I have worked a lot with very comprehensive models without a PDM system like Windchill. Managing the files in relation to the search path is still quite a manual process and a significant effort when you are creating new parts from old parts. No matter what, you will get a lot of stuff in your working directory that needs to be moved to their appropriate folder on the server. It takes commitment to a reliable way of working. With 4 people on an enterprise wide development environment, the process was highly reliable nearing 100%.
The scenario was to have folders for part number families. When a new part was created for a specific part number, we would do a backup into the folder for that family. An administrative "cleanup" routine would remove all the file not conforming to the naming convention. This process removes the "revision/version" problem as well. Other parts that have not been changed may also be overwritten, but that is of no consequence as "no changes were made" to that part with the possible exception of cosmetic changes. this would happen anyway even if the backup process was not done in that folder. It also solves the PDM "cannot save part for the files are locked and are read only" when you haven't made any change that warrants the error. In general, we used common sense rather than hard rules.
Back to being on track with the discussion: Managing Pro/E (any version) without Windchill is a nightmare at best. Anytime you change folders to open a file, be it a symbol, a table, library part... etc, it seems to think you changed your working directory unless you specifically restate the fact. It is very poor form for software of this caliber but it has been this way since day 1. After you complete the backup process (consider this a temp folder) and move your files to the appropriate location -and- change the revision/version appropriately, the backup folder can be deleted. I am not in favor of any duplication of data strewn around the server and workstation, obviously. Company policy should clearly state what kind of files will be found where. Working folders, and temporary backup folders are just that, places to manage new files. The operator -is- the PDM solution without Windchill.
The Purge command too is your friend for managing working and archive folders. Again, this should be done as an administrative cleaning process anywhere from once a week to once a month depending on how much data you want to maintain. A robust backup regimen is also highly recommended if not imperative.
If anyone has a failsafe manual PDM process with large folder and file counts that can boast a very high success rate, please provide a "document" fully detailing this process. If I knew the full logic that PTC uses for this I would attempt it, but I get just lost as Christophe when it comes to understanding the logic of where new files feel they need to go.
There are any number of ways to manage a large enterprise solution for file management. It is high time that PTC puts some kind of check-out and check-in procedure into the core product. Does this ring a bell to some of you SW users?
