How do you save data?

[Steve]

Hi all!

I'm a new user and I have some questions. I went to the beginner's modeling and annotation training but they had Model Manager, and this facility has Work Manager.

I am confused about how to save parts with Solid Designer.

If I am understanding things correctly, you would probably never want to save things as "packages", because the components of the assembly are isolated within the package. This makes it hard to re-use data. Likewise, I don't see much use for "bundles".

If I am correct, the "right way" to save data is to save 3D data files and .mi files. This way individual components are created that other people can use also. Is this right?

Could someone give me a simple example of how to create a 2 component assembly, with drawings for each component and the assembly, and save it in work manager? Thanks!

Steve

[gmatelich]

I save packages a few times a day as a quick save in case of crash, and/or until I get design sufficiently complete that I am ready to start saving parts to WM. Otherwise packages and bundles are convenient ways to share information with other OSD users who do not have access to your WM system.

We have WM Desktop, so to save to WM we click the Save to database menu button in OSD or ME10.

[jkramer]

Hi,

You simply create parts and assies in OSD, and with Database > Save 3D Data, you save them to Workmanager.
Important: start with saving the parts. I always work my way through the structure browser from bottom to top.
Workmanager will get all information about the structure of your assies from OSD automatically during saving.
So as soon as you saved all parts and assies to Workmanager, you're ready.
After creating a new drawing, you need to save the 3D model (or assy) that is the "owner" of this drawing, because a view set has been added to the model.
So you have to save the drawing AND it's owning 3D model. I think there is a possibility to let the system do this automatically?????? Does anyone else know more about this???

Regards,
Jaap

[Steve]

Thanks for the responses.

Again, I want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly:

When you save something as a package or a bundle, you are effectively combining an assembly and all its components into a single file. This, as far as I am concerned, makes packages useless, because no one else can utilize components in my assembly without loading up the entire package. Is this correct?

If I want to use OSD for enterprise-wide data modeling, that is, I want to use it to create geometry that can be re-used and re-referenced by other assemblies as needed, then I need to save every assembly as 3D Data, so that all the components are saved out as individuals. This way, other people in the company can make use of the components that I created. Is this correct?

Also, I still do not know how to create a model and a corresponding drawing and submit it to Work Manager such that the two are related and associative.

Let us suppose I model a single block, and a single drawing of that block. What are the steps to enter these into Work Manager. I'm afraid you'll need to be pretty specific about your instructions, because the icons in Work Manager do not seem to have "fly-out" descriptions when you hover your cursor over them, and the icons themselves have little meaning to me from looking at them. (this, incidently, is why I am not a big fan of icon-based software, but that is another story)

Thanks in advance.

Steve

[jkramer]

Ok,

suppose you have made a model in OSD and it's drawing in Annotation.
In OSD, click on the yellow "jar", and choose Save > 3D Data.
Now click on the model, and choose "New Masterdata and Doc" from the popup menu.
Now the Workmanager screen pops up. The top half is the "drawer" you create to put all related documents (3D models, drawings) in.
Fill in the fields, and choose Confirm.
Now, fill in the fields in the bottom half of Workmanager, and choose confirm.

Go to Annotation, and choose "yellow jar" > Save 2D Data.
Choose New Document in the popup menu.
Workmanager pops up; fill in the fields, and choose "Confirm".
Now Workmanager asks something like : "OK to relate Document to Master Part?". Choose confirm. By confirming, you let Workmanager put the drawing in the same "drawer" as the 3D model.

That's it!
Regards,
Jaap

[Steve]

Thanks for the tutorial.

Here is what I have done.

I have created a simple extrusion in Solid Designer. It is named "steve-block" in the drawlist. I then launched the Design Manager module. This enables the Yellow Cylinder.

I click on the Yellow Cylinder, which launches the "Database" dialog window. I then choose Save 3D Data, and click on the model "steve-block".

Next the Packet Editor, Editor, and a "Store SD Model" window pop up.

At the top of the "Store SD Model" window it says:

------------------------------
State PART:

i No Part Relation

Part class: me_part_h

State DOCUMENT:

i New SD document

Document class: me_model

Select store option...

only
Create new document
- and -
Create new part and new document

are available options.
---------------------------------

I assume by your saying "choose New Masterdata and Doc" that I should click on "Create new part and new document"?

Question:
What are the part class and document classes, and what should I choose for them? For part class there is a drop-down menu with "me_part", "me_part_h", and "default_part" for choices.

For document class there is "sd drawing", "me_drawing", "me_tb_frame", "me_bom_flag", "me_model", "me_external", "me_package", and "default_doc"

When I first launched the Save > 3D Data the part class was set to me_part_h and the document class was set to me_model.

Anyway, I click on "Create new part and new document".

At this point, the EDITOR pops up.

The top half of the screen is supposed to be for parts, as I understand it, the middle for related documents, and the bottom for documents.

The bottom fields are filled with information that must have come from the model in Solid Designer. For example, "Model-No:" is set to the name of the part "steve-block", the "Creator" field is filled in with my name, as is the Date, the Version (set to 1) the "Contents", and the status.

The top half of the screen (where the giant check and x marks are) has a bunch of fields that are empty.

I don't know if I was supposed to, but I went and filled in the fields at the top of the screen
Part No:
Part Name:
Description:
Version:
Material:
Purchase:
Stock Part:
Supplier:
Customer:

I then clicked on the green check mark.

Next, the "focus" of the screen moved to the bottom of the editor. I guess I'm supposed to fill out information about the document now?

Here I filled in "steve-block" for the model no.

What is the difference between the Part No. field and the Model No. field?

After I click on the green check at the bottom of the screen, "steve-block" showed up in the middle of the screen in the related documents area.

Also, I notice an icon that shows that the part is related to the document (I think that is what it is).

At this point, I can see in my packet that steve-block, an "me_model", is there.

Now I go back to Solid Designer and go to annotation.

I make a drawing, and do a Save > 2D Data. Up pops the WorkManager, and I say "create new document".

Up pops the Editor again, and I can see my part in the top of the screen, my model (I think) in the "related documents", and I am being prompted to answer info about the drawing at the bottom of the screen.

I give a drawing number "steve-block-dwg" and a version number and click the check.

NOW I get "Enter OK to relate the new document to the current part". I say yes. Now I can see both my model and drawing in the related documents area.

AND, now, I think I am beginning to see the light here.

If I am understanding it correctly, a "Part" in work manager is NOT geometry from solid designer! See, in all other CAD systems I have worked with, a "part" is a file that contains geometry (i.e., a "part file").

It seems that here in Work Manager a "Part" is just a "container" in the database, to which I can associate models and drawings (both of which are "documents", right???). This must be what you meant when you said, "The top half is the "drawer" you create to put all related documents (3D models, drawings) in."

So when I create a "Part" in the database all I have done is make a file cabinet for some particular part. Because I said "Create new part and new document" when I first saved the 3D data, I suspect my "file cabinet" (part) was created, and then the document (the geometry, 3D data) was associated with it.

And then, when I saved the drawing (2D data), that too was associated with the "part".

Is this right?

Well, off to experiment some more.

Steve

[Steve]

Hah! Here is a caveat. Though, I should have known this, as I encountered it when I was saving to a local file system as well.

When you save your 3D data into Work Manager, and then go make a drawing, and then save your 3D data into Work Manager, you must go back and re-save your 3D data to preserve the view sets!

Is there any equivalent to a "save all"?

I find it very strange for a CAD software where I can work on my drawing for hours, save it, but if I have not saved the model that goes with it I am sunk.

I would expect that when I save a drawing ALL the data needed to preserve that drawing would get saved. Very annoying. Hope I'm just doing something wrong.

Steve

[jkramer]

Hi,

One of the problems to explain a sysytem like Workmanager is that it can be configured in many ways. We used to have it work in a similar way as what you discribe (the "new part and new document" etc.), but now it works as I descibed.
The most confusing is probably that in Workmanager "Part" doesn't mean the 3D-part, but the "DRAWER" in which you put DOCUMENTS, and these DOCUMENTS are 3d-parts, 3d-assies, Annotation drawings (which are called ME-drawings, by the way!), etc.
(ME comes from ME-10).
So, with a new 3D-part+drawing, you first have to create a "drawer" ("part" in WM-language), before you can put something (3d-model, drawing) in it. Th convenience of this is, that, for every product your company uses, you have one drawer in WM that contains all data that belongs to this product, for example all versions of drawings, parts etc.
I agree with you that the way WM is set up normally you have to remember to svae the 3D part after making new Views in Annotation. There seems to be a way of making this fail-safe, but I don't know how.
You should realize that, while the principles of WM really aren't difficult, the principles of handling different versions of models and assies, in various different machines (like we do in our company) is complex by the nature of it. So, we experience that WM itself is not difficult, but the processes that it has to handle are difficult to overview.

Regards,
jaap