GoEngineer Blog

Like any secure application, there may be times when you need to update your SOLIDWORKS PDM password. Whether you’re a PDM administrator updating credentials for a user, or a user changing your own password, the process can be completed through the SOLIDWORKS PDM Administration Tool. Below, we’ll walk through the steps for both scenarios.

If you know anything about SOLIDWORKS PDM, you know its two major components are comprised of an archive server and a database server. The database server is powered by Microsoft SQL. Each vault has a database in SQL that houses just about everything you see in a vault that isn’t the actual files themselves. Everything from your data cards and workflows to user information and licensing is stored in SQL. This is invaluable data - and it should be approached with caution if you want to preserve the integrity of your vault infrastructure.

When cleaning up your SOLIDWORKS PDM vault from unnecessary user accounts, you can utilize the SOLIDWORKS PDM Administration app to delete a single user or multiple user accounts at once. 

When a file is retrieved from the SOLIDWORKS PDM file vault, a copy is placed in the local cache on the user’s local hard drive. To optimize disk space, users should regularly manage their cache and remove files that are no longer needed. This can be done through various methods, including removing local copies at check-in, clearing the local cache as needed, and configuring cache options to meet the needs of users and groups.

SOLIDWORKS PDM administrators can configure user and group accounts in such a way as to control which users have access to the full history of versions, just the latest version or only versions that have been released as revisions. This article explains the settings involved and how to create the access a user or group should have.

So, you’re set up with SOLIDWORKS PDM, and you’d like to start the pass-through of data from your CAD files’ custom properties into the PDM data card (or vice versa). You can create a link between the PDM data card and your SOLIDWORKS files’ custom properties using variable mappings. In this guide, we’ll cover the process of creating that link. With SOLIDWORKS PDM variable mapping properly set up, you can take advantage of many automation features in your PDM workflow.

When you upgrade a SOLIDWORKS PDM vault to a new service pack or version, existing add-ins do not automatically update to the latest version. This needs to be done manually and is important because if you do not update the add-in, fixes done to the task add-in may not apply to the upgraded vault. In this article, learn how to update the convert task add-in (SWTaskAddIn) in a vault when upgrading to a new version or service pack.

SOLIDWORKS PDM is a client-server software that requires various network connections to function properly. There are numerous ways to check on those connections to ensure everything is working as it should – or to identify the problem when it’s not.

This article will go over how to resolve the Application Exception: Invalid Class error that can occur when trying to launch eDrawings. You may also see it occur in PDM when clicking on a file to view the preview. The PDM preview uses eDrawings, which is why it can be seen in PDM. This error can appear simple, stating “Application Exception: Invalid Class” or lengthy with a string of other lines.