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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
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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.
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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