TriMech Blog

Migrating CAD data can be a daunting task. There are so many things that could be lost, forgotten or looked over. With all of the variables surrounding the transition, it can be overwhelming to define the top items to tackle with data self-migration. Lets uncover some of the top tips and pain points that will occur in the transition.

Enterprise Data Management solutions are used for keeping your design data files organized and under control. Organizing your data in a vault, or central archive, is ideal for automating workflows, finding files and ensuring manufacturing teams have the latest file versions. If you’re a SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard or SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional user, there are ways to optimize the performance by using the benefits of the SOLIDWORKS Toolbox.

Did you know that Web2 allows users to stay connected to their PDM vault from anywhere where there’s an Internet connection? Web2 has been around for several years, but not many people are familiar with its features.

The Web2 Client offers a large and small format layout. The large format is designed for bigger devices, such as computers, and the small format is a condensed version of the interface aimed at devices such as tablets. Today we’ll cover the features of the Web2 large format layout.

You’re probably very familiar with the functions used to move and/or duplicate information within Windows Explorer named cut, copy and paste. These commands are summoned by the default right mouse button (RMB), but, more commonly are called upon through the use of keyboard shortcuts to carry out these commands.

TriMech has developed a 12-phased approach to migrating data from one system to another. Typically, with PDM to PDM, we start off with a detailed analysis of the database. Then, we move on to the definition of what you are looking to do with your data. The complexity comes with mapping one utility version of features to PDM’s version of features.

You're on a roll, focused and in the zone and then you click on an icon and nothing happens. So you sit and wait, and wait until finally, the dialog box pops on screen. But just like that, you lost your groove. We have good news for you... there is a way to end this stop and go waiting game in SOLIDWORKS PDM and we're going to share it with you!

Every now and then, a PDM user or vault administrator envisions a usage case that's just a bit outside the current PDM functionality, or possibly in a different wheelhouse altogether. This happens with the newly initiated, as well as software veterans. You'll use a feature and think, "If only there was a button to [insert idea here]."

Diving into a new system can be nerve-racking, especially when it impacts your data and files. Even with trepidation, we know that having a product data management system, such as SOLIDWORKS PDM, is essential to business. We want to help ease some of the stress by providing you with five of our traits for a successful data management deployment.

To conclude our two-part blog series, we will describe how to refresh and enable linking to SOLIDWORKS PDM. Plus, we'll outline how to have the variables dynamically link to the PDM metadata.

In part one of this two-part blog series, we'll walk you through the process to define Product Data Management (PDM) variables, manage data cards and designate properties in Microsoft Office.

The TriMech Reference Add-In for Product Data Management (PDM) can be used for both PDM Standard and PDM Professional to provide dynamic lookup and reference repair for your SOLIDWORKS files.