Legacy information and original drawings are being lost as enterprise software is updated beyond the package used to create the original drawings and as the engineers who made the original drawings retire or move to another position or company. The issue,should be of concern to everyone, including designers.
The lost drawings could refer to a part, for example, on a product still being manufactured. Should the product need to be updated, engineers spend a lot of their time recreating the original drawing. That, of course, is time and money wasted.
So to get around the legacy drawings issue, many companies support outdated design and manufacturing systems just in case older designs need to be reworked or reviewed. And they frequently do. A now-retired engineer, for example, may have originally designed a small part for a helicopter. Maybe even by hand. When the helicopter’s assembly changes after years, the part will need to be updated too.
Or, to take another example: an engineering company is asked to create parts for an older machine for which the legacy files are lost or outdated. Engineers can use 3D scanning to reverse engineer an obsolete part, create a CAD file, and then make the part on a 3D printer.
But what if the legacy file could be continually updated?
Keeping around the outdated software system used to create each drawing is one answer. That means, however, a drain on resources and more. The original vendor may no longer support the outdated software. Or the vendor may have gone out of business.
So when the technology becomes outdated, how to preserve its data output and carry it forward?
To answer that question, some software makers are stepping forward with systems that can help. They preserve data and carry it forward to new systems.
Any data system that contains important data for compliance, retrieval and distribution up and down the supply chain needs long-term support, they say. And they’re prepared to lend it.
For instance, Theorem’s Process Automation Services automates legacy CAD migration so companies can transfer legacy CAD and bills of material data to a new system. It also helps manage the execution of data migration tasks, automate repetitive tasks, and make use of new hardware and software.
Every organization that has used CAD systems through several iterations of the software will need to eventually migrate legacy data to a newer system, says a Theorem spokesperson of its new service. Updating CAD means updating the design’s BOM, too, and that part can come with headaches when working without a service such as Theorem’s. While the CAD data will be held in a legacy CAD repository, the BOM data may be in a variety of forms including spreadsheets, databases, or a legacy produce data management system.
For manufacturers, engineers at Automated Consulting Engineering Services Inc. offer migration services. They assess old control systems, design an migration solution and plan and implement it with little downtime.
Our suggestion: take a look at some of these types of consultancies and services out there. Engineers can more readily access and manage legacy data by implementing a professionally managed data solution.
Data migration pays for itself when you start to take into account the costs of maintaining expensive hardware and software that is no longer supported by the vendors.
