Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

Our company uses a boxcar part numbering system. In other words, we
generate each part number sequentially regardless of what it is. (501423,
501424...) Our parts are organized into folders containing 1000 parts each
such that all drawings from 500000 - 500999 are in one folder, 501000-501999
is in the next. The .idw files are organized in the same fashion with
proper part numbers assigned, but stored in separate folders from the .iam,
.ipn, and .ipt files. The products are stored in directories according to
type, capacity, and model number. There are 10 different products, each has
3-10 capacities, and each capacity may have 1-100 model numbers, which are
the .iam & .idw files.

Okay, when I want to perform an engineering change (ECN), I would like to
check-out the files, and have them in my personal workspace locally. Then I
would make changes and check-in the files. My project file has each archive
file listed as a workgroup. The product file is also listed as a workgroup,
and I have a workspace set up on my local machine. The multi-user is set to
Semi-isolated.

Here's the problem, when I make changes to a product, I check-out the files.
This puts the whole folder heirarchy in my workspace. OK. When I check-in
the files, the folders don't go away. The files "go back" to the archive,
but I end up with all this trash in my workspace. Also, it would be so
handy to be able to check-in & out files from DA or better yet, Windows
Explorer instead of having to open up each file with IV.

Any ideas?

[#2]

either write a VB application that does the clean up manually or...


spend megabucks on a PDM system.... i should think (unless you're already an
accomplished programmer) that just manually deleting the folders each time
you've finished is probably easier...

col.