Cad management tips & suggestions 1

[cwsink]

Hello,

We are a growing company that offers Mechanical design services to potential customers. We use SW 2006 SP 3.1 on 6 workstations and are planning to implement PDMWorks in the near future. As we are growing, I am taking over the management of the CAD systems and libraries and other tasks related to the CAD software. I'm looking for discussion, tips and suggestions on several different topics which I have listed below. I want to learn as much as possible before we are too far down the road with real issues. Areas of interest are as follows:

1. Maintaining workstations for maximum performance and usable life of the computers; including but not limited to preferences for defragging software, cleaning temporary and extraneous files and other computer maintenance solutions.
2. PDM and CAD library related issues/solutions.
3. General CAD Management best practices/methods
4. Software related to any of the above topics.

I would appreciate a lively discussion and any tips and/or suggestions.

Craig S.
Mechanical Engineer
Force Design, Inc.

 

[ctopher]

Have you searched through the FAQ's and threads here? I can give a long list, but most has been covered for you already here.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 05
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

 

[smcadman]

Not sure if you have a naming convention set up, but file-naming can get you into trouble if you don't get it under control early on. Before we used PDMWorks, we had several parts named "LEFT BRACKET", or "SHORT BRACKET", etc. We use a non-significant part-numbering system now, while other users here prefer a description designation in the part number.
thread559-45542 (Drawing numbering system)

Flores
SW06 SP3.0

 

[StefanHamminga]

Some things you might find usefull (or not, depending on your view).

My procedure for installing a new pc:
1. partition hard drive:
C:\ -> Primairy OS, about 20GB NTFS
D:\ -> Secondairy OS, about 20GB NTFS
E:\ -> Swap partition, 4.1GB for windows 32-bit, 17GB for windows x64, format in windows, largest clustersize, FAT32!
F:\ -> Storage space, don't format yet!
2. Install your XP to drive D
3. Install current or known best working drivers
4. Format SWAP partition as FAT32 (NTFS puts the file allocation table in the middle of the partition, which would break the swap file in 2 pieces, eg fragmentation!)
5. Format storage space as NTFS, larger clusters for performance, smaller clusters for space efficiency
6. Change swap file location to your swap partition, nothing else (all other should be set to 0!), make it 4096MB. This is all a 32bit windows will ever need (/ can utilize.... thnx 640k Bill!).
7. change all 'temp' locations (see 'enviorment variables' in system properties!) to a folder (probalbly F:\TEMP\) on your storage partition. The more you change the less fragmentation you will have on your OS partition.
8. remove the themes & desktop wallpaper if you don't have worlds of video memory
9. Install test / benchmark applications
10. Install essential working program's (no handy dandy tools, just what you need, eg MS Office, SW)
11. Confirm system stability with your test programs
12. See if benchmarks are within expected parameters, if not, try different drivers
13. Optimize bios settings if you like
14. Test your essential software collection
15. Install the 'main' OS to drive C with the drivers which worked best on your 'spare' OS -> see spare OS install

When done right you will lean a lot about the tool you will use the next couple of years and you will have a way of testing if your hardware has gone bad (the 'known good OS').

Another advantage to this setup is you can defrag files that are normally locked. Just boot in your spare OS to defrag C much better than you could have done otherwise!
(btw, I prefer O&O defrag, better defragmentation then the build in stuff & seems to be very reliable, never seen a single problem from it on over 100 or so pc's).

The extra time this procedure takes will earn itself back in the time you will enjoy your pc's. especially if you are wise enough to use RAID1 (or 5, etc) to prevent you from doing this procedure more than once...

Stefan Hamminga
EngIT Solutions
CSWP/Mechanical designer/AI student

 

[cwsink]

Ctopher, I have looked through the FAQ's and other threads. It seemed that there is more information out there in someone's possession .

We do have a file naming convention that has worked and will continue to work. We assign job numbers based on the year (05025 would be the 25th job in '05). Then the details and assemblies are numbered 05025-D001 or 05025-A001 accordingly.

Keep the thoughts coming...this is good. I'm looking for good CAD management practices and suggestions; I'm sure there's a wealth of things to learn and improve.

Thank you all,


Craig Sink
Mechanical Engineer
Force Design, Inc.