Shop Floor CAD

[Lazer]

Hi all, Just wondering if anyone has ever gave the lads on the shop floor any kind of cad software to use as a tool to help them with the their work?

We have a team of sheet metal fabricators who are to office shy to pop in and ask questions or ask for missing dimensions to be added to a drawing.

I have worked on the shop floor for many years so I know what info to put on a drawing and always explain a drawing with the lads, but I am not the onlyone to do drawings, so lets just say some drawings don't have the right info on them.

I want to give them a cad system and show them the basics, so they can use it as a tool to help with any problems they come across.
I think this could save a lot of wasted of time and errors.

I would love to hear your views on this 1, is it a good idea/crazy idea???

[good_m]

I think that would be a great idea but you'd have to make sure that everyone in your office makes the drawings to right dimensions EXACTLY! They can't be editing the dimension text to get the right dimension or anything like that. You would also have to make sure that the guys on the shop floor have good enough training to use the system properly.
Remember, these are only suggestions to you. I'm not going to try and tell you how to run your shop!
Hope this helped!
Mike

[Lazer]

That was a supa quick reply thanx.
Please feel free to thow in any views pos or neg as I will be taking all everyones views onboard, your post is just what I after and im taking notes from what you have said. Thank you

I could be opening a can of worms here i.e if they edit the dims and say "WELL THATS WHAT U GAVE ME" uhmmm!!!

[good_m]

well there's a .vlx fil that I have loaded onto my website in the Lisp Routines section on Cad Corner http://mgoodarch.com/Lisp%20Routine.htm. I haven't tried it yet but apparently what you do is make a copy of the cad file and then use this application is makes the drawing a block that can't be exploded. Load that onto a fold on the server for the shop floor guy and make only that file accessible to them from the server. That way all that they can really do is use the distance command to find any dimensions that they need for the fabrication of the part. Again...just an idea.
Mike

[Lazer]

8) cheers

[Mr T]

Just watched the Autodesk University presentation. They had engineers/mehcanics accessing DWF files via wireless netwroked Tablet PCs. Alsways the latest files, read only.

Nick

[gcp310]

I could be opening a can of worms here i.e if they edit the dims and say "WELL THATS WHAT U GAVE ME" uhmmm!!!

Thats what i would say too. You also have Computer Litracy issues, some tradies may not know hopw to use a computer, so training will be required.

It would be great not to get bugged every five minutes asking for silly information that if they studied the drawing, its right in front of them.

G

[Lazer]

Thank you all for your imput.

I'm starting to get the idea that training may be a problem, I don't want anyone saying "not my fault I never knew that" or "someone may have changed the dims"
Then the problems with new people starting, they may say "well I dont Know how to use the computer/cad machine)

Give me a few days to look more into this but I already am starting to think ....(Great if It could work BUT it's not going to).. shame :(

[hendie]

I would use a drawing viewer ~ that way no-one can edit the files or do anything to wreak havoc. The Cymmetry viewer has several functions to measure distances areas etc and simple to use

[Lazer]

The Cymmetry viewer
Just what i'm after hendie do you have a link to d/load it from.

Autodesk DWF viewer does not have any tools like that :(

[SgtDoak]

If you buy the dwf composer you'll be able to measure distances, switch between layers, give different views and even make markups on the dwf. It's a very powerful program! Check into it and see if it's something you might want to use.

[thalon]

The shop floor guys should not have to be shy about asking questions. If they don't understand the intent with a paper copy, how is a CAD model goint to help? Not to mention, if a dimension is missing from a drawing the draftsman should put it on the drawing so the question will never have to be asked again.
The draftsman should aslo be considering fabrication when the drawing is created. The placement and dimension datums should be easy for a guy on the floor to measure and measure from. Dimensioning from the center od a part is easy in CAD, but difficult in the shop. It may be easier to train your draftsman on shop practices (measuring, handeling) then it would be to train you shop guys on CAD. And you probably have fewer CAD people then you do fabricators, so training would be cheeper.
This is not ment to belittle the intelligence of shop workers. Many of the fabricators I've work with are much more intelligent then some of the CAD people I've worked with.