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Steve
06-25-2003, 07:58 AM
Hi all!

I want to make sure I'm on the right track with what "Parts" in Work Manager do for me.

If I create a piece of 3D Data and put it into Work Manager as a new Document, but do not relate it to any Part, I effectively have a non-associated Document in my database, right?

If I then create a drawing based on that 3D Data, and also store it in the database as a new document, and also do not relate it to any Part, I now have a second non-associated Document in my database.

If I do this, is there any way to know which piece of geometry goes with any given drawing? For example, if I open the drawing document, without having opened its corresponding 3D Data file, will the system somehow tell me what geometry it is looking for?

I have been creating Parts, and then associating the 3D Data and the 2D Drawing with that Part. This then allows me to see what 3D and 2D data has been associated to the part, and are associated with each other.

Is this the right way to use Work Manager? I guess my real question is, if I don't use Parts to organize my Documents, how can I tell which 3D Documents go with which 2D Documents (naming conventions aside)?

Thanks!

Steve

May Kung
06-25-2003, 10:14 AM
AFAIK, there is no way for Work Manager to "know" that a particular 3D document is associated to a 2D document.

What we do here is make sure we are consistent with how we name documents; this is what "tells" us a particular 3D doc goes with a 2D doc. That, and relating both to a given Part. It sounds exactly like how you're using it. We've used this method for about 3.5 years now and it seems to work pretty well.

Steve
06-25-2003, 11:56 AM
Hi May!

That's what I thought.

Where I am working now, our part numbers and drawing numbers are virtually identical, so it makes it easy to identify related documents, even if they have not been gathered together within a Part in Work Manager.

But I have worked at places where the part numbers had no relationship to the drawing number. In that case, you would either have to go to another ERP system (I.E. Mapics) to identify the part associated with a particular drawing, or I would have to use Parts within Work Manager to define the association.

We had a nice demo of Model Manager last week, and if I understood correctly Model Manager may handle these relationships a little more seamlessly for the user.

But frankly, I'm presently astonished that the CAD software cannot "remember" what geometry was used for any given drawing. Even an error message would be helpful (i.e. "Unable to open part 12345"). Both Unigraphics and Pro-Engineer drawings have the geometric "need" information imbedded in them.

The way I see it right now under Work Manager, it is entirely a human system that maintains the relationship between parts and drawings. It's either done via naming convention of the documents, or by a human relating the documents via a part. That's dangerous. I hope Model Manager removes some of this manual work.

Steve

May Kung
06-25-2003, 03:50 PM
The CoCreate rep I talked to a couple weeks ago said that Model Manager "knows" which 3D goes with which 2D, so I have hope. ;)

We have a single part number assigned for a given item, so the 3D document and 2D document are named identically. The Class determines if it is a 3D doc or a 2D doc.

I will be a very happy camper when we finally migrate to OSD 11.6 with Model Manager. WM 5.1 is getting on my nerves more and more. :(

dszostak
08-26-2003, 03:32 PM
Hello again and I must say these are very good questions. Here are some answers and I hope I have gotten them all:

* 3D to 2D Relationship -- With the integration of Model Manager inside Designer Modeling, the database automatically links your 3D and 2D documents together with a Part (a.k.a Masterdata). If you want more of explaination how, email me with your number and I will be glad to explain.
* Model Manager can track the 3D to 2D Relationship -- When the model and drawing revs are out-of-sync (i.e. model_rev12.1 was last updated with drawing_rev5), Model Manager has a Drawing Status page that shows you the history of where the model and drawing were in-sync and out-of-sync, regardless of name or revision sequence
* Seperate files: Models and Drawings -- Designer Modeling has seperate files because this allows for a few unique advantages:
1. We track associativity internally, so a designer and drafter can work on the same part without over writing each other - One person with Designer Modeling and another person with Annotation stand-alone, working together.
2. We can track two different revision histories independant - the model and the drawing (e.g. the drawing could go through many revisions without affecting the models form-fit-&-function).

This flexiblilty allows for greater teamwork - no roadblocks in the CAD or the data management tool.
Check out the attached GIF image - It shows that the model was revised to [A] but the existing [01] model is still up-to-date with the [01] drawing.