Change and Release repository for PDM

[jcapriotti]

Do any of you guys have a formal PDM change and release process utilizing tools such as Jira or Azure DevOps? Our company is moving to formalize the process more. Currently we save out PDM configurations and move them over from Dev to Production. But the just use network share folders and Word documents to capture the changes.

[JSculley]

Not for PDM specifically but I use a self-managed Gitlab installation for managing my SOLIDWORKS/PDM add-ins and source code. It's running on a Linux VM hosted on one of our in-house servers and its authentication is hooked into our Windows domain so users can login using their Windows credentials.

I recently started using the CI portion of Gitlab to automatically build and package my PDM add-ins anytime I tag a release using Git.

Gitlab includes a nice issue tracker (that ties into Git) and a wiki as well. I use the wiki instead of creating a bunch of word documents.

I use the Git branching model outlined in this article for my development process. Any change I make to the code is on a Git branch created specifically to address an issue (or feature request) in the issue tracker. The same could be done for PDM changes.

The Labcoat mobile app also lets you do a lot from your phone as well.

You can't beat the price either. Free.

[jcapriotti]

@JSculley Thanks for the info, I'm familiar with Gitlab and Github from my gaming side hobby. I had considered those but our global parent is mandating AzureDevOps for all coding. I was more curious about maintain the PDM configurations and issues as there isn't code exactly. Deployment is just PDM configuration file(s) and some instructions. I thought maybe its over kill and maybe there is a better option.

For our company, cost is apparently no obstacle, we bought Windchill after all

[bnemec]

@jcapriotti Are you talking about managing API code or CAD file data? I'm confused as you mention PDM configurations but also systems that are for source control.

[jcapriotti]

@jcapriotti Are you talking about managing API code or CAD file data? I'm confused as you mention PDM configurations but also systems that are for source control.

When we develop and make changes to PDM, we do it in a dev server running a copy of production. We then export the changes to a cex file to deploy to production. There is also some accompanying documentation as well. Just wondering if anyone else has this world and utilizes something like Jira or Azure DevOps.