multiple users, best practice

[james78]

All
I have been the sole user of SW in my company for many years now, this now is not the case as due to work load etc.. I have hired more staff to meet the demand. Basically when the first new guy came along with SW exp all was well as he worked on a separate project, now however I need the third guy to work on the same project. How is best to do this as the issue I have is two people need to be able to work on parts of the same assembly.
IF anyone has any tips it would be great!
James
SW2008 sp3.1

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

With care, just using the Enable multi-user environment option in Tools > Options > System Options > Collaboration should suffice.

Some members here use this in an of office of at least a dozen users. Others will tell you that PDM is a must. Both methods have their problems.

I would suggest trying the "multi-user" option first, because it is the simplest to implement and use.

 

[JMirisola]

I agree with CBL...enabling the multi-user option should work. One thing to remember, is COMMUNICATION! Things will get ugly quick if the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing. Watch out for duplicate parts/assemblies/drawings. What you use isn't as important as how you use it....

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP, Certified DriveWorks AE

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

Dell M90, Core2 Duo, 4GB RAM, Nvidia 3500M

 

[TheTick]

The key to multi-user work is control of write access. An important feature of the multi-user environment is the option to open file references (components, drawing refs) as read-only.

With references opened as read-only, write-access is not tied up simply because a component file is open by another user who does not need write access. One gains write access to a component by either opening the file singly or by reloading.

 

[fcsuper]

And regardless of your choice of system, do not iterate a single project across multiple folders on your harddrive, especially if you are relying on a network drive.

Matt Lorono
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group
and Mechnical.Engineering Yahoo! Group

 

[RetroVirus]

PDM works !

Works best. If you guys don't have it, ask your management to upgrade to Professional. It comes with it.

Arun

Mechanical Engineer.
Solidworks 2008,Inventor-2009,
Cosmosworks,CosmosMotion,CosmosFloworks.