There are many different backup strategies and related tools for company resources out there. Backing up and being able to restore your SOLIDWORKS PDM Vault can often be more important than most of your company systems for a few reasons. First, it often stores and controls access to most if not all your company’s critical intellectual properties. In addition, these files are often a work in progress and any interruption or extended downtime can translate to lost productivity and missed target dates. Finally, unlike most shared drive files, there can be extensive amounts of history for these files documented in SOLIDWORKS PDM that would be difficult if not impossible to recreate. […]
SOLIDWORKS PDM 101: Setting Document Revisions
In a previous article, we discussed the inner workings of PDM versions. In a nutshell, versions are the way PDM tracks the changes to individual files. Every time we make an official change to a file, a new version is created and added to the file’s history. The good news is that the system handles versions for us automatically. If you want to know more about versions and how they work, check out our last PDM 101 here. People often ask if file versions and file revisions are the same thing. In some other systems, the term is interchangeable. That means whenever a change is completed by the user the […]
SOLIDWORKS PDM 101: What is a Document Version?
One of the fundamental parts of any PDM system is its ability to track the history of documents. How it tracks that history can vary from system to system. With SOLIDWORKS PDM, it does this through document versions. So, that begs the question, “What is a Version in the SOLIDWORKS PDM vault?” The short answer is that a version is a “snap shot in time” of a particular document. Versions are created in PDM as we make changes to the files in the system. By default, all the files in PDM are locked down and read-only (vaulted). In order to make a change, we have to take ownership of that […]
SOLIDWORKS: PDM 101 – File Types and Duplicate File Control
An often overlooked area of SOLIDWORKS PDM is the File Type options found in the admin tool. These options allow you to control how duplicate files are handled in your vault. You can disallow all duplicates or only include certain file types. There are a couple other settings, but those are only required if you use items or if your drawing previews need troubleshooting. The main reason for opening file types is to configure duplicate file rules. Before we dive into what you can do with files types, let’s talk about what is under the File Types node. The list that you see in the image below will be different […]
SOLIDWORKS EPDM Preview Tab Performance
If you've ever browsed into an EPDM folder you've likely seen the Preview Tab, just left of the Data Card tab. It's helpful to be able to Preview/See the content of the files BEFORE you open them! In this article we'll talk about the options for the Preview Tab that either make it MORE FUNCTIONAL, greater PERFORMANCE or how you can have it BOTH WAYS when previewing SOLIDWORKS Files. First, we see an example EPDM Vault View showing the Data Card Tab when a file is selected: Next, we see the contents of the Preview Tab set for PERFORMANCE: This picture shows the Preview Pane set for PERFORMANCE […]
Customize the Preview Pane in Solidworks Enterprise PDM
Preview Feature The preview feature at its core allows a user to select a file and view its contents without launching the native application and opening the file. This can be a benefit when searching for a specific item or when just looking to work faster. Perhaps a lesser known feature in Solidworks Enterprise PDM is the ability to customize this preview pane to use "other" applications beyond those supported by the default previewers. Customize Here is an example of how to customize Solidworks Enterprise PDM to use a specific application in the preview pane based on one or more file types provided. The steps required for this example may […]
Web Access for Enterprise PDM
I think most people would agree that SolidWorks Enterprise PDM is easy to use. But, at InFlow Technology, we are always looking for ways to improve the overall experience for our EPDM customers. So, this month, we launched our new web browser interface for SolidWorks Enterprise PDM. This new tool, called EPDM WebAccess, opens EPDM to standard browsers (IE, Chrome, Safari, Firefox), giving users a faster and easier way to search, view, print, download, upload, and change the state of EPDM documents. In addition to client time savings, it is also meant to reduce the installation time required by IT staff during EPDM upgrades and rollouts. Instead of installing 50 […]
How do I change a users Enterprise PDM License Type?
Users are different in regards to the roles they play at your organization and how they use Solidworks Enterprise PDM. To address this, Enterprise PDM offers several different license options. SolidWorks Enterprise PDM License Types Enterprise PDM uses floating client licenses. When you log in to a vault, the license installed on your system is taken from a pool of licenses that are enabled by the registered license file. When you log out or exit Enterprise PDM, the license is returned to the pool and can be used by another client. Available licenses are: SolidWorks Enterprise PDM Editor & Web Includes these license types: Editor: Supports working with all file […]
The simplest solution is often the right one
We recently ran into an issue while attempting to install Microsoft SQL on a customer's server machine. However, the SQL install will always crash during the "Setup Support Files" section. The crash itself was just a plain Windows crash with a "Send this error report to Microsoft" pop up window which did not tell us anything about the crash. Below is where the crash would occur. Right away we believed this to be a SQL issue and started a Solidworks SR along with looking at the SQL install crash logs. Then Googling the crash number inside the crash logs. After a few days we all ran out of ideas on […]