Communicating revision changes to a vendor

[Chris3]

I realize this is a little off topic, but how do you communicate revision changes to vendors? I know there is an analysis -> Compare drawings, but that doesn't provide a clear way to describe the change especially if you have moved a view.

I know Acrobat Pro also compares PDFs but often it just highlights the whole page.

Are people just handing the new drawings to the vendors and letting them work it out or is there other software out there to automate the process?

Christopher Rees - Mechanical Engineer - ISR Systems
UTC AEROSPACE SYSTEMS
100 Wooster Heights Rd, Danbury, CT 06810 U.S.A.
Tel: +1 203 797 5490 Fax: +1 203 797 6637
christopher.rees@utas.utc.com<">mailto:christopher.rees@utas.utc.com> www.utcaerospacesystems.com
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[mpeterson]

Christopher,

Well for starters that is why some companies add revision symbols (triangles, etc) on the drawing where a dimension, view or note was changed, added or deleted. This helps for internal or external use. In some cases an ECN will list every change, addition or deletion to a dimension, note or view in addition to an explanation and reason for the change. If possible that could be provided to the vendor.

In other cases when change documentation is not that detailed I have made highlighted mark-ups of prints in the past which could now be done with electronic editors. I have even made before and after snap-shots in put them in Word or Power Point and then added appropriate notations, arrows, highlights or descriptions as required to communicate the changes. I would do things like this when a vendor had quoted a preliminary drawing and it had not been formally released and thus not requiring ECN control and associated documentation.

All this might sound like a lot of work and it can be time consuming, but it is much better than getting a bad part later which can be very painful and costly and jeopardize a project or build or manufacturing. I presume there are electronic tools to help, but communications is the key.

Sincerely,
Mark A. Peterson
Design Engineer
Varel International
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[DonSenchuk]

I would suggest this information be communicated to vendors the same way it's communicated to anyone not directly involved in making those changes. In other words, the anyone outside of the draftsman, designer, engineer, checker or project/dept manager. People such as the shop floor, assembly line, vendors, ERP/MRP entry, mfg. engineering, etc. need to know what changed every time a revision is made. The two most obvious solutions are to have those that made the changes (eng dept) list the changes OR to have each down-stream person do their own evaluation of what changed and hope they don't overlook something (let alone something critical).

In Reply to Chris Rees:

I realize this is a little off topic, but how do you communicate revision changes to vendors? I know there is an analysis -> Compare drawings, but that doesn't provide a clear way to describe the change especially if you have moved a view.

I know Acrobat Pro also compares PDFs but often it just highlights the whole page.

Are people just handing the new drawings to the vendors and letting them work it out or is there other software out there to automate the process?

Christopher Rees - Mechanical Engineer - ISR Systems
UTC AEROSPACE SYSTEMS
100 Wooster Heights Rd, Danbury, CT 06810 U.S.A.
Tel: +1 203 797 5490 Fax: +1 203 797 6637
christopher.rees@utas.utc.com< www.utcaerospacesystems.comhttp://www.utcaerospacesystems.com

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[MikeLockwood]

One can easily do a detailed comparison of say Rev D vs. Rev C drawing using CreoView Drawing Overlay. PTC doesn't make it all that easy but with some manual steps, one can provide the result to vendors in a relatively static way. Drawing Overlay is dependent on publishing to PLT rather than PDF format (one of the major decisions to make when setting up visualization). If you give vendors access to say a Windchill Project and share Drawings to the Project, they can then utilize Drawing Overlay fully to explore differences interactively.

[cid:image001.png@01CF5D39.35D8E680]

Drawing Overlay within CreoView (and also older ProductView) is one of the relatively quiet "gems" in the system; surprising how few people seem to fully utilize.

Going back to Intralink 3.x days and continuing to now, we heavily use visualization (drawings are published to PLT, not PDF). Use of Drawing Overlay is one of the primary reasons for using PLT in the face of many downsides. We've fully integrated Drawing Overlay into our process; all checking is done using it.

[DeanLong]

Did Chris' actual question get anwered? I read it as "How to specify changes clearlyto a vendor" and what I think I read were how to compare revs within the PTC suite. Is that a valid assumption?

Seems to me if the vendor has the ability to read native files then the suggestions are okay. But if they do not then there is an issue in my opinion.

My .02 answering what I perceive as the actual question from Chris:

If the vendor does not have the ability to read native but can read 3D I suggest you send the latest version and the prior revin STEP, clearly named,exported from the same CSYS. Once imported the vendor can change the colors of the parts and easily see the changes from rev to rev.

If the vendor can only read 2D then send dxf's of each rev exported from the same drawing origin. Same principle applies. By importing both dxf's over one another the changes are easy to see.

[Chris3]

Actually my question was more software related. Internally we already have a process for communicating changes to vendors however it is a manual one (creating a from-to document using screen shots that is separate from the drawing). I was looking to see if other people had an automated way (software that generates a report) to communicate changes to vendors.

All of the responses I have received so far implied that people are doing this manually as well with the exception of

[kimndave9]

I've used Photoshop/ Photoshop elements as a go-to means of identifying changes between revisions. Much better than any other compare because it can be used to handle shifting views, changed view scales, views moved to other sheets, scanned drawings with skewed views against vector drawings.

WIth a small amount of practice it eats up almost 2 minutes a sheet of any size, if one is dogging it and there's a lot of changes of the type mentioned above. Maybe more if it's a scan of a faxed copy made after a good sneeze on the glass of a print that got coffee spilled on it and rode in a back-pocket before being accidently crumpled and dumped in the trash. Those take longer, but see what ProductView does with the same input.

The result is stored in a PDF such that all versions can pretty readily be stored over the life of a typical drawing.Very handy for finding and stopping those "When did that change!" moments.

That said, there should be a separate document that spells out why the changes are being made to the design and what changes should be made to the drawing to accomplish those changes. This should be agreed on before the drawing is updated so the supplier doesn't need help to find what changed.

The comparison makes certain that what was supposed to change did and what wasn't didn't, even if a lot of things got moved but they made no difference. After using the Photoshop technique a while you'll grow to really dislike drafters who nudge everything, just to pretty it up. Nudging is also something other software doesn't handle.

I know I've posted the steps before, but it's late and I don't know if you care to know them.

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