automatically print newly revisioned drawings at timed intervals
run tasks like i.e. convert to PDF/other formats
re-fresh drawings automatically (?)
As far as I know the tasks run on the computer that initiates the task (i.e. print). Which lead to several idiotic problems/crashes when we used tasks.
Should there basically be a ‘server’ that does those tasks for you or are we doing something wrong here?
I guess some of you might have already implemented something similar:
bnemec , jcapriotti , matt , AlexLachance ?
We went an alternate route rather then go with PDM so I’m afraid I can’t really help you with that part, though the rest is part of our process.
I think I’ve read before of people using scripts to run tasks at specific hours on PDM, but I can’t confirm.
The way we process is this way:
Whenever a drawing is saved, it generates a PDF and DXF. It is imperative that these files not be “Read only”, so that they can be overwritten at anytime, which means you need to get a different PDF viewer(SumatraPDF works). DXF’s have never been a problem because nobody accesses these, the only person who uses them is the nesting person and she “imports” them, so the file never is read-only.
We have step files be generated at night time, so that it does not make our saving process too long. Step files are validated by a programmation that validates the date of generation of the .STEP with the date the part/assembly file were last saved, if it’s outdated it gets updated.
We import revisions when processing orders in our ERP, as the ERP only needs the information for external cutting.
Our ERP has live access to the PDF. When we send projects to our ERP, there are multiple validators that verify things such as if the PDF and/or DXF are generated (it does not validate if these are up to date, only if they exist, it is our job to make sure they are updated if we’ve done a change. When we overview our project at the end, if the PDF of the file is outdated, then that will tell us the DXF is also outdated, but it asks a certain level of "attention.
Yeah, letting tasks run on user’s PCs will not work well. LOL, I can only imagine how that would go.
There’s several steps to set up a task host machine. First off it needs to be set up like any other CAD user with Soldiworks, PDM vault view, etc. You can use the PDM Contributor license instead of PDM CAD license if that matters to you.
Then you need to enable the machine as a task host. So on the PC you want to use as a task host, in the windows notification area click the blueberry icon and select Task Host Configuration:
image.png
Then select the vault to use from the “File Vault” drop down. Next check the “Permit” check box for the add-in you want that machine to be a task host for:
The task host should be the only workstation that has this checked IMO, don’t have users’ workstations configured to enable running tasks. Except maybe if you’re developing your own task add-in and you want to debug the task but that’s another story.
Now in the Admin Tool, open the task settings to the “Execution Method” tab and select the first radio button. “Let the system choose the computers to execute the task” Then down in the list box check the box for the machine name of the PC you just set up to run the tasks.
I hate, hate, hate Adobe Reader for this. Why the heck does a “READER” lock the file? They’ve added so much functionality to the Reader (want it or not) that now we need a light weight reader.
I’ve found most web browsers do a good job of displaying pdfs without locking it. They are fast and most have some kind of markup function. If you need 3D pdf then that’s another story. Best part of web browser pdf display is they don’t take up half of the window with irrelevant side bars that are all enabled by default…
We install 3 different browsers to “solve” this problem.
Install Adobe Reader
Install Foxit Reader
Install Sumatra
It is important for us that it be done in this order. Adobe Reader is the default browser. Foxit replaces the Adobe extension that’s used for the “preview” tab in Windows Explorer so that the preview tab does not grab the read only.
Sumatra lets us open PDF without them being in read-only.
From a security standpoint, I’m sure it was an upgrade. From a feature standpoint, The 10+ year old version did everything I need it to do, and the UI was much less cluttered.
I believe this is referring to a shared drive on a server outside of PDM. If I go in there and preview a file right now and PDM is running a task to overwrite the file I’m currently looking at then it will fail since I have it “locked”.
We don’t have PDM, so I don’t know how PDM acts, but nothing is generated by PDM. All is user generated.
Every save of drawing creates a PDF, along with a DXF if the DXF exists.
Every step file is generated by a script ran at night on a user computer that creates them based on if they’re outdated(very roughly explained)
We use CustomTools, and our ERP is Prextra.
Prextra has it’s own command on SolidWorks that I have assisted with the implementation of and also the continuous improvement.
CustomTools is used as our project manager and is also used to create our custom properties. It has a few cool features on it like DXF creation, where used, file conversion, task running, plus the support we get from them is simply outstanding to say the least. The support we have gotten from Dassault is “okay”, to keep it polite, so we decided that if the support was as great on PDM as it is on SolidWorks, that we were better of with an alternative to it and with developping whatever else we required that wouldn’t be covered by CustomTools.
For the PDF Viewer, PDM isn’t the issue, Adobe Reader is. If anyone has the file opened in Adobe Reader, or in the preview of Windows Explorer, then the file will be locked in Read Only and PDM wouldn’t be able to overwrite it technically, like it happens for us when we try to overwrite a file opened on Adobe Reader.
All our files are on our server, shared across multiple companies.
Edit here’s a screenshot to give you an idea what CustomTools gives us capabilities of
I just saw it. I was not expecting customtools to be that powerful. We looked at it about a year ago but it was decided to first find solutions with our current system.
One of the big flaws of PDM is also that you cannot really mass-edit custom properties and I think that’s unacceptable. But who am I to judge this…
It’s very customizable and they implement almost every suggestion flawlessly. We’ve asked to be able to link the name in our scrolling menu of names so that we can link them to user profiles on CustomTools, so that when we do a save, the save will change the user’s name and the date of creation. That will then make sure that our users do not forget to change their names, along with the date when creating new files from existing ones, as it will all be controlled by the Administration side.
Just to show you all the custom properties we have inside our 3D Models that are managed by CustomTools.
Our “Automatic naming” is a combination of these properties to give the name along with incrementing controlled by a SQL database, which will soon have an awesome upgrade!
You can also see in one of the images one of the properties created for our step creation.
image.png
image.png
I was used to using the task pane. Select components & mass-change some things.
Now with PDM I don’t want to use the task pane anymore to change custom properties. It’s all a mess…
some examples:
linking dimensions to custom properties is a breeze with the task pane
but the task pane is limited to either the custom properties or the cfg specific properties
PDM can change all properties on tabs at once & do more than that
but it cannot naturally change multiple parts at once
using the part properties can do everything
but it’s super tedious and unintuitive
with the task pane I can quickly look up some custom properties
but it slows everything down & it does not show everything at once
PDM can change custom properties without opening the part
but not multiple ones
PDM can not set custom properties of virtual parts
the task pane add in can
and here is my absolute horrific favourite: PDM check boxes can only store 1 or 0
this limitation is not shared by the task pane add in
when you change anything on the PDM data card where check boxes are present those check boxes WILL BE ADDED to the custom properties! If you SHOWED THE TAB ONCE the check boxes WILL BE ADDED to any tab you SHOWED while editing the data card.
I see what you mean, but you should be able to still use the Task Pane Custom Props to do multiple changes. We have an in-house developed property editor that we still use instead of the PDM data card. Mostly because we need to validate and handle data in ways PDM can’t. But not everything on the PDM data card is mapped to custom properties so there are few things we might still on the PDM data card.
PDM can change multiple parts without opening, but you would need to either build a transition and maybe dispatch script, or use the “Update values” function. Neither are these are really for every day use…more like data migration activities.
I don’t use checkboxes often so I agree there…I tend to create a Yes/No drop list box instead. Just depends on plan to do with it. Checkbox variables shouldn’t be added to custom properties unless mapped…are you say it does it anyway?
