I am wondering if anyone is using a separate parts database in place of the ACADE catalog database. I am referring to the capability of ACADE to refer to an external database through a Lisp program (xcat.lsp), instead of opening the ACADE catalog.
Alternately, is anyone using a custom Access front-end that uses or interfaces with the ACADE catalog database?
My issue is that a company should have one parts database, not one for the electrical designer, one for the mechanical designer, and one for the purchasing department. The second part of this issue is BOM creation. An ACADE-generated BOM is only going to have parts from the ACADE drawings. But our project BOM must have both electrical and mechanical parts, so in practice, I am still doing a BOM in another application, AND entering all the parts into the ACADE catalog and into my drawings so that an ACADE BOM can be generated.
Other issues I have are that the ACADE BOM is really only a report that is generated by scanning through all of the project drawings, and you can only access/edit the ACADE catalog in the context of editing/adding symbols to your drawing. It would be nice to be able to just call up a Catalog front-end and enter or edit parts.
I would really like to use a 'database application' like "Parts and Vendors" in conjunction with ACADE. All parts (electrical and mechanical) would be entered into the database application's database through the applications front-end, OR through ACADE at design time. BOM's would be compiled and stored in the database, so ACADE's BOM report function would not be used. Cable wirelists and component pinlists would be edited through the database application's part-entry front-end. (Currently, ACADE's cable wirelist editing is ideal, but its pinlist editing dialog is completely separated from the catalog component editing dialog. A pinlist editing and display function should be present on the Catalog Component entry dialog.)
I'm very curious how other people are working with regard to parts databases.
- Jay