CAD Document Management - Some Neglected Aspects About It
Use of computer aided design (CAD) packages for the creation of drawings and documents is already well established in most progressive companies around the world. However, some aspects of the associated CAD document management have not received as much attention as is due by CAD document managers in many of these companies.
The focus of this article is on some important neglected aspects of CAD document management.
In many of these companies, creation of drawings and documents is entirely focused on ensuring production of components on the shop floor. Once a CAD drawing/document has been approved for production release, its prints are released to the shop floor and its electronic version is simply archived by the draftsman who has prepared it.
Less than requisite attention is paid as to how the electronic version of the drawing, as part of document management for AutoCAD, is archived. Different and arbitrary numbering systems may be used by different draftsmen. In addition to this, the draftsman may just store it in an arbitrary directory of his own. Further, in case of revised drawings, a draftsman may forget to move the earlier version of the drawing to an appropriate directory. Control on revision of drawings may not be kept properly. This may sometimes result in the inappropriate version of a drawing being released to the shop floor. This may result in disastrous consequences as the component produced may not match the requirement. Consequently, the component may become unusable and it may have to be scrapped. This will not only delay production, but also add to component rejection costs. Therefore, document managers in organizations must devise a systematic procedure for archiving all documents through use of a specific directory structure. Further, a uniform system of numbering of documents must be devised by them. The numbering system needs to have some correlation with the manufactured products, projects, or orders received by the organization. The objective of all this would be to have good recall value and also to avoid arbitrariness. Document managers must also devise a systematic procedure for revision control of documents to avoid the above-cited fiasco and also ensure its strict implementation. There are many other important but neglected aspects. One such important aspect is related to digital document security. Product component drawings form intellectual property of the organization that creates them. Sometimes, electronic versions of these documents may be easily sent as attachments via e-mail messages by some employees to clients or competitors or spare parts vendors. They may use such drawings to wean away business from the organization for ever. So, this important neglected aspect also needs to be looked into in sufficient detail by document managers. Another neglected aspect of CAD document management is the conversion of old torn paper drawing originals into digital form. This can be done using rasterization and document imaging systems. Therefore, CAD document management needs further improvement in organizations to incorporate requisite changes in the above neglected aspects.
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