How I searched implemented or typical problems of introducing PDM systems in post-Soviet production
It is no secret that for the successful implementation of any document management system it is necessary to make several logical steps, in this post I will omit the research stages, I will start with a pilot project. And I will try to describe the problems and ways of solving these, which with certainty in 90% exist in any post-Soviet "kondovo" enterprise.
')
According to the results of the stages, existing problems in the enterprise were identified related to the documentation:
c) The standard base of existing products in the Search system is excessively redundant and does not match (full Gostovsky names and parameters are used, the company has adopted names from industry restrictive lists), and also lacks some industry elements from other products (sockets, connectors, bushings), numbering thousands of items.
d) The Materials library is not used. The corresponding column is filled in manually, as well as materials that do not exist in the current state-of-the-art standards are used (the thread is harsh, instead of the thread is kapron, 3K OST-17-330-84)
8) There is no single development system for printed circuit boards and circuits. Development is carried out in completely different design systems: cheemage, p-cad, orcad, visio, altium designer.
9) In the projects created in the P-cad system, elementary, but necessary design attributes (developed ... name, designation) are not filled in, these parameters are written on a sheet with text, the main inscription is made with a picture. Additionally, you must fill in the design attributes in the file menu.
10) The Search system is a parametric system, therefore it is necessary to follow the rules for filling in attributes of elements, making them onto a circuit or a printed circuit board. Those. It is necessary to fill in the main attributes of the elements from which a complete record is formed in the list of elements and specifications, ie: name, type, denomination, tolerance, reference designation. Or create a separate attribute, for example PE3, in which the full name of the element should be written. The following errors existed in all the files that participated in the pilot project “****”:
a) Attributes of elements on the diagram (* .sch files) and printed circuit board (*. pcb) and are not filled
b) Attributes are incomplete, for example, only the name “capacitor” is affixed, with no nominal and other parameters.
c) Attributes from element to element differ in composition and name, for example: for capacitor C1, the attribute “description” contains the name, and for capacitor C65, this attribute corresponds to the field “name”.
d) Problems with the quality content of these attributes:
i) Denomination is not indicated in accordance with GOST
ii) the denomination of the same elements with different designations (mk and mkF)
iii) The designation is incomplete.
11) During the preparation of documents for download, it became clear that the list of elements is created in a separate program - TDD, in which incomplete names obtained from the attributes of the P-CAD system are manually supplemented by the user. On the basis of the corrected file, a list of elements is formed, which is submitted to the archive of design documentation in printed form. The TDD utility allows you to re-save the list of elements back to the p-cad project file, which leads to ideologically correct form, but this is not done. This file is saved next to the project files.
12) From paragraph 10 a new problem arises: when adjusting a set of documents submitted to the ETS, the TDD file is not corrected, therefore no adjustments are made, and the list of elements is manually edited.
13) In the diagrams, the connectors are designated as a contact pad, and not a group element or an element from the library, which gives rise to a mass of elements of type X1 ... Xn in the automatically generated list of elements.
14) File names and names have a “code”, Search is built in such a way that it translates the code into execution.
15) Altium Designer does not have an integrator to the Search system, since There is no open API. In subdivision 2070 together with the developers of STC-4. Processing is underway to allow data to be loaded into the PDM system.
16) There is no single library of elements of printed circuit board design systems.
17) Documents archived, do not have electronic versions, or searching for electronic versions is difficult. Working copies of the documentation are stored in a structured manner; it is not possible to collect all the files by the minimum cell of the product.
In other words, at this stage the system is at the first, practically at the transition stage 2 of 3 possible stages of implementation:
1. File-level integration. It implies the simplest operations with data: save the file in PDM, open the file from under PDM. In the classification of automation systems, this is not even integration, but basic functionality. With this approach, the PDM system fills in the file properties with some information from its attributes, for example: document name, designation, developer, mass. Alternatively, in the external program in the standard interface used, a button “save to PDM” will appear, when clicked, opens the system’s PDM interface and the user can, in accordance with his access rights and role in the workflow, fill in the card attributes and put the file in the directory corresponding to the current development directory.
2. Attribute level integration. Such integration is understood as an approach in which the PDM system reads the attributes found in the document files of CAD systems. A CAD developer has the ability to create and fill in any attributes agreed with the PDM system in his model / drawing. These attributes are located in the system (open area) of the file and the PDM system can read them, create objects inside itself and automatically fill in their attributes. These attributes can contain information related to the main stamp as well as information on applicability, technological notes, part material, weight, and external links names of associated files.
Example: when loading a 3D model of a part (set of files) into the PDM system, the system:
- update the designation of the document object,
- fill attributes - name, developed itp,
- will create an object - material (or indicate the compliance of the material in the database) and indicate its designation / name if it was assigned to the model,
- fill the attribute of the object “part” with the value of the attribute “mass”
- saves the file and fills the attributes "date of last change", etc.
3) Reading the electronic structure of the product (ESI). In other words, the full integration of PDM systems into various CAD systems. Under this approach, we understand the receipt of the composition, this approach avoids manual input of objects and filling in attributes. ESI is contained in the 3D models of the assembly and in the “specification” document, which in turn are assembled from the PDM system database, and the specification is directly related to the document files.
Those. when the PDM documentation is loaded, the system reads ESI (system areas of files created in the CAD system, which contains references to documents participating in the assembly), followed by:
- creates a hierarchical structure of the product with the available quantities of parts, standard and purchased products.
- further on the links stored inside the file recursively, for each element of the assembly:
- the type of the object is determined (part, assembly unit, library element-fastener),
- the designation is created;
- object attributes are filled;
- objects are created - “documents - 3D model details”, the designation is set
- document attributes are filled
- file is saved
If the designation of an object included in an assembly is known to the system (applied), the system will automatically create the “applicability” link and add the existing composition tree with missing elements from the database.
For poor formatting - I apologize separately, in the next post I will correct.
Stages of system implementation
- A working group was formed consisting of a designer, technologist, operator of the DTD and the system administrator;
- The analysis and evaluation of existing business processes was carried out and the main typical business processes for the approval and submission of documentation were identified;
- The analysis of market offers and the choice of PDM-system;
- Purchase of a small number of licenses, by the number of members of the working group (6 Search licenses, 3 AVS licenses (specification and secondary documentation generation system), 1 Techcard license (workflow system)
- A plan was drawn up for implementing the system on a real order “***”, as a pilot project;
- The adjustment of forms for design and technological documentation has been made;
- Created and approved a template for documentation in the KOMPAS system.
- Created a methodology for creating a base of standard elements;
- A methodology has been created for maintaining the electronic catalog of documents of the DTD;
- A methodology has been established for maintaining classifications for DTD;
- Created and tested the operation of creating specifications in the PDM system both from manual entry and in semi-automatic mode, based on the documents available in the database and other products.
')
Problems
According to the results of the stages, existing problems in the enterprise were identified related to the documentation:
- The documentation has a huge continuity (70% of the design and technological documentation for the pilot project - borrowed from another product).
- Documents are made in different versions of Compass CAD systems (the system does not support continuity), with different design patterns (Search is a parametric system and is based on the principles of reading attributes from CAD systems, attributes are defined in the templates), i.e. To upload a document to Search, you must resave each file to the current version of Compass using the new styles. Because different templates are used, some of the important information is lost, it is necessary to refill the relevant fields (Name, Designation, Designed, Checked, N. Contract, Primary Applicability, etc.)
- Often multisheet drawings are saved in different files, but have the same attributes. To upload to the system, you need to collect the project in 1 file, otherwise errors will occur, because To on different documents one decimal number.
- The “CAD on Compass” feature is not used, for example, the connecting cables are written in smooth text in a table created by hands, respectively, the Compass-Search integrator does not receive data on the product.
- Secondary documents (specifications, specification sheets, list of materials) are not performed automatically by CAD tools, but in various programs that are not adapted to this (word, excel, TDD, etc.), in the case when the specification is issued in the Compass system, then in fact This table is executed by the compass and is filled manually and has no links to the drawing. Developers of printed circuit boards, in turn, issue lists of elements on the compass “specification sheet” in tabular mode, entering data manually. Which leads to logical breaks in links with primary documentation.
- Designers and developers do not make minor (often design, or nominal change) changes in the designed products, after the release of adjustment notices, in other words, it is impossible to tell how much the current electronic document corresponds to the document in the DTD.
- Problems of filling the specifications and the list of elements:
- b) P-CAD CAD libraries are obsolete and do not correspond to the elements used in the enterprise, and they also do not contain Russian and Soviet elements adopted by industry standards, as a result of which the developer is forced to create personal libraries of elements. These libraries between developers are not synchronized in any way, which causes duplication of elements, incorrect interpretation of elements, as well as banal errors associated with the name: say, “Capacitor K-73-21b-500v 10A-0.1mkF + - 10%” and Capacitor K -73-21-500 10-0.1 + - 10% "look the same when printed, but in the second case English characters are used in the name. In other words, 2 elements will be created in the database, and during the automatic creation of specifications and the list of purchased elements will not be added up.
c) The standard base of existing products in the Search system is excessively redundant and does not match (full Gostovsky names and parameters are used, the company has adopted names from industry restrictive lists), and also lacks some industry elements from other products (sockets, connectors, bushings), numbering thousands of items.
d) The Materials library is not used. The corresponding column is filled in manually, as well as materials that do not exist in the current state-of-the-art standards are used (the thread is harsh, instead of the thread is kapron, 3K OST-17-330-84)
8) There is no single development system for printed circuit boards and circuits. Development is carried out in completely different design systems: cheemage, p-cad, orcad, visio, altium designer.
9) In the projects created in the P-cad system, elementary, but necessary design attributes (developed ... name, designation) are not filled in, these parameters are written on a sheet with text, the main inscription is made with a picture. Additionally, you must fill in the design attributes in the file menu.
10) The Search system is a parametric system, therefore it is necessary to follow the rules for filling in attributes of elements, making them onto a circuit or a printed circuit board. Those. It is necessary to fill in the main attributes of the elements from which a complete record is formed in the list of elements and specifications, ie: name, type, denomination, tolerance, reference designation. Or create a separate attribute, for example PE3, in which the full name of the element should be written. The following errors existed in all the files that participated in the pilot project “****”:
a) Attributes of elements on the diagram (* .sch files) and printed circuit board (*. pcb) and are not filled
b) Attributes are incomplete, for example, only the name “capacitor” is affixed, with no nominal and other parameters.
c) Attributes from element to element differ in composition and name, for example: for capacitor C1, the attribute “description” contains the name, and for capacitor C65, this attribute corresponds to the field “name”.
d) Problems with the quality content of these attributes:
i) Denomination is not indicated in accordance with GOST
ii) the denomination of the same elements with different designations (mk and mkF)
iii) The designation is incomplete.
11) During the preparation of documents for download, it became clear that the list of elements is created in a separate program - TDD, in which incomplete names obtained from the attributes of the P-CAD system are manually supplemented by the user. On the basis of the corrected file, a list of elements is formed, which is submitted to the archive of design documentation in printed form. The TDD utility allows you to re-save the list of elements back to the p-cad project file, which leads to ideologically correct form, but this is not done. This file is saved next to the project files.
12) From paragraph 10 a new problem arises: when adjusting a set of documents submitted to the ETS, the TDD file is not corrected, therefore no adjustments are made, and the list of elements is manually edited.
13) In the diagrams, the connectors are designated as a contact pad, and not a group element or an element from the library, which gives rise to a mass of elements of type X1 ... Xn in the automatically generated list of elements.
14) File names and names have a “code”, Search is built in such a way that it translates the code into execution.
15) Altium Designer does not have an integrator to the Search system, since There is no open API. In subdivision 2070 together with the developers of STC-4. Processing is underway to allow data to be loaded into the PDM system.
16) There is no single library of elements of printed circuit board design systems.
17) Documents archived, do not have electronic versions, or searching for electronic versions is difficult. Working copies of the documentation are stored in a structured manner; it is not possible to collect all the files by the minimum cell of the product.
In other words, at this stage the system is at the first, practically at the transition stage 2 of 3 possible stages of implementation:
1. File-level integration. It implies the simplest operations with data: save the file in PDM, open the file from under PDM. In the classification of automation systems, this is not even integration, but basic functionality. With this approach, the PDM system fills in the file properties with some information from its attributes, for example: document name, designation, developer, mass. Alternatively, in the external program in the standard interface used, a button “save to PDM” will appear, when clicked, opens the system’s PDM interface and the user can, in accordance with his access rights and role in the workflow, fill in the card attributes and put the file in the directory corresponding to the current development directory.
2. Attribute level integration. Such integration is understood as an approach in which the PDM system reads the attributes found in the document files of CAD systems. A CAD developer has the ability to create and fill in any attributes agreed with the PDM system in his model / drawing. These attributes are located in the system (open area) of the file and the PDM system can read them, create objects inside itself and automatically fill in their attributes. These attributes can contain information related to the main stamp as well as information on applicability, technological notes, part material, weight, and external links names of associated files.
Example: when loading a 3D model of a part (set of files) into the PDM system, the system:
- update the designation of the document object,
- fill attributes - name, developed itp,
- will create an object - material (or indicate the compliance of the material in the database) and indicate its designation / name if it was assigned to the model,
- fill the attribute of the object “part” with the value of the attribute “mass”
- saves the file and fills the attributes "date of last change", etc.
3) Reading the electronic structure of the product (ESI). In other words, the full integration of PDM systems into various CAD systems. Under this approach, we understand the receipt of the composition, this approach avoids manual input of objects and filling in attributes. ESI is contained in the 3D models of the assembly and in the “specification” document, which in turn are assembled from the PDM system database, and the specification is directly related to the document files.
Those. when the PDM documentation is loaded, the system reads ESI (system areas of files created in the CAD system, which contains references to documents participating in the assembly), followed by:
- creates a hierarchical structure of the product with the available quantities of parts, standard and purchased products.
- further on the links stored inside the file recursively, for each element of the assembly:
- the type of the object is determined (part, assembly unit, library element-fastener),
- the designation is created;
- object attributes are filled;
- objects are created - “documents - 3D model details”, the designation is set
- document attributes are filled
- file is saved
If the designation of an object included in an assembly is known to the system (applied), the system will automatically create the “applicability” link and add the existing composition tree with missing elements from the database.
For poor formatting - I apologize separately, in the next post I will correct.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/175035/
All Articles