Drawing Revisions

[Anonymous]

Our method of revising drawings is as follows: We always save the existing drawing and it's previous changes(revisions). Our drawing names reflect the current revision level. For example, 3Y50C1-200R00 with a new revision now becomes 3Y50C1-200R01. Now let's say a hole size is being revised and we want to keep the current drawing the way it is for possible referencing in the future. I go into the part file (ipt) and rename it as the new current name showing the new revision level as part of the new drawing number as mentioned before. The question now is, do I have to recreate and redimension the entire .idw drawing to reflect one hole size change?

Mitch

[Anonymous]

I think that the way I would handle this situation
is to have the part named as 3Y50C1-200.  In iProps, have the part
number be 3Y50C1-200R00. That number could then be brought into your .idw
in the title block.  Now when you need to make a revision, open the .idw
and save it in another format like .pdf, or .dwg...(a whole other
discussion)  Now open 3Y50C1-200.ipt.  If you want to keep a copy
of this revision, save a copy as 3Y50C1-200R00 at this
time.   Make your changes to 3Y50C1-200.ipt while also updating
the iProp part number to 3Y50C1-200R01.  The .idw will now show the new
drawing number and all the views, dimensions, and notations that are unaffected
by the change.

This works because the assemblies and
drawings reference 3Y50C1-200.ipt, not 3Y50C1-200R00.ipt, so i
face=Arial size=2>f the part is used in multiple assemblies, all of those
assemblies will already contain the latest revision to the part so you don't
have to do a bunch of substitutions and reconstraining. 

I've been using this method for 3 years and it
works well for us except the revision is not part of our part number, but is
shown in the revision block. 

-Mike   

[jmartzig]

the way we (and i think many other peop's on this board) handle this is with pdf's. so you have all your old documents pd-effed. all our ipt's and idw's always show the most current release, whereas we name our pdf's with the rev level, not the idw. example : 220-1234-1__R5.pdf -Joe

[Anonymous]

I have always said that the way we incorporate change numbers into our drawing number is not right. You should not have to rename a drawing number just because your revision number has changed. That's what revision blocks are for. But here I am still having to do it. Now, it's up to me to work around this little problem. I am not familiar with iProps so I'll have to do some looking into that. Thanks for your help though.

[Anonymous]

You could re-create the part and the drawing
as a set via design assistant, but I think you will find this a clumsy
system that will quickly fill up your hard drive with hundreds of outdated
files.  I'm not sure if Inventor's new vault thingy is designed to help
with this.  Ask yourself: is it really necessary to keep every version of
every part and assembly, with their drawings as viable Inventor files, or
would it be enough to have an electronic copy of the drawings themselves, and an
archive of the entire project at critical points.  I guess the other
question would be, does your part number for a component actually change with
each revision?  I've never ran a system where that was the case, so my
advice may not fit your application.

Here is what I do:

All my drawings eventually end up as .pdf
files[1].  This is an excellent way to archive them, as they are compact,
and not easily edited.  The IDW file itself simply bears the name of the
part: MP1005 SD.idw.  The version is noted in the title block, of
course.  The PDF file will have a version letter tagged on: MP1005 SD
B.pdf.  This means that the only live Inventor files I have to deal
with are the current ones.  To preserve a snapshot of the entire project in
case I need to go back, I burn the whole thing to CD at regular
intervals.

Cheers,

Walt

[1] Autodesk's latest anti-Acrobat spiel is,
IMO, a load of ripe fertilizer.  The DWF format is (again IMO) not ready
for the real world, and Autodesk has drug it's feet for years now about
getting it there.  Their answer to this is aparently to start an
embarrassingly juvenile ad campaign (complete with tacky easter egg)
instead of rolling up their sleeves and fixing the product.  And people
wonder why I don't like marketing types.

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"mitchhawley" <
href="mailto:mitch.hawley@clorox.com">mitch.hawley@clorox.com> wrote in
message
href="news:f18a42e.-1@WebX.maYIadrTaRb">news:f18a42e.-1@WebX.maYIadrTaRb...

Our
method of revising drawings is as follows: We always save the existing drawing
and it's previous changes(revisions). Our drawing names reflect the current
revision level. For example, 3Y50C1-200R00 with a new revision now becomes
3Y50C1-200R01. Now let's say a hole size is being revised and we want to keep
the current drawing the way it is for possible referencing in the future. I go
into the part file (ipt) and rename it as the new current name showing the new
revision level as part of the new drawing number as mentioned before. The
question now is, do I have to recreate and redimension the entire .idw drawing
to reflect one hole size change?

Mitch

[Anonymous]

>All my drawings eventually end up as .pdf
files[1].  This is an excellent way to archive them, as they are compact,
and not easily edited.  The IDW file >itself simply bears the name of
the part: MP1005 SD.idw.  The version is noted in the title block, of
course.  The PDF file will have a version letter >tagged on: MP1005 SD
B.pdf.  This means that the only live Inventor files I have to deal
with are the current ones.  To preserve a snapshot of the >entire
project in case I need to go back, I burn the whole thing to CD at regular
intervals.

This is exactly what we do as well.  Has
worked well since R1.

--
Sean Dotson, PE

href="http://www.sdotson.com">http://www.sdotson.com
Check the Inventor
FAQ for most common questions

href="http://www.sdotson.com/faq.html">www.sdotson.com/faq.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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"Walt Jaquith" <
href="mailto:waltj@hotmail.com">waltj@hotmail.com> wrote in message
href="news:8C5B14E360C656545F25D4FBC9D18E50@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb">news:8C5B14E360C656545F25D4FBC9D......

You could re-create the part and the drawing
as a set via design assistant, but I think you will find this a clumsy
system that will quickly fill up your hard drive with hundreds of outdated
files.  I'm not sure if Inventor's new vault thingy is designed to help
with this.  Ask yourself: is it really necessary to keep every version of
every part and assembly, with their drawings as viable Inventor files, or
would it be enough to have an electronic copy of the drawings themselves, and
an archive of the entire project at critical points.  I guess the other
question would be, does your part number for a component actually change with
each revision?  I've never ran a system where that was the case, so my
advice may not fit your application.

Here is what I do:

All my drawings eventually end up as .pdf
files[1].  This is an excellent way to archive them, as they are compact,
and not easily edited.  The IDW file itself simply bears the name of the
part: MP1005 SD.idw.  The version is noted in the title block, of
course.  The PDF file will have a version letter tagged on: MP1005 SD
B.pdf.  This means that the only live Inventor files I have to deal
with are the current ones.  To preserve a snapshot of the entire project
in case I need to go back, I burn the whole thing to CD at regular
intervals.

Cheers,

Walt

[1] Autodesk's latest anti-Acrobat spiel is,
IMO, a load of ripe fertilizer.  The DWF format is (again IMO) not ready
for the real world, and Autodesk has drug it's feet for years now about
getting it there.  Their answer to this is aparently to start an
embarrassingly juvenile ad campaign (complete with tacky easter egg)
instead of rolling up their sleeves and fixing the product.  And people
wonder why I don't like marketing types.

style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">

"mitchhawley" <
href="mailto:mitch.hawley@clorox.com">mitch.hawley@clorox.com> wrote
in message
href="news:f18a42e.-1@WebX.maYIadrTaRb">news:f18a42e.-1@WebX.maYIadrTaRb...

Our
method of revising drawings is as follows: We always save the existing
drawing and it's previous changes(revisions). Our drawing names reflect the
current revision level. For example, 3Y50C1-200R00 with a new revision now
becomes 3Y50C1-200R01. Now let's say a hole size is being revised and we
want to keep the current drawing the way it is for possible referencing in
the future. I go into the part file (ipt) and rename it as the new current
name showing the new revision level as part of the new drawing number as
mentioned before. The question now is, do I have to recreate and redimension
the entire .idw drawing to reflect one hole size change?

Mitch

[Anonymous]

By iProps I simply mean
File\iProperties\Project\Part Description.  On my title block, the Drawing
Number field reads whatever is in that box on the .ipt or .iam.

-Mike

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"mitchhawley" <
href="mailto:mitch.hawley@clorox.com">mitch.hawley@clorox.com> wrote in
message
href="news:f18a42e.2@WebX.maYIadrTaRb">news:f18a42e.2@WebX.maYIadrTaRb...

I
have always said that the way we incorporate change numbers into our drawing
number is not right. You should not have to rename a drawing number just
because your revision number has changed. That's what revision blocks are for.
But here I am still having to do it. Now, it's up to me to work around this
little problem. I am not familiar with iProps so I'll have to do some looking
into that. Thanks for your help though.