If you already have SOLIDWORKS installed:

1. Open Control Panel (you can search “Control Panel” from your Start menu).
2. Go to “Programs and Features”.

3. Scroll down to “SOLIDWORKS 20XX SP0X” and select “change”.

4. The SOLIDWORKS Installation Manager will pop up. If you receive a warning about a pending Windows reboot, you can hit “ok” and continue through. Reboot when done installing.
5. Select “Modify your installation” and hit Next.

6. Your Serial Number should already be pre-filled on this page. You can leave everything as-is and hit Next.

7. On the Product Selection page, check “PDM Client” and hit Next.

8. On the Summary page, hit “Change” next to “SOLIDWORKS PDM Options”.

9. Make the following selections
   • PDM Professional or Standard (if unsure, you can safely select Professional, since this will work for clients with both Professional and Standard licenses)
   • Select the appropriate license level: Editor, Contributor, or Viewer.
     • If Editor is selected, be sure to select Add-ins for the software you have installed.
     • If you’re unsure, reach out to your administrator or select “CAD Editor” and confirm after, since license type can be changed easily later.

10. From the Summary page, accept the terms and select “Modify Now”.

11. After installing, a reboot is recommended to ensure the installation is allowed to complete fully. You should now have the PDM client installed on your workstation while retaining your original SOLIDWORKS client and any menu customization you may have made.

If you need SOLIDWORKS & PDM:

1. Navigate to http://customerportal.solidworks.com and log in with your account.

2. If you do not have an account, select Create a SOLIDWORKS ID and register using your serial number. Once logged in, select Downloads and Updates.

3. Select the year and service pack you wish to install, accept the agreement, and download the setup.

Note: This download is the setup file only so there will be additional downloading when installing the client.

4. Run “SolidWorksSetup.exe” & choose to Unzip.

5. When that finishes, the Installation Manager should start automatically. Select “Install on this computer” & hit Next. If you get a pop up stating a reboot is pending, feel free to ignore it and hit “ok” to continue.

6. If you previously installed SOLIDWORKS, your serial number should be pre-filled. If not, be sure to enter it in the box next to SOLIDWORKS. Expand and select any other design software you’d like to install on your machine here (like Visualize or Simulation – PDM comes later). Hit Next.

7. You will either be taken to a Product Selection page, or to the Summary page. If you get to the Summary page, select “Change” next to “Products”.

8. On the Product Selection page, check the “SOLIDWORKS PDM Client” box. When done, select “Back to Summary”

9. Select Change next to SOLIDWORKS PDM Options (you may need to scroll down).

10. Make the following selections:
    • PDM Professional or Standard (if unsure, you can safely select Professional, since this will work for clients with both Professional and Standard licenses)
    • Select the appropriate license level: Editor, Contributor, or Viewer.
      • If Editor is selected, be sure to select Add-ins for the software you have installed.
      • If you’re unsure, reach out to your administrator or select “CAD Editor” and confirm after, since license type can be changed easily later.

11. Finally, return to the Summary page and select Install Now. You may be prompted for a license server that should be entered in the format 25734@<server name>.
    1. If you’re unsure of your license server, reach out to your administrator.

Creating a Vault View:

1. Open your Windows Start menu, find the SOLIDWORKS PDM folder, and select View Setup.
2. Select Next > to bypass the Welcome screen.
3. In the next screen, your server name may show in the white window.
   • If it does, select it.
   • If it does not, select the Add button at the bottom of the menu to manually add it.
4. Once the server is added, check the box to the left of the server name and select Next >.

5. Check the box next to the vault you would like to add a vault view for and select Next >.
   1. If it is grayed out, try following the troubleshooting steps according to the error messages listed in this related article.
6. Set the file location. It is strongly recommended that all users put it in the root of the C or data drive.
7. Finally, select the option to create the view “For all users on this computer”, if available. Select Next > and then Finish.

Note: Only for me should only be selected if the user does not have administrative rights on their machine. It will become apparent if the vault view fails to complete. In this case, users must place the vault view in their Documents folder or a folder created on the C: drive and select the Only for me option.

Rowan Gray
PLM Support Team Lead
Computer Aided Technology

What is SOLIDWORKS API and what can it do?

The SOLIDWORKS API, or Application Programming Interface, allows the automation of repetitive and tedious tasks within SOLIDWORKS. Custom applications using the SOLIDWORKS API can be as simple or as complex as desired, for instance, the API can be used to create simple macros. Macro’s, at their core, are just a preprogrammed sequence of events. Sequences of mouse clicks can be recorded and automatically inserted into a new macro by using the SOLIDWORKS macro recorder. Simply start the recorder and then perform the set of actions you’d like repeated. That will produce a very simple VBA macro that can be replayed at any time.

More functionality can then be added to a macro by editing it in the built-in VBA macro editor. All sorts of things can be added, including logic and intelligence, prompts to the user to send warnings and other information or to gather user input and selections. SOLIDWORKS Standard, Professional, and Premium all come with the ability to use, create, and modify macros.

It is also possible to create more complex applications by using C#, VB.net, or C++. These programming languages can be used to create custom add-ins and stand-alone applications that can launch and run SOLIDWORKS without a user’s interaction. See below for an example of a custom SOLIDWORKS add-in.

Ok, but can you be more specific about what the API can do?

The API can be used for anything that can save a designer time. It can also be used to accomplish things that normally could not be done by SOLIDWORKS. Such as inserting a user coordinate system at a specified X, Y, Z location or setting a file to automatically perform additional actions whenever the model is rebuilt, such as updating a general table. Other interesting ideas are adding a watermark or some visible label to a part model that cannot be deleted or removed. BOM tables can be exported to CSV or Excel. Custom properties can be populated from an Excel spreadsheet. And the list goes on.

It is important to note that SOLIDWORKS macros are based on VBA. This is the same language used by Excel. So, if you have ever made an Excel macro, the concept is the same in SOLIDWORKS. The main difference is that SOLIDWORKS has its own set of API calls (contained within a VBA reference library) that are used to interact with SOLIDWORKS, just as Excel has its own set of calls for interacting with spreadsheets.

Creating your program as an add-in instead of a macro can provide several benefits. For instance, they can be more stable, run faster, and be more reliably updated for new releases of SOLIDWORKS. Also, some things just work better as an add-in. The downside for many is that they take more programming experience to create, and the upfront effort is greater.

When should I consider turning to the SOLIDWORKS API for a solution?

The best use cases for creating an application using the SOLIDWORKS API are:

1. Performing repetitive or tedious tasks.
2. To perform an action or series of actions that are not available inside the SOLIDWORKS or PDM user interfaces.
3. To save money by not having to manually do all of the above every day, one click at a time.
4. Eliminating user error by automating tasks.

You said something about automating SOLIDWORKS PDM?

SOLIDWORKS PDM has its own API, and it’s just as powerful as the SOLIDWORKS API. The main difference is that there are no PDM macros. There are only add-ins and stand-alone applications. This means it must be programmed using C#, VB.net, or C++ (no VBA).

Since PDM is focused on file management, references, and tracking data, most custom applications for PDM also focus on those areas. They can manage file references, check things in and out of the vault, send custom notifications, and manipulate data card properties (and much more).

Another great thing, is that custom tasks can be set up for users to run on-demand or can trigger automatically on workflow transition (hopefully you are familiar with PDM workflows?).

Some add-ins are what I call ‘hybrid’ add-ins. These are add-ins in PDM that are designed to utilize both the PDM and SOLIDWORKS APIs. With these, PDM can automatically open files in SOLIDWORKS and perform specific actions. And it can use the information in PDM to determine which files to process. Information PDM can use include bills of materials, where used lists, file references and data card variables.

This section probably deserves its own blog… there is a lot I could write about here.

Ok, I have an idea! …now what?

Planning out your custom application is one of the most important steps – aside from actually getting it working! The first thing you need to do is describe what you want this program to do and write it down. Writing it down will force you to actually define it as opposed to just having an idea in your head that can change over time. It is very important to have a targeted goal in mind, even for the simplest of macros.

The 2^nd thing you should do is build an outline. Ok, this is something you can maybe skip if you are just building something quickly or it’s only for yourself. Overall, it’s a little bit like writing a paper. Pick a topic, write a summary, then outline what the program should do. Use plain English and write down step-by-step what the application will do. This will also help when a year from now you’re trying to remember what this thing does.

Here is an example:

Summary: A SOLIDWORKS Add-in, that on the click of a button, will use the value of an existing custom property as the basis for a SQL query in a custom database. It will then use the returned string to automatically create 2 new custom properties in the currently open SOLIDWORKS part file.

Outline:

1. The installed custom SOLIDWORKS add-in will have 1 icon.
2. The add-in will only run on the currently open and active SOLIDWORKS part file.
3. A configuration file will hold the custom property name, SQL query, and SQL connection string.
4. The user must fill in the source custom property before running the add-in.
5. Clicking the button will read the active document’s custom property value and run the SQL query.
6. The values of 2 custom properties are filled in using the information returned by the SQL query.
7. The custom properties will be created if they do not already exist.

In this case, the application was designed as a SOLIDWORKS add-in and would be written in C# programing language. This would allow for better handling of the SQL query than is available using VBA macros.

As you may have noticed, something like this could also be used for ERP integration. A full solution would need to be able to push information to the SQL database instead of (or in addition to) pulling from it.

But I’m not a programmer, can I just have someone make me whatever I want?

Yes! …provided it is possible. CATI has an amazing development staff that is ready to help. Our developers have been programming custom applications for decades. We would follow the same basic process I’ve already discussed, starting with what do you want to accomplish? Can any of it be done already with out-of-the-box functionality in SOLIDWORKS or PDM? Then we’ll help to refine your need and can get started building it for you.

Any recommendations on SOLIDWORKS API design?

The API is an amazing tool to help your designers and potentially other departments in your organization. The API is not intended to replace your designers, it is intended to increase their productivity. I usually recommend starting with one main goal for automation and then if you need more, to grow it from there. Many people try to put too much into an application at once and the scope can either grow out of control or never get finalized. It is often easier to pick a starting point, use it for a while to figure out if there are any other enhancements you would like made, and then do both the enhancements and additions at a later time.

I hope this has helped clear up what the API is and how it could benefit you. It has so much flexibility, if you are looking for more information, the online help files are available here: Welcome – 2022 – SOLIDWORKS API Help.

Regards,

Joe Phillips
Application Engineer II
Computer Aided Technology

Let’s try it!

Create a new vault.

But this time pick “default”.

Now, select all the options to load into the vault, but maybe this time, let’s focus on tasks. Back in 2017 SOLIDWORKS PDM started offering a couple of nice new tasks.

After completion, open up your admin tool and look down at the tasks node.

Look at all those out of the box PDM tasks!

Convert Task

For most of us, we already have the “convert” task to make us a SLDDRW to PDF. That is probably the lowest hanging fruit, as I say, that just about all customers need. Whether you run it manually or you call for the task in a transition, a PDF task for drawings relieves everyone of a very redundant chore is a pretty fast way to get some ROI out of SOLIDWORKS PDM.

Don’t forget that in the “Convert” task can also be used to make numerous other file types, and have some pretty strong abilities for a secondary write location.

In short, this task can create 22 file types, and control the execution method. It can even pull attributes from the source file, as well as have a unique output filename including any variable from the source file applied to the output file path and or name. Don’t be shy to study it’s strengths, even if you have this task already configured and deployed.

Additional Convert Tasks

Once you have the Convert task under control, the next two tasks really start to make sense. They are “DraftSight to PDF” and “Office to PDF”. Just as their names imply, they are for converting more file types to PDF.

Both of these tasks have a VERY SIMILAR look and feel to the convert task. One can quickly setup examples of exporting those DWG and MS Office filetypes to PDF in short order. Be mindful that You will need Draftsight Professional or higher to utilize its respective convert tool.

Print Task

Now let’s shift gears a bit, and talk to the Print task.

Very similar to the PDF tasks, the print task is pretty cool too! It simply gives you the ability to print files straight to a local or network printer. It can even print a whole packet of drawings so you don’t have to do things one at a time! Setup is straightforward enough, but the help file is always, well, a help!

If you want more out of your print task, be sure to reach out to us, or your local VAR. You’ll need some programming skills, but there are customizations in the “Advanced Scripting Options” that further enhance the print task function.

Design Checker Task

Now it is time to really shift gears for our final out of the box PDM task! Let’s leave behind the PDF and print tasks for a bit and delve into the Design Checker.

The Design Checker is a pretty cool tool that MANY customers just simply, do not take advantage of!

Imagine having a SOLIDWORKS standard for a given document type, maybe we already have part, assembly and drawings templates deployed. Maybe inside those we utilize some ISO or ANSI, or maybe some modified standards unique to how we do business with respect to our CAD files. The design Checker can help us verify we follow said standards by watching areas like, title blocks, custom properties, annotations, units, materials, overridden dimensions, just to name a few.

Setting Up The Design Checker Task

This task, although simple to deploy in SOLIDWORKS PDM, will require some upfront time. The Design Checker needs some standard to review against. You, as the organization, must then create those standards for the Design Checker. Most customers will create standards files for their parts assemblies and drawings. That then drives the Design Checker via a .swstd file.

We create a standards file in SOLIDWORKS Design Checker. It can be a bit confusing to find the command, but it’s in the evaluate tab under called “Build Checks”.

Once the tool launches, simply select “Create a New Standards File”.

From there you will have a litany of standards to define for your given needs:

Once you have completed setting your standards, save the standards file.

Now “back at the ranch” – ok, over in the PDM Design Checker Task,

When we run the task on a given file we will want to select the appropriate standards file to check it against.

At the end of the day, hopefully you will see that there is an awful lot that SOLIDWORKS PDM has to offer. Go explore, create that sandbox test environment, and take a look for yourself.

Implementing a full list of tasks is a fun way to explore. Feel free to set up a sandbox environment and try out several of these and see where they apply for you. But, when it comes time to set these up in your production environment, don’t hesitate to reach out to CATI for some help!

Joe Frank
PLM Application Engineer
Computer Aided Technology

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 vault separately because they are separate entities. Basically, this ensures managed control of files in a secure location. Additionally, you manage each vault individually regarding permissions and objectives.

A local view appears to be a Windows shortcut with an PDM icon, sometimes affectionately called a “blueberry”.

This icon is more than just a software shortcut. It’s a secured folder structure that functions as a workspace, or cache, for the user when they check out and make changes to files. This local view lets users make controlled changes on a local file while still storing all versions of the file on a secure server.

A vault allows users to access a vault while having a singular place for all of their locally cached vault files to be stored and kept safe & secure.

How to create a Local Vault View:

1. Go to the Windows Start menu, find the SOLIDWORKS PDM folder, expand it, and select View Setup.
2. At the Welcome screen, click Next.
3. On the Select servers screen, select archive servers from the list and click Next .
4. You can manually add your archive server if it isn’t listed. Click Add, and in the Add server manually dialog box, enter the server name and port. Click OK and click Next.
5. If prompted for log-in information, ask your administrator for permission to add file vault views – called “Attach Access”.
6. On the Select vaults screen, select vaults from the list, and click Next.
7. In the Select location dialog box:
8. Under Attach location, browse to a location on your local machine for the file vault view.
9. Under Attach type, select one:
10. Only for me for a version that is only accessible to you.
11. For all users on this computer when you are working in a terminal environment.
12. Click Next.
13. Click Finish and then Close.

Windows Explorer shows the local vault view as a folder with a vault icon.

The icon appears in two places:

• In the location you selected in step 8.
• In the Favorites list at the top of the navigation pane.

Common Vault View Issues and How to Fix Them:

Vault is grayed out during setup, status “Attached”

The PDM vault name is grayed out during a ‘View Setup’ dialog when the local view already exists.

The vault view is usually on the C: drive. However, if it’s not there, you can find the vault view location by opening Windows Registry and checking some registry keys:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks\Applications\PDMWorks Enterprise\Vaults\[VAULTNAME]

Take a look on ‘ShellRoot’ key – it contains path to private vault view. If ‘ShellRoot’ is absent here, then it means a SHARED view was created, and you’ll have to check this path instead:

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks\Applications\PDMWorks Enterprise\Databases\[VAULTNAME]

Take a look on ‘ShellRoot’ key – it contains path to shared vault view.

Vault is grayed out during setup, message “Attached: Missing Information”

“Attached: Missing Information” normally means that there is some view information left in the Windows Registry after the attempted removal of a prior iteration of this vault view. You’ll just need to delete it and run the “View Setup” afterwards.

When you remove a view, the following Windows Registry keys shouldn’t exist. However, if they do, you can right-click and delete them.

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks\Applications\PDMWorks Enterprise\Vaults\[VAULTNAME]
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks\Applications\PDMWorks Enterprise\Databases\[VAULTNAME]
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\SolidWorks\Applications\PDMWorks Enterprise\Databases\[VAULTNAME]

Note: You may also need to check for those keys under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER path. The rest of the path (SOFTWARE\SolidWorks\… etc) will remain the same.

Once you remove any remaining keys, you should be able to re-open “View Setup” and run normally.

When deleting a Local Vault View, the warning “The view was created by ‘[system\user]’. Only ‘[system\user]’ or an administrator can remove it” appears.

Sometimes this is caused by a Windows profile other than the currently logged in one having created this vault view. If being logged in as the user listed in the warning or as an administrator still will not let you remove the Local Vault View – there might be some information incorrect or missing from the local view “desktop.ini” information file, preventing the removal.

To successfully delete the file vault view, you can just turn it into a “regular” Windows folder and delete normally.

1. Open a command prompt as an Administrator. Go to the Start menu, type cmd, right-click cmd.exe and select “Run as administrator”.
2. Step into the (hidden) local view root folder by typing ‘cd c:\nameofview’ and hit Enter. Don’t include the single quotes.
3. Change the attributes on the desktop.ini file to that of a regular Windows folder by typing ‘attrib –s –h –r desktop.ini’, and hit Enter.
4. You can then close command prompt and delete the folder as you would any other.

Defining a Large Archive Server

No, 50GB is not a large server. Also, no 100GB is not a large server. Or maybe that is large. My definition of a large archive server may be different than your definition. What we’re going to be discussing is how to handle whatever you define as large. For me, I generally would consider “large” as 250GB or larger. The trick is knowing where to find that information. Well, it’s easier to find than you think.

To figure out the size of your archive server, go to the following folder path on the archive server machine:

• C:\Program Files\SOLIDWORKS Corp\SOLIDWORKS PDM\Data\[VAULT NAME]

This path does assume you’re using the default file path. If your administrator distributed the archive (more on that later) or if it’s not local, check out this help file from SOLIDWORKS.

All you have to do is right-click on the vault name folder and select Properties. Now you have a view of roughly how many files are in your vault as well as the size. I say roughly because this includes all history as individual files. Additionally, there could be other files for formatting that you wouldn’t include in a file count.

Now that we’ve defined a large server, what can you do to manage it? In a dire situation, you can always move your file archives to a new server. You may want to do this when you’re just out of space, maybe have an older machine, and want a fresh start. However, not everybody has the resources or desire for setting up a new server. Instead, let’s talk about how we can manage a larger file archive.

Managing a Large Archive Server

Distributed File Archives

My SOLIDWORKS PDM environment is not the same as yours. My archive server might be 10TB (it isn’t) and yours might be 100GB. So it’s important that you maintain the data. In some instances, maintaining that data means distributing the archive to multiple drives. These drives could be additional drives on the same server or somewhere else on your domain. So, if you’re running low on space, this could be an appealing option for expanding your system.

To activate distribution, start in the archive server configuration tool. Once there, right-click on your vault and select Relocate.

Now, you’ll see a dialogue outlining your current allocation of the vault. If there’s no distribution, you should see something like this.

I do want to note that your smallest possible vault fragment is 1/16th of the vault. So no, you can’t have 100 different drives with each having 1% of the vault.

What you can do here is add more drive locations for the archive server to save files. As I said earlier, these drives can be anywhere that you have access to. I would recommend that these drives stay local to that server for performance reasons. Moving the drive farther away means more data users have to pull over the network. Keeping everything on the same intranet will give you better performance when getting your files.

Distributing the archive across multiple drives is a great way to make sure no one drive gets overloaded. But you might not have access to multiple drives and want to compress what you can. For that, we want to take a look at activating compression on the Archive Server.

Activating Compression

As I mentioned at the top, the archive server keeps every version of a file. But sometimes having every version active at the same time doesn’t make sense. Think about it; I have 32 versions of an assembly going back 3 years. How often will I access version 3? Likely not all that often. So what can we do to manage that? Well cold storage is a great tool for moving or deleting old versions from the archive server. That’s one thing you can do to pair it with distributed file archives, but what if you only have one drive dedicated to PDM?

That’s where activating archive compression comes in. Justin Webster wrote a blog about that exact thing a few years back and it’s a great resource to learn more. Let me give you the high level overview. Archive compression isn’t activated by default. Instead, the server keeps every file at full size. So, by turning on compression, PDM will compress every version of a file that isn’t the latest version.

What this does for you is it keeps the latest version in an optimal format for use. It also makes sure that you don’t lose older files or move them someplace that’s difficult to access, like Cold Storage might. Everything stays on a single server for easy access. When you want to grab an older file, the archive server decompresses the file and you access it like normal.

Next Steps

There are steps to work with large archive servers. Some people get 10TB hard drives to make sure they never run out of space. Others, however, may not be so lucky. So to help reduce the need for insanely large hard drives, there are a few things we can look into.

If you have enough space on your server, no need to rush into compressing or distributing your archives. However, planning ahead can make sure you don’t run into any problems in the future. For some people, the future is now. So what can you do to minimize your vault impact? If you can, work out a plan to distribute your files across multiple drives. Ensure those drives are on your local network and they can handle the load from the archive server.

An additional step you should look into is compressing your archives. Compression works on every file in the archives that’s not the latest version, ensuring you don’t lose time getting compressed files. This is a great option to minimize the impact each file has on the storage space. There are a few high-level configuration steps, so understanding what each section means can improve your configuration.

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! Many customers don’t realize that when we are challenged with working from home, there are some options we should consider at a minimum to improve our experience within the SOLIDWORKS PDM arena.

Some of these options are a must do when working from home, think of them as saving some of the bandwidth that we are all struggling for during this time.

Turn off the PDM Add-In

Disable the PDM Add-In entirely and perform Check Ins and Check Outs from the Windows Explorer Vault View. It takes time to load the add-in and, as we’ll talk about later, this will help PDM from talking to the server more than you need it to. When you’re working from home in PDM, every second counts.

But, if you’re a hardcore SOLIDWORKS user and just can’t live without it, at a minimum – Disable automatic updates in the PDM add-in within SOLIDWORKS

Plug it in

With the advent of so many newer, low-cost routers, and their ever improving antenna systems, it’s all too easy for us to work at the kitchen table, or the quiet den, or maybe that hideaway man cave in the basement. But be careful, is that WiFi signal really as good as you think? PDM by nature is a very “chatty” application and is designed around the use of a wired LAN. Contrast that with the fact that Wi-Fi is not reliable and is very “dynamic” or “varies” based on many factors, and you can see a problem. Follow these simple steps to make sure you’ll have a good, stable connection:

• Use a CAT5e rated or better RJ-45 cable
• Directly connect to your home router
• Turn off your computer’s Wi-Fi

Avoid large tasks through VPN

Avoid performing large tasks that require a consistent and reliable connection for a long period of time.

For example:

• Refrain from moving large folders or file sets with references
• Mass check in of files
• Mass check out of files
• Deleting a large file set

Save those big tasks for that day or two of the week you get to go in the office. Remember when going into the office seemed like a chore? Now it’s almost like a vacation!

Think about working offline

For those of us with less than stellar connectivity, think about working offline if you’re working from home. With PDM that is almost as easy as a click of the mouse. BUT, it takes a little bit of pre-planning for it to be a smooth effort when you’re working from home.

Notice some column information missing? When working off line we don’t have the luxury of seeing all that meta data typically seen in our column sets when we are connected to the “PDM database”.

Because of this, working off-line requires some pre-planning.

• Files should NEVER be renamed when in offline mode.
• As for new files, they will have to be added to the vault manually after going back into online mode.
• This type of effort usually works best if you have a very specific project or design you’re working on.
• You must cache all referenced files you will need to access when disconnected.
  • This can be accomplished by selecting a folder (or individual files) and choosing Get Latest Version.

Remember to also, check out any files you are going to edit before you go offline. When you disconnect by choosing Tools > Work Offline the Explorer will close and when you reopen it, the vault folders will be blue instead of green.

Back to that missing metadata.

The system won’t have access to the “PDM database” so the Columns view, Data Card, Bill of Materials, Contains and Where used tabs will be empty.

Because of this, think about doing a search that includes the files you will be working with whether checked out or not and save the results.

A quick click of the open search results icon and….

Now you can search your results file with Excel to possibly gain useful information while working offline. Don’t forget to save them to a handy location once you have them open in Excel!

When you are ready to reconnect, you can go to Tools > Work Online and the folders will return to green and you can check in your modified files.

Is Web2 for me?

For some, a more casual need to connect to PDM is needed. Web2 might just be the tool for you! Web2 is an excellent method of connecting to your PDM environment from mobile devices for simple viewing and approving of files. It also works well if you are a vendor/supplier needing light duty access.

It requires no client-side installation of PDM, and supports all major web browsers. However, it will require your IT department to setup some Microsoft IIS requirements for hosting.

There is an excellent recording of our recent webinar about using web2: https://youtu.be/LaoCzSZP9VA

All in all, working from home can be a pleasurable experience, distractions included. Just remember, when you’re working from home and using SOLIDWORKS PDM, there are several options to support your needs to have a healthy and productive connectivity to your data.

Server & Cloud don’t go together, right?

Yes, they do! First of all, it’s easy to obtain a cloud hosted server through any number of providers today. InFlow has partnered with Advance 2000 to provide customers with industry leading hosted services technology. Further, SOLIDWORKS PDM doesn’t really care or know if you’re hosting the server in a data center or a closet. Therefore, if your current business case calls for it, we can recommend looking into this solution. Finally, we also welcome customers with their own cloud hosted solutions (i.e. Azure or AWS hosted environments).

Infrastructure

Repeatedly, I have seen hesitation and fear surrounding cloud hosted server infrastructure. Over time, I’ve learned that this isn’t something you should be afraid of. Let’s dive a bit deeper and investigate three major components involved with cloud hosting:

1. Location, location, location! Where you are located has a huge effect on the system overall performance. Thus, some of the larger providers have data centers scattered all around the globe to serve this purpose better.
2. Setup! This is another major factor that affects cloud-hosted environment performance. Let’s investigate a couple of different cloud-hosted server setups to get a better understanding on this topic.
3. Support

EX1: Cloud Hosted Server + SOLIDWORKS PDM

Data Center: This is the main location where your data is stored. Usually, the cloud-hosting provider owns this.

Office: This is the main office location, where most users work and access the vault.

User at home: This category is growing significantly. Today, more and more users are working from home.

Site-to-site VPN: This is a permanent connection between the cloud hosted server and your office. IT encrypts this connection between the two locations. It’s much more robust (and faster) than regular remote access. Typically, it is setup as an IPsec connection.

VPN: A secure connection between user machines and their office server.

If needed, you can make a connection from end users directly to the cloud hosted server. There are several factors dictating this situation. Please reach out to InFlow or your account manager with any questions.

EX2: Cloud hosted server + SOLIDWORKS PDM + Archive Replication

Data Center: Main location where your data is stored, it is usually owned by the cloud hosted service provider.

Office: Main office location, where most users work from

Office 2: Secondary office location.

User at home: This category has been growing significantly, more and more users are working from home today.

Site to site VPN: Permanent connection between the cloud hosted server and your office. IT encrypts this connection between the two locations. It is much more robust and faster than regular remote access. Typically, it is setup as an IPsec connection.

VPN: Secure connection between user machines and their office server.

PDM Replication: Access the SOLIDWORKS help site for more information on SOLIDWORKS PDM Archive replication.

If needed, you can create a direct connection between end users and the cloud hosted server. This is usually dictated by the current customer situation and is influenced by many different factors. Please reach out to InFlow or your account manager with any questions.

Support

Let us get the elephant out of this room, shall we? Unfortunately, due to the high number of variables surrounding cloud hosted solutions, SOLIDWORKS doesn’t fully support every cloud environment. Let me explain what this really means.

If software issues arise on an installation that utilizes these environments, SOLIDWORKS and Computed Aided Technology will attempt to reproduce the issue on a supported environment. If validated, we will pursue a solution just like any other support case. However, if we determine that the issue isn’t related to SOLIDWORKS and SOLIDWORKS PDM, we’ll to the best of our ability, convey this information to you.

Key Takeaway

In this blog, we discussed how SOLIDWORKS PDM can be used with cloud hosted servers. We also talked about the benefits and situations that might make you think about using SOLIDWORKS PDM on a cloud environment. Finally, we discussed a couple of different ways you can use a cloud-hosted service to host your current environment. We always want to help you find the right solution that fits what you need. If a cloud hosted solution is something you want to look into, please reach out to InFlow and Computer Aided Technology. We’re happy to answer any questions you may have about it.

In the output file details, go to the convert task “Advanced Scripting Options”. Next, find the section where the swDocSpecification options are being defined and add the following line: swDocSpecification.DetailingMode = True (As seen below.)

Remember, SOLIDWORKS does NOT refresh the drawing views when you open a drawing in detail mode. The behavior is as if you’re using eDrawings to open the file. If one of the drawing’s component has changed since the drawing was last saved, the drawing will not update. So, you should ensure that you rebuild the drawing, as well as its components before saving. Yet many people consider the fact that the views do not automatically update a good thing for a task. The drawing’s output will be exactly like what the drawing looked like when the user last saved the file.

One last clever benefit to the detailing mode is any annotations linked to file properties still update (so data card changes are still seen) and even many changes made by the API within the Advanced Scripting Options will be updated in the output as well.

File format

The help file states this feature only works for drawings saved in the 2020 format or later. Detailing mode isn’t even available when trying to open an older version through the user interface. I have tested the task with older drawing files, the task still works -you do not get all of the detailing mode functionality. I don’t think it makes sense for most people to update their drawing’s file format just to gain this functionality.

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 to PDF, or many other file formats.
• Project Folder Templates
  • Use PDM templates inside your vault to automate the process of building documents and folders for multiple customer projects.
• Engineering Change Notices
  • Streamline the engineering change process as well as link information between PDM and ECN/ECO documents.

Now, let’s take a closer look at using PDM templates to simplify your process.

Automated Tasks with PDM Templates

When we release files ready for production, most of us make a document to share beyond engineering. That chore gets rather monotonous at times, especially when the release is a large one. I remember my intern days standing in front of a blueprint machine. I remember standing there for hours, making dozens and dozens of prints. Ah the smell of ammonia…don’t miss it a bit.

Today, we have much better tools at our disposal. A good one inside SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional is the convert task. With SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional 2017 we have several enhancements to the convert task. We now have convert tools for Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), DraftSight (.dwg), and MBD. All of these can be set-up and triggered to run automatically in your workflow.

Project Folder Templates and Engineering Change Notices

For anyone in Engineering, you’re probably familiar with an ECN or similar release process to get approvals for design changes.  And, if you’ve been working intimately with CAD files, you know there may be limited folder structures for various projects. Or, like most of us, you wished there was a finite and consistent set of folders for each project. We’ve all logged into a network drive, only to find the project folders with random folder names and structure. Not only is it confusing to look at, but it makes it nearly impossible to find our data!

With PDM Professional, you can resolve this with a tool called “Templates”.

For example, below are some screenshots of working on a template for automating an ECN process. It automatically populates and vaults Excel or Word documents, readying them for routing through an ECN approval process.

Let’s look at another example. If you look below, we have a screenshot of a template for automatically creating project sub-folders.  This PDM template asks the user for the project information. Then not only builds the correct (and consistent) folder structure, but populates necessary folders with template documents.

And of course, if you want to speak to someone about SOLIDWORKS PDM, just let us know.

Related Articles

SOLIDWORKS Workgroup PDM Retirement – Are You Prepared?

Your Training Starts Here: Saying Goodbye to SOLIDWORKS Workgroup PDM

About the Author

Joe Frank began using SOLIDWORKS and PDM back in 2008 and joined InFlow Technology as an Applications Engineer in 2015. Joe has over 25 years of automotive tier one experience principally in the convertible top field. With his life experience and certifications as a PDM Administrator and Data Management Specialist, Joe brings a practical and enthusiastic approach to any PDM demonstration or implementation effort.

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 you just want to make it work, skip to the next section.]

Dispatch doesn’t have a “share file” command. However, it does let us to run our own custom code with the shell command. I haven’t found a limit to the amount of text you can add to the shell command, so we have lots of options.

Here is the PowerShell code that we’ll have the shell command execute:

• Line 1 creates a PowerShell variable containing the PDM vault object.
• %NameofCurrentVault% is a Dispatch variable. Dispatch will replace the variable name text with the name of the vault.
• %SharedFolder% is the name of the custom variable that you will create below. This line creates a PowerShell variable that contains the object of the target folder for the shared file.
• %PathToSelectedFile% in line four is also a Dispatch variable, it is the name of the file the Dispatch routine is working on. You’ll notice GetFileFromPath it is using the $folder variable as its second parameter. PowerShell requires that you declare the second parameter as a folder object. So, I am using the same $folder variable as defined in the previous line. Since PowerShell passes GetFileFromPath’s second parameter by reference, you would expect the $folder variable value to update to a new value after that line is run. However, since I don’t have a “[ref]” prefix in front of the variable, the variable remains unchanged. This is good because I don’t need the file’s folder anyway.
• At this point I have all I need to share the file. Line three defines the folder, the file in line four. The AddFileShared function in line five is used to actually create the shared file.

Take this code and combine all five lines into one, separated with semicolons. Then, tell the shell execute command you want to run the code with PowerShell by putting the word “PowerShell.exe” at the beginning of the line and put all of the code inside of double quotes.

Implementation

First, in Dispatch, create a new administrative action. Next, create a custom variable named “SharedFolder”. Give this variable the value shared folder name. But be careful, don’t include the trailing backslash!

Then, add an action with “Shell Execute” as the command. Choose to have the shell run a command line and paste this text in as the command:

$vault = New-Object -COMObject ConisioLib.EdmVault;$vault.LoginAuto('%NameOfCurrentVault%',0);$folder=$vault.GetFolderFromPath('%SharedFolder%');$file=$vault.GetFileFromPath('%PathToSelectedFile%',$folder);$folder.AddFileShared($file.id,0)

This code blindly tries to create the shared file. There is no feedback to the user if the command was successful. If you figure the risk is rather low if this doesn’t work, leave “Halt execution of script until Shell command is completed” unchecked. This will improve performance quite a bit if you are sharing many files at one time, However if you would like to give your user some feedback on if the file was shared successfully, you need to check this option and add a “Get File” command, as I’ll describe next.

I don’t have a clean way to report the success of the sharing process. The easiest/fastest tool I have found is to add a “Get File” command. The “Get File” command complains to the user if it could not find a file. It won’t say anything if everything works as expected. If you want this check, add the “Get File” action and configure as below.

%SharedFolder%\%NameOfSelectedFile%

Two more things. First, set the activation of this Dispatch action to occur during a state transition and/or a menu command. Then, enclose the above two actions in a “For all documents” block so the action will cycle through all files.

The complete Dispatch script should look like this:

Deleting the share

There isn’t a special procedure in deleting a shared file. The procedure is exactly the same as deleting any other file.

But maybe you want Dispatch to delete it for you. (Probably because a workflow transition is doing this work.) Create a new administrative action, create the same “SharedFolder” variable, create a Delete file action, define it as below, and sandwich between a “For all documents block”.

%SharedFolder%\%NameOfSelectedFile%

If you want to get rid of the little shared icon, you need to destroy the share.