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 […]
SOLIDWORKS Manage Dashboards
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 […]
Automating Vault View Distribution Using a File Vault View Setup File
When it comes to installing SOLIDWORKS and PDM on multiple client machines, the process can be tedious depending on how you approach it. Using a SOLIDWORKS Admin Image is a great way to deploy different components of the installations to different machines, but because the View Setup for PDM is outside of the installation, it can’t be included with the main part of the image. Whether you are planning to install a new PDM Client on five, fifty, or five-hundred […]
SOLIDWORKS PDM Vault Maintenance: How to split your archive onto multiple discs
Is your Vault Server (known as the Archive Server) nearly out of space? PDM has functionality to help you make space temporarily until the situation can be rectified or simply choose to span files across multiple drives. **WARNING** DO NOT relocate Files while users are in the vault. Doing so could risk file or data corruption. Preparation Ensure User activity is stopped. Logins may be blocked from the admin tool and License usage may be checked from the Licensing section […]
Configuring Copy Tree: Making Sense of all the Options
Configuring Copy Tree: Making Sense of all the Options At first glance, the SOLIDWORKS PDM Copy Tree wizard can be somewhat daunting with all the buttons, check boxes, and drop-down menus. If you are familiar with the SOLIDWORKS Pack and Go, the interface is very similar, with additional options specific to PDM. To access the wizard, highlight a file in the PDM Explorer View, and navigate to Tools>Copy Tree. In the upper left corner of the wizard there is an […]
Configuring Menus for Your PDM Users
In some cases, PDM Admins are not aware of the option to customize various PDM menus for their users. The page to do this can be found by right-clicking a user or group in the PDM Admin tool and selecting Settings. Then the Menus page or node can be selected, and controls will be visible to change the menu options that appear to users when they are viewing files in the vault in Windows Explorer. Keep in mind that menu […]
SOLIDWORKS PDM Card input Formulas: Capabilities and Limitations
This topic will be most useful to those with some experience working with Solidworks PDM administration. I intend to clarify questions about an aspect of Cards and PDM capability that often arises during new implementations and PDM configuration. Cards provide a large part of Solidworks PDM’s capability. They are often both familiar and confusing to those looking to build a vault that best fits with their internal operations. The are familiar in that they appear to be a form that […]
Using columns with a search card in Solidworks PDM Pro and Standard
Using columns with a search card in Solidworks PDM Pro and Standard So you’ve searched for something in the vault, but the results might not have all the information you’re looking for. Can something be done to the search results so that more information is displayed when a search is run? Can these results be unique depending on which search card you use? Well, you’re in luck, in both cases it can. So how would one go about changing the […]
That Was Easy: Using Buttons on a Data Card
That Was Easy: Using Buttons on a Data Card Have you ever wished that you could just have an “easy button” for something? Well, using SOLIDWORKS PDM Data Card controls, you can create your own! The Button control allows you to place a button on a data card that can be configured to launch a web page, open a file, browse to a location, or even run a custom add-in. Here are a couple of examples of how you can […]
Automatic PDM Standard SQL Backups
It has been over a year since the release of SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard. Nearly everyone agrees PDM Standard is a huge step forward from Workgroup -though we did become a bit spoiled because making backups in Workgroup is much more straight forward than PDM Standard backups. It frightens me how many locations I visit where PDM is not properly being backed up. Most people seem to do a pretty good job ensuring their files are being backed up (any good […]
