Organising Folders to Save drgs in easily

I have just started work at a new firm and have been put in charge of sorting their cad system out. The thing is that one of the Directors has his views and I have mine on how the system should be set up, and I was wondering what you lot out there thought on the matter. There is a few issues so bare with me.

Previously the company used to save all drawings in a Project folder under a name like XYZ Schematic or 4th Floor Lighting Layout, etc. They didn't save under a drg number. These drawings were also saved in another folder for the particular salesman as well. To me this is open to drawings being modified in one folder but not in any other and so the wrong drawing might be issued.

My view was to save all drawings under the number ( number kept in a simple Excel spreadsheet detailing project name and drg description ) and then depending on what it was, the drg would be saved in a Panel folder if it was a panel drg, wiring diagrams would be saved in a folder called Wiring Diagrams, schematics in a schematic folder, etc.

The thing is that the Director doesn't want to look in the drawing register and have to `search` for the right number, then search in a folder for it. All he wants to do is look in the project folder and all the drawings are there under a description so he can easily send/issue it without having to ask me all the time ( or someone else ). With this method, the Director even wants component drgs in the Project folder which again seems to be open for `old` drgs being used by mistake.

I even started doing an Excel document that I stored in each project folder that listed the relevent drgs used ( schematics and layouts but not component drgs ) and had the drg hyperlinked to the relevent folder so he just clicked on it to open the particular drg. This does cause a problem when using this Excel doc to find a drg and attach it to an email as you have to remember the path.

There's probably other things I've forgotten but look forward to any comments/views.

Sounds like you have inherited a right mess.

The director is wrong, sounds like he has a touch of technofear.

The company MUST have some way of controling which is the latest version of a drawing, otherwise they will never get QA certification and any company will loose work if it dosent have a QA system in place.

You have posted in the right forum for this subject and if you take a look at the other posts in this 'Cad Management forum' you will find that similar questions have been asked and answered in the past.

Basically -

The latest versions of drawings should be kept in one location, divided into sub-folders if required, and any drawing stored anywhere else regarded as suspect.

Dividing the main location into subfolders makes it easier to find things and keep track of particular jobs. There is no problem with putting any type of drawing here, just make sub folders called 'layouts', 'components', 'isometrics', etc.

Old versions of drawings should be put somewhere where it is obvious that they are old versions. Usually just a sub folder in the main location called 'old-dwgs' will do the trick and means you can still get to them if you need to.

Drawings should have some form of numbering and a revision letter and/or number so that you can keep track of the revisions. (Names are ok for sketches or provisional work but not at all professional if someone from outside the company sees the drawings).

This also means that if your salesman takes a copy its easy to see if his copy is up to date or not.

There are lots of other things you can do, from just setting up folders and telling people how to use them to installing a Drawing Management Database programme that you have to go through to open or change a drawing.

It all depends on the size of your company and how many drawings you have to control.

Good luck with getting things across to the director.

thanks for that. Anymore on how to install a Drawing Management Database? I totally agree that nearly every other company only has drgs saved under a drg number and it is the way to go to be professional. What I need is some very easy way to get the Directors, etc to gain access to a file to view or print or email. That seems to be the biggest issue as they expect everything to be available immediately rather than making sure they are using/issueing the most upto date revision of the drg.

Keep the comments coming, I'm all ears!!!

There are plenty of different DMS systems out there, depends what you want and how much you want to pay.

(We dont use one we just use the folder method).

One you are probably already familiar with the name of is Buzzsaw-

http://www.autodesk.co.uk/adsk/servlet/pc/index?siteID=452932&id=14585133

Keep your DWG's in your own drive and only allow the sales staff read only access. Keep track of Revisions using PDF's on their drive!

That won't work Pablo as I have to save everything onto the server. The top and bottom of it is that the Directors and some of the other people can't be bothered to open the Drawing Register and search for the particular drawing. Personally I think they have just been stuck in their ways as none of them are CAD people.

Sorry, I meant your own partition or mapped drive on the server.

Even so, You can still make your folders on the network read only... As long as they can't change your files they are free to create their own copy's and send the wrong files to whomever they wish. If they want to know what's current, they can refer to your helpful information - or just ask.

They have to understand the time (and therefore value) tied up in these original files. They also need to understand that the original files may be a 'Work in progress' until they are published, i.e. you might actively be working on a drawing when the Marketing guy tries to send it off to a subcontractor. You do not need the uninitiated messing up all your hard work! I don't even care to think about X-Refs...

It would be much better to give them their own copies of your 'Published' drawings in their own set of folders for 'Published' files. They can save them how they wish...

Another way to name and store your files is to place a designator in the front of the file and store the files by project number.

Example:

F:\Projects\123456 Project Name\SC10444.dwg (schematic)

F:\Projects\123456 Project Name\LO10444.dwg (layout)

F:\Projects\123456 Project Name\LT10444.dwg (lighting)

You can store pdf's with the dwg's for the other folks to look at. I agree with not allowing everyone write access to the original acad file. That can make for a documentation nightmare. No company worth there salt would let that happen. I'm sure many small companies out there have no real control over their documents, but just let them sit in a witness box and try to defend or justify if there is ever a lawsuit and I'll bet they never do it again.

I know I sound like a Document Control Nazi; however, much of my back ground is in Nuclear Power Generation and Gov't/Military Nuclear Application where document control is as tight as it can get.

Hope this helps.

The company I work with now uses PDM as a vault/electronic control system.

Here's a good way not to organize your drawings. Every time you revise a plan, create a new folder with today's date and save away that plan--and only that plan--into the new folder. Name the folders by MMDDYY to keep it interesting. You have to hunt for the right folder, in backwards order, that has the latest version of whatever plan you're looking for. Don't listen to any suggestions about improving the system, because (say it with me) we've always done it that way. Anyway, it would take too long to go back and change all the old projects into a different structure.

This is what someone that worked in our office for a few months wants us to use.

I think you work on your DWG files and let them work on PDF files. The PDF is released drawing of your DWG and can't be edited. It's can be in different folders with different structures.

The PDF maybe outdated, but your DWG is under-working. To minimised the difference, you need to release your DWG into PDF in time.

In the PDF folder, you could run a script (maybe every week) to remove the old version in to an 'old' folder.

Cean

Poor you, obviously another company that have never heard the words document controller or QA !!

Just have an import/export folder, by date 101001 yymmdd ...uses your excel speadsheet as a drawing register & use your hyperlinks in excel to locate your issued drawings in the correct folders simple & easy, get your QA man on the case as well. You can also use publish to place your pdf/dwg in the correct location each time you issue leaving your dwg sheet files where ever they live.

P.s. if needed you can also have a QA folder where dwg/pdf are placed before they move into an issue folder, of course that depends if you have anybody to QA the drawings before they are issued, then simply move them into the issued folder once issued.

Of course you or somebody else will need to keep the registers upto date for this to work, & you would surely need an Admin folder to keep the drawing registers in.

Example your folders would go something like this

Export\Issued\date_title

Export\QA\date_title

Import\companys\date_title

Admin\Document_Issue_Registers

USE WINDOWS PERMISSONS TO LIMIT ACCESS TO THESE FOLDERS e.g. read only.

Best of luck.

P.s. if your really good with AutoCAD use the setsheet manager!!

What ever method you choose, the single most important thing you need is to have everyone on-board with the idea, and for everyone to have the discipline to stick to it. The first time someone steps around the system because of time constraints (real or imagined) and defeats it, it will fall apart and no one will follow it again if they see that "the dog has no teeth". This will have to start at the top. If the owner, manager, or big cheese of the day doesn't follow the rules, no one else will either.

If the owner' date=' manager, or big cheese of the day doesn't follow the rules, no one else will either.[/quote']

 

Indeed, Mr Jack _O'neill is quite correct.

 

p.s. my above post is just an example solution that i think you already had in your mind.

You really need to give us more insight into what your company does for a living. A folder structure for A/E firms will be different from Manufacturers which will be different from Facilities Management, etc.

A couple of examples here at my work we have multiple independant groups

The drawing was waterfront something final something maybe version 2 can you find it ? 100+ dwgs

Our drawings are in the box over there ! They now use our system a project number electronic saving.

We insist any outside dwgs have our number on them the consultant can have his as well.

our structure

project number

Design

superseded

Letters

Survey

other etc

We have a database system that records times etc but we also as a quickie have a spreadsheet job details only with tabs for each year and just use, find its quick, the current job is normally in current year. desktop icon can it be that hard for the manager.

I have run into the same issue here at my company. As a compromise I divided everything into sub folders by product line and added to a spread sheet that can be sorted by the different criteria needed. Then I added a hyper link to the spread sheet that way when someone looks up a drawing number, all they have to do is click on the spread sheet and it will take them to the most current drawing. Any previous versions of that drawing are archived and can only be viewed in PDF format by request.

After I got this set up I had everyone (sales, production, maintenance, and tooling) download DWG true view so they could open cad files. It then set up everyone with access, and they copied a short-cut of the spread sheet to a file location of there choosing.

Now everyone has access to the latest drawings, and there is only copy of the drawing on the server.