Show Primary Revision Only on Drawing

[ssmithdigilab]

Preface... I have found several postings on this subject, but all are closed and I don't see any valid solutions posted.

My company uses alpha revisions on our drawings (A, B, C, etc.). Through PDMWorks, we want to track primary and secondary revisions (A1, B1, C1, etc.), so that when we check a model/drawing back in the secondary revision gets bumped, but the primary remains the same. This way, the secondary revision is basically controlling the version of the drawing, not the revision. For example, we are on Rev. A, which has yet to be released to anyone, but we notice some minor changes. We make those changes and check it in. We are now on Rev A1.

The main problem is: we only want to show the primary revision on the drawing (A, B, C, etc.). We do not want to see A1 on the print. Also, we don't want to have to bump the revision on the print to Rev. B just because we have to fix these minor mistakes.

Is there any way to show only the primary revision on the print?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Keep in mind, this company previously typed the Rev letter into the drawing format, as opposed to having it linked.

 

[ctopher]

Not that I know of. If you want them linked, the rev in PDMW is what it is.
IMO, the rev that shows in PDMW and on the drawing should match. No matching revs could create havoc later.

Chris
SolidWorks 09 SP4.1
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[rgrayclamps]

Hi, ssmithdigilab:

That sounds very complicated. What is difference between "version" and "revision"? How do you define "minor"?

Do you follow ASME Y14.35M-1997, "REVISION OF ENGINEERING DRAWINGS AND ASSOCIATED DOCUMENTS"? I know Solidworks follows ASME, ANSI, ISO standards, etc.

I do not have a solution for you. This is just something for you to think about.

Alex

 

[ShaggyPE]

There isn't a direct way that I am aware of. But you can create a custom property for the Drawing Rev and manually populate it with the Revision letter only. I can't think of an easy way to "link" Revision and Drawing Rev, short of creating a macro that would update Drawing Rev whenever you ran it. You would still have to run it manually though. Or... you could set it up to run when you save the document. But this is getting pretty kludgy.

-Dustin
Professional Engineer
Certified SolidWorks Professional
Certified COSMOSWorks Designer Specialist
Certified SolidWorks Advanced Sheet Metal Specialist

 

[ssmithdigilab]

I don't believe we're trying to deviate from the ASME standards. We just want to show only the revision letter on the drawing.

We're only using secondary revisions because Solidworks forces us to bump the revision up to the next level everytime we check it in. We tend to check in every night to ensure that everything is backed up, so that could lead to dozens of needless revisions.

I believe in Pro/E Intralink it wasn't called "primary/secondary revision". I thought there was a revision and there was a separate "version" that basically took care of what I am describing above. Does anyone else have Pro/E Intralink experience? I know that in my previous company that used Pro/E, we only had the rev letter on the drawing, but there was a separate box in the title block for version. We could check out parts/drawings and make minor changes (appearance, etc.) that did not require a full revision change.

 

[EEnd]

In relation to the nightly checkins:
The revisions schemes allow for an optional “Working Copy”, ours is set to +. When you check in a working copy it does not automatically bump to the next version. Instead it overwrites the previous working copy. If for example you had a part at Rev B and you were going to work on revising it, you would check it as a working copy (B+) the first time and each time thereafter, until you were finished and ready to check it in as Rev C.

It is important to realize that there will be only 1 version of each working copy in the vault. When you check in today’s B+, yesterday’s B+ will be gone. The up side is that this keeps the size of the vault down.

Alternatively you could also use a list for the primary revision: preA, A, preB, B, preC, C … with the “Last revision type optional” checkbox checked. Your nightly check-ins would use the preX primary revision with a secondary revision. The releases would be just the letter with no secondary revision. An example revision history would be: preA1, preA2, A, preB1, preB2, preB3, B.

In relation to the minor changes:
There is a checkbox in the VaultAdmin for “Allow latest revision overwrite”. If you have this enabled you can make your minor changes and sneak them back into the vault without incrementing the version. The down side is that the previous version of the file at that revision level is overwritten.

By overwriting the latest revision, you are taking the chance that someone will have gotten a copy of the initial version of the revision before you made the change and have no way of knowing that they do not have desired version of the revision.

Eric

 

[ssmithdigilab]

Thanks for all your help, everybody. I think I am going to concede that the drawings may have the secondary revision in some instances. What my plan is right now is to use the secondary revisions as the pre-production release and then when it's ready to be released, go to the next primary revision. If changes are necessary after that, we'll end up with the secondary revision on the drawings. Oh well.

Now I've got a new problem that has shown up and will post in another thread.

 

[ShaggyPE]

We don't use ProE, but we do use their pdm software (Windchill). Don't ask.

Within Windchill, they refer to Revision letter as version and they refer to the following number as iteration.

When you revise the part, its version letter increases and begins on the .1 iteration. As you check in and out, it iterates the part. Often times, after something has been released, we will recognize a typo. At that point, the part gets iterated, but not revised.

-Dustin
Professional Engineer
Certified SolidWorks Professional
Certified COSMOSWorks Designer Specialist
Certified SolidWorks Advanced Sheet Metal Specialist

 

[ssmithdigilab]

That's exactly what I'm talking about, Shaggy. A lot of times you'll notice something that doesn't effect mfg or the vendor or customer, but you need to update it so the drawing is perfect. No need to revise it.

Do you end up with the "A.1" in the revision box on the drawing?

 

[ShaggyPE]

The iteration in the pdm system doesn't drive the rev letter on the drawing. One of the many issues I have with SolidWorks/Windchill interaction.

-Dustin
Professional Engineer
Certified SolidWorks Professional
Certified COSMOSWorks Designer Specialist
Certified SolidWorks Advanced Sheet Metal Specialist

 

[NuclearNerd]

I have the same problem as ssmithdigilab. Unfortunately there's no simple solution yet. See here:

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=262180&page=1