Many thanks for your suggestions in my earlier post regarding PDM software. There are a few packages that I’d like to test but I’m not sure how to approach this without wasting a bunch of work. I don’t see how to test the software without working on real models. We’re too small of a company to spend time making dummy designs. If I do the work and go with different software, I still want to be able to use it when I’m done, without having to deal with broken links and lost edits.
So you want to design something new in CAD, but work in one of the PDM software you’re interested in. Then if you go with another software, you want to move the files over to that one?
Yeah. In the past, the main problem has been making sure I end up with the latest version of the file, not a past revision, and the assemblies don’t end up broken.
Most PDMs should have the option to always open latest version. SolidWorks PDM has a setting to do that, which we have checked for each user. “Always work with latest version”. This setting has some downsides though in that it removes the ability in the main UI to get previous revisions. You can do it inside the SolidWorks task pane PDM tab though.
It not only needs a real model, it needs a lot of time spent doing actual work. With the three new PDM systems I’ve had to adapt to, significant issues didn’t surface for a long time, usually at some stage in the project.