How familiar is this scenario? You are going about your workday, using SOLIDWORKS PDM to help you with your productivity, when you get that frantic call from a co-worker: “I need to get into PDM ASAP, but there aren’t any available licenses! I need you to log out so I can get in!” Now, to do that, you have to first remember where that log off menu is located. Once you do, you have to move your mouse all the […]
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 […]
Ever since SOLIDWORKS Manage was introduced at our Design Innovation Summits last fall, People and companies have been interested in finding out more about this product. For those of you who attended one of our Design Innovation Summits, or have done some self-guided investigation, you are probably familiar with the 4 main Pillars of Manage. For those who are not, those Pillars are: Dashboards and Reports Project Management BOMS and Records Process Management In this blog post we will take […]
When it comes to managing SOLIDWORKS toolbox files in PDM there are 2 aspects to consider. Should I use SOLIDWORKS PDM to manage my toolbox files? How do I set up SOLIDWORKS PDM to manage my toolbox files? Let’s start with the first question. Some of the reasons you would want to manage your toolbox files in PDM: The need for all SOLIDWORKS users to access the same toolbox data instead of each user having their own, separate, toolbox. Capturing […]
Those of you who use SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional or Standard with the ability to get previous versions are likely already aware that there is functionality which allows you to get specific versions of files that you are interested in. This is available from a few different places within PDM, but most commonly accessed from the Actions menu within Windows Explorer. Under this menu there are two options. One is “Get Latest Version” and the other is “Get Version” which allows […]
New in SOLIDWORKS PDM 2018, you now can export search results from the Embedded Search Window. Prior to 2018, this capability was only available in the Dedicated Search Tool which opened in a separate window. Additionally, because PDM Standard does not provide access to the Dedicated Search Tool, that meant that you could not export search results from PDM Standard. So an added benefit is that you can now export search results from PDM Standard searches. There are two new […]
An important issue was identified in the SOLIDWORKS 2017 SP4 release. The problem reported is that with SOLIDWORKS 2017 SP4 Closing files in SOLIDWORKS with the SOLIDWORKS PDM Client add-in enabled may cause SOLIDWORKS to become unresponsive. This problem affects the SOLIDWORKS 2017 SP4 software used in conjunction with SOLIDWORKS PDM 2017 SP0 – SP4. The workarounds available for this problem are: If you have not already, Do NOT install SOLIDWORKS 2017 SP4 Do not use the SOLIDWORKS PDM […]
SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional 2017 introduces a number of new enhancements in the tasks for converting various file types. The first being a new output format for SOLIDWORKS files. For SOLIDWORKS MBD users, the Convert task in PDM Professional can be set up to automatically generate SOLIDWORKS MBD 3D PDFs. To set this up, in the properties of the Convert task select the ‘Conversion Settings.’ Then set the Output file format to ‘3D PDF – MBD.’ Once set, you can then […]
In PDM 2017 there is a new feature that is as powerful and potentially risky as the “Rollback” function. “Latest Version Overwrite” gives a user the ability to overwrite the latest version of the file with the most current version of a file. If data storage is a worry for your company, “Latest Version Overwrite” may be the simple solution it needs. File cleanup can be automated through workflows or allowed per user’s discretion. In normal PDM function, a new […]
The search cards in PDM allow you to refine your search using a number of parameters: file name, description, file owner, workflow state, and so on. But, what if you don’t know exactly what words you’re searching for? Enter wildcards. Wildcards are nothing new in searching, but this article will help explain how they are used in PDM. Typing in a single word will act with “implied” wildcards – one at the beginning of the word and one at the […]
