Using SE Insight Connect w/o SharePoint? 1

[McLeod]

Problem:

- Our legacy doc control system allows checking in and checking out of individual draft, part, and assembly files, but does not manage or maintain links between documents. Therefore, dealing with assemblies is cumbersome. As a result, the users (including me) maintain their own uncontrolled (and frequently redundant) part libraries for handling assemblies.

- I.S. has not implemented SharePoint and SE Insight, and the schedule for doing so is unknown.

- The SE (v14) help files regarding document management assume that SharePoint and SE Insight have been implemented.


Question:

Is there a good method for the users to set up our own controlled parts library *without* SharePoint? Is anybody doing so currently?

We have Insight Connect/Revision Manager, so we can use the Status property to indicate which files are available, in work, in review, released, etc. We have a shared network file server, with directories for each user and the ability to create new subdirectories at will.

Is it as simple as creating a library folder and subdirectory structure and dropping in files with the appropriate status flag? Are there any subtleties that I'm missing here?

 

[JohnSlipec]

I'm pretty sure you can just create a structure on your server and drop files in there. If you have insight connect you can use the property manager in revision manager for pretty much any file location you want. This way you can change your file status. But for someone to see the status they will need to open each part and check the properties just to see.

Unfortunately you do need the files on sharepoint if you want them to be truly controlled however. Insight makes use of the concept of checking in" and "checking out" a document. This means using sharepoint there's no way 2 people can be editing the same file at the same time. Also, when you change your revision status your entire project can be moved automatically.

We have an approval process setup using this. All our design files are in a pre-released location until the design is completed. When the file status changes to "released" the whole project is picked up and moved to a "ready for production" location automatically. When our engineers come in for work they can see in sharepoint right there which design files have been released, which are in review (pending approval from engineering management), and which are still available for work.

Before we achieved this state we just had unmanaged folders on a server with folders named according to product codes and whatnot. You could do exactly this as a first step but remember it won't be considered managed.


John Slipec, B.Sc.ME
CAD Administrator
EH Price Limited, Winnipeg MB

http://www.price-hvac.com