Data Management Software

[verge]

I work for a company which is moving into Pro-E slowly. Right now we have two licenses, but we will have eight or ten probably within the next six months. The IT department here doesn't think we need any type of data management software right now, and frankly doesn't want to deal with it at all until at least October or November. I'm thinking that by that time we'll have some real issues, especially with everyone here but two of us being completely new to Pro-E (and 3-D modeling in general).


Will we be totally out of control by November? None of us in engineering are experts in programming or data management. How can we control access to parts (checking in and out, etc.) and revisions? What's the best way to keep our files organized and easy to search?


What are some of the softwares that might be useful without a big initial investment? Keep in mind that eventually we will implement a server-based software to handle data management.

 

[BigD]

Have a look at the other threads regarding data management. You will get some suggestions on PTC solutions and solutions from other vendors.


We started with three Pro/E seats in 2003 and no data management apart from windows folders. I would say we had rev control issues within months, if not weeks. We went with a non-PTC data management system about 18 months later. Never looked back.


Davy

 

[kwillo]

My experience with a previous company is that some kind of data management will be a big help, especially if you've many users who could all potentially deal with each others parts. I'm sure you'll find it easier to grow with the data management software rather than to implement it later once people have become 'stuck in their ways'.


Intralink/PDMLink, Design Data Manager get mentioned a lotand seem to bepopular.I only have first hand experience of an earlier release of intralink. As BigD says there are quite a few threads on this subject on the forum containingsome helpful thoughts.

 

[dawie]

Verge:


With one seat of Por/E, you can still make use of different folders, butthe day you have more that 2 seats of Pro/E, you need PLM Software. PLM software allows concurrent design and keeps trac of all revisions, drawingsetc. We use a third party software which allows any documents to be submitted and handled, not only Pro/E data. Remember this when you look atIntralink/PDM Link or any other.


Also, PDM Link isexpensive (also a reason why we went the 3rd party way) - check for software which is not web based, as these are VERY slow software. We use Pulse PLM which is extremely easy to use. Go to www.pulsesystems.net and check it out.

 

[walkerone]

The earlier you get the data management set up the better, especially if you expect to add users at a rapid rate. At the very least, you spare the heartache of getting 8 or 10 users data into the data manger at the same time. It is MUCH easier to set up a data manager without data.


I'd advise you get the demos from PTC's offerings (PDMLink - Intralink 8.0 is going to be phased out very soon anyway), Design Data Manager (DDM)and Pulse. Have some clear ideas on how many users you will eventually end up with, and also how your current drawing release process works. Then, assess what other document creation packages (AutoCAD, Word, etc) you need to control data with in the data manager.


I went through this process recently, selecting a data manager for a five user Pro/E department. We went with DDMas for our cost/performance requirement this seemed to give the best fit. I'm glad to say that the install went very well - done in two days, including user trainingand the three continual users are pretty happy. We had the advantage of also installing Pro/E at the same time, so no data importing to be done.


At the moment, one of the Pro/E machines is also the client server for the DDM software. This seems to be working well, although with a slight added complication of backing up the machine to deal with. We'll have a dedicated server soon - hopefully the switch will be seamless (DDM assure us it will be!). One thing that has impressed is the rapid response of DDM's support when problems have arose. Any support calls logged have been answered within hours, in some cases minutes.


I had a very bad experience with Windchill at a previous company. I liked Intralink 3.x, but this is effectively dead now, and Intralink 8 is just a stripped out kernel of Windchill. PDMlink is esentially a step between Intralink and Windchill, and seemed very expensive to set-up and run. Basically we were told we'd need a dedicated server and two weeks to set PDMlink up.


DDM and Pulse were pretty close - we went with DDM because the support service seemed more responsive, and the software further down the development cycle.

 

[verge]

Thanks to everyone for their responses. Walkerone, I've been saying the same things here about moving ahead on this right away. I've looked a little at DDM and Pulse, and they do seem appropriate for our situation. I've read a lot of good things about DDM in particular.


Anyone else want to weigh in?