The SOLIDWORKS PDM User Experience

Increase Efficiency & Productivity with SOLIDWORKS PDM

SOLIDWORKS PDM was designed to help users be more efficient and more productive in their day to day work. To help achieve this goal, SOLIDWORKS PDM was created to look and work the same as any regular Windows folder. What’s extra are the features added in to enhance the user’s capabilities.

Accessing a PDM vault is as simple as clicking on the PDM folder icon. This action opens up a standard Windows Explorer window; upgraded to provide extra PDM features and capabilities.  File functions, such as copy/paste and drag n’ drop work in the same familiar way as for any average Windows folder.  This allows SOLIDWORKS PDM to look and feel just like the Windows environment you’re already used to. The goal? To make it easier to learn and more convenient to work with.

PDM-Specific Tasks

In addition to the standard windows functions, however, SOLIDWORKS PDM allows users to easily perform many additional PDM-specific tasks.  With PDM, you can:

• Work collaboratively without interfering with each other using file check out and check in.
• Manage review and approval of design changes using customizable workflows
• Automatically assign and track part and document numbers
• Automatically manage and track versions and revisions through design history
• Generate PDF, STEP or other neutral file types automatically
• Create files and folders consistently and according to company policies at the click of a menu
• Quickly and easily access historical versions and revisions as needed

Unique Views

SOLIDWORKS PDM also provides unique views that let the user access important information about vaulted files in a way that is not possible in a regular Windows folder:

• Preview allows the viewer to quickly see the contents of SOLIDWORKS files, Microsoft Office files, PDF files, and many, many more file types
• Datacard view displays file properties and other relevant information about the file itself
• Version view provides ready information about the specific version you’re working with
• Bill of Materials view gives a live report of the components in a product or assembly, formatted according to customer BOM Views
• Contains view shows the references a file contains, with PDM-related information such as versions and Workflow State
• Where Used view shows any parent file (assembly, drawing) which references the file selected

And all of these capabilities and functions are easily accessed from within SOLIDWORKS itself using the included PDM Add-in.

SOLIDWORKS PDM was developed to allow SOLIDWORKS users to work with and access their data in powerful new ways while still leveraging their existing knowledge and familiarity with the windows explorer interface.

Author: Brian Dalton

With more than two decades of experience in manufacturing related roles, Brian has been the person to turn to during technical projects. In addition, his experience includes effectively managing teams (onsite and offshore) and working on highly complex systems to ensure the best outcomes. In his recent role as a PDM Specialist at GoEngineer, he is able to leverage his technical skills on continuous improvement projects, ensuring companies have compliant, efficient systems.

Tags: Administrator, EPDM, PDM, PLM, SOLIDWORKS

Categories: CAD Administration, EPDM, SOLIDWORKS

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 6th, 2018 at 12:07 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.