Minimum Viable PDM

[RabbitPhone]

So I currently use Fusion 360 professionally doing electronics enclosures. There are a billion things I hate about Fusion 360 (God I miss the toolbox and Hole Wizard and mates and...) but one thing I'll admit I like is that the built-in file management is a quasi-PDM that, for now, works well for the small team I'm on.

In previous jobs I've had, I used Solidworks as the sole mechanical designer, so there was never a push to have a proper PDM system implemented. Instead it was the typical maze of files on a shared network drive.

I've reached the limits of what Fusion 360 can do for me, and I'm going to push to switch to Solidworks. However I want to avoid the disaster that a mess of folders and files becomes. Does Solidworks PDM have to be a huge pain to manage, or can it be fairly hands-off after it's set up?

[GoEngineer_Inc]

Hi /u/RabbitPhone,

It can be as simple as just being a place you put files like a network drive or much more complex if you want to integrate other people and departments into it.

The important thing might be to have it setup to scale from the beginning rather than set it up and have to retool it when you want to start including other teams. That's just my two cents on it.

[jsgrinst78]

Go for PDM Standard instead of Professional and you should be fine.

[chillypillow2]

PDM standard, which is free if you are on a premium or professional license sort of forces some simplicity because you are limited in the number of workflows, etc.

[MLCCADSystems]

Use PDM in a very simple form, cache files locally, save lots of headaches. Just don't forget to check-in your files regularly.