Company just starting out with CAD, Inventor 2012 Professional

[SeanFarr]

Hi, I have been recently hired to a company that buys/sells new/used mining equipment. There need for CAD is to create there own products as well as create there own replacement parts instead of buying OEM. I have been here for a few months and have made many small parts and some larger assemblies for all different kinds of equipment. Most of the company is CAD illiterate, meaning this forum and whatever Google produces are my main sources of information. I also have Mastering Autodesk Inventor 2012 by Waguespack and have been using it the most.. I have the education for this position, but I lack the experience. My questions are related to start -up of a CAD office.

• I have decided not to use vault as I will be the only CAD Tech, we have a server that our files are backed up to daily and that server is backed up nightly.
• I am trying to set file naming conventions,
• Project Files, what are there limitations, we don't necessarily work on a project level, ex, boss comes in and says we need those 3 plates for a scissor deck truck in the shop reverse engineered. I model, detail it and store it for future use. When the plates are needed, we send drawing to fabricator and get them built. So if I create a project folder for each job, I could have thousands. If I create a project folder A Scissor deck truck, there are multiple manufacturers, so I would need a project file for each, or can I keep each scissor deck in a sub folder.
• Also the company is actually comprised of 2 separate companies. One is Total Equipment and the other is Total Electrical all under the same roof.
• If I were to create 2 project files one for Equipment and one for Electrical, what would be the disadvantages of that? Longer load times because of amount files in that project? this would be easy for keeping the two companies project separate.

Any information/guidance or direction to external resources would help.

Thanks

[Curtis_Waguespack]

Hi SeanFarr,

I think you'll be best off using a single company wide project file.

Let's say your server is mapped as the U drive and your engineering files are stored on that drive in a folder called Engineering. Create your single project file at the root of that folder (in this example it's called Total Inc. Inventor Project.ipj). Using this project Inventor's search cone will start at the Engineering folder and look at everything in it.

Then you might create 2 folders to seperate the 2 company divisions (Total Equipment and Total Electrical). You'd just save all of the parts for each division in those folders using some unique file naming scheme. For instance your Total Equipment files might be numbered as such: 10-xxxx

And your Total Electrical files might be numbered as such: 20-xxxx

And if you end up with a part that is used in both divisions those files might be numbered as 30-xxxx and stored in the Library Part folder:

These are just examples, the numbering scheme and folder structure is largely up to you. You might decide that you don't need the sub folders and will use  just one folder called CAD Files, that you put everything in. Since you're using the Part number prefix to organize the division of the files, it's easy to know which is which.

But becareful about pigeon holing yourself into a numbering scheme that is too rigid. Often times the more generic the better. You can find some othere examples on page 51 of the Mastering 2012 book.

Another thing to think of is how you will look up parts based on a description or keyword. If your company has an MRP system (hopefully the do, or will in the near future) you will use that.

If not you can create a simple Excel file to help stay organized and allow you search easily.

Post back with questions if still have more (or if this inspires more), I'm certain others will have some ideas as well.

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

[kstate92]

Not very Inventor related, but I still have a soft spot for our old number system: 10,000's for top level assemblies (the final product being sold), 20,000's for manufactured subs and components, 30,000's for purchased parts and that was it.  Reach the end of a series?  Add a zero (20,000 -> 200,000).

Now, as part of a group, we use a common ERP system and the part numbers are just 'next number' with no meaning whatsoever; one number is a paperclip, the next is an oil rig.  Bonus: pulling numbers for a project only to have someone three states away pull the next number so both or your parts lists are screwed.