We're in the early phases of ERP change over. Some people here have been sold on CAD Link and think we will be able to pump CAD BOM into ERP at the push of a button. I'm concerned and frankly don't trust any marketing at face value.
Just wondering if any of you have experience with CAD Link, mostly pushing from CAD to ERP. The hole in the process that concerns me is where will all the other data come from? CAD only contains maybe 15% of the data a part will have in ERP. Since vast majority of our new part numbers are copied from similar part with a few edits I'm pretty sure the people loading Operations/Routings and BOM in ERP will do the same thing we did in CAD; copy existing file to a new file and make some edits, except they copy existing item and make some edits.
Anyway CAD link requires the CAD assembly structure, "EBOM" some call it, to match the structure in ERP. So they all say that's "The Way" to do it. But when I talk to others I know in various manufacturing companies very few state that CAD file ref structure matches the BOMs in ERP. Actually, most say they won't. And I'm not talking about things like grease or door seals or wire loom that's cut to length as needed. I mean assembly structures. The completely flattened BOMs match, but the way they are put together are not the same. So I'm struggling to wrap my head around what this will look like.
I'll like to a thread from about a year ago that mentioned CAD Link (by @ResidentAtLarge and @AlexB as well as Custom Tools. Although this thread was about moving data the other direction; updating CAD properties from ERP. Which I think is a better plan than trying to push CAD data to ERP and seems to be more popular in practice.
https://www.cadforum.net/viewtopic.php?t=1188
Thanks.
CAD Link users or experience?
CAD Link users or experience?
My understanding is that the data it pulls in from PDM is compared directly against the current BOM from the ERP system. It will let you know if something is going to be added by marking it green. If something is deleted it is marked gray. And if the user needs to choose the correct data from conflicting fields, you can specify whether EBOM or ERP should "win" that conflict.
I feel like applying this on existing BOMs would mark all MBOM items as "going to be deleted" since they aren't present in the intermediate database prior to this current operation, but I can't be sure since this wasn't covered. Perhaps the intermediate database can be loaded with current ERP data prior to implementing the tool allowing it to work as described. It's hard to say without actually getting my hands on it for testing.
Go to full postI feel like applying this on existing BOMs would mark all MBOM items as "going to be deleted" since they aren't present in the intermediate database prior to this current operation, but I can't be sure since this wasn't covered. Perhaps the intermediate database can be loaded with current ERP data prior to implementing the tool allowing it to work as described. It's hard to say without actually getting my hands on it for testing.
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berg_lauritz
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Re: CAD Link users or experience?
I would like to know more about this too. We are struggling to make anything work with M2M/CADLINK/SolidWorks. Mainly because there is no time allocated for us to focus on this.
Re: CAD Link users or experience?
I wonder if this is how SW developers feel about 1 and 2.berg_lauritz wrote: ↑Wed Dec 07, 2022 2:17 pm I would like to know more about this too. We are struggling to make anything work with M2M/CADLINK/SolidWorks. Mainly because there is no time allocated for us to focus on this.
Also a concern is the number of hours required to figure out how to set this up but no indication of what is going to get bumped off the schedule to free up the hours.
Have you tried CADLINK then?
what's M2M?
Re: CAD Link users or experience?
Disclaimer: I know the pictures are blurry, this is the resolution it was recorded in unfortunately.
I had to go digging to get this info from our demonstration of the full CADLink package. Essentially, there are two steps to exporting a BOM from SW to your ERP. Set up your EBOM, then your MBOM. We ended up deciding this wasn't for us, but it may work for others.
1. Ensure your SW BOM [EBOM] has all of the mechanical structure that you need at this level. Send to CADLink from PDM.
2. CADLink editor opens your selected Computed BOM and allows you to begin editing it before it moves to your ERP system. This is where, from my understanding, you can add manufacturing items and stuff for your MBOM and make other changes to non-SW fields before upload. I think they have a solution for routings, but I don't know since it wasn't covered with us.
3. Once the differences have been resolved and everything is ready to upload, you can then push the changes to your ERP
They described it as essentially having a middle-man SQL database that holds the modified data that's exported from SW. It compares this to your ERP system and PDM to show you if things disagree and allow you to resolve them before they're uploaded.
I had to go digging to get this info from our demonstration of the full CADLink package. Essentially, there are two steps to exporting a BOM from SW to your ERP. Set up your EBOM, then your MBOM. We ended up deciding this wasn't for us, but it may work for others.
1. Ensure your SW BOM [EBOM] has all of the mechanical structure that you need at this level. Send to CADLink from PDM.
- image.png (52.79 KiB) Viewed 2620 times
3. Once the differences have been resolved and everything is ready to upload, you can then push the changes to your ERP
They described it as essentially having a middle-man SQL database that holds the modified data that's exported from SW. It compares this to your ERP system and PDM to show you if things disagree and allow you to resolve them before they're uploaded.
Re: CAD Link users or experience?
thanks for the reply @AlexB .
That helps with the info we got from the demo. I'm wondering if the CADLINK will allow comparing the EBOM to existing MBOM as this is pretty much the process that is done manually now by our MFG ENG department. They must do that for any design changes and most of the new parts are the same thing; because they copy the item in ERP then update it to match the EBOM. But they didn't really show that workflow in the demos, and I've learned (somewhat painfully) that if they don't show it in demos there's a reason and usually not becuase there wasn't time.
That helps with the info we got from the demo. I'm wondering if the CADLINK will allow comparing the EBOM to existing MBOM as this is pretty much the process that is done manually now by our MFG ENG department. They must do that for any design changes and most of the new parts are the same thing; because they copy the item in ERP then update it to match the EBOM. But they didn't really show that workflow in the demos, and I've learned (somewhat painfully) that if they don't show it in demos there's a reason and usually not becuase there wasn't time.
Re: CAD Link users or experience?
My understanding is that the data it pulls in from PDM is compared directly against the current BOM from the ERP system. It will let you know if something is going to be added by marking it green. If something is deleted it is marked gray. And if the user needs to choose the correct data from conflicting fields, you can specify whether EBOM or ERP should "win" that conflict.
I feel like applying this on existing BOMs would mark all MBOM items as "going to be deleted" since they aren't present in the intermediate database prior to this current operation, but I can't be sure since this wasn't covered. Perhaps the intermediate database can be loaded with current ERP data prior to implementing the tool allowing it to work as described. It's hard to say without actually getting my hands on it for testing.
I feel like applying this on existing BOMs would mark all MBOM items as "going to be deleted" since they aren't present in the intermediate database prior to this current operation, but I can't be sure since this wasn't covered. Perhaps the intermediate database can be loaded with current ERP data prior to implementing the tool allowing it to work as described. It's hard to say without actually getting my hands on it for testing.
Re: CAD Link users or experience?
A little follow up of some things we learned while evaluating CAD Link. Keep in mind, this is just one person's perspective.
- The CAD Link user(s) have complete authority over the Bills of Manufacture in Syteline.
+ In our situation that is not so good as the Design Eng department knows the CAD but Manufacturing Eng manage the BOMs and routings according to what is best on the floor.
- The CAD BOM does not need to perfectly match the mfg BOM. But the levels of structure must match.
+ there can be components in MBOM that are not in CAD and CADLink will leave them alone, they are identified in Syteline table.
+ There can be files in the EBOM that do not go into the MBOM, I believe the mechanism for this is to mark the part in CAD to not be on the BOM. CADLink uses the PDM BOMs, so it could also be done there I believe.
+ What cannot be done is have parts in different subassembly structure. For example, if MBOM has part number level for painted or case hardened etc, your CAD BOM will need to match that. Another example is if Manufacturing Eng uses kits or phantom parts to better track materials moving through shop floor (as part numbers instead of just WIP) then your CAD BOM will need to match that as well.
- Connecting to Syteline CSI was very straight forward, but we did need some assistance from the Syteline implementer for setting up user and permissions.
- CAD Link appears to have a very powerful logic system in the options that can automate a lot of things when loading the CAD BOM.
- CAD Link tech support seems quite good.
- The CAD Link user(s) have complete authority over the Bills of Manufacture in Syteline.
+ In our situation that is not so good as the Design Eng department knows the CAD but Manufacturing Eng manage the BOMs and routings according to what is best on the floor.
- The CAD BOM does not need to perfectly match the mfg BOM. But the levels of structure must match.
+ there can be components in MBOM that are not in CAD and CADLink will leave them alone, they are identified in Syteline table.
+ There can be files in the EBOM that do not go into the MBOM, I believe the mechanism for this is to mark the part in CAD to not be on the BOM. CADLink uses the PDM BOMs, so it could also be done there I believe.
+ What cannot be done is have parts in different subassembly structure. For example, if MBOM has part number level for painted or case hardened etc, your CAD BOM will need to match that. Another example is if Manufacturing Eng uses kits or phantom parts to better track materials moving through shop floor (as part numbers instead of just WIP) then your CAD BOM will need to match that as well.
- Connecting to Syteline CSI was very straight forward, but we did need some assistance from the Syteline implementer for setting up user and permissions.
- CAD Link appears to have a very powerful logic system in the options that can automate a lot of things when loading the CAD BOM.
- CAD Link tech support seems quite good.