CAD Forum

Our company is finally interested in implementing a PDM. Our needs are actually rather simple: we need document control mainly for a) revision control and b) limiting file proliferation.

Our documents are mostly independent files such as pdf's, Word, Excel, PowerPoint. We do have a variety of CAD files in AutoCAD, Solid Edge, SolidWorks, and even some Catia and NX files, but these are not highly connected files for large assemblies nor are they for manufacturing documentation.

I am looking for recommendations for a simple (and low cost) PDM system. It should be for general document control, and not be a CAD-related PDM. Cloud-based is okay so long as it is ITAR compliant.

This is the first area I want to look because of the trust I have in the members of this forum. Thanks in advance!

Subscribing to this, because inquiring minds want to know!

The only one that I have any history with for and document revision control functionality is called MasterControl.

Now, I don't know the pricing since it's not freely available so it may not fit your budget.

The key things I remember it doing are allowing approval workflows based on document type / process. The only available document to select is the latest issued one, although it maintains an archive of all revisions if access to those are needed.

The documents stored were work instructions, ERs, Issued drawings, and other QMS documents that auditors like to have controlled.

I know it's not a lot to go on but it's been a while since I left that job.

I do not have experience with other products, but solidworks PDM is a train wreck. incomplete and the admin interface is bugged so you cannot use some of its functions or your risking to break your vault and data.

PDM needs discipline and simple rules. avoid moving files around and renaming them too much. take a file name convention and avoid place holder names we have all sort of problems with botched renames inside files indexes and pdm db.
let alone your engineers will copy the file and to avoid the duplicate name check in the vault they rename it with a "space" character or a "-" somewhere and at some point they delete your file with its history and pointers renaming their copy to make it look like the original one. (no they do not overwrite during check out, DELETE the original file and rename the copy...)

once you decide variables and workflows it is almost impossible to fix them, better remake them from scratch to avoid a mess.

it depends on your modus operandi as well: project inside a single folder? almost independent from others?
are your data always to be on the latest version or you want to be able to work with past versions as well?
if you have a revision process or you do not revise part and get a new part no instead...
.
e.g. machine1 has part1 in rev A
machine 2 part1 in rev C when you load machine1 data it defaults to rev C. if you want the machine 1 assy to be able to look for every release of its parts ylu need to check it out rebuild and check it in. every time.
in theory. nobody here do it that way and the data are... well a mess.
I heard other companies dropped the revision of parts in favor of unique part no. when you have 100s of assemblies you need to check them out and check in again with the revised part... in theory nobody does it and when you load up your data it blows up.

It would be curious what you find. The big problem with most non-cad based doc management systems is they don't know how to handle the CAD file references. If the CAD assemblies and associated files are fairly isolated and not shared, maybe you could do it effectively but once you need several people in there it gets hairy. Even from CAD centric PDM system, might be tough to find one that handles all of those CAD systems. The bigger players like Windchill and Teamcenter handle them all but it ain't cheap nor easy to setup.

What do you really need? A PDM or a doc control software?
If you are just looking at controlling document like word/pdf... basic doc control software should be more than sufficient (eg: sharepoint)
Most non-CAD based doc control software does not handle cad dependencies well...

If you are looking to handle all major CAD system (Solidworks, CREO, NX, etc etc).... you might want to consider Windchill and Teamcenter.. but they are probably not the low cost option that you are looking for... and take an entire team to run it

^{Unless really required...i will not touch Windchill even with a 10ft pole}

zwei wrote: ↑Tue Dec 19, 2023 5:57 pm
If you are looking to handle all major CAD system (Solidworks, CREO, NX, etc etc).... you might want to consider Windchill and Teamcenter.. but they are probably not the low cost option that you are looking for... and take an entire team to run it

^{Unless really required...i will not touch Windchill even with a 10ft pole}

I concur unless you have a team of experts. It's very capable with lots of options but not easy to use or maintain.