yang686526

pdmworks workgroup api help
this may be over the top but i believe it would be useful for many. unfortunately i know next to nothing about programming to do it myself so i want to hear your opinions either of how to program this feature or how you/your company deals with this same situation.
essentially; is there a way to use api to check out documents from pdmworks workgroup and on check out have the file names appended with specific values values from the custom properties and the references remain intact?
for example i have a file naming structure that is not linked to the part, thus non-logical system (complete other topic if anyone is interested in discussing, i'm game). i would like to send a 3d file to a vendor but when i check out the file i need to append the file name with the revision of the file. this way it is easier for the vendor to keep track of the file revision, especially when dealing with people who are computer illiterate (don't know how to check file properties and be cautions when overwriting files). of course for any of this to be remotely worth it; upon appending the file name it would also be necessary for the references to be changed in assemblies and drawings that are checked out at the same time so they can all be sent to the vendor if needed. i have done this manually in the past and it is a nightmare...extremely tedious with large assemblies.
ideally at the same time of checking the part out it would be great to set the files to read only. this would prevent someone from opening the files and modifying them with the properties in the file name and then trying to check them back in.
pack n go in swe has a feature to append file names and gives you the option to add a prefix or suffix, it would be similar to this but more advanced and customizable for various properties and.......automated with pdm. since you could add those property values manually in swe but that would be a great deal of time also.
q: would setting the files to read only make things difficult for the vendor to use the files? is there another option?
any takers?
best regards,
jason a. corl | bsme
senior product development engineer (radio control race car engineer) | cad admin
associated electrics, inc. | lake forest | ca
solidworks 2009 | sp2.0
dell t7400 | qc-xeon | vista 64bit | nvidia fx1700 | 2gb ram | 2x 24" lcd | spacepilot | ms trackball optical
skypeid/gtalk: jcoeng
member: tau beta pi | asme | sae
jason,
sounds simple enough but rather a nieche market. the program would just check out files from pdm (but not check anything back in), and just do a basic rename of files based on custom properties?
possibly a better way to do this would be a tool that can rename files and use any custom property values and maintain references to any files it is used in (based on search folder settings you specify for where to look for files or something similar), and then leave the checking out process to the user as all they would have to do is check them out and then run the tool on those files; this would make the tool more of a generic tool that can be used outside of pdm independantly (spelt right??).
if there is interest in this i can certainly make a tool to do just this!
luke,
i'm glad it sounds simple to you! i also like your idea a little better so that it is a standalone app.
i'm definitely interested as this would save me a large amount of time. how can i help?
thanks!
best regards,
jason a. corl | bsme
senior product development engineer (radio control race car engineer) | cad admin
associated electrics, inc. | lake forest | ca
solidworks 2009 | sp2.0
dell t7400 | qc-xeon | vista 64bit | nvidia fx1700 | 2gb ram | 2x 24" lcd | spacepilot | ms trackball optical
skypeid/gtalk: jcoeng
member: tau beta pi | asme | sae
hey luke,
just thinking another cool feature to add would be to be able to export a list of the file names (contained configs if possible) and selected property values into a csv or excel file. would your property extractor tool do this?
i'd really like to help bring this tool to life. i hear a lot of people discuss weather to have logical file naming systems. i think this would be a sure-fire tool to promote non-logical systems since this is where pdm performs its best. no need to have description in file name or revision in file name when using pdm. then when the users need it for vendors etc. they can add it.
please let me know if there is something i can do to help. i'm not a programmer by any means but i can learn (at least i keep telling myself that).
best regards,
jason a. corl | bsme
senior product development engineer (radio control race car engineer) | cad admin
associated electrics, inc. | lake forest | ca
solidworks 2009 | sp2.0
dell t7400 | qc-xeon | vista 64bit | nvidia fx1700 | 2gb ram | 2x 24" lcd | spacepilot | ms trackball optical
skypeid/gtalk: jcoeng
member: tau beta pi | asme | sae
jason,
sorry for the late reply been busy.
i will add this tool to my todo list and keep you updated. feel free to email me with any suggestions or input (contact@angelsix.com)