manner. It is possible to put many rules in place to regulate the lifecycle of the object. However, in the default installation, there are no restrictions on the promotion of an object’s lifecycle beyond the permissions setting based on roles in a Collaborative Space.

ii) Other security options

In addition to the lifecycle operations changes that users can make for an object, there are also other security options available such as Lifecycle commands and Collaboration commands.

Lifecycle commands dictate what roles can use the Duplicate, Iteration, New Branch and New Revision commands. In addition, allowing a new revision from any revision is also an option in this section.

Collaboration commands dictate what roles can use the Share, Move, Change Owner, Lock and Unlock commands. Several options are available depending on the security settings that the user wants.
 

d) Lifecycle Configuration

i) Maturity Graph

Each object has a specific maturity graph that is configurable. Specific to CAD objects, the maturity graph is for Engineering Definition.

ii) Transition rules

• Explanation of transition rules

Transition rules allow for verifying the state of child content before allowing the promotion of that parent content. As a user transitions from one part of the lifecycle to another, there are configuration options that relate to the states of each object.

• Best practices for transition rules

Have some rules in place to prevent the promotion of an object if the governed children of the main object are not in the correct target state. For example, if you have an assembly that contains children parts, prevent the assembly from moving from In Work to Frozen or from Frozen to Released if the children are not in the same state as the assembly. This prevents confusion of parts and assemblies and the state of each object.

Do not release an object directly from an In Work state. It is a good idea to remove this option. It is a best practice to always move an object to a Frozen state from an In Work state and then promote the object to the Released state with the appropriate approvals.

Consider using the Drafting transition rule, which prevents users from promoting a drawing before its related product. It is very important to keep all objects in the proper states during the release process.

4) Derived Outputs

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform allows for the creation of derived outputs. Depending on the options enabled, it is possible to create derived outputs either automatically or manually in a variety of different configurations. Target formats for SOLIDWORKS objects include CGR, PDF or STEP files.

Refer Derived Output for SOLIDWORKS SolidPractice for further reading.

a) Accessing the Derived Output

After creating derived outputs, you can access them by going to the properties of the object and then clicking the Derived Outputs icon. This displays all the derived outputs that exist for that specific object. From here, you can download any or all derived outputs for the object.

i) Configuration options

You can configure derived outputs from the Derived Format Management tool within the Collaborative Spaces Configuration Center widget.

From this section, you can set up new rules that allow for the creation of derived outputs. You have the option to create a derived output from a part or drawing to a CGR, PDF or STEP format file. A forced event creates a derived output after saving the part or drawing to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. This is the most common configuration setting change, however, other options are also available within the Derived Output Management tool.

5) Using Bookmarks

a) Best Practices for Configuration

When setting up bookmarks, it is important to remember that only the revisions you save within the bookmark appear. For example, if you create a new revision for an object in SOLIDWORKS, you cannot access the revision from the bookmark itself. The new revision would need to be added to the bookmark.

If you have the latest revision, a green check mark appears in the Is Last Revision column. Keep this in mind if you have new revisions of objects that are not in the bookmark. This ensures that you get the latest revision in cases where updates occur outside the bookmark.

If a red X appears in the column as shown below, you have the option to click the red X and update the revision in the bookmark.

After clicking the red X, the following dialog box appears, which allows you to update to the latest revision.

Once you select the latest revision, the bookmark appears as follows:

b) Collaborative Space Rules

Collaborative spaces allow users to perform actions within each space based on their assigned role. Each role dictates the actions that each user can take within the collaborative space.

i) Permission rules

Two main roles available in a collaborative space are the Author role and the Leader role. The Author role allows users to create new content and change the maturity state of an object. The Leader role allows users to do all the things an Author can, plus release objects. Depending on the permission rules configuration, the rights for each role can vary.

The main area that affects revisions in the Permission Rules area is the Lifecycle Operations section. This section allows for configuration changes as they relate to the permission rules for a role related to revisions.

In addition to the revision permission rules, there are also permission rules that relate to collaborative spaces in the Read Operations section.

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