Document Management

CAD Document Management

CAD or Computer-aided design is the main geometrical tool which help engineers and technical designers to do computer generated drawings for engineering figures. A sophisticated document management system allows it to manage documents related to CAD drawings. CAD Document Management ensures that CAD drawings, engineering figures are maintained in a central repository which can be accessed, modified by users without worrying of occupying server space.

What are the essential features of a CAD Document Management System?

• CAD or CAM files are relatively larger in size than a document or a spreadsheet. The CAD Document Management System must ensure that it has enough bandwidth to accommodate all the files. Before designing a CAD DMS, the user must be able to project the volume of files that would be stored in the DMS.
  
  
• Data Security is of paramount importance in the design of CAD DMS. The engineering drawings of a product could be a product which the client would be launching in months to come. The CAD DMS must have a multi-layer access for its users to access and modify the document to ensure that data is secured at all times.
  
  
• An exhaustive archival mechanism must be designed for the effective working of a CAD DMS. Since the CAD DMS stores CAD files which are large in size, an archival process must be in place which would continually backup old files and delete them off the DMS. This will ensure that the DMS would have enough free space on them to accommodate newer files.
  
  
• Server Bandwidth must be considered before purchasing a CAD DMS. A CAD DMS places a lot of load on your server, and you must ensure that your server has enough bandwidth to accommodate the DMS. An alternative to this is to purchase a web-based CAD DMS, which alleviates your need of server bandwidth. My interaction with few CAD professionals have revealed that web-based DMS may be user-friendly but are not all that secure.

Ideally, you must think of three factors before you choose a CAD Document Management System - how many files do you wish to store in a month in the DMS, how does the DMS guarantee data security to you and how expensive is the DMS. A trade-off between these three factors will allow you to choose and purchase a very good DMS for storing CAD files. Many companies have CAD DMS solutions but it is imperative for you to base your decisions based on the answers to the above three questions.

Once you make the right decision, a CAD Document Management system streamlines the process of managing and storing CAD files.