topic Re: PDMC Work Flow in Inventor Forum

PDMC Work Flow

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 19:11:16 GMT

For those of you that have the Product Design & Manufacturing Collection (PDMC), what is your work flow for product design?

Do you use all of the software that is available?

Re: PDMC Work Flow

mcgyvr — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 19:54:28 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

For those of you that have the Product Design & Manufacturing Collection (PDMC), what is your work flow for product design?

Do you use all of the software that is available?

We use Vault Basic, Inventor and Autocad (silkscreen artwork creation only) and I program our CNC machine using Inventor HSM..

One of these days I'm going to try to find time to work with 3dsMax and Nastran for thermal modeling.

99% of my time is spent in Inventor..

We are about to start using Eagle for our PCB design as that was thrown in now.

I really don't know why someone would use both Inventor and Fusion in a typical workflow.

I'm not even really sure what Navisworks is and I really don't have a use for Recap or Inventor Nesting.

Re: PDMC Work Flow

imajar — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 20:03:11 GMT

Hi Zach,

Your first question is difficult to answer out of context; the answer will vary greatly from company to company and process to process and even project to project! I will use various workflows depending on what I think is best suited for a given project. Tell us what you do and there may be some people on the forums that can better answer.

As for what software in the collection I use - in rough order of priority:

Inventor Professional

Vault Basic

Autocad (including Acad Architecture and Acad mechanical).

Navisworks Manage

Inventor Nastran

3DS Max

Fusion 360

Recap

Re: PDMC Work Flow

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 12:22:21 GMT

My company designs concrete roller pavers; we design, fabricate, weld, machine, assemble, and commission almost all of our parts.

We currently use:

Inventor

Vault Pro

AutoCAD

I am looking at how we can integrate all the other products we pay for into our work flow. Currently I am trying to learn 3DS Max to create renders of our products, and am looking at Fusion Team, Nesting, and HSM to integrate work flow with the shop floor and service team.

My biggest hurdle that I am finding is that no one seems to use most of the products offered in PDMC, rather it is more affordable to buy that instead of individual components.

Re: PDMC Work Flow

mcgyvr — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 12:39:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

My biggest hurdle that I am finding is that no one seems to use most of the products offered in PDMC, rather it is more affordable to buy that instead of individual components.

Often times those job functions are performed by multiple employees.. (One guy uses Inventor.. One programs the CNC machines, another person is the "rendering/marketing person", etc..) and even though they give you all of those programs in one bundle as far as I know only one person can be using those programs at one time through one specific users license.. I don't think you can buy one collection and split it up between your "team"..

If you don't need rendering then let the rendering software just sit uninstalled..etc... After you use a couple pieces the rest isn't costing you anymore just sitting there vs if you bought each separately..

Almost seems like you are more concerned with just using ALL of the software thinking about the costs only vs addressing the needs of your company. If you need HSM, Nesting,etc... and can find the time and have looked at the cost/increased development time from having another user do that job and aren't willing to go that way then use ALL of it..

I'm not sure anyone really has the time to use all pieces included in the collection as a single user.. OR if you do your development pace may be quite slow..

The functions/uses for most of the software is quite clear..

The cost for us is justified easily even while only using half of the collection..

Re: PDMC Work Flow

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 12:55:29 GMT

We may be in a unique situation in that we, the engineering department, does it all. It's not split up like a traditional company I suppose. I use Inventor, Vault, AutoCAD, and 3DS Max now regularly throughout my day. But I understand your point that typically one person does one thing, and the fact that you can't "split" the license, wouldn't it make sense to just buy Vault and Inventor for everyone and then get the add-ons as needed. We have the need to use most of the software, and ultimately what I would like to know is how people are using it all throughout their work.

Does anyone use Fusion Teams to share prints and models with their manufacturing workers instead of printing out hard copies?

Are people using the HSM and nesting software instead of using another program? We use Pro Nest, even though we pay for the nesting in the PDMC.

We are getting ready for a slow time because that's how construction is heading, so I want to find out how other's are utilizing the software.