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 […]
SOLIDWORKS PDM Local View Essentials
SOLIDWORKS PDM Local View Basics and Troubleshooting What Is a SOLIDWORKS PDM Local View? Your SOLIDWORKS PDM Local Vault View is an application mechanic that acts as a “gateway” to accessing your vault and its files. After you install SOLIDWORKS PDM, you still need to setup a Vault View in order to access your vault(s). One thing to note is that you do need to install local views for each vault on your server. This is because you control each […]
Backing up PDM: The Minimum Requirements
Backups, Backups, Backups Whether it be due to a hard drive failure, a bad rollback, a ransomware attack, or a natural disaster, the need for data recovery is always going to strike, whether you’re ready or not. Here are some common questions you should be asking about your backups and data recovery plan when backing up SOLIDWORKS PDM. What type of backups do I need? A SOLIDWORKS PDM environment has three major components that work together. Each part is important […]
Working From Home – SOLIDWORKS PDM
Covid-19 changing the way we work With the Covid-19 pandemic reaching far and near, many of us have resorted to working from home at times. A convenience for many, but it has had its struggles. As we all have experienced by now, children tapping us on the shoulder during meetings, the dogs barking, an occasional cat walking in front of a camera, and of course the dreaded latency of not being on that super fast local network at the office! […]
SOLIDWORKS PDM in the Cloud
Increasingly, transitioning to the cloud is becoming the new norm. Today, there are a number of pain points that push for this transition. For example cloud hosting provides better backup solutions, out of office collaboration, outsourced maintenance and/or outsourced work. Whichever situation you find yourself in today, we are here to help! Of course, SOLIDWORKS PDM needs to be installed on a Windows Server Environment and that has always been associated with ON PREMISE. However, let me debunk that myth […]
Increase the speed of your PDM Pro Convert Task
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 […]
Working With PDM Templates
With the retirement of SOLIDWORKS Workgroup PDM, it’s time for users to move to a new product data management solution: SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional or SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard. To help you understand more about the solutions, we have several webcasts on the CATI YouTube channel showing different features about SOLIDWORKS PDM. Additionally, you can check out another blog post about what makes PDM Standard such an attractive solution. Some of my favorite SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional features include: Automated Tasks Automatically convert SOLIDWORKS drawings […]
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 […]
