Best PDM for AUTOCAD

[mrc mcn]

Dear colleagues

We work in AUTOCAD for drawings. I am trying to implement PDM system for current project that I am involved in. What would be the best PDM for AUTOCAD, from your best knowledge?

Thank you for any help

[SLW210]

In the past I used Vault from Autodesk.

[mrc mcn]

Thank you for reply

How was it, did you have any annoying problems with that? I mean there is always you like or do not like, but did you find that some different softwares kind of more convenient and still cheaper?
Thank you

[SLW210]

Only one I ever used. Seemed easy enough to me.

[mrc mcn]

Thank you for comment

This is probably the best software for AUTOCAD, in termsof features. How about others, on the market?

I found "DBWorks" as SolidWorks/AutoCad application.It has express version which is only $200?! Is that even worth that money?

Please comment, any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you

[edwinprakoso]

Autodesk Vault is the most suitable for AutoCAD I believe. And very affordable. I tried Bentley ProjectWise and SmarTeam. Never tried DBWorks. The issue with the other solutions are they are usually a few months behind when adsk released new version. And it might be some issue with integrations. I suggest you to use PDM from you CAD vendor.

[mrc mcn]

Hi Edwin
Thank you for the information
Are "Bentley ProjectWise" and "SmarTeam" project type of software? Are they easy with CADs?

[edwinprakoso]

I'm not sure what you mean by "project type of software".
Basically they can do almost the same for AutoCAD. I won't recommend SmarTeam for AutoCAD because it's expensive (can cost 5x more expensive than AutoCAD). Unless you also use CATIA, you might not want to consider it.
I'm not sure about ProjectWise price. I used it about 7 years ago. It also can be integrated with AutoCAD.

But as far as I know Vault is the best choice and has reasonable price for managing AutoCAD data. It also has Vault Basic which is free for subscription customers.
You need the higher version, if you need more features. Check autodesk.com/vault if you want to find more details.
Unless you also use CAD applications other than Autodesk (like MicroStation, CATIA, UG, etc) I would suggest to use Vault.

And yes, they are easy to use.

[mrc mcn]

Hello Edwin

Thank you for comment

Talking about AUTOCAD, are we assuming 2D drawings? Mybiggest concern is how to control components usage and quantity. Currently wedo it manually, just open every single drawing, count components assign them toBOM. If something changed – go thru whole process again. That takes time andpossibility to have mistakes.

3D models have different concept,soon as you attach the component, it doesn’t matter how many views and drawingsit appears on – it’s still one (1) component.

Flat “General Arrangement” might contain so many views ofsame component, so how do we know if it’s same component or bunch of samecomponents? Do you think PDM can provide a solution for that?

[edwinprakoso]

You are right.
PDM works best with 3D software. I believe it was meant for Inventor, while it can work with other software too.
For 2D drawings, it will not recognize components like in 3D. You will not be able to create BOMs automatically.
If your concern is creating BOMs for 2D drawings, you can try using data extraction to generate reports. It a built in AutoCAD feature.

See this as example: data extraction for creating schedule.