Fields - Thursday, September 19, 2013 10:04 AM:
I'm going through manuals and tutorials and I'm not finding anything useful for assemblies.
We have been running some test files through the system to play with relationships, check in/out etc.
The problem we're running into is with checking out of an assembly.
We use autodesk inventor and when an assembly is checked out for editing ONLY that file is copied to the working folder. When you go to open, inventor is asking for the location of all the parts.
The only way I currently see to get the remaining parts is to check/copy each part manually which is a lot of searching and windows for 100+ part assemblies or buy a connector.
My main concern at this point is whether or not ARAS handles this out of the box. We'll keep playing with it to see what we missed, but it will be nice to not waste any time on it if we have to go with a different solution.
PeterSchroer - Thursday, September 19, 2013 11:01 AM:
Check-in and Check-out of all of the dependencies that CAD needs to operate really does require a connector. As you noted, you can manually check-in and then check-out sets of files, but it's alot of manual work. Each of the different CAD systems has unique ways of structuring their models and files. The best way for Aras to deliver the optimized behavior is through CAD Connectors specific to each of the CAD systems. Softech www.softech.com offers an excellent standard CAD Connector for Autodesk Inventor that directly integrates Inventor to Aras's PLM. . You can alternatively use Autodesk Vault for the CAD file management, and then bridge to Aras for enterprise PLM functions such as BOM, Workflow, Program Management. We offer a standard module called V-PLM which is a bi-directional integration between Autodesk Vault and Aras Innovator. All of these CAD management solutions though require a Connector be purchased. Someone has invested alot of time and resources into developing a sustainable itegration with Autodesk Inventor or Vault, so these are not open source solutions.
The Aras CAD API's are very easy to develop against. It's certainly possible to develop your own Autodesk Inventor Connector that automates the management of all the files in an assembly. I don't know of anyone that has done this with Inventor yet, but I know there are customers who have developed their own Connectors for SolidWorks and OrCAD.
--peter.
