Keith Thompson Latest Blog Articles Page 1

Moving CAD files from one location to another may seem like a simple task, and it can be if you have a small number of files to move. In this case, it may be as easy as copy and paste, or “Pack and Go”, in the case of SOLIDWORKS CAD files.

However, moving thousands of documents on the other hand can be challenging. This could take weeks, or months. How will you work with a third party (Migration Team) to get this done in a timely manner and minimize the impact to production while maintaining the integrity of your data?

Have you ever tried finding a document on your computer, but can’t remember the filename or folder where it’s stored, only a word or phrase that’s in the file? Wouldn’t it be great if you could find documents using words in the file? Well, SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional offers a way to not only find documents using file or folder names in the PDM Search tool, but it can also search for documents using the content or properties in files.

Keeping yourself and others in your company current with activities can be a constant challenge. The SOLIDWORKS Manage Web Client (Plenary Web Client) helps manage this while keeping users engaged across devices. This client interface has the full look and feel of the desktop client and while allowing internal or external users to connect to the SOLIDWORKS Manage environment and any connected SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional vaults through web-enabled portals from devices with an internet browser such as computers, smartphones, and tablets, all without installing any software.

I think I can safely assume that if you are reading this that you are looking for a better way to manage your SOLIDWORKS design files, supporting documents and product development process. Well, SOLIDWORKS offers three different data management solutions: SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard, SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional and SOLIDWORKS Manage, but how do you know which one is the best fit for your company?

In this blog, we will review the differences, clear up some questions you may have, and help you determine which is the right data management solution for you. First, let’s start by looking at the purpose and capabilities of product data management (PDM) tools and then, how each of these SOLIDWORKS products meet the need.

When upgrading SOLIDWORKS and PDM applications to a new version, your existing files remain at the version in which they were created. If they remain this way, it will create delays when opening and reading these files since they will be undergoing conversions when opening. This can be seen as slow system performance, but luckily this doesn't have to remain an issue. In this article, we look at three ways in which you can upgrade your files to their latest version in SOLIDWORKS.

Part numbers are used to identify and catalog different items. Intelligent part numbers are used to capture and display further descriptive characteristics of each unique item. Intelligent part numbers were developed at a time when storage databases were very expensive and not very prevalent. To recognize and understand the definition of a given part number, the number itself was defined using a descriptive meaning in each character or set of characters that make up the part number. Here is an example of an intelligent part number and its meaning.

As a user of SOLIDWORKS PDM, the majority of the functionalities available to you are controlled by permissions set by the system administrator. The Cache Options and User Settings are two PDM controls, that if given the permission, users can self-manage the ways that checked-out, checked-in and reference files are handled on their local computer.

Have you ever wondered, “how do I change the information displayed about the files in the SOLIDWORKS PDM Vault view?” Maybe you’d like to see the information that’s available on the data card, but it’s not shown in the file view or a different set of information on the Bill of Materials than what’s shown. SOLIDWORKS PDM displays the information that you see about the files in the vault using COLUMNS.

Rather than viewing your SOLIDWORKS designs as a wireframe model you have the ability to view them as a solid-appearing object. This makes it possible for users to look at an object at specific angels with solid surfaces. But that's not the only reason why surface modeling is important. Read on to discover why we have surface modeling and the top five reasons it's a needed skill.