Drawing Register

[bengee5454]

Can anybody help.....

I'm after a simple drawing register/management system. One that can be (automatically) started when a new Inventor/AutoCAD drawing is started.

I'm after something that will only allow unique drawing names. 

any ideas????

[mcgyvr]

I find its best (and its how Inventor expects it for the "open drawing" function) to do

If the part is

part1.ipt

The drawing is

part1.idw

if the iam is

assy2.iam

the drawing is

assy2.idw

Your post seems to imply just "drawings" but I suspect you are really asking for an automatic numbering system and not specifically for drawings only.. 

Autocad has just drawings but Inventor is parts, assemblies and drawings. 

Do you have an ERP/PLM system already? Many have that built in..

[mrattray]

Something like Vault?

[bengee5454]

We already have Vault Basic - all the CAD files are on there.

I wasnt aware that you could generate drawing numbers with Basic - i thougt we had to get the next version at least.

I'm also not sure that would work - our drawings are saved in various locations throughout the Vault, some under the manufactured item, some under the customer project .....if they were saved in one location I think it would be a lot easier!

To further explain my initial post what i would like is as follows:

1. start drawing

2. a screen pops up for you to fill drg no./customer etc

3. presss OK 

4. the master drawing log is checked out of Vault

5. the entered info is then added

6. drawing log is checked back in

I think the main problem is down to user discipline - to remember to update the log etc. 

I was hoping to be able to achieve all of the above in one simple step to ensure that al drawings are correctly entered and accounted for.

as ever, I'm hoping that my post makes sense!

[bengee5454]

we do not have an ERP or PLM system (at least, not tht I'm aware of!)

Please see my latest response to the post. 

[ApostolosJK]

What you're after is just for the files to have different names or to have some structure and/or pattern to their names?

[bengee5454]

the files should have unique names, but I think it would be too complex for the name to be automatically generated....

the drawing number can not be catergorised by 6 numbers (for example) i.e. 260978.dwg, but is made up of elements referring to the project/process etc, i.e. 'our company letters'-FAB-13-999-DIE-001 - this would refer to FABrication, Project Number (13-999), Item (die), and serialised number (001)

At the moment To update the master drawing log, I search for *.dwg in Vault, then export the list to MS Excel, the copy any new drawings (since last update) into the master log.

As you can appreciate, this is very cumbersome and a weekly process that I do not look forward to.

In my past emloyment this was done kind of how I previously mentioned, but I'm not aware of the software used. 

[mrattray]

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@BEN.gee wrote:

I wasnt aware that you could generate drawing numbers with Basic - i thougt we had to get the next version at least.

---

Correct, I believe you need the Pro version for that. However, it sounds like you're spending a lot of time and headaches on this. Perhaps, it's worth looking into an upgrade?

[karthur1]

In Vault Basic,  if you have the option selected to "Enforce unique filenames", it will do exactly that.  It does not matter where in vault the files are located. It does not consider the path ($\Directory1\Subfolder1\Subfolder2.....).  It only considers the filename.

If the filename already exists in Vault and somebody creates a file and tries to place the new file into vault, Vault will give an error saying that the file can't be checked-in.  One of the files (either the new file or the one in vault) will have to be renamed before it will allow the file to be checked-in.

Kirk