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Offroad Design Crew SOLIDWORKS

380 members • Free

1 contribution to Offroad Design Crew SOLIDWORKS
File Organization
Hey all! I'm curious how does everyone organize their projects or jobs? I feel like organizations of our files is just as important as designing the parts. Especially when it comes time for revisions and manufacturing. In my line of work I design parts for my business and the other half I do job shop work for customers (3d scanning, 3d CAD and help customers find manufactures to produce their parts) For my job shop work, the folder tree starts with the Customer Name. Within their name I have their invoice or quote number of their job. Once inside the invoice or quote number I'll have a folder for engineering and manufacturing. I like to keep the original engineered part separate from the manufactured part so that I always have the original part. (saved as copy) Engineering folder will have everything related to designing that part. Ill have a folder for Hardware, References, Prints and 3mf for 3d printing prototypes. Manufacturing folder stays pretty clear with just the CAD file, STEP file and drawing. For my business, its very similar. I start with the vehicle manufacture first but it gets very much cluttered as there are lots of, vehicle models, type of part (armor, brackets, electrical), revisions, references and months to years of developing parts. I'd like to clean up my business folder so I'm curious to what everyone is doing.
1 like • Feb 13
I am curious about this too, especially making multiple iterations of a solidworks assembly that references the same part. If the part changes, a new file name is needed, saved in a folder for that type of part (since that part could be made up of sub assemblies) Your approach sounds good. I manage a lot of drawing files for work. We name the folder the project number and job title, then in that folder I have a Drawing folder and a separate folder for OEM drawings. Keeping manufacturing drawing in a separate folder is a good idea. I keep a separate folder for OEM info so its easier to find things like spec sheet of manual. I can imagine it could be trickly to remember what vehicle model and year the part you're looking for resides in, so maybe categorizing the parts by area would be better such as engine, chassis, suspension, brackets, links, cab, seats, etc. then you can narrow it down by manufacturer, model, then year from there so your search is filtered better from the get go.
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Michael Rider
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4points to level up
@michael-rider-1232
Love rock crawling and desert racing and design and fabrication. Building a Chevy Colorado for a Rocks and desert family cruiser.

Active 6d ago
Joined Feb 12, 2026
Auburn, Ca