File Management

It's all about communication. You need to determine what you two need in order to know who's working on what.

We have no PDM here either. For us, no one works in the master folder. We all have WIP folders and we copy what we are working on there. That also lets users have a copy of whatever other files they need to reference in their WIP folder without fear of overwriting the master files.

One person, typically the project manager, controls what gets put back into the master. Someone will say they have completed files or the project manager wants to get the master database updated and he'll manage getting those into the master database.

For larger projects with several people working simultaneously, we will use an incoming folder where engineers can put their files for check in and the project manager can go there to retrieve them and integrate them into the master.

You have to understand how Creo finds files, which get loaded first from where, and how things are saved when doing a save as or save as backup. It's easy to make a mess, but if you understand the rules and your careful, it's also easy to manage. The good thing is, unless you purge your folders al the time, it's also easy to recover since Creo saves a new file every time and the old versions are still there.

Know who 'owns' what, know the rules of file retrieval and saving and be careful and deliberate and you'll be fine.

I use to work in this environment with 4 engineers. We used a common file strategy on a server. We did not copy our files, but worked directly from the server.

We also did not work on the same files at the same time and it was easy enough to see if someone had a file open or had access. The system was amazingly reliable.

One thing is that all 4 engineers were highly disciplined in assuring database integrity. But just in case, IT did do a daily archive -and- purge processes happened infrequently.

IT also made sure the file structure was maintained where only the appropriate files were in the appropriate folders (part number segregation).

We could -backup- and entire assembly from Pro|E into a server folder and IT had a routing that cleaned it up on a weekly basis. ...but this also means that an engineer didn't tweak or replace a library part like a screw because they all knew the implications.

With two people and a few very simple rules, you should have no issues. I can only ad that "skeleton" or "master" models could be used for external references if needed. That way you are not dependent on each other's parts on an ongoing basis. You can both reference a "locked" or "frozen" model.

If you have a budget for a file management program, PTC introduced PDM Essentials last year. We are a group of 4 and implemented that last spring. It cost about $850 per seat, so not real cheap, but much cheaper than other PDM software's. The PDM Essentials is a basic version of Windchill. You get the file management of Windchill, but not all the advanced functionality.

Here is a link with more information on PDM Essentials.

http://www.ptc.com/product/windchill/pdm-essentials/

I'm going to skip the other replies and tell you my unfiltered thoughts.

First, determine if you are required to use a managed file system for the native Pro/E files. (.prt, .asm, .drw, etc).

In our company, only the published drawing files are available to the rest of the company and we use .TIF files for that. The TIF files go into the document management system, which has no productivity effects on Engineering because we mostly push TIF files into this rather than work within it. Our Quality System is happy with that since the only company access to engineering drawings is by way of the TIF files.

We store our native Pro/E files on a network drive. We have a neatly organized area where Pro/E files for released documents are stored, and individual areas where work is kept and developed before the drawing and it's supporting files are released. We use the SEARCH_PATH function to keep common parts available in subfolders - stuff like fasteners, bearings, and other common widgets. This is great as long as the users are organized with their file locations / file names and don't need to revise the same files at the same time.

Our other big option is a database-driven system that stores/controls all native Pro/E files. Pro/PDM (obsolete), Pro/INTRALINK (obsolete), and Windchill can do this for you. My experience has been with Pro/PDM and Pro/INTRALINK. If you consider these systems, carefully evaluate the traditional challenges they present:

1) They add cost. Server side licenses and per-client licenses.

2) They can be buggy, especially when they run integrated to Pro/E / Creo

3) They are often cause a company to stay a release or two behind due to compatibilty / bug issues

4) They can impose additional steps for special file links and structure such as family tables, merge/inheritance, and large assemblies. This results in users limiting their usage of such functionality simply because the file control system makes a productivity-enhancing feature less productive.

5) PERFORMANCE. Checking out and checking in files must be thoroughly tested.

6) Administration. You need to dedicate some time to handling administrative tasks and troubleshooting.

7) How to get your native files back out. This is a major risk in my opinion with any system and it's vitally important that you know your exit strategy and re-test this step before any software upgrade.

Many of the challenges I outlined above may have been resolved in Windchill / Creo, but these are the things I would absolutely torture test before subjecting my company to a PDM system.

David

Be careful about using shared folders. It may be safer to only use files in your working directory (ie. copy screws, etc into your working directory). A user may need to create a plane or axis in a common part and modifying parts in a common folder can cause unforseen failures.

For all that don't have to use Windchill, count yourself lucky.......

Intralink was awesome, much better than using network folders, I wish I had mine back.....