I know it’s a bit soon to post tips about Autodesk PLM 360, but I haven’t had it long enough to perform a comprehensive review. There is some much in here, that it might be awhile. 🙂 However I am collecting tips from here an there, and didn’t want to forget to mention them.

Items

PLM 360 is a big database of items. These items can consist of anything really: a client entry, a project, and even a request for a quote. In this example, I created a project, and have added some Tasks to it. In the Project Management workspace shown below, you can see links to each item (Tasks), as well as the schedule.

Autodesk PLM 360 Project Linked Items

 

Linked Items Update Parent Schedules

Tasks can contain milestones, which are dated and easily configured how you’d like. When the Task is linked to the project, the milestones are picked up, and the project schedule is automatically adjusted. Subsequent task schedule edits update similarly.

Adding Linked Items

Autodesk PLM 360 Project Linked ItemsThe trick to adding linked items was not really clear to me at the onset of creating a project. So I created some entries manually, which is perfectly fine, and allows users to run a schedule with and without linked items.

There is no pull down for items to select. PLM 360 begins searching the database for items that correspond to the characters you type, in an auto-fill fashion. However it takes a moment to return the data, and if you don’t pause after a character or two you might miss it.

Just type the beginning characters of an item number or just about anything related and the system will begin filtering the items. Pick one, and the link is installed.

Deleting links

One thing that was not completely evident to me as well, was deleting unwanted items. At the end of the item rows, there is a checkbox under a column headed by a ‘x’ delete icon. Clearly it is intended that you should pick each record to delete, but where is the ‘Delete All Selected Items’ button?

It’s the column header. Most will probably say I was having a blonde moment, however my first inclination was to find a separate button, and that the header would sort. Oh well. Just select all the items to delete, and pick the column  header icon.

One warning – when she’s gone, she’s gone. There is no undo, so be careful when deleting items from the schedule.

Thoughts

So far so good. There is so much to learn in PLM 360, that I’m finding it good to attack one issue at a time, and get a firm grasp before heading to the next. At each step I pick up new things that give me a better understanding how things work together, such as triggers and workflows. Obviously, there will be more to come soon.