Changelog/managing edits

[ksorsby]

Evening all,

A problem I consistently have to deal with these days is this: where many people work on a job, models can be easily edited or superseded and months later, it is not entirely clear whats been edited and/or why and by whom. This can be a big problem when queries from Site or the client come in months/years later. Often, people here have different abilities, workflows and goals and I need a way to keep an eye on what they are doing as best I can.

I'm thinking that an editable 'changelog', probably in paperspace, in the form of a dynamic table would be the way to go. This would work as follows: a user makes the edits they are instructed to make in the model, then updates the table with their name, date/time, description of the edits made, who required them, name of superseded file (if any). We do have issue records for drawings but with models, a lot of edits are minor and informal but potentially very important.

Will this work? How does everybody keep track of what goes on in individual models, especially where a number of users of varying experience may be concerned. Or is there a system within C3D I'm missing or external apps that I could use?

Cheers,

Kevin

[neilyj666]

Not sure if Vault can do this?

[ksorsby]

I've always assumed (perhaps wrongly) that Vault is for manufacturing as opposed to civil engineering and so have disregarded it. I'll look into it further then, but I can imagine it'd cost about £4000 per license and I'd need 8 licenses.

Any other ideas?

Kevin

[dgorsman]

If I remember rightly, Vault Basic comes with Subscription.  It won't include the full lifecycle management tools, but should be checked out first.

[mathewkol]

Vault Basic can be completely disregarded for Civil 3D use for many reasons, not the least of which is lack of DREF support. (Unless something has changed recently that I'm unaware of). The Vault lifecycle of Pro and the approval process should really do what the OP wants. It's a large undertaking compared to a table in paper space, but I'm not sure the table in PS is the way to go either.

[mfernandes]

I agree with neilyj, checkout Vault. (workgroups or pro)

Yes it carries a huge price tag, but at least worth looking at, given your issue.

At the end of the day, only you can make the call between the cost of the solution and the cost of errors and changes going out for construction.

Although you have 8 users, you don't necessarily have to purchase licensees for all the users, the license can be effetely managed through the LM.

Just my opinion.

and if vault does not work for you than you can go with the old tried and proven method of revision notes.

you could also very easily automate this, by creating an app that on save, prompts the user for a revision note that is automatically added to the drawing or an external file.

Similar to the old plot spooling proccess where some companies linked it to a costing program to keep track of printing cost.