GoEngineer Blog

A few years ago, Chart Air-X-Changers/Hammco (formerly Harsco Air-X-Changers) was in the market for a PDM system. We soon realized that in order to move forward with a new system, in addition to design control, the following issues needed to be addressed.

This is the second article in the series on manually importing CAD data into PDM. In this document we will cover the “Copy/Paste a Folder” method of import.

This is the fourth article in the series on manually importing CAD data into PDM. In this document we will cover the “Pack and Go” method of import.

In PDM Standard users can now easily convert many drawing files to PDF’s upon a drawings release or any other transition in a workflow. Follow these steps to execute convert to PDF tasks.

The 2018 release of SOLIDWORKS PDM revision tables can be driven by the workflow in SOLIDWORKS PDM. Now revision tables can be added to drawings with no extra work by the engineers or drafters that are creating the drawings. As soon as a drawing is approved its revision table will be updated with the relevant information.

The “SOLIDWORKS PDM File Upgrade Tool” (Upgrade Tool) is a utility provided by SOLIDWORKS to help in upgrading files in the PDM vault. You make choices as to how you want to handle the updating process and then the Upgrade Tool will start crawling through the vault, checking out files, opening them in the current SOLIDWORKS version, saving them and then checking them into the vault.

A typical PDM workflow for revision controlled documents includes a ‘Pending Approval’ state for files that are being reviewed for approval. This state normally allows the reviewer to either approve the proposed change and release the new revision, or send it back for further work – the assumption here is the change would be accepted later if the required additional modifications are made.

SOLIDWORKS PDM Data Cards are a convenient way to display and modify the metadata values stored in PDM variables. Many PDM users and admins don’t realize that data cards are a great way to ensure that newly created files have the right information in the right place right off the bat. They can also help prevent errors in metadata that can occur when a design is re-used, which is a real time saver. 

SOLIDWORKS PDM Branch and Merge tools help the design process by allowing users to branch out design ideas from the source and then merge the ideal design back with the source.