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If you have SOLIDWORKS PDM running alongside your SOLIDWORKS installation, you’ve come to the right place. When it comes to the upgrade process, there are a few additional steps to take to make sure everything goes smoothly. But before we get started, there are a few notes to mention.
This article covers upgrading a SOLIDWORKS PDM client that does not use SOLIDWORKS 3D modeling. The PDM Client must match the major version that is on the server, but the service pack can be different. If the server has PDM 2022 SP2 installed, then the client can be any service pack of 2022. However, the client will not connect to the server if it is updated to PDM 2023 while the server is still version 2022.
Having blank SOLIDWORKS PDM data card variable values can cause trouble for some PDM vaults. For instance, if your process requires exporting PDM metadata to an ERP system. This tutorial provides the steps to identify, remediate, and safeguard your vault from blank data card variables.
Reports are boring. However, they are often necessary and can be a useful tool to prove that work is getting completed in a timely manner. But why not make them more interesting to look at and easier to read? We can do that using Excel and some SQL knowledge.
SOLIDWORKS PDM includes a whole set of tools for Bill of Materials beyond what we’re used to in SOLIDWORKS alone. Using these tools, we have options for differing formatting and new ways to export and compare. We can even treat bills as their own entities without completely losing the parametric link between a model and BOM. Let’s explore some of these options.
After installation, SOLIDWORKS automatically sets up file associations in the registry. However, these associations may get lost over time. Several symptoms indicate this has happened.
Business needs sometimes dictate that a specific replicated archive is no longer needed. It may be that you are changing the replicated location from one to another, that you are transferring the server between machines (physical or virtual) at the same location, or that you just no longer need replication. Whatever the reason, the process will be to remove the replicated archive server before decommissioning it. This will help prevent and limit errors and orphaned files. This article explains how to remove a replicated SOLIDWORKS PDM Archive Server. Let's get started.
It is sometimes necessary to move SOLIDWORKS PDM data to new server(s) with different names. This could be due to a necessary upgrade, server crash or outage, policy compliance changes, or a variety of other reasons. Knowing how to do so correctly is critical for your environment to be down for as little time as possible while still coming away with a fully functioning vault at the end of the process.
In SOLIDWORKS PDM, it’s common to have the PDM data card display metadata describing the model beyond its basic geometry—Description, Part Number, Revision, and many more are popular and useful pieces of information to track about a file. It’s often the data card itself that is the driving force behind the formatting of this type of data entry into the destination file; however, thanks to the magic of Variable Mapping, this behavior is a two-way street between the file and SOLIDWORKS PDM.