[Video Transcript]
Managing multiple projects is common for most project managers. New for SOLIDWORKS Manage 2021 is the ability to create project lists. Lists can be created to meet individual needs or defined by an admin and shared globally. Project lists provide easy visibility to powerful resource management tools like scheduling, capacity planning, load charts, and helping you make informed decisions about project start dates.
Assigning tasks to users and allowing them to update their completion status and deliverables, is a powerful way to keep up to date on the progression of a project. New for SOLIDWORKS Manage 2021 is the Auto Update Project service. This background service can be configured to check for task updates and automatically update the completion status of project stages. Additionally, any attachments that have been added to the task, can be automatically transferred to the deliverable section of the project.
SOLIDWORKS Manage 2021 also provides new ways to manage project tasks. Out of the box task dashboards are accessible directly from the project and provide clear visibility to project task burn down as well as status and priority. The task boards can now be grouped by priority as well as status, allowing you to quickly visualise the assignment of tasks. With a simple drag and drop, tasks can be moved to In Progress and, with a double click, task information can be accessed directly from the task board.
Items are a powerful way to correlate design data in SOLIDWORKS Manage 2021. This item has a reference to a number of SOLIDWORKS assemblies that need to be consolidated into a Manufacturing Bill Of Materials. Modeless windows now allow you to open multiple records and work in both at the same time, facilitating the ability to copy and paste from one Bill Of Materials to another.
When using the ‘Copy From’ command, you can select the assembly you want to copy and now preview the components to be added, de-selecting any items that are not required.
From inside the Bill Of Materials, familiar editing tools like “cut” are now available. Cut items turn orange, indicating that they are currently undergoing a cut operation and once the Bill Of Materials is saved, they disappear from the list as you would expect.
This assembly has a sheet metal part that will need to undergo a laser-cut operation for the flat pattern as well as a bending operations on the brake press. New for SOLIDWORKS Manage 2021 is the ability to create ‘New’ and ‘New From’ records directly from the Bill Of Materials without having to exit the current record. Simply adjust any metadata and specify what should be carried over to the new record.
To add this sheet metal component to these manufacturing operations, you can now use the new Dissolve command on its parent assembly. This command allows you to indicate which sub-assemblies you’d like to break down into their individual components. Once completed, you can remove the components that aren’t required from the Bill Of Materials. Then, simply cut and paste the sheet metal bracket into the laser cut operation and brake press operation.
New for the web client in Manage 2021 is the ability to preview SOLIDWORKS CAD data utilising Web2 in PDM Professional. This provides the full viewing capability of eDrawings on the web, to users of SOLIDWORKS Manage 2021.
Finally, when it comes to sharing data with suppliers, it couldn’t be easier than with the Share command. This tool creates a unique link that can be added to an email or shared directly. You can add security precautions like passwords and time-outs, and templates can be made available to ensure that all the referenced components are packaged up for download. Suppliers can then simply click on the link to download the files you’ve shared with them.
About the author: Elite Applications Engineer, Adam Rose, has been with Innova Systems since January 2010. Find out more about Adam’s story here.
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