SOLIDWORKS 2020 introduced a new “Detail” mode for drawings. It allows you to open a SOLIDWORKS drawing much faster than ever before. However, the SOLIDWORKS PDM Convert Task doesn’t take advantage of this new feature. At least it doesn’t out of the box. If you find your Convert Task is a bottle neck, you can take advantage of this new feature by modifying the task’s advanced scripting options. By implementing Detailing mode, you’ll have a faster SOLIDWORKS convert task with […]
How to make PDM Pro’s Dispatch share files
Shared files in PDM give you the ability to have the exact same file exist in multiple folders. This is a handy way of sharing files without making copies. Below is a procedure to have SOLIDWORKS PDM Pro Dispatch create shared files automatically for you. How it works – behind the scenes [Warning: in this section I do get into some code writing. You don’t really need to know any of this to make it work in your Dispatch. If […]
PDM hyperlinks to your clipboard – in plain text!
We thought 2018 was going to be a good year because that was the year SOLIDWORKS gave us the ability to copy a PDM file’s hyperlink to the clipboard. The excitement must have worn off because, even though the “Copy Link” function is still available on a file’s context sensitive menu, no mention of it can be found in the 2020 help file. The ability to create SOLIDWORKS PDM Pro hyperlinks to files and folders has been around for many […]
Open a file with a PDM data card button
Remember Hannah’s blog post showing some of the clever things you can do with SOLIDWORKS PDM data card buttons? The last topic in the article was showing how to use a data card button to open a file. I thought it would be fun to take a deeper dive into her concept to see how much further we could go. What if the AcroRd32.exe is in multiple locations within your company? It seems unlikely that everyone in a company would […]
Bulk add variables – SOLIDWORK PDM Pro Vault
If you have ever taken the SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional administration class, you know that in the very first lesson, SOLIDWORKS recommends that you make a nice, little chart pre-planning your variables. You are supposed to make a list of variables, the variable types and some notes on how that variable should be used. This certainly is a good idea. Good planning makes a good vault. You’re proud of your list. Lots of variables. Lots of time putting it all together… […]
You have reached the end of the revision list?
In SOLIDWORKS PDM, if you choose to assign your revision number component with a value from a list, you have three options of what you want PDM to do when a user has reached the end of the revision list. My old standby joke here is to “Refuse the operation” and send an e-mail to human resources, because if someone that makes that many revisions to a file, they should be fired. That joke is fourteen years old. It has […]
Filtered Droplists in PDM Standard
Here is a screen shot from my SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard data card. When the user chooses his material type as “metal” his material droplist is filtered to show only metals, if he chooses plastics, his droplist is filtered to only show plastics. This is something rather simple to do with SOLIDWORKS PDM Pro, but this is PDM Standard! Can you guess why type of amazing sorcery is going here? You are actually looking at a combobox droplist [for material type] […]
SOLIDWORKS 2020 What’s New – You’ll get 2020 vision into your vault with the new PDM Searches
PDM Pro and Standard got a significant search feature boost in the 2020 release. The ability to search across multiple variables at once in edit boxes “AND”, “OR” and “NOT” Operators Quick search from within Windows Explorer – you don’t have to use search cards anymore The ability to search across multiple variables at once When editing a search card, there is a new property for Edit boxes: “Multi-variable”. When you check that option the variable drop list changes to […]
PDM Search from the command line
Today I set a goal for myself to figure out a way to search for files in my PDM Pro vault from the command line. It is true that I can start the search tool from the command line. (<install dir>\search.exe), but I wanted something faster. I just want to type the command and a file name, hit enter, and have my file appear in Windows Explorer right before my eyes. I certainly could create an application with Visual Studio, […]
What’s new in PDM Pro 2018 API
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 […]
