InFlow Technology PLM Technical Blog

Technical tips and best practices for the SOLIDWORKS PDM and ENOVIA User & Administration

SOLIDWORKS PDM 2019 What’s New – Mixed Authentication Support – #SW2019

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In SOLIDWORKS PDM Pro, Windows login to the vault gives users access to their files quickly and easily. However, prior to SOLIDWORKS PDM Pro 2019 and when using Windows login, if a user didn’t exist in the domain they couldn’t connect to a vault (besides the Admin user). In other words, a single login type for all vault users was required. This made situations such as testing or giving vault access to users (vendors, customers, etc.) that didn’t exist on the domain difficult. Now with PDM Pro 2019 a vault admin can set the option to allow users vault access as Microsoft Windows users and SOLIDWORKS PDM users. Having a […]

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SOLIDWORKS 2019 What’s New – User Comments – #SW2019

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This 2019 release will feature enhanced granularity in mandatory comment control, now including mandatory state change options, and check-in/version comments. This means that you have the ability to now make commenting on state changes mandatory, creating the opportunity for more detailed document history. If you go into the PDM Administration tool, you’ll find the following new options: Must enter version comments Must enter state change comments As found in Administrative Permissions for a group shown below: As found in state permissions from the group properties dialog box shown below: As found in transition permissions from the group properties dialog box shown below: Because this is controlled at both the administrative […]

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SOLIDWORKS 2019 What’s New – Conditional Notifications in PDM Workflows (PDM Professional Only) – #SW2019

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New functionality in SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional 2019 is the introduction of Conditional Notifications in Workflows. Prior to the 2019 release of SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional, notifications would be sent to users (or groups of users) during a transition between states. While the you could make the recipients of the notification dynamic (selectable by the user performing the transition), there was not a way to define when to not send the notification at all. With 2019, in the Workflow editor, you can create a new type of notification called a Conditional Notification. Conditional Notifications work, like you may have guessed like Transition Conditions. The difference being that while Transitions Conditions are used […]

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What’s new in PDM Pro 2018 API

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My inbox has been blowing up since my last PDM API blog post talking about the new ability to add and customize a new PDM Pro tab in the user interface. Since you all showed me so much love, I thought I would return the favor and go through the other new APIs that are in PDM Pro 2018. (You can always find this information yourself through the release notes, but I’m going to try to give you some real-world examples where I can imagine you may want to use these.) Get the ID of the view in which a file is checked out. (See IEdmFile14::LockedOnViewID.) This returns the vault […]

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There’s a new PDM tab in town!

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It has been a while since we PDM Pro API guys have had anything new to cheer about during the What’s New in PDM events. I suppose it is true that the PDM “Release Notes” have always had a handful of new structures or interfaces, but the new IEdmCmdMgr6 interface in PDM Pro 2018 gives us the ability to add our own custom tabs to the Windows Explorer interface. This, my friends, is pretty darn cool. This tab can contain anything you want… Build a custom control, then in your API project, send the custom control to CommandManager with the new “AddVaultViewTab” method. Here are some quick ideas on what […]

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Updating your Solidworks PDM Add ins

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What are Solidworks PDM Add ins and why do I need to update them? Add ins are managed in the Solidworks PDM Administration Tool and provide additional functionality either out of the box in the case of PDF conversion and dispatch or custom programming solutions. Add ins are currently unique to PDM Professional users. When do you need to Update your Add ins? Add ins should be updated whenever you update your version or service pack of Solidworks PDM to ensure proper functionality. Add ins are not updated automatically by your installer and require manual updating. How to update your Add ins… Upgrade your Solidworks PDM Server and at least […]

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PDM Pro Exclusive Features

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SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard and Pro are both robust data management solutions. However, PDM Pro has a number of exclusive features, any one of which could be a significant piece of a company’s data management solution. Let’s look at some of those features. Replication This feature allows companies to share data across multiple locations. Each location has its own archive server, this is where all vaulted files, both CAD and other, are stored. Data created each day at one location can be shared, via a set schedule, with each other location. Because files are local they are fast to retrieve. Each archive server works in conjunction with a single SQL database […]

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DriveWorks 16 Now Available!

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Just Released: DriveWorks 16 In DriveWorks 16 we’ve built on our extensive Design Automation capabilities, greatly enhanced our 3D capabilities and made sure DriveWorks is positioned as a powerful configurator and CPQ solution company-wide for manufacturing companies. This release focuses on enhancements to stability and performance, scalability and usability alongside new features. Many of the enhancements in DriveWorks 16 have come from customer suggestions. Thank you to everyone that has submitted requests & suggestions to suggest@driveworks.co.uk. Here’s just a few of the enhancements/new features in DriveWorks 16: Performance Enhancements Timers Insert position and mate in a SOLIDWORKS assembly Dynamic 3D Preview including Layout New Specification Tasks, Functions & Generation Tasks The DriveWorks […]

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