What makes it easy for us is that I'm the only person who deals with CAD design. My super just uses Alibre to double-check his CAM programs & print drawings so he can scribble revisions on them, and our purchasing guy just needs to see the drawings so he can order raw material.
leeave96 said:
1. How do you manage your files in terms of structure/location? Do you have project folders, files across networks, hard drives or do you simply have one big folder and everything goes in there?
All of our Alibre CAD stuff is in one folder on the server, and inside that folder everything's organized by bike. Each bike we make products for has its own part number prefix, and each product has its own number. For example, anything that starts with "HD" is a Harley Davidson touring, and inside that folder we have "HD001" Centerstand, "HD021" Oil Filter Wrench, and "HD600" is our PowerMaster mufflers. The actual numbers are just made up on the spot. Sometimes we have to tweak our part numbering system for variations, such as "HD001A" which is the adjustable version of our centerstand for bikes with modified rear suspension, and with the redesigned frame on the 2009's we now have an "HD00109" folder for the '09s centerstand. Harley really only makes, like, 2 or 3 different frames across their whole lineup, so having all our HD stuff in one folder works pretty good. Most of the CAD folder is split up into individual lines of bikes from other manufacturers, but they're fairly recognizable. Unlike all but the top of the line Harleys, every Honda Goldwing is a massively complicated bike both in structure and wiring, so we have "GL1800" for the 1800cc 'Wings and "GL1500" for the 1500cc. A couple of parts are interchangeable between the two and we document that in our catalog and set up our online store to show that one item whether someone searches for 1800 or 1500 parts.
Individual parts in each assembly just get a dash and a number added to the product number, so if "GL18007" is our trailering kit for the big Goldwing, "GL18007-4" is the Receiver Block. Typically we just add numbers in order, a new part gets the next number in line, but sometimes we get fancy. "GL18007-0", "GL18007-3", and "GL18007-6" are all trailer tongues for the kit, but the individual number also corresponds to the "drop" in inches of each tongue. "-3" is bent to lower the ball 3", "-6" is 6", and "-0" is just a straight bar with no bends.
leeave96 said:
2. How do you manage re-naming an existing part while keeping it's links to an assembly, drawing or BOM intact?
Well, honestly, I don't. That's why lately I've been pushing for the higher-ups to give me a "for sure" part number whenever I start a new project. Otherwise I come up with one on my own, model the whole thing, and then they decide to rename it :evil: On the upside, I've been through the file system so many times I pretty much know exactly where everything is, and I think with one exception we have no copies of the same part. Some of our assemblies use bits & pieces from other projects, but unless that bit or piece needs to be modified specifically for this project alone, the model file for it stays put. Like for example, the knurled foot pedal cover that goes on almost all of our centerstands originated on our Honda Valkyrie centerstand, "VAL008-27". That exact same part number shows up in the BOM on "HD001", but the part itself doesn't appear in the "HD001" folder. When I made the assembly model, I referenced the pedal cover model in the "VAL008" folder instead of placing a copy of it in the "HD001" folder.
It works great because everything updates at once when we make a change to these "bits & pieces", I'm not hunting around for 6 files to do 1 revision. And because the part number never changes regardless of what assembly it's being used in, it's not difficult at all to find something; you just have to change which folder you're looking in. On those rare occasions where we'll need to email a whole assembly model to another company, I just open the assembly and Save As in a completely different location, usually my desktop. Alibre makes it easy because when I do this, I can not only save a copy of the assembly model but Alibre will automatically make copies of every part model, all in the same new folder. Even the hardware comes along; I keep all my hardware models in one folder unless its something specialized to a product, so when I do the Save As to an assembly I know that every part model that gets copied with it is there, I'm not giving our outside source extra models they don't need nor am I missing anything.
leeave96 said:
3. When your drive is full, how do you manage moving Alibre files to different locations? As far as I can tell, Alibre WFS has no ability to search for files or set search paths, hence my question.
Well I'm showing our server as having 465GB of space, 304GB is still unused, and the Alibre CAD library is only 911MB. Can't imagine I'm going to run into that issue anytime soon, sorry
