Automatic filling in of checked and approved boxes on drawings

[DavidBrand]

We are about to migrate from INTRALINK3.4 to PDMLINK 10 and one of the current bottle necks in releasing drawings is adding the checked and approved by names in our drawing borders. Our ILINK3.4 process is, once a design is complete it is printed out and then checked and approved by separate people, who sign the paper copy in the relevant box on the drawing border. Some body then opens the drawing in Pro/e, adds the names and dates to the drawing border, changes the revision to the next whole number, checks in and promotes the files to the relevant release level. I realise that the release schemes in PDMLINK (and ILINK3.4 if we had them setup) will handle the up-issuing and promotion, but is there a way to update the drawing border with the correct names and dates of the checker and approver?

I will be most interested in peoples thoughts and solutions.

Thanks in advance

David Brand | Senior Mechanical Design Engineer
Linx Printing Technologies | Burrel Road | St Ives | Cambridgeshire | PE27 3LA | UK
t: +44 (0)1480 302139 | f: +44 (0)1480 302116
dbrand@linx.co.uk<">mailto:dbrand@linx.co.uk> | www.linxglobal.com



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[BenLoosli]

You should be able to do this automatically if you setup a robot to publish the drawing at the time of release and the parameters are set to read the information from Windchill. You will also need to set the publishing machine to save your Pro/E files before exiting. You may want a dedicated publishing machine for this task since publishing doesn't normally save the files. I suppose a second user account with a different config.pro file could also be configured.


Thank you,

Ben H. Loosli
USEC, INC.

[MikeLockwood]

Do you still use manual typewriters? Punched cards? Vinyl records? Printed and signed paper paychecks?

Best to use the move to PDMLink as the opportunity to update thinking on this.

Key is to eliminate the need to sign the actual drawing.
Replaced by controlling the drawing's (and model data as well) state change to released.
Evidenced by watermarking that varies by the Drawing state ProductView/Creo View).
Enforced by requiring that a watermark be present in order to use the drawing for any official business purpose.

[KevinAlexander]

Agreed

Back when I was a Windchill Admin one of the first thing's I did was get rid of all the Checked By, Drawn by crap off our drawing formats.

People SWORE it would be a huge problem if I did that - had ONE person in 2 years ask about it I think!






On Dec 9, 2011, at 11:20 AM, Lockwood,Mike,IRVINE,R&D wrote:

Do you still use manual typewriters? Punched cards? Vinyl records? Printed and signed paper paychecks?

Best to use the move to PDMLink as the opportunity to update thinking on this.

Key is to eliminate the need to sign the actual drawing.
Replaced by controlling the drawing’s (and model data as well) state change to released.
Evidenced by watermarking that varies by the Drawing state ProductView/Creo View).
Enforced by requiring that a watermark be present in order to use the drawing for any official business purpose.

[HugoHermans]

You want to automate the paper-based workflows, isn't it? What's wrong with having this information available in the database? In worst case, watermark it on the drawing during consultation/printing.

We don't do it either, I must be honest, but we should. Project leaders are complaining about the hugh workload for designers, but still stick to old habbits and outdated procedures.

Regards,

Hugo.