Handling Legacy CAD Data - Suggestions?

[BenPerry]

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to some people to chime in and let me know how you're handling legacy CAD that is still in use.

My scenario is that we have very old PDF and TIFF drawings loaded in Windchill as WTDocs, and associated to the WTParts. These are active part numbers.  And sometimes we have to run Change Notices on these items to update a dimension, change a radius, add a chamfer, etc, etc.  When this happens, in most cases we decide it is worth the time to create a Creo model and drawing when we revise the part number.

Thus we have the old legacy file (PDF/TIFF) as revision A in Released state.  And we have the WTPart and Creo model/drawing at revision B in the In Work, and later Released state.  Therefore a user does a global search (top right corner of Windchill) for PARTNUMBER* and it returns 4 objects - the old PDF rev A and the 3 rev B objects (WTPart/model/drawing).

I've heard that some people move the legacy CAD data into a separate container that nobody has access to view.  But then when you look back at revision A of the WTPart, it appears that there is no drawing associated with it.  That is because the same permissions that deny the user from seeing the old rev A PDF in the search results is also denying the user from seeing the old rev A PDF in the "Described By" table on the WTPart.

So how do you handle it?

[kpritchard]

Ben,

My suggestion is a hybrid.

The problem of older versions is only a problem for those that tend to be the casual (okay, I'll say it non-design, non-engineering) users of Windchill who don't have it hard coded in their DNA to select the appropriate (latest, Released, Effective) Document for use.

What I have done previously is a move the object(s) to a different location with access granted to a limited number of users (you can use whatever criteria, but I have used Engineering okay by default because they tend to understand the history aspect from working with CAD, and then support additional users that want access with awareness training and sign off on their part for terms of use so to speak).  I have used WF robot code in the Change Task (Activity) to move older versions of drawings to the "archive" upon "Release" of a newer Revision.  If you are using Effective Date for documents I would use that as a trigger rather than Release.

Note - In the use case above, the Object in question is a WTDocument with a PDF paper equivalent of the CAD Drawing to support ease of use. 

[doehr]

Hi there,

One thing to consider, you do usually need to leave all previous revisions of a drawing visible to users so they can access the design history. Same thing for ISO auditors; it's actually part of the industry standards to be able to access all of the history. One thing to note, whenever you click on an older revision of a file a quick link Go To Latest shows up at the top left of that file's info screen which will skip you to the latest revision.

One quick separate question, do you do your direct MRP (i.e. physical part ordering, inventory tracking etc) from PDM-Link? We don't (we use JD Edwards), and we've made it a rule so that only the most recent fully released version of the drawings is visible in our MRP database. That definitely helps on the Operations side that has to directly use the drawings with suppliers.

Daryl