Data selection act

In today's ‘write-once/read-maybe’ culture 80 per cent of business event data is never accessed after being stored; and it is never modified by one user, let alone by many.

So do we use relational database technology (RDB) simply because it’s there? Similarly, there is significant marketing hype about the need to share native CAD data, and many vendors have multiple translation facilities to enable data sharing — but why?

Unless your process acts specifically on the 3D data for analysis, rapid prototyping or machining, sharing is unnecessary. In fact, to preserve the intellectual property of your design it is actually desirable to limit the extent to which the detailed data is made available to third parties.

In a highly collaborative design environment many other users need to be able to examine your data for estimating or quoting purposes, buying in materials, organising logistics, producing packaging or a multitude of other related activities. But in these kinds of situations native CAD data is not only serious overkill, but a significant hindrance — the files aren’t small and therefore don’t e-mail easily.