How to Manage Your CAD Data

Data management is essential to any organization, but CAD and engineering data takes that to the next level. Before you know it, you will start to have more and more assemblies, simulations, manufacturing data, etc. And the fun thing about CAD assembly files is that they often depend on the relationships to the CAD part files. So how can we stop Greg in accounting from accidentally moving or deleting one file and blowing up the whole project? The answer: Product Data Management (PDM) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM).

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Topics covered in this post:

1. Data Storage

2. Data Management

3. ENOVIA on 3DEXPERIENCE

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Data Storage

The first aspect to managing your data is finding the appropriate storage method. There are two primary methods of data storage to consider, on-premise or cloud based data storage. Here’s to hoping you’re not storing all of your valuable data directly on your computer’s local hard drive.

On-Premise Data Storage

On-Premise storage is a method in which your company hosts and maintains their own servers, generally on-site, for storing all of your data.

• Higher up-front investment

  • Continuous maintenance and hardware upgrades

• Higher IT overhead

• More control over security model

• No internet required if on-site

  • A VPN is required if off-site

Cloud Data Storage

Cloud data storage is a method in which your company data is stored on servers hosted and maintained by an external provider, generally off-site.

• Subscription pricing model

  • Maintained and upgrades handled externally

• Low to no IT overhead

• Backups and disaster management built into offer

• Less control over security model

  • Extensive security measures still in place for many providers

• An internet connection is required

  • Data can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection

• Less complicated to get up and running and easier to scale

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Data Management

Once you have your storage method, next you have to decide how you want your data managed. The options can be overwhelming, but some of the more important functionality includes data accessibility, lifecycle management, revision control, and issue management.

Data Accessibility

It’s important to have a system that you are able to find your data when you need it. As your library expands, having an organized folder structure may not be enough. Being able to search your data, and even better, being able to filter the searches based on metadata can be a game changer.

Lifecycle Management

Do you really want the brand-new intern to have the same permissions as the lead engineer? However good intentioned it may be, one wrong save can result in 10’s to 100’s of lost hours. Having lifecycle management allows you to put data in different states, such as in-work or released and provide users with specific permissions based on the current state.

Revision Control

Users without proper data management for CAD data will often manage their revision history with drawings, but what happens if you need the 3D data? If you’re lucky, you may have saved off copies with the ol’ “_REVA” suffix, but once again, this doesn’t stop the brand-new intern from saving changes to a released revision. He has had a rough day, okay? Having a proper system that manages the revisions and controls permissions for you is essential to keeping your product history intact.

Issue Management

You may not think issue management is essential but having a proper system in place can ensure that nothing gets swept under the rug that could lead to problems during manufacturing. With certain products, this could even put consumers in danger, all because the issue that someone mentioned to you in passing was never documented. It’s a bonus if the system is able to manage assignments to help with proper resolution.

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ENOVIA on 3DEXPERIENCE

If you’re looking to step up your CAD data management game, 3DEXPERIENCE has tools powered by ENOVIA that bring you all the cloud data storage and management tools you need. In addition to the features discussed in this blog, it goes beyond with functionality such as task management, markup tools, change management, and more. And that’s just the beginning! You can easily scale by adding additional functionality such as project planning or managing engineering release. Plus, with connectors for many of the major CAD packages, you can manage your data regardless of what software you use to design. Best of all, it’s a cloud-based offering, meaning you can be up and running in a matter of days and scale as needed!

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Summary

Proper management of CAD and additional engineering data is often overlooked until something goes wrong. It’s best to be proactive, not reactive, and get started as soon as possible. Once you decide what type of storage is best for your application, you need to consider what functionality is most important to you. Some key points to compare are data accessibility, lifecycle management, revision management, and issue management.

Contact us today to get started with data management for your organization!