SOLIDWORKS Workgroup PDM - Using Lifecycles

Transcription

1 SOLIDWORKS Workgroup PDM - Using Lifecycles Lifecycles are used to indicate the status of the document (i.e. In Design, Review, Release, Engineering Change Order (ECO), or Obsolete). SolidWorks Workgroup PDM supports a lifecycle system where the properties of ownership and revision control can be set. The use of lifecycles is not mandatory as they may be turned off. If used, they must be set up by the administrator and enabled before users are able to use this function. There may be any number of revisions per lifecycles phase. For example, while In Design lifecycle, one part may have revisions from -.01 to -.54 while another part may only have -.01 to Permissions to change lifecycle status can be granted to the owner, administrator or a single group. Controlling User Access User access to documents can be controlled in three ways, by: Project Lifecycle status Custom property The access control scheme must be careful thought out to avoid conflicts between the methods. Lifecycles Careful thought should go into the setup of lifecycles. The first step is to write out what you expect to happen in each lifecycle and how that relates to the revision scheme. Workgroup PDM comes with five lifecycles. In this paper these lifecycle will be used to illustrate lifecycles.

2 For this paper the following revision scheme will be used: In Design All files are in the In Design lifecycle from the first time they are checked into the vault until they are being reviewed for release. Any individual may own files in this lifecycle. The primary level will be a (-) dash and only the secondary revision number will be used (i.e , -.02, etc.) to indicate different revisions. Pending This lifecycle is for files that ar being reviewed for release. While Pending, they will be owned by the reviewer. When ready for release, the revision will be incremented to a Primary letter (i.e., A, B, C, etc.)

3 Released When released, no one will own the document. In this lifecycle you may want to restrict ownership to only the Document Control Group. All other groups will not be able to own this document. Engineering Change Order (ECO) When an Engineering Change Order (ECO) is issued, the responsible individual will take ownership and make the changes. Only the secondary revision level will be changed (i.e. A, A.01,A.02 etc.). When complete the file will go to the pending lifecycle for review. Obsolete When a released document is replaced by a newer revision, the old version is moved to the obsolete status and removed from view or access. The revision does not increment. Select the Enable lifecycle. Until this is selected, nothing is available on the lifecycle tab. Selecting Control document access using status, this adds another level of control over which files user can access. Lifecycle change on check in - Select Allow status changes on check in and allow revision levels based on status. Also, select Selected in the check in dialog box. This will allow documents to be placed in any lifecycle when checked in. Since there may be legacy data that is already released this option has been selected. When these files are first checked into the vault, they can be checked directly to the correct lifecycle.

4 Define the Lifecycle Click New Status, to add the lifecycles your organization requires and place them in the order that you expect the files to progress through the lifecycle. The order of the lifecycle is important as they define the progression of a project from inception to release. Lifecycles progress down the list.

5 Set Lifecycle status change permissions. Some of the lifecycle options are specific to each lifecycle while others are global and apply to all lifecycles. The left side of the dialog controls global options and the right side controls options specific to the individual lifecycles. The Users, groups that can change status, control which users may change a file s lifecycle status. It is recommended that you select administrators. This is done to allow administrators to trouble shoot problems.

6 Selecting Document owner with RW access users are able to change lifecycle status with Read Write rights. Selecting Documents owner with RO access, users are able to change lifecycles status with Read-Only rights Terry is the group supervisor, to allow him to also change a file s status. The change status options selected below are set to apply to all revisions. To limit these permissions to only the current revision, select Allow only administrators to change the status of previous revisions. Taking Ownership Lifecycle permissions allow an exception to the rule that only the individual with ownership of a file can make changes. Selecting, Administrators, the administrator can, without ownership, cause files to change lifecycle status. The new status can mean that the files have a different owner. This effectively means that ownership can be taken from the original owner. Allowing an individual or group to change status has the same effect, so permission settings should be carefully assigned.

7 Change owner on change status The individual who owns a file can be changed when the lifecycle status of a file changes. For example select the lifecycle In Design. From the list select <do not change>. In the Pending lifecycle we have selected Mike from the list. Mike is now responsible for reviewing all files before they are sent to the released lifecycle. When a file is changed to the Pending lifecycle, Mike will automatically become the owner.

8 In the Released lifecycle select <none>. When a file moves into the Released lifecycle the file becomes disowned. In the Engineering Change Order (ECO), from the list select <do not change>. Ownership by Status The rules for file access can change with status. Unlike the permissions set on the Projects tab which applied to the project, these permissions will apply to the individual files. Establishing these rules must be carefully thought out to prevent a situation where a user may have write access to a file that is in a project where he has no access and is hidden. Changing ownership rules by stat us. For example in the Design lifecycle the control has been set so that the design team, Engineers, and Engineers- Project 1 have Read Write (RW) access to the files in the design lifecycle. However, the Managers have Read Only (RO) access to the file in the design lifecycle.

9 Document Flow Lifecycle rules can force documents to flow through the system in a set direction and can prevent files from returning to a certain status. In this system, once a file leaves a lifecycle it is controlled and not allowed to return to the previous lifecycle. It is expected to move through the lifecycle as designed. Revision Rules At each lifecycle only certain revision increments may be allowed. Lifecycle rules can establish which levels of revisions may change at each status.

10 Automatic Change in Status When a file is checked in, there may be a need to force a change to a certain lifecycle status. Lifecycle rules can be established to force the document to move forward to the next status, backward to the previous status, to the last or first lifecycle status or not to change.