In answer to J. Schwartz's Question,
1. Believe it or not we had an engineer sneak in at night and change
values on a released schematic in our file vault ( back in the hand
drawn days) and then tried to say we made an error on the parts list. So
the part about in sync, we put the hammer down, once an initial
schematic is drawn by the engineer and turned over to the design group
for layout the design group controls the schematic from then on. If any
changes are required they come through us. In some instances were there
is major changes it will go back to the engineer to make them but again
once that is done design controls the schematic from layout start. Also
one major reason that drew us to Cadnetix in the early days was the lock
out of the board once the schematic changes and the very tight
integration between the two. I believe Cadnetix was the only one to do
this. We are moving to VeriBest and plan to continue this practice even
though VeriBest does not lock you out of the board if the schematic
changes (VeriBest does allow the engineer to actually change the
schematic for the board while the designer is working on the layout, but
the system does notify of circuit changes) we feel once in layout all
changes MUST be fed through the designer controlled schematic. Now the
engineer can take a copy of the schematic and make changes but
ultimately the engineer MUST be made aware of how to make changes and
what effect they will have on the layout. I've seen too many cases were
half a board was ripped up or not able to be saved because the engineer
was not aware of how to make a change. Try and tell the engineer he must
do the schematic over to save the board. Bottom line the design team
must work together to keep it all together, that does mean some
sacrifice on both sides is required.
2. If the above is done we can make sure the database that gets archived
is complete and in sync. We would not archive a job unless ALL parts of
it were complete and the schematic archived with the job was compiled or
in sync with the board database.
Now if within your company the engineers take an active role in the
complete documentation process letting them control the schematic that
goes into archive could work.
3. We are, right now, just copying the entire database of the job for
that rev onto read/write cdroms (we were using 8mm tape prior to this).
We were not using any special software fore this just cp for cd's and
tar for tape from unix.
Once on VeriBest and NT seats we will keep our latest rev jobs on a
server and archive off to cd again.
A little long winded but I hope it helped. I really feel a doc or design
group needs to own the schematic once in layout or it can get way out of
control, and believe me I've seen it get out of control.
We also hope that in the not too distant future the efforts to have a
standard format for assy/test/fab/etc data that would lend itself as a
perfect format to archive a design database into.
Bob Wolfe
Executone
[log in to unmask]

Currently we use Allegro and Concept.
We are looking to improve our design database archive system.

Can anyone give us alternate suggestions, along with
their companies rational, as to how they keep their
schematics and pcb databases in sync. and archived ?

Please respond with email.


                        Regards,
                        Jerry Schwartz
                        "May The Schwartz Be With You"

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