Hello
We have been using SW PDM enterprise for a while, and we have based all our settings on the following rule: all the information (properties) are carried by the 3D file, then transferred to the 2D file. Indeed, until now, we systematically had a 3D, for each component of the database.
The 2D file map was therefore entirely read-only.
However, we have had several recent cases where we had to create a 2D without 3D (import of a supplier plan into a SW drawing for example. But it doesn't matter).
The problem is: how to enter properties in these 2Ds?
We have tried the following cases:
- Enter properties by hand in the property list. Not acceptable: users regularly make typos on the names of properties, and these are often old files, so it is not possible to prepare the document template. risk of forgetting to fill in a property, very bad habit to give them knowing that we want to avoid the modification in the plan (the data must come from 3D).
- Use a property mask: much more ergonomic, corrects most of the previously mentioned defects, but remains the big problem: allows you to modify any 2D plane independently of the 3D, which we are trying to prevent in general.
- Use a virtual 3D file (. CVD). Thus, the plan is linked to a 3D (virtual), which avoids directly modifying the plan, and allows to generate the reference in a nomenclature (bonus!) even without a 3D volume. Creating the file is not a problem, neither is setting it up, but how to retrieve your information in a 2D? That's where we are.
Any idea?
Hello
Why not use a 3D file that is empty of volume but with a sldprt or sldasm extension?
This allows the properties to be ported, to integrate it into an Epdm nomenclature (even SW) and to be able to add volume later if a visual is needed.
And as a bonus, it doesn't change the procedures and habits in place.
Kind regards
2 Likes
Hello @d.roger
A question of pure intellectual curiosity
I don't know if EPDM allows you to do this but so far the MEP files -if I finally understood how SW works- are always synchronized (updated) for any modification from PART to MEP and vice versa.
In this case, how do you make sure that the file that is empty does not update the MEP file and thus delete everything from the MEP file.
Have a nice day
Kind regards
Hello @Zozo_mp,
If we consider that the 2D plan is already without a 3D model, it is because it is already not updated, so:
- Either the imported plan is a plane other than a slddrw and there, no problem, the 2D will not update compared to the 3D since there is no link between the 2. If it's a dwg, you insert it into a new slddrw drawing from your 3D, the properties will follow by themselves to the 2D.
- Either the plan is a slddrw registered as a detached drawing and there is a risk of updating the 2D compared to the 3D if this 3D has the same name as the one used to make the drawing, so you have to put a different 3D filename. From there, if you want the properties of the 3D to go down in the 2D plane, you just have to insert a new view from this 3D file in the drawing (a view that you can hide if you ever put volume in the 3D) and point the properties to this new view in the properties of the sheet as in the image below.
Kind regards
2 Likes
@Zozo_mp: in fact the empty 3D model does not overwrite anything (you can have several 3D files called by an MEP), it will simply provide the properties, even if you use a hidden view.
By taking the reasoning to the end, we can import the supplier drawing into the 3D (sketch image).
2 Likes
@ stefbeno and d.roger
Thank you for your two veryclear and very well argued and explained answers. It's logical in fact, but I don't do such sophisticated things: but it's very interesting to see all these possibilities that respond to many industrial constraints and cases of organization and relations between the players.
Kind regards
As is often the case, it is the simplest answer that works best.... For once, I made my life unnecessarily complicated.
Thank you all for your answers, so I'm leaving with an empty room, which can be filled in later. After testing, it works perfectly!