quick advice

[wastewater]

Ok we are in a delima and I figured I would see what other people do with this subject.

We are trying to figure out how to handle revisions to drawings. In the past we have a file (i.e. 13453) if we make a revision for that drawing it would become (i.e. 13453a) to show that it is the latest revision. Well we have went to a MRP system that we link our fabrication drawings to and the only way the link can stay live is that the drawing file dosn't change. So we started saving the old drawing as 13453b in archive and changing 13453a to the new revision well you can see this is going to get confusing because the latest letter is in archive but it isn't the latest drawing.

any advice in what others do would be welcomed.

Thanks

[ReMark]

The "active" drawing file name itself cannot change. So, what do we name the "old" file. The "active" drawing carries a revision number does it not? Or will you be sticking to the revision "letter" as in "a"? My suggestion would be to number the revisions. When the drawing is archived at it should be saved as drawing file name (to use your example) 13453rev1. Unfortunately, the "active" drawing, if the dwg. file name could be changed would be 13453rev2. But it can't be changed.

[fuccaro]

How about this: the active file is 13453. It is a copy of the file 13453R0. As new revisions are created name them 13453R1,...R2 and so on. Altimes the last revision is copied over the active one. When unsure -check the file date to see if the latest revision is the same as the active file

[hendie]

why oh why do people spend so much money on CAD software and then completely ignore document management systems ?
Our EDMS handles all the revisions to the extent that I don't even think about it any more... and everyone always gets the latest revision.. guaranteed

[wastewater]

why oh why do people spend so much money on CAD software and then completely ignore document management systems ?
Our EDMS handles all the revisions to the extent that I don't even think about it any more... and everyone always gets the latest revision.. guaranteed

what is your EDMS it might be just what we are looking for. I agree on the spending money and not getting the hole deal.

Thanks

[hendie]

Adept from www.synergis-adept.com (http://www.synergis-adept.com)
I've been running it now for over two years with excellent results. PM me if you need more info

[asptamer]

We just put dates on our files : /
like HouseRCP_030807.dwg.

Of course, this Synergis-Adept solution looks like a winner, but may be an overkill for some offices. Just decided to put my 2 cents in : )