Creo drawing Rev control without Windchill

[MD_8927077]

I am part of a four-person company, two of whom use Creo/PTC without a PDM/PLM. 

We use folders on OneDrive for development and that works really well. We include the rev in the file name and always rev the entire assembly using File > Save As to a new folder. It’s really nimble for development.

Once we release for tooling, we have been using Grab CAD workbench. It works oookay but, Grab CAD is discontinuing Workbench, so we are looking for a new solution. I would really like to do something more similar to how we handle development, but am stuck on how to handle the drawings.

The workflow I am imagining is –

1. Development starts at V1, stops at, say, V50
2. All parts released at Rev A (with Rev A in the file name)
   1. File > Save As (to a new folder) > change all file names to Rev A
3. We want to make a change
   1. Open Rev A
   2. File > Save As (to a new folder) > change all file names to V51
   3. Make the changes
   4. File > Save As (to another new folder) > change names of parts that have changed to Rev B, change names of parts that have not changed back to Rev A.

This obviously has the risks associated with being a manual process, but in theory, with a lot of double checking our work, it could work.

Where we are running into a problem is with our drawings. I believe the only way to bring a drawing into the new folder when we do File > Save As is to check the box “Copy all associated drawings.” For Creo to copy the drawing though, the drawing name has to match the part or assembly name; if the drawing of a part has a different name than the part, it will not be copied. Since our Revs are in the file name, I cannot figure out a way to have drawings and parts at different revs, which is a problem when we make a change to the drawing, that does not affect the part. The Rename function works on a drawing after it has been saved, but once it has a name that doesn’t match the part file, the drawing will not be copied in future File > Save As actions.

TLDR: Is there a way to associate a drawing to a part without the drawing and the part having the same name? Is there a way besides the Copy Drawings checkbox to make sure a drawing is copied into the new folder during a File > Save As operation?

[BenLoosli · Accepted solution]

Doing a Save-As to all files in an assembly to new folders for each revision will lead to many duplicated files. What happens when the assembly is in Rev D and someone decides it needs to be Rev E because 1 com ponent that was Rev A still now has to change?

Search paths are useless because Creo does not have any versioning rules to understand what a base part number is and what a revision to that base number is. (Unigraphics had versioning rules in 1994.) With versioning rules, you can use search paths and the software will pick up the latest version and they can all sit in the same folder. Drawings can be in those same folders, too at that point.

What you really need is another PDM system to replace GrabCAD Workbench. Windchill would be the obvious choice since you are using Creo. No search paths, no need for the revision to be in the file name, the system knows which parts are used in each drawing, the system maintains each file and its revision, no duplicate files, etc. 

Have you looked at Open BOM as a replacement for GrabCAD Workbench? It is a low cost PDM system that may solve your issues.

[MD_8927077]

Hi Ben, 

Thank you for the response, and sorry for the delay - I didnt have notifications on and missed your response. 

Based on your response, I think the answer to my question is that drawing file names and the part/assembly they are associated with are inextricably linked. So in a non-PDM world with Revs in the file name, the part/assembly have to be rev-ed up with the drawing and vice versa. If my part and drawing are both at Rev D and I change the drawing, the part and the drawing file names have to change to Rev E. If I leave the part at D and just change the drawing name, the link between them will break. This is not a problem in PDM because the rev is not stored in the file name. 

I believe Open BOM and Windchill are similar prices (around $1500 a seat annually) so are not a great option right now. But that seems to be the answer if I want to control the Rev of a part and a drawing independently.