Topic: Revision Help Please

[CADaver]

Production browses to project file, right click, copy, right click, paste, rename

And that takes zero time?? come on you know better than that.

No, that takes about 7 seconds ...

for every revision of every drawing and there's never an error?

but you didn't ask how long it took to create a new project folder, you asked how long it took to track previous revisions. Since we don't track previous revision history, it takes zero time.

different definition of "track", sorry.

[CADaver]

Oh okay, so you have Old design 1.zip, old design 2.zip, old design 3.zip, etc.  and making and tracking all these zips takes how long now? how do you know which zip to go get?

Lesse .. for us, we receive a drawing with revision dates .. if there are 2 revision dates, we know to use the second revision, if there are 5 revision dates, we know to use the 5th revision. If there are no revision dates, we know to use the original.

So you ONLY ever go back just one revision, and its ALWAYs a whole revision?

[M-dub]

Oh okay, so you have Old design 1.zip, old design 2.zip, old design 3.zip, etc.  and making and tracking all these zips takes how long now?

Less time than it would take to redraw back to the original I would bet.

but my point is they don't know how much time they are spending on this effort that may or may not prove of use later.

To STORE the old revisions, it takes a couple minutes.

To FIND the old revisions that you're looking for IF you end up NEEDING them, it COULD take a few minutes more.

That is while a job is in progress, dealing with "Minor" revisions (6A, 6B, 6C, etc.).

We also have an Archive drive where we store old jobs.  If for some reason, we need an old "Major" revision (5, 4, 3, etc.) it could be as simple as doing a search under that client for that drawing number and sorting the results by date modified.  Yet a few more additional minutes.

It really isn't as bad as you're making it out to be, Randy.  I'm sure your system works very well for you, but who's to say that other systems don't work well for other people?

[Keith™]

for every revision of every drawing and there's never an error?

Yep ... our projects are self contained in a well thougth out file stucture, simple to navigate and even simpler to expand.

So you ONLY ever go back just one revision, and its ALWAYs a whole revision?

No, if you look at my comments, you will see that we always use the base drawing provided to us. If the client has had 12 revisions and then suddenly decides to revert back to the original floor plan, then the original becomes revision 13. All revisions between are gone ... if they decide to implement some of the ideas from rev 7, then we can copy/paste the changed items, saving a huge amount of time.

[M-dub]

Shelley, you still with us? 

[M-dub]

More reading material:

http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=22825.0

http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=3964.0

http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=13214.0 (Posting it even though Randy might make me eat crow, I'm sure he has a recipe that will make it taste better.)

[Keith™]

Randy might make me eat crow, I'm sure he has a recipe ...

You are likely correct .. he has one for just about everything else ..

[M-dub]

Randy might make me eat crow, I'm sure he has a recipe ...

You are likely correct .. he has one for just about everything else ..

In my defence, that post in particular was in regards to a designer who took it upon himself to search for the drawing, print it and present it to the client.  He didn't look to see which folder it came from... he just took the first of many results which happened to be many rev's old.  If he had done it correctly, he would have asked someone in the CAD room to find him the latest and greatest.

[Shelley]

Yep I am still here. I keep jumping in and out to see what has been said.

No matter what is said we will keep a copy of the previous revision. I dont think its wise not to. Especially when working with Electricals that like the words Back Charge. It will be in DWG format we will not PDF it. I am getting a bunch of new Ideas. I still do not see any harm in changing my files names (at least not for what we do). I think this would be the best way for my company. Less confusion for people accessing files that typically dont.

[M-dub]

Yep I am still here. I keep jumping in and out to see what has been said.

No matter what is said we will keep a copy of the previous revision. I dont think its wise not to. Especially when working with Electricals that like the words Back Charge. It will be in DWG format we will not PDF it. I am getting a bunch of new Ideas. I still do not see any harm in changing my files names (at least not for what we do). I think this would be the best way for my company. Less confusion for people accessing files that typically dont.

I personally don't like the idea of changing the file names, but DO see it as an option.

I would prefer to see the 'Master' with no suffix.

JTS-5204.DWG
JTS-5204_R2.DWG
JTS-5204_R3.DWG
and so on

I haven't worked like that before, so I don't know... maybe I'd quickly change my mind.

[CADaver]

Oh okay, so you have Old design 1.zip, old design 2.zip, old design 3.zip, etc.  and making and tracking all these zips takes how long now?

Less time than it would take to redraw back to the original I would bet.

but my point is they don't know how much time they are spending on this effort that may or may not prove of use later.

To STORE the old revisions, it takes a couple minutes.

To FIND the old revisions that you're looking for IF you end up NEEDING them, it COULD take a few minutes more.

That is while a job is in progress, dealing with "Minor" revisions (6A, 6B, 6C, etc.).

We also have an Archive drive where we store old jobs.  If for some reason, we need an old "Major" revision (5, 4, 3, etc.) it could be as simple as doing a search under that client for that drawing number and sorting the results by date modified.  Yet a few more additional minutes.

It really isn't as bad as you're making it out to be, Randy.  

Time is money.  Can we agree that a few minutes per drawing times, say six thousand drawings might get expensive?? counter-productive??  But its only a couple of minutes per drawing??

If it might be questionable for sic thousand files, it might be questionable for six files.  Maybe its time to question the entire work process.

I'm sure your system works very well for you, but who's to say that other systems don't work well for other people?

And exploding dimensions works for whoever ... some ways are just better than other ways even if the old ways work.

[CADaver]

then we can copy/paste the changed items, saving a huge amount of time.

How much time compared to the time you spend making and wading through multiple revisions of the file??  what's 'huge' and what's the cost?

[CADaver]

More reading material:
http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=22825.0

Well thats just silly

http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=13214.0

What did that cost??

(Posting it even though Randy might make me eat crow, I'm sure he has a recipe that will make it taste better.)

I wouldn't do that to you, not you ... and yes, I do.  Actually it's for "Wild Bird, Medium"

[CADaver]

a designer who took it upon himself to search for the drawing, print it and present it to the client.  He didn't look to see which folder it came from... he just took the first of many results which happened to be many rev's old.  If he had done it correctly, he would have asked someone in the CAD room to find him the latest and greatest.

Now multiply that by four hundred designers ...  One File.

[CADaver]

Yep I am still here. I keep jumping in and out to see what has been said.

No matter what is said we will keep a copy of the previous revision. I dont think its wise not to. Especially when working with Electricals that like the words Back Charge.

I love Back Charge, you change it, you pay for it ... HEAVILY.  So heavy you'll think several times before changing it.  You'll think several times before you make the original decision because you know it will be REAL expensive to change it.

I still do not see any harm in changing my files names (at least not for what we do).

If you don't use 'em as XREF's maybe not.  But renaming files will kill and XREF, not to mention the time it takes.

I think this would be the best way for my company. Less confusion for people accessing files that typically dont.

All the more reason for PDF's, folks who typically don't access the file, shouldn't.