It’s October, so it’s time to continue with our What’s New in SOLIDWORKS 2023 blog series! Today, I’m going to walk through my domain of SOLIDWORKS – data management. I’ll let Joe Frank handle Manage, so today, I’m going to talk about What’s New in SOLIDWORKS PDM 2023. There are several great enhancements that make life easier for administrators, the vault easier to navigate for users, and some other fantastic quality-of-life improvements.  You can watch this content in video format as well:

Let’s kick this off by talking about our login process for the administration tool.

Automatic login to the admin tool

Starting off with our What’s New in PDM trip, I’ll give the administrators a little love. Not every administrator sits around working in the admin tool all day long. Most are everyday engineers that occasionally go behind the scenes and make changes. A small headache every admin deals with is that logging into the vault view doesn’t log you into the Administration tool. Well, new in SOLIDWORKS PDM 2023, we have auto-login and it’s configurable! For PDM, you can automatically log in as the active Windows user (Active Directory, PDM Professional only) or set the tool to log in as a specific user. It removes a step for any administrator that just needs to make a simple change. Who doesn’t love that?

Control Logic Indicator

Control logic is a great way to augment your data cards. They let you create conditions for how PDM populates values and gives you ultimate control. But it’s not always clear where you’re using it. For example, in PDM 2022, I could have control logic setup on 4 fields on my card. However, I have no way of knowing that without writing it down somewhere. New in SOLIDWORKS PDM 2023 though, we see indicators on our data card, showing which controls use control logic and which ones do not. This is immensely helpful for environments with multiple administrators or if you aren’t regularly modifying your cards. Now you have clear notes about which controls use logic and which ones do not.

Tooltips for data cards

I’ve talked about being a DriveWorks Professional more than once. I think it’s an amazing tool that anybody can use. One of the things that I like the most about the user interface is the tooltips. Tooltips are basically mini-instructions to help you find your way. They tell you how fields should populate and let you understand your environment. But I’m not here to talk about DriveWorks.

Nope, all of that was a setup because now SOLIDWORKS PDM offers the same thing! For all the same reasons, tooltips are a welcome enhancement in SOLIDWORKS PDM 2023. Now when you fill in your data cards, you can be confident that the information you type is exactly what it’s supposed to be. No more cleanup later for the administrators! (Okay, maybe a little bit, but hopefully less now).

File retrieval log

I’ve been wondering when we would see this one! SOLIDWORKS PDM is a great tool for managing which users have access to files. However, we’ve never had a native SOLIDWORKS PDM tool that tracks which users are retrieving files. Sure, we have tools like CacheMeter to help with this, but it would be nice to at least monitor these actions in the PDM interface. Now we can! With the file retrieval log on the PDM server, we can easily see which users retrieve which files, the pinged archive server, and the client machine IP address.

Encrypted file traffic between archive server and client

Speaking of file security, one of the biggest questions I’m asked with SOLIDWORKS PDM revolves around file encryption. Prior to 2023, you could encrypt traffic between the SQL Server and Client machines, but not between the archive server and clients. Now, SOLIDWORKS PDM encrypts file traffic between the archive server and the client machines, further protecting your intellectual property.

Windows 11 support

You know that blue dot in your system tray that you’ve been avoiding? Yeah, that one that says you can upgrade to Windows 11… Well, I have some great news! SOLIDWORKS PDM 2023 officially supports Windows 11, so no more worrying about when you can upgrade and finally get rid of that notification. While this technically started in 2022’s later service packs, 2023 is the first full version to support Windows 11. Get excited because now you can learn that brand-new operating system!

What’s New in 2023 Wrap-Up

The SOLIDWORKS PDM 2023 release has several enhancements that we’ve been waiting for. I think my favorite one is the file retrieval log, but any of these would be an excellent choice. Everyone from the PDM administrator down to the PDM newbie is going to have an easier time working in the PDM vault. On top of the useability enhancements, the file security improvements ensure that everyone has a secure vault.

Enjoy your newest release PDM junkies! I can’t wait to see what we have in store next year!

I hope this part of the What’s New series gives you a better understanding of the new features and functions of SOLIDWORKS 2023. Please check back to the CATI Blog as the CATI Application Engineers will continue to break down many of the new items in SOLIDWORKS 2023. All these articles will be stored in the category of “SOLIDWORKS What’s New.”

Nick Sweeney

Marketing Communications Specialist & Data Management Expert

Computer Aided Technology

What is Design Innovation Month?

DESIGN INNOVATION MONTH 2022 – Live Events, Webinars, Virtual Showroom, Contests

Design Innovation Month is CATI’s “What’s New in 2023” event for SOLIDWORKS, 3DEXPERIENCE, and 3D Printing & 3D Scanning technology. This year we’re going back to the future to bring you in-person events, live and on-demand webinars, demonstrations, in-depth blog posts, and prizes! Best of all, it’s free of charge! Check the DI Month Hub for all the details and to sign up for your nearest live event.

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

SOLIDWORKS Electrical PDM connector

It is very easy to get your SOLIDWORKS Electrical data into your SOLIDWORKS PDM Vault to gain control and use workflows for your data. The SOLIDWORKS Electrical PDM connector tool is available for use in the application.

The users of SOLIDWORKS Electrical will also see a new tab added to their ribbon menu named SOLIDWORKS PDM that will give them functions to operate with PDM.

The integration tool will be an add-in to the specified PDM vault

Configuring the PDM Connector

You can configure the SOLIDWORKS Electrical PDM connector by opening the PDM administration and logging into the vault. From here, you will go to Add-ins and right-click on the connector and select the SOLIDWORKS Electrical Integration Administration option.

The SOLIDWORKS Electrical Integration Administration window has three tabs named General settings, BOM settings, and File structure. General settings define the configuration for the most important system values and BOM settings define the settings for handling Bills Of Materials. File structure defines the configuration for file and folder names in SOLIDWORKS PDM and the mapping rules for the attributes going to PDM Variables.

When an electrical project is first checked into the PDM vault, each project book gets a folder with individual copies of each schematic. Within this folder, you will have a folder containing the project’s individual schematics in .dwg format if you so desire. A complete archive of the project is included as well as a full PDF of the design. These ensure downstream data users have clear and concise visibility of the entire Electrical project.

To find out more information on SOLIDWORKS Electrical or SOLIDWORKS PDM, reach out to your local rep or visit our website!

Corey Kubichka
CATI Electrical Product Manager
Computer Aided Technology

Update: As of the release of 2022 SP02 and later, SOLIDWORKS and SOLIDWORKS PDM both support Windows 11. If you have upgraded both components (if applicable) of your system to 2022 SP02, you should be able to use Windows 11 OS and be in a supported environment.

Be sure to stop by the SOLIDWORKS System Requirements page before making any environment changes so you can ensure your software will be compatible!

As of December 2021, SOLIDWORKS 2022 has been available to download, and that means a ton of exciting new features and bug fixes are available. If you’d like to read a bit more about that, check out our compilation of the What’s New 2022 blog series! If you’re just interested in the PDM news, check out our PDM-specific article.

It’s always a treat to see what new features SOLIDWORKS is bringing to the table with their yearly updates, but this release is a little different. We aren’t just getting a new SOLIDWORKS version this year; we get a new Windows OS as well! I’m sure you’ve heard the hype about Windows 11, and if not, feel free to check out Microsoft’s release for everything you need to know.

While it might be really tempting to check out the new OS, don’t click that upgrade button just yet!

Per SOLIDWORKS’ system requirements, Windows 11 support isn’t here yet. We are expecting support for Windows 11 in one of the upcoming service packs, but we don’t have any firm details on exactly which one or when that will be at this time.

Below is a list of the expected release dates for service packs throughout the year. Please note that these aren’t guaranteed times, rather, they’re rough estimates of what to expect based on past releases:

• SP00 – November 2021
• SP01 – January 2022
• SP02 – March 2022
• SP03 – May 2022
• SP04 – August 2022
• SP05 – November 2022

The good news is that SOLIDWORKS will continue to support Windows 10 for the foreseeable future, so there’s no rush in getting Windows 11 if you don’t want to. SOLIDWORKS always works as fast as possible to get support when a new OS is released, but ensuring the platforms are compatible is incredibly important when it comes to stability.

We have had customers upgrade to Windows 11 and we know that some SOLIDWORKS platforms seem to function somewhat normally, while others become completely non-functional. SOLIDWORKS PDM is one of the platforms that will not work as expected (if it works at all), so we strongly urge you to hold off upgrading if at all possible.

If you made the jump and are having troubles? No worries! Act quickly and you can likely get right back to working order. There is currently a 10-day grace period after upgrading to 11 where you can revert to your old OS with minimal work. Microsoft released an article describing the process.

As with any system changes, always talk to your IT team and PDM admin prior to moving forward with anything like this.

On one last note, remember to check in your files on a regular basis! We recommend checking in files at least once a day if possible. The more recently and often you check your files in, the less likely you are to lose data if anything happens!

As always, if you have any questions or concerns that aren’t covered by this article, please don’t hesitate in reaching out to your account manager or our support team at technical.support@cati.com. We’re more than happy to help.

Rowan Gray
PLM Support Engineer
Computer Aided Technology

Importing the Print Task

If you aren’t familiar, PDM Professional comes with a few native tasks. One of those lets you print drawings either on demand or as part of the workflow. The first thing you need to do is import the CEX file to your vault.

1. Right-click on your PDM Professional vault and select Import
2. Next, browse to where you installed your vault. Typically, that’s under the C Drive. From there, go to “Program Files\SOLIDWORKS Corp\SOLIDWORKS PDM\Default Data” and select the Print_gb.cex file.

If you check under your tasks, you’ll see a task titled Print. So, now that we’ve imported the task, let’s talk about configuring it to print those drawing packets.

Configuring to Print Drawing Packets

As with every task, we start by picking from a standard set of options. Mainly, who gets to run the task, what machine is in charge of executing it, and what the menu command looks like. But where we want to focus is the middle of our options list, under the Files subsection.

Let’s walk through these options, starting at the top. Recently, I spoke with a PDM admin that didn’t want to make his users think. For his situation, he needs to uncheck the top option. That makes it an autonomous task that always uses the default options.

Next, we see our options for which references to print. While they’re self-explanatory, our option for printing just the drawing packets is the second radio button. Selecting the parts and sub-assemblies option doesn’t print drawings, while the final selection would print models and drawings both.

The third option to pick from is which version to print. This is an important question and one that might not be as straightforward as initially thought. For that reason, you can ask the user if they want to print the latest version or the referenced version of files.

Finally, set up a location to save any log files. While it may not seem important today, the first time the task misfires, you’ll be grateful you know where to find the log file.

That’s all there is to it! The task is straightforward and something you can set up in just a few minutes. So, when users run the print task , this is the dialog box they’ll see (assuming you checked that box):

Wrap It Up

The PDM Print Task is a powerful tool. Some people use it to just print one drawing at a time, but it can do much more than that. With a few changes in your options, the print task becomes the perfect solution to let you print a full packet of drawings without any custom work. Making sure you use what’s available to you, that’s the power of SOLIDWORKS PDM.

Nick Sweeney
PLM Application Engineer
Computer Aided Technology

Task visibility

Some users can be assigned hundreds of tasks at a time. The number of items sitting in our “to do” lists can be overwhelming. There are times we need to order our tasks based on importance as well as keep track of cancelled tasks. With the release of SOLIDWORKS Manage 2022, you now can order tasks in projects, show or hide cancelled tasks in any task list with an icon, and change the default setting for visibility on new tasks. Let’s look closer at each option:

Setting Task Order in Projects

Project Managers and users now have an easy way to reorder their tasks within projects. The task tab now includes up and down icons that allow the user to modify the tasks position within the list. This is a great way to set priority within a large list.

See Cancelled Tasks

We’ve been able to show or hide completed tasks for some time. Now, cancelled tasks can now be shown or hidden as well. This happens via a new icon that is remembered for each object, as well as in the home screen.

Also, a new icon has replaced the previous check box to show or hide completed tasks. The show or hide completed task icon and the new show or hide cancelled task icons are found right next to each other. This change has been made for all task interfaces, to streamline icon location.

Public & Private Task Controls

To help maintain company preferences when creating new tasks, a global setting has been added to control whether tasks are created as public, private, or to let the user decide. When setup as “let the user decide,” the setting defaults to the individual user’s “My Options” setting. This will help standardize how task visibility is set for all users.

Task Board

Now in SOLIDWORKS Manage 2022, tasks can easily be added through the task board feature. Under each “Group By” list within the task board, a new button labelled “New Task” has been added. This button allows us to create new tasks based on the grouping. Previously, new tasks could only be added in Group By lists that did not have any existing tasks. This is another way SOLIDWORKS Manage users can work in a way that best fits their needs.

Edit Completed Tasks

Many of us have marked a task “complete” in Manage, prematurely. It never fails, we mark the task complete, then the next day the project manager determines that it’s not actually complet Previously, there wasn’t much we could do about a completed task. Now in 2022, tasks marked as completed can be edited by the owner or an administrator via the “Mark as uncompleted” command. This feature enables additional work or information to be added to the task. It’s simple to mark a task as uncompleted. Just right click and select “Mark as uncomplete,” and the task becomes editable once again. The Complete (%) will be set back to 99%, and the action removes the setting to calculate completion from time allocated. This allows more time to be added; then the setting can be re- enabled if desired.

Creating Tasks – Auto Assignment

This next one is great if you are responsible to creating tasks for other users. In the 2022 release, tasks are automatically assigned to the user selected in the Home>Tasks module when creating a new task. This is great for streamlining the task creation process, right from the home screen. It’s always nice to cut out an extra step or two.

Tasks in SOLIDWORKS Add-in

The SOLIDWORKS Manage add-in for SOLIDWORKS CAD has gotten some extra love this release. My favorite feature on this release, is the new task tab in the SOLIDWORKS Manage add-in. I can see all the tasks assigned to me, or just the tasks that have SOLIDWORKS files as attachments. Now my drafters can see their tasks without leaving the CAD file.

Additionally, we can see Manage tasks and comments for files we have open, right from the add-in. This enhancement gives us task visibility without leaving SOLIDWORKS. With the task visibility, users will see tasks associated to any of the files in the structure. Comments are now displayed in the same section. This lets me keep my drafters informed, and make sure nothing gets missed.

Want more info about SOLIDWORKS Manage or SOLIDWORKS PDM? Give us a call or contact your account manager today!

I hope this part of the “What’s New” series gives you a better understanding of the new features and functions of SOLIDWORKS 2022. Please check back to the CATI Blog, as the CATI Application Engineers will continue to break down many of the new items in SOLIDWORKS 2022. All these articles will be stored in the category of “SOLIDWORKS What’s New.”

Michael King
PLM Solutions Architect
Computer Aided Technology

Searching with EXALEAD with PDM 2022

Searching with SOLIDWORKS PDM has always been one of my top features. With SOLIDWORKS PDM, you search based on what you know. Maybe you know the description of a part or who the vendor is. Those are great, but what if I want to search for a part that looks like what I’ve got? PDM has always lacked geometry searching. Integration with EXALEAD OnePart enables content searching for CAD files instead of only text-based documents.

It’s hard to describe every part perfectly with a data card. Some files have more detail and others have less. The whole point of the card is to find the most common properties and collect them for searching/filtering. EXALEAD by itself indexes CAD models to search on content and integrating that with SOLIDWORKS PDM 2022 takes PDM searches to a whole new level.

eDrawings Viewer for Preview

The existing file preview for SOLIDWORKS PDM is nice, but it could be better. For example, we can’t make a section view of a model, nor can we animate the models’ movement. Well, with SOLIDWORKS PDM 2022, now have the full eDrawings Viewer available in the preview tab.

What this means for you is no more opening files just to do a section view. That gives you better performance by taking fewer clicks to get what you need. It also means installing fewer applications and having the full preview right where you need it.

Open a Drawing Easier in PDM 2022

Raise your hand if you use the “Open Drawing” feature in SOLIDWORKS to grab a drawing for parts and assemblies. Okay, that didn’t work so well in a blog, but I’m guessing a lot of you raised your hand. Now think about your PDM interface inside SOLIDWORKS. You can view properties, transition the file, view the history, and so on. However, there isn’t an “Open Drawing” button.

SOLIDWORKS PDM 2022 changes all of that by adding the button to the SOLIDWORKS Add-In. But, in my opinion, this is even better than using the right click menu. With these drawings in PDM, we already have references built up. This means that using “Open Drawing” will find the drawing in the vault, even if it’s in a different folder and has a different name.

Now you can spend more time working on the files you need instead of digging through the vault for a simple drawing file.

Understand Impacted Files

It’s a simple thing, but when you check out an assembly and the children, how many parts are you grabbing? The more components you check out, the more time the operation takes. Well, with SOLIDWORKS PDM 2022, you can see exactly how many files you’re affecting.

Checking files out is only one way you touch the database. Think about everything else you do throughout the day. Getting files, routing things for approval, rolling back files – those are all database intense actions. So, minimizing the number of touches with that database improves your day-to-day performance. Therefore, in addition to letting you know how many files you’re affecting during check out, you see the same enhancement for checking in files, getting files, undoing checkout, changing state, and rolling back.

A Better Where Used

You use different configurations for different reasons. For example, you might have different sizes of bolts as configurations. One is 8mm, one is 10mm, and so on. Thinking about SOLIDWORKS PDM 2021 (and older), the Where Used tab tells you where you’re using any version of the file, but not which configuration specifically at the same time. But, with SOLIDWORKS PDM 2022, you have the dropdown to select a configuration to show where you use all versions.

Web2 Enhancements in PDM 2022

Data cards on the web aren’t the same as data cards for your engineers. And that makes sense, right? Engineers might need information such as the machine ID for manufacturing. However, if I’m on the web, I probably don’t need that much detail. Well, new in SOLIDWORKS PDM 2022, we can customize data cards for Web2 users.

In addition to selecting fields for the Web2 card, we also have dedicated editor for the Web2 data card. Here, we can modify names for the fields and change the order of those fields. In general, this makes for a better user experience with users only seeing the information they need.

Fully Preview Other CAD Models in Web2

Web2 is great for reviewing files on the go. Well, most files that is. Long-time users of the Web2 viewer know that the viewer is limited beyond SOLIDWORKS CAD files. But I’ve got some good news for you. Now you can view additional CAD formats in the Web2 viewer.

Recap

SOLIDWORKS PDM 2022 introduces several features designed to help you understand your files. First, we see a more complete picture for impacted files. New in SOLIDWORKS PDM 2022, we have statistics for how many files we affect with different actions.

Next, we have an improved Where Used tab. Now, you can look for all versions and all configurations at the same time. This gives you a feel for how you’re using your models. And speaking of your models, we see multiple enhancements with Web2 that help you visualize your files. We have expanded support to view other CAD types, as well as a more flexible data card. This means remote users will always be able to get the information they need, right from the web.

I hope this part of the What’s New series gives you a better understanding of the new features and functions of SOLIDWORKS 2022. Please check back to the CATI Blog as the CATI Application Engineers will continue to break down many of the new items in SOLIDWORKS 2022. All these articles will be stored in the category of “SOLIDWORKS What’s New.”

Nick Sweeney
PLM Application Engineer
Computer Aided Technology

What is Design Innovation Month?

DESIGN INNOVATION MONTH 2021 – Webinars, Virtual Showroom, Contests
Design Innovation Month is CATI’s massive “What’s New in 2022” event for SOLIDWORKS, 3DEXPERIENCE, and 3D printing & 3D scanning technology.  That’s six weeks of live and on-demand webinars, demonstrations, in-depth blog posts, and prizes!  Best of all, it’s free of charge!  Check the DI Month Hub for all the details and to sign up for your next event. 

License keys for the Document Manager are provided directly by SOLIDWORKS. To get one, you must login to the SOLIDWORKS Customer Portal.

If you haven’t already, you will need to create an account and register your SOLIDWORKS serial number. The registered serial number must be on subscription to be granted a Document Manager API license key.

1. After logging in, click on ‘API Support’ on the main page as shown below:

This will take you to the API Support page.

Click on the link, “Document Manager Key Request”.

Then, click on the link to request a new license.

A window will pop-up asking you several questions.

Fill out your personal information. Then accept the license agreement and click Submit.

You’re done! Just wait for a license to get e-mailed to you. Note, it could take several days so plan ahead!

When you receive the license, it will need to be installed. Use this link to the online help files if you need guidance doing that. If you don’t receive your license, you can recheck the website and if one has been generated, you can have it resent.

If you are interested in learning more about SOLIDWORKS API or the document API specifically, check out our API class or reach out to your account manager for more information!

Joe Phillips
Application Engineer
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

In PDM 2020, the transition of a parent file can be prevented unless its immediate children meet conditions. It is now much easier to avoid, for example, accidentally approving an assembly before its referenced parts are approved.

When these conditions are defined in PDM 2020 a parent file can be transitioned ONLY if one of the following is true:

• The parent file’s children are NOT selected to transition with the parent file and are already in a state that meets the defined conditions. In other words, the parent file’s children are already released.
• The parent file’s children ARE selected with the parent file and will be transitioned to a state that meets the defined conditions. In other words, the parent file’s children are being released at the same time as the parent.
• The warning, Child references do not meet the state conditions, is not set to block the operation. It is important to note that this warning WILL be set to block the operation for new and upgraded users. Please see below for a screenshot of the default setting. In other words, if you define conditions that are not met, parent files will not transition unless you unblock the warning.

Let’s look at an example to get a feel for the functionality. First, examine the simple workflow below.

Let’s set up a condition to prevent a parent file from being sent to the Released state before its referenced parts are released. We’ll start by opening the Release Documents transition and going to the Conditions tab. From there:

• Click to add a condition and select Child Reference State:

• In the next column select a comparison operator:

• In the value column select the appropriate state if you have chosen either Text Equal To or Text Not Equal To. If you’ve chosen Text Compare, the required format is workflow name.state name. Wildcard characters can be used.
• The last column, Configuration / Path, is left blank to apply the condition to all immediate child references. If desired, wildcard characters can also be used here to specify only certain file names or file paths.

In this case the condition is going to look like the one below. That is, a parent file will be prevented from changing states unless all of its immediate children are released.

If a user attempts to release a parent file before its children are released, they will see a warning in the transition dialog box like the one pictured below. The screenshot shows a warning preventing the Door Assembly.SLDASM from being released. Notice the Handle, D.SLDPRT is still in Pending Approval and not checked to be released.

The second screenshot below shows what happens after you also select the Handle, D.SLDPRT to be released. The warning goes away because we are releasing the child file at the same time as the parent.

This functionality will increase user productivity and reduce mistakes in SOLIDWORKS and PDM 2020.

Design Innovation Month – October 2019

What is DI Month? We’re declaring October Design Innovation Month—again! It’s a month-long series of special events focused on what’s new in design and manufacturing technology. You’ll learn about enhancements in SOLIDWORKS 2020 that deliver new capabilities for improved performance, streamlined workflows, and a connected design ecosystem. Find out what’s new in 3D printing applications and 3D scanning to integrate into your design process. So, get ready to do things differently. It’s time to innovate!

Andrew Bornstein
PLM Solutions Consultant, West
Computer Aided Technology, LLC

AMD Radeon ProRender

SOLIDWORKS Visualize now supports AMD Radeon ProRender, a raytracing engine that is designed to run on AMD graphics cards. This feature can be enabled from options.

I have not tried out this feature yet since I don’t have any AMD hardware, however I would have to assume that renders might look slightly different since this feature would not be using IRAY and instead use ProRender. Stay tuned for future testing…

AxF Measured Materials

SOLIDWORKS Visualize now supports AxF measured materials. The .axf file format from X-Rite stores digital material representations, most notably measured materials, from their BTF scanning technology. To add .axf files to a project, drag from Windows Explorer into your scene, or add them from the pallet.

Below are a few paint samples rendered on one of my previous project files. The results are amazing! For more information on X-Rite scanning technology and some sample appearances, visit https://www.xrite.com/axf.

glTF Export for AR and VR

You can now export *.gltf and *.glb file formats of your SOLIDWORKS Visualize project data for use in augmented and virtual reality viewers. Stay tuned for some future content with AR and VR!

Instancing

SOLIDWORKS Visualize 2020 can now handle duplicated geometry, such as patterned components from SOLIDWORKS assemblies, more efficiently. Typically, for larger SOLIDWORKS assemblies, the use of duplicated geometry requires less GPU memory and reduces the likelihood of running out of GPU memory. However, appearance part-grouping mode does not support this functionality, so you’ll want to use the advanced mode when exporting to Visualize.

NVIDIA vMaterials and MDL Support

Last year in SOLIDWORKS Visualize 2019 we announced support for NVIDIA vMaterials, however, you were only able to preview them in accurate mode. You could not edit the appearance, and the texture size was only editable by changing the model mapping data.

Now, SOLIDWORKS Visualize 2020 supports full editing capabilities of vMaterials. You can adjust bump heights, texture scaling, colors, and even add additional textures for things like fingerprints or dust on glossy surfaces. The materials now accurately show up in preview modes when you want to quickly adjust textures without ray-tracing. Download the material library here: https://developer.nvidia.com/vmaterials

NVIDIA RTX Support

SOLIDWORKS Visualize 2020 now has RT Core support for full RTX hardware acceleration for Accurate and Fast render modes on NVIDIA Turing TU10x GPUs. This is HUGE considering these cards were built for raytracing! Although I haven’t done any testing with these cards yet, you should expect a considerable boost in performance when using NVIDIA Turing GPUs. According to Brian Hillner from SOLIDWORKS, you can expect 30% to 50% better performance depending on the project when using RTX hardware and Visualize 2020. Support for RTX will also be available in Visualize 2019 SP5 if you’re not ready to switch to 2020. Make sure to download the latest NVIDIA Certified Drivers to take full advantage of this new addition.

SOLIDWORKS PDM Integration

You can now use an integrated SOLIDWORKS PDM menu to access vault commands and view file information when the file is open in SOLIDWORKS Visualize. You must have SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional installed. In order to use common commands like check-in, change state, etc., you must first save the active Visualize Project into the PDM Vault.

I hope this part of the What’s New series gives you a better understanding of the new features and functions of SOLIDWORKS 2020. Please check back to the CATI Blog as the CATI Application Engineers will continue to break down many of the new items in SOLIDWORKS 2020. All these articles will be stored in the category of “SOLIDWORKS What’s New.”

Design Innovation Month – October 2019

What is DI Month? We’re declaring October Design Innovation Month—again! It’s a month-long series of special events focused on what’s new in design and manufacturing technology. You’ll learn about enhancements in SOLIDWORKS 2020 that deliver new capabilities for improved performance, streamlined workflows, and a connected design ecosystem. Find out what’s new in 3D printing applications and 3D scanning to integrate into your design process. So, get ready to do things differently. It’s time to innovate!

Alex Worsfold – CSWE
Sr. Application Engineer
Computer Aided Technology, LLC