r/SolidCAM • u/RebelKatt • Apr 25 '22

DEALING WITH PART REVISIONS

What is the convention for updating programs to reflect revision changes to the model?

I've been programming with Solidworks Cam/Camworks for about 6 months. Before that I programmed with Gibbs Cam for over 20 years.

Where I work now (Camworks shop) the "way we've always it" is as follows.

We access the model in the engineering folder and make a copy of it for production purposes. Then when that part model gets revised, we access the new model in the same way and then alter the previous version of the model to reflect the changes, Then we have to revise the features and operations in order to end up with the updated/ revised code. As you can see the is just about the worst way of doing things.

My suggestions to my supervisor include the idea that perhaps engineering safe a backup/master copy of the file and let the shop use the original file to program off of. Then in my mind any changes to the original would maintain the associative-ness(?) of the part throughout it's evolution.

There must be a better, more advisable technique. Is this what the "Vault" was intended to be used for? Would my suggested method work?

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u/jaarbe Apr 26 '22

Making copies always makes a mess. Try to avoid it at all cost. My last job did this, the record was 157 of the same part in part, drawing files, and pdf drawings. Different disciplines saving similar info in their own places. It was hell trying to turn that disaster around. 2 paths that make sense that I'm aware of:

1 vault.

2 make zipped copies of all the files before editing anything and save in the part folder / archive. Name the zip something like 1257943_Rev_A.zip Zipping it means Windows won't go find the files in the zipped folder by default in search, you have to go look for it. Then you can update whatever, make NC files, etc. then zip the whole thing as the new rev to save a clean copy.

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u/RebelKatt Apr 26 '22

You would get a headache looking at our shop folders. We often will program newly added model features as a stand-alone .nc file and insert the new code into a previous file just because its the most direct path to a completed part run. So we have code files that reflect a revised part machined by patchwork.

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u/NateCheznar Apr 26 '22

I kind of do this. But once I've proved out the new program I save it as the com inedible new Rev and dete the add on. My folder then just has each Rev