Tracking SOLIDWORKS PDM Data I have a favorite kind of cookie. For anybody wondering, it’s Oreo’s because of course it is. That said, I’m not necessarily a fan of sharing my Oreos. Sometimes, sure, but not all the time. I know how many servings are in a package and I also don’t just lose random cookies. So if someone takes an Oreo, thinking I won’t know, trust me, I’ll know. I can say the same thing about my data. I […]
Large Archive Servers in SOLIDWORKS PDM
You might notice that Archive Servers balloon pretty quickly. Ever wonder why that is? Well, the archive server stores ever version of every file in SOLIDWORKS PDM. So, if you have a file that has 15 versions, there are going to be 15 individual files in the PDM archive. As you add more and more files, that archive will grow and grow. As you can imagine, it becomes pretty important to know how to work with large archive servers in […]
InPOD Interview with Joe Formicola
A few months ago, I introduced InPOD, the InFlow podcast. Well since that introduction, we’ve had a lot of really exciting things happening. SOLIDWORKS released 2021 and DriveWorks came out with DriveWorks 19. Maybe the biggest news of all wasn’t software related. If you were keeping tabs, Computer Aided Technology added a new member to the family, CAELYNX! I’m really excited about the CAELYNX merger and wanted to interview CAELYNX’s own Joe Formicola, the founder of CAELYNX, about how he […]
Viewing PDFs With DriveWorks Live
If I sent you a PDF, how would you open it? You’d probably use a PDF reader, but what if that’s not an option? A classic example is if you’re opening this file on your phone. While some phones (mine included) do have PDF Readers, some don’t. So, if you’re in a DriveWorks Live project and want to view a PDF, wouldn’t you want to just open it in a web browser? Ideally, yes, that makes sense, but there’s a […]
SOLIDWORKS PDM 2021 Top 5 Enhancements
SOLIDWORKS PDM 2021 is Here! SOLIDWORKS PDM 2020 Service Pack 5 has been released. You know what that means. Now we can focus on all of the great improvements we see with SOLIDWORKS PDM 2021! With so many changes happening with the latest release, there’s a lot to unpack. Today, let’s go through my top 5 enhancements for SOLIDWORKS PDM 2021. 1. Change Column Sets in Windows Explorer Let’s start off with a bang! It’s not new that we can […]
InPOD Message Board
Have you ever wanted to share your thoughts on the best up-and-coming podcast ever? Maybe you want to suggest topics that you want to learn more about? Well, now you can! I’ve been hosting InFlow’s new podcast, InPOD for the past few months and the feedback has been fantastic. But I want to hear from all of you! That’s why I’m creating this post as a the official InPOD Message Board. Here, you can comment and leave your thoughts, opinions, […]
Formatting Text with DriveWorks
Pop quiz: Jenny just gave you her phone number, which way is easier to read? (555) 867-5309 or 5558675309? If you want any way of remembering this, you probably said the first option (or just remembered the song). So how does this work with DriveWorks? You probably don’t need an easy way of remembering numbers, but ERP systems need properly formatted data. I’ve written before about how DriveWorks can integrate with other systems. So today, let’s talk about formatting text […]
Copy Tree and Move Tree: SOLIDWORKS PDM
What Does This Do? Copy Tree vs Move Tree Welcome to part 3 of our “What Does This Do?” series. Last week, we covered Branch and Merge and how to use those tools. This week, we’re going to take a look at another feature named for trees, Copy Tree and Move Tree. These two tools are pretty self-explanatory for their purpose. One makes a copy and one moves the files. However, I want to talk about some of the features […]
Branch and Merge: SOLIDWORKS PDM
Last week, we covered the first topic in our “What does this do?” series – Delete versus Destroy. This week, let’s tackle another function that you might not be familiar with – Branch and Merge. The Branch and Merge features came out a few years back and to say it’s a game changer is an understatement. Anybody that has ever done prototyping can attest to that. The SOLIDWORKS PDM Branch and Merge features make it quick and easy to test […]
Delete or Destroy: SOLIDWORKS PDM
There’s a commercial that used to play all the time. It wasn’t long ago, probably within the past year. The essence of the commercial is that you wouldn’t take your child on a space mission with you because he/she will just click every button. Can you imagine the never ending question, “what does this do?” Well when people start using SOLIDWORKS PDM for the first time, that tends to be the first question our of their mouth. This week, we’re […]
