Blog DriveWorks Specification Flow - Who, What and When?
Specification
flow is a powerful feature in DriveWorks Pro that gives the DriveWorks
Administrator the ability to customize the DriveWorks specification process.
(ie rules for what happens and when it happens). When a project is first set up
in DriveWorks it is created with a default specification flow which guides a
specification through four basic states – Running (i.e. filling out forms in
the specification), Saved, Pending, and Completed.
Each one of
these states has links to other states to move from one state to another. For
example, a specification in the Saved state can be moved into the Running
state, and a specification in the Running state can be moved into the Pending
state (by clicking Finish), or the Completed state (by clicking Release). These
links between states are called transitions. Each state also has certain
operations that can be performed on it, but which do not move to another state,
for example, a specification can be deleted, or copied.
The
Specification Flow can be customized in DriveWorks Administrator to meet your
own specification and work flow needs.
There are
lots of reasons why you may want to look at customizing your specification
flow, here are a few examples:
- You may have a quoting process which
involves generating a general-assembly drawing – all before releasing to
manufacture and before the full manufacturing information is generated. - You may have additional requirements
during the specification process such as copying a document to another machine
which otherwise would involve complicated macros - You may simply want to change the
text that is displayed on the "Finish" button to something like
"Quote" - You may want to set rules that
determine that a Sales Manager can see all specifications generated by your
distributors, but only let each distributor see their own specifications.
Find out
more about DriveWorks Specification Flow in the DriveWorks Pro Helpfile