We store our pdf’s in folders outside of PDM for our suppliers.
We use a simple process of renaming files FILENAME–A
There HAS to be a simple file management software that will auto increment and archive pdf’s.
Anyone have a suggestion?
Are you using PDM or some type of revision management for the CAD files?
Our pdfs are on network shares, they are published from PDM through a task add-in. The pdf file name is generated from the data card variables; partNumber and Revision. The user who is logged in on the task host machine is one of very few that have write/mod access to the folder.
We do the same as @bnemec mentioned. We use PDM to automatically generate the PDF using a task add-in. The file name is created using the data card variables for part number and revision. It automatically saves in a specific network folder.
The one step we are still looking to automate is the move of the old revision of the file in the network folder to a different network archive folder. I have not been able to find anything that will do that part, but at least the PDF is created and is named with the revision.
We intentionally keep our old rev pdfs. This makes side by side comparisons of various revs much simpler. The ERP/MES system links to the pdfs in the share which limits shop floor people from using the wrong one. Manufacturing Engineering dept. controls which pdf(s) are connected to which part(s) and when they are updated.
We wrote our task add-in so we could clear out old pdf(s) in the task if that became desirable. However, I’d like to avoid doing that in the task run instance. Instead use a scheduled cmd script or stand alone exe to manage this.
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Looks like I’m the right path!
We are in PDM.
We would like to do the same as @VicFrauenfeld is suggesting (store the old in an archive) but I can @bnemec as mentioned a side by side.
In the past, we’ve copied past as reference the PDF and DXF back to the original .slddrw but I REALLY like the idea of the pdf being stored in another location (as reference with no connection).
My grand vision has always been to give vendors access to the PDM web client so they receive notifications when part drawings are ready for quoting and to provide a workflow that could track the quote, award, manufacture, deliver process with a little more detail. It hasn’t made it past the ‘wouldn’t it be nice if’ stage.
We keep our PDFs in the vault, revision controlled to match the corresponding SW drawing. Only the latest revision is visible. If an external entity needs to see the PDF, I wrote an Export with Revision add-in to copy the file out with the revision appended to the file name.
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What has held you back from providing external access to vendors?
My day job. It gets in the way of everything. 
In the past, getting a globally accessible web server would have been a much harder sell to IT. Since we’ll be moving our PDM servers to Azure VMs in the very near future, spinning up a web server VM with some safeguards in place should be easier.
Our quoting process right now is a giant black hole. Our manufacturing group is tracking things in a single Excel spreadsheet that they’ve been using for 15 years.
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I would look at blue beam. They have some great parts of the program if you use them. It reminded me of PDM some the way that you could mark up and approve the pdf if you used it.
Good luck with your move to Azure, I hope you are close to the Azure DC. We are rewriting near all of our add-ins and custom PDM apps due tomoving from 1ms latency to 40ms latency. I don’t get how its cheaper than having an internal DC. My PDM server budget is much higher than before. I guess it saves something on the back end but I’d sure like to see those numbers.
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We are at about 20ms latency to the Azure server vs 1ms to the local server. So, 20x slower. I’ve had all the discussions about this with IT along with the fact that Azure isn’t even an officially supported setup for PDM. They do not care. And now, I don’t care either. The Engineering group gets paid the same whether working or waiting, so we now have a handy scapegoat for any project delays.
None of the cost for Azure or the PDM VMs comes out of the Engineering budget, so if they are too stupid to recognize the problems, I’m not going to bother explaining it to them for the tenth time.
My 27+ years of watching IT actively hamper my ability to get things done here has fostered in me a liberating sense of apathy. Just this week I spun up a machine (not connected to the company domain, but on the company private network) so that I can install whatever I want on it since they don’t see the need for me to have admin access to my normal machine or any of my VMs I use for development/testing.
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Technical I’m IT now, I was under engineering a few years ago. Its still internal IT for now but thats slowly being moved out. I still have some admin access but its getting less and we have to open tickets to get even basic stuff done which can take a few days depending on what it is. The functions have been split into so many different groups, no one knows were tickets go and who to contact. A SWX issue that is security settings related is involving 4 different groups and open for weeks now. In the past it would’ve only taken me to figure it out and maybe one local guy to get an exception put in so the block goes away.
As you said, no one cares as long as it following their global one size fits all IT standard. I’ve tried not to care too, but it frustrating when you’re expected to get it fixed.
By the time I left my last company, it felt like the core business existed to fund the IT and HR departments. When they made a decision, it was final, and there was no consideration for the impact it had on productivity.
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