Thursday, December 03, 2020
A Case For Project Part Numbers
Hackaday: Even when we share the design files for open source hardware, the step between digital files and a real-world mechatronics widget is still a big one. That’s why I set off on a personal vendetta to find ways to make that transfer step easier for newcomers to an open source mechantronics project.
Today, I want to spill the beans on one of these finds: part numbers, and showcase how they can help you share your project in a way that helps other reproduce it. Think of part numbers as being like version numbers for software, but on real objects.
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2 comments:
This is like part numbers for newbies, which I guess is important information to pass on the open-sourcers, but reading this as someone that has been taught that part and batch numbers are essential to picking reputable and trustworthy hardware, it seems like a no-brainer. I know the stuff we do at school is very low level in terms of complexity, but it might be interesting to incorporate structured part numbers with fields into our drawings just to get the hang of it. The block that Kevin has passed around that we all use as view labels in our plating already has a line for part number. It would definitely be a way to try and improve how we organize our drawings in the office – usually they’re all in a stack and you have to read through the dates to find the right one. If we had a chart where we updated the most recent part number on the board, then it could be easier to make sure the right drawing is on the floor, or at the top of the pile in the drawers. Fields could correspond to the year, the show, the element, and the version.
I agree with KT that while this is more aimed at people just getting into fabrication and DIY projects, and there is so much to figure out when it comes to something as simple as part numbers. I would love to incorporate this more into our workflow as TDs, since the way we draft and design is much more segmented in a commercial scenery model. I don't know how crazy we need to get with things, for example moving towards the Part -> Sub-Assembly -> Assembly system, but there are definitely things we could do. When I was working in a scene shop before, the largest text on the page was in the bottom right corner, and looked like "EQ-1, where the first letters were initials and the latter was the plate number. This made it super easy to immediately identify the draftsperson, and in turn made it easy for the draftsperson to pull up the plate. I think we have tried to do something like this with our proposed numbering scheme, but the reality is it obfuscates the actual contents of the file (which is, after all, the whole point). Even worse, since everyone can use their own preferred drafting software, it mitigates the effectiveness of well-designed numbering systems since software compatibility is problematic. Maybe over the spring we can take advantage of our time and come up with a system.
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