CAD Forum

We use SolidWorks and CATIA, but I work with a number of consultants and suppliers who use CATIA, NX, SolidWorks, FreeCAD, etc., so often deal with different formats, CAD versions and data revisions.

Does anybody have an Excel template to keep track of changes to a CAD model during product development? This would be an easy thing to keep in Excel, including data on the differences between versions of the CAD releases. I really don't want to develop the spreadsheet from scratch.

Or maybe somebody can suggest a good software solution to keep track that doesn't require renting a server and hosting some database. SolidWorks PDM is not an option because most suppliers don't have SolidWorks, but everybody has Excel on their workstation. I want to avoid buying a bunch of licenses.

I've only used pdm for tracking changes. An Excel file is simple and accessible, but also fallible as it means that everyone has to have an updated version AND add updates/changes. The latter can be difficult, even with something integrated like PDM.

Assuming that entry between all parties could be consistent, you could use a cloud spreadsheet with Office365 or Google Sheets, as those have a version history where you can track changes/updates. Then it would all boil down to what you want to track as to what the spreadsheet would look like. Off the cuff, I would think that you'd want to have fields for:
Date, Who made the change, Model(s), Related designs (this would be one of the key advantages to an integrated PDM solution), Revision, and Changes made.

FYI, PDM does allow you to version control nonSolidworks CAD formats as well, you just don't get all the granular data with that. With changes made from an outside party, you could always download their changes, check out your copy, then save over the vault version with the newest iteration, and check into the vault to track the other changes. This does put all the version tracking on you, but if everyone agrees that your vault is the single source of truth, then it might not be too bad. I do know you can also setup remote access for others to your PDM vault, but I don't have experience with that personally and can't speak to it. They can either have direct PDM access with a license or use a Web Portal license.