On the Ownership of Product Data
On the Ownership of Product Data
(OP)
There is an interesting article on Engineering.com.
A Perfect Storm for PLM: On The Ownership of Product Data and the Future of Product Development
I have no access to the video at work, so I have not watched it yet. The article is about PLM, but this applies to PDM, and any proprietary application you use to design anything. You think you own your stuff but...
A Perfect Storm for PLM: On The Ownership of Product Data and the Future of Product Development
I have no access to the video at work, so I have not watched it yet. The article is about PLM, but this applies to PDM, and any proprietary application you use to design anything. You think you own your stuff but...
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JHG





RE: On the Ownership of Product Data
If the business model that they are selling you is not making you more profit, you need to maintain control and be able to change.
I don't subscribe to the subscription model.
RE: On the Ownership of Product Data
I see this as a strong case for Free Software. I am working on 3D CAD, none of which is Free, or even Open Source. Some vendors have discussed switching over to cloud based subscription as their business model.
If you are installing CAD and PDM, you have to plan for end of life of your software. You can save a copy of each and every drawing you do in PDF format. The PDF allows you to fabricate and inspect parts, and create new 3D models in your new software. This rules out Model Based Definition (MBD).
Calculix is Free Software, so you have some capability to protect your FEA analysis. I have no idea of how usable this software is.
I know nothing about CRM (customer relationship management?), but this sounds like a huge security issue. This is your business. You don't want it off-site or locked into some proprietary format.
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JHG
RE: On the Ownership of Product Data
RE: On the Ownership of Product Data
I miss PC Write.
RE: On the Ownership of Product Data
PDF, or formally an Adobe Acrobat file, is a terrible choice for collaboration; it was intended from the start to make it all but impossible to accurately reproduce the source material well enough to reverse engineer anything. Its sole virtue is that anyone, anywhere, can print out the file, and it will always look pretty much the same, as the author intended it to look.
Saving a PDF from your old CAD system allows you the opportunity to redraw it in your new CAD system, but you can't reliably scale the damn things, and you lose layers, intersections, and information hidden in the original document, and text decomposes to lines and dots.
... but you all knew that.
PLM, PDM, etc., are all doomed until a true free and open source product definition standard appears. What was the last one called? ... IGES?
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: On the Ownership of Product Data
That is just a contract between the customer and designer. I worked on a design project where we were required to submit a complete drawing package to be held in escrow, in case we went out of business.
What I am talking about here is the vendor of your proprietary software changing his business model.
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JHG
RE: On the Ownership of Product Data
PDF to be remotely safe and functional, requires complete, correct drawings. We now are switching over to Model Based Definition (MBD). PDFs of MBD drawings will be completely useless in the scenario I describe, above.
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JHG
RE: On the Ownership of Product Data
Why should electronic "language" be any different.
RE: On the Ownership of Product Data
Worse, your software vendor trying to lock down the data/model you built using their software, to keep you from moving to their competitor, or deliberately crippling the software if it detects a model file was created/used/edited by their competitor's product. I've seen it happen, complained about it to another person who works for one such software outfit, and got a snippy reply about how it's their company's right to combat software piracy.
I think that attitude from the big names is going to open doors for open source developers that weren't open before, and that the big name PDM/DAC/PLM software houses are going to go the way of sanskrit and latin, as Buggar suggests. And it will start from the maker/hobbyist community and grow from there.
Then again, it is Friday, and I've had my usual pub lunch with the other engineers...
RE: On the Ownership of Product Data
I wrote a document control system using UNIX C shell scripts. This was a long time ago, and I was managing AutoCAD, PordWerfect and some PCB layout files. There was nothing with external references. Everything worked from the command line.
There are Free Software CAD packages that write DXF files. If you are determined to have absolute control over your data, you could abandon 3D parametric CAD and ban the use of externally referenced files. A set of PDM scripts would then be simple to write. I was told afterwards that I was dumb for using C shell.
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JHG
RE: On the Ownership of Product Data
Configuration control also another matter need to be simplified without too much issues.
RE: On the Ownership of Product Data
B.E.
You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.
RE: On the Ownership of Product Data