SOLIDWORKS PDM
Using SOLIDWORKS PDM
Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation
175 Wyman Street
Waltham, Massachusetts 02451 USA
© 1995-2020, Dassault Systemes SolidWorks Restricted Rights
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following additional statement applies only to
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duplication and disclosure by the Government is
subject to restrictions as set forth in subparagraph
(c)(l)(ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and
Computer Software clause at DFARS 252-227-
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In the event that you receive a request from any
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business days to, in its sole discretion, accept or
reject such request. Contractor/ Manufacturer:
Dassault Systemes SolidWorks Corporation, 175
Wyman Street, Waltham, Massachusetts 02451
USA.
Document Number: PMT2131-ENG
Contents
Introduction
About This Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Course Design Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Using this Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Laboratory Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
About the Training Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Conventions Used in this Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
More SOLIDWORKS Training Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Local User Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
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Contents SOLIDWORKS PDM
Lesson 1:
SOLIDWORKS PDM Concepts
The Fundamentals of PDM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
What is SOLIDWORKS PDM? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
SOLIDWORKS PDM Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
SOLIDWORKS PDM Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
SOLIDWORKS PDM Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
File Vault . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
View of File Vault . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Working Folder (Cache) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Access Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
SOLIDWORKS PDM ‘Smart’ Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
SOLIDWORKS PDM ‘Smart’ Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
File Data Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Folder Data Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Versions and Revisions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Lesson 2:
SOLIDWORKS PDM User Interface
SOLIDWORKS PDM User Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Explorer Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Logging In. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Case Study: Exploring SOLIDWORKS PDM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
SOLIDWORKS PDM User Interface Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Logging Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Exercise 1: Explore SOLIDWORKS PDM User Interface . . . . . . . . 32
Lesson 3:
Document Creation and Check In
Document Creation and Check In. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Creating New Folders and Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Case Study: Checking in Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Add Existing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Document Check In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Create Files and Folders from Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Advanced Document Check In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Check In File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Case Study: Checking in Documents with References. . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Exercise 2: Document Creation and Check In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
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SOLIDWORKS PDM Contents
Lesson 4:
Versioning Files
Versioning Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Check Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Optional Check Out Method. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Case Study: Versioning Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Overwriting Latest Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Local File Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Get Latest Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Get Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Overwriting Checked Out Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Undo Check Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Exercise 3: Versioning Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Lesson 5:
File References
File References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Creating and Removing References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Case Study: File References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Copying Files with References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Case Study: Copy File and References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Moving Files with References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Case Study: Move File and References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Sharing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Exercise 4: File References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Lesson 6:
Searching
Searching SOLIDWORKS PDM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Name and Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Start Searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Searching for Checked Out Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
The Search Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Case Study: Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Favorite Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Quick Search. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Exercise 5: Search. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
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Contents SOLIDWORKS PDM
Lesson 7:
Workflow and Notification
SOLIDWORKS PDM Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Change File State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Case Study: Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Exercise 6: Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Lesson 8:
Working in SOLIDWORKS
Versioning SOLIDWORKS Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
SOLIDWORKS Add-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Add-in Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Check Out Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Case Study: Versioning Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Check In Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Managing Local Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Remove Local Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Clear Local Cache. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Working With File Versions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Exercise 7: Versioning SOLIDWORKS Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Appendix A:
Working with Bill of Materials
Bill of Materials (BOM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Modify Computed BOM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Modify Computed BOM Quantity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Activate Computed BOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Case Study: Modify a Computed BOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Create Named BOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Modify Named BOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Case Study: Create and Modify a Named BOM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Compare BOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
iv
