WCH part numbering --- "semi-autonumbering"

[mbonka]

Hallo all,

many people on this forum gave me inspiration to develop better part numbering in our company. Have a new idea hot to make semi-autonumbering. This technique is suitable for manufactured parts. For a buying/ordered parts will discusse later.

l will be glad to hear any critique, note that l see the problem mainly from CAD user/engineer point of view.

Please see picture below.

Company workspaces:

Workspaces naming convention includes the first part of product number.

It consits of two main part with a "-" as a separator ---> product number - short logical description ---> example> 11010-CWT (in our company everyone knows what CWT means)

My imagine about function:

- l´m working on 11010-CTW project

- set workspace to this project

- create a new part

- new part will be autonumbered like following:

    - because my active workspace is 11010-CTW so WCH will extract "11010" automaticly from workspace name

    - because autonumbering is ON WCH will create a number after a dash (this number is filtered in part relations to drawing number)

What l expect:

- WCH has full control of NUMBER and FILE NAME ---> no more has to solve renaming parts/drawing from the duplicity reason ("part is not unique").

- drawing number is include in file name and extract with relation ---> each drawing number is unique

Reasons why l choose this:

- keep it simply

- keep some logical file naming (year and proct number in this year is anough for a rough orientation)

- make clear difference between projects

How to continue?

- what function shall i used for workspace name filter (11010) --- need to show some direction (don´t like a blind exploring)

---------------

l like your comments like: "What happen if ...?"

If you see some mistake point it please.

Thanks in any advice, commets, tips or tricks

[ChrisPLM]

Dobry den Milan

I am glad you have improved your numbering scheme.  You know my view and I do not know your company enough so you are the expert now

I am sure you will test it and get it approved against various scenarios agreed with your business.

One thing is to me PDM/PLM is a business matter, so any decision that can affect others (ie information that needs to be communicated) should be made in consideration of the company and not a department.

Best regards

[BjoernRueegg · Accepted solution]

I wouldn't take the number of the WS Name! Create an OIR where you read an attribute or the name of the context as prefix of the number.

[mbonka]

Thanks for replies,

don´t know what OIR is. Have to study.

During next 3 days we are going to training, focused on WCH and CAD administration. Will discuss this topic with our PTC provider and let you know the result.

[BenLoosli]

Do not use the workspace to derive the part name. Workspaces are for WIP parts.

With your workspace naming, add a prefix of the designer's initials. It makes it easier when you need to find out who has a part in their workspace that someone else needs.

OIR = Object Initialization Rule

The OIR is used to setup initial parameters for certain objects. It can be made intelligent with some programming. The more logic you put in the OIR, the less your desigbers have to think about what is the proper format.

[cc-2]

Hi Ben

Why do you need a naming convention for the WS name ?  You know in Windchill in your search result table for instance with the appropriate column who is the cabinet owner.

I have never came across situation where I struggle to know to whom a WS belong

[BenLoosli]

It goes back to when I started with Windchill at V7. It was harder to figure out who had a part in a workspace when you did a rename and the error message said the part was in workspace on machine, 87898 on machine, etc.

With a part checked out it is easier to get the who information.

With a part sitting in 3 or 4 workspaces, it can be done, but we had 40+ users of which 10 or more could have the same part in their workspaces.

[cc-2]

Hi Ben,

fair enough, I started with 8 but done my first go live with 9....

[mbonka]

Thanks for all answers.

Our PTC provider told me exact the same: "Use OIR for this".

[emartínez]

You are only leaving 5 digits for the autogenerated number, it depends on your organization but i've seen system with more than 100k part masters, it may be not enough

[mbonka]

Thx for ideas,

the scheme above is only ilustrating. l think about one miliard parts scheme. It looks fine for me.

Problems about autonumber where l don´t know answers:

1. Family tables

Question 1.1: ???? instance name = part number ?????

Question 1.2: Will be instance names generated automaticly?

- generic file name        15009_V01-00555

- first instance name      15009_V01-00556

- second instance name 15009_V01-00557

Question 1.3: How does autonumbering work when l use family table?

2.Open an assembly step file

Description:

My partner from another company developt whole project steel construction (not in Creo). He sent me a step file in order to check it. Because it belong to 15009 project i will open and save thise step file into this project directory. When l open it in Creo it counts each part separetly (each washer, nut, screw and beam are individual parts). Creo don´t care that it is the same srew M10x60 that is used 3000 times. ---> in result one step file opened in Creo  = cca 10 000 individual parts.

Question 2.1: In praxis l opened it 3 times, because i did something bad ---> does it mean 30 000 part numbers only for this one step file?

Thanks in any advice

Best regards

Milan

[cc-2]

the scheme above is only ilustrating. l think about one miliard parts scheme. It looks fine for me.

Problems about autonumber where l don´t know answers:

1. Family tables

Question 1.1: ???? instance name = part number ?????. Things can be confusing

EPMDocument Number = ProE Name

EPMDocument Name = ProE Description

When you talk about instance name, this is surely the ProE name of the instance. so yes it will be your partnummber

Question 1.2: Will be instance names generated automaticly? If your OIR defines it yes, My previous Windchill allocated automatically a number to any new ProE files/EPMDocument

- generic file name        15009_V01-00555.  A generic should never be considered as a proper part. Therefore it should not be allocated a partnumber. It is only generic something that hold the instances together

- first instance name      15009_V01-00556

- second instance name 15009_V01-00557

Question 1.3: How does autonumbering work when l use family table? What do you mean ? How to implement it in your OIR ? or how is it seen in ProE and PDMLink ?

2.Open an assembly step file

Description:

My partner from another company developt whole project steel construction (not in Creo). He sent me a step file in order to check it. Because it belong to 15009 project i will open and save thise step file into this project directory. When l open it in Creo it counts each part separetly (each washer, nut, screw and beam are individual parts). Creo don´t care that it is the same srew M10x60 that is used 3000 times. ---> in result one step file opened in Creo  = cca 10 000 individual parts.  ?? Your workspace should only one file but when you open the assembly you should see it been used 3000 times.  Where do you see those 10 000 individual parts ?  If you look at the Product Structure you can show occurencies (then you will see the part 10 000 times and the quantity for each one is 1. If you do not show occurency, then that part will be shown one in the structure but the quantity is 10 000. This is very useful to have the choice

Question 2.1: In praxis l opened it 3 times, because i did something bad ---> does it mean 30 000 part numbers only for this one step file?. Should not be