Setup: General

The General collections define properties that are typically applicable to multiple items.

  • Item Lifecycle Phases: PDXpert defines all document and part lifecycle phases into this collection. Lifecycle phases should reflect a set of well-specified business rules and practices based on an item's maturity. For instance, a lifecycle phase may represent the number of units that can be built based on the risk of design changes: few units during prototyping, unlimited numbers during full production. Small organizations require only a few lifecycle phases because the business rules can be simply specified; larger organizations may have more phases (e.g., preliminary, prototype, field test, production, service-only, obsolete) to meet sophisticated needs.

  • Product Families: Since this collection controls user access to items, avoid making any changes unless you must address important security issues. If you must limit users from even generic parts or general-purpose documents, then make a General member that can be given to any item, and define that member's Denied Access list to reflect your desired limits.

  • Sequences: Identifier: These collection members will define the numbering system for your parts, documents, and changes. Each specified sequence is a counter from which users can pull the next number in a sequence. While most companies should strive for simplicity, your company may require very detailed numbering formats based on part category, document type, and change form. If your numbering system is driven by many complex rules, your users may need to manually give each number, and you won't need to define any members of this collection.

  • Sequences: Revision: These collection members will define your part record and document revision formats. Typically, there are only one or two document revision formats, and perhaps a distinct part record revision format. However, it's simplest to have a single revision format for all items.

  • Units of Measure: The default collection members include categories covering time, mass, count, length, area, volume, etc. The default Units of Measure (UoM) lists are pretty extensive, but you may need to match some names to existing CAD or MRP values.

  • You won't need to change the contents of the Transforms or Views collections immediately.

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