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SolidWorks® Office
Premium

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Administering PDMWorks
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Workgroup
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SolidWorks Corporation
300 Baker Avenue
Concord, Massachusetts 01742 USA
© 1995-2007, Dassault Systemes COMMERCIAL COMPUTER
SolidWorks Corporation is a Dassault Systemes S.A. SOFTWARE - PROPRIETARY
(Nasdaq:DASTY) company. U.S. Government Restricted Rights. Use, duplication,
300 Baker Avenue or disclosure by the government is subject to
Concord, Massachusetts 01742 USA restrictions as set forth in FAR 52.227-19 (Commercial
Computer Software - Restricted Rights), DFARS
All Rights Reserved 227.7202 (Commercial Computer Software and
Commercial Computer Software Documentation), and

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in the license agreement, as applicable.
U.S. Patents 5,815,154; 6,219,049; 6,219,055;
6,603,486; 6,611,725; 6,844,877; 6,898,560; Contractor/Manufacturer:
6,906,712; 7,184,044; and foreign patents, (e.g. EP SolidWorks Corporation, 300 Baker Avenue, Concord,

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1,116,190 and JP 3,517,643). U.S. and foreign patents Massachusetts 01742 USA
pending.
Portions of this software © 1990-2007 D-Cubed Ltd.,
The information and the software discussed in this

rib
document are subject to change without notice and are © 1998-2007 Geometric Software Solutions Co. Ltd.,
not commitments by SolidWorks. © 1986-2007 mental images GmbH & Co. KG, ©

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No material may be reproduced or transmitted in any 1996-2007 Microsoft Corporation, © 1997-2007,
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for Structural Research & Analysis Corp., © 2000-2007
Tech Soft 3D, and © 1998-2007 3Dconnexion,

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any purpose without the express written permission of

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SolidWorks. IntelliCAD Technology Consortium, Independent
JPEG Group. All Rights Reserved.
The software discussed in this document is furnished
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under a license and may be used or copied only in
accordance with the terms of this license. All
warranties given by SolidWorks as to the software and
documentation are set forth in the SolidWorks
Portions of this software are copyrighted by and are the
property of UGS Corp. © 2007.
Copyright 1984-2007 Adobe Systems Inc. and its
licensors. All rights reserved.
Corporation License and Subscription Service Protected by U.S. Patents 5,929,866; 5,943,063;
Agreement, and nothing stated in, or implied by, this 6,289,364; 6,563,502; 6,639,593; 6,754,382; Patents
op D
document or its contents shall be considered or deemed Pending.
a modification or amendment of such warranties.
Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, the Adobe PDF logo,
SolidWorks, PDMWorks, 3D PartStream.NET, 3D Distiller and Reader are registered trademarks or
ContentCentral, DWGeditor, eDrawings, and the trademarks of Adobe Systems Inc. in the U.S. and
t c TA

eDrawings logo are registered trademarks and other countries. For more copyright information, see
FeatureManager is a jointly owned registered SolidWorks Help About.
trademark of SolidWorks.
Other portions of SolidWorks 2008 are licensed from
SolidWorks 2008 is a product name of SolidWorks SolidWorks licensors.
Corporation.
All Rights Reserved
COSMOSXpress, DWGgateway, Feature Palette,
no BE

PhotoWorks, TolAnalyst, and XchangeWorks are PDMWorks Enterprise software is © 1998-2007

trademarks of SolidWorks. SolidWorks Nordic AB. All rights reserved.
COSMOS and COSMOSWorks are registered Outside In® Viewer Technology © 1992-2007 Stellent
trademarks, and COSMOSMotion, Chicago, Inc.
COSMOSDesignStar, and COSMOSFloWorks are
trademarks of Structural Research & Analysis Corp.
FeatureWorks is a registered trademark of Geometric
Software Solutions Co. Ltd.
Other brand or product names are trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective holders.
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Document Number: PMT0162-DRAFT

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

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Table of Contents

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Introduction
op a D
About This Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Vault Administrators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Course Design Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Using this Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
t c et

Laboratory Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
About the Training Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Windows® XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
B

Conventions Used in this Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Lesson 1:
Planning for PDM

Planning for PDMWorks Workgroup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The Planning Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Data Management Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
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Metadata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Revision Scheme. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Users and Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
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Project Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Standard Parts and Toolbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Design Intent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Transition Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The VaultAdmin Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Setup Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

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Lesson 2:
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup
Administrator Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
The Vault Administrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
The Vault. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
The Vault Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

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Vault Settings Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Vault Backup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Vault Restoration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

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Case Study: Replace The Vault. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
VaultAdmin Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
VaultAdmin Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
User Accounts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

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User Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Modify User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

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Delete User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Change Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Case Study: User Accounts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
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User Access by Custom Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Changing Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Deleting Users. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
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Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Case Study: Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Project Access. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Read Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
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Write Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Project Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Case Study: Copy Project Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
B

Apply Specific Permissions to Everyone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Revision Scheme. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Lifecycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Controlling User Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Case Study: Create Lifecycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Taking Ownership. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Ownership By Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
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Document Flow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Revision Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Automatic Change In Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Standard Libraries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Toolbox parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
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Not Revision Managed Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Common Parts Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Common Part Shared Folder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Common Parts Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Case Study: Toolbox Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

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SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

Vault Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Admin Privileges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Global Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Locking The Vault . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Viewing with eDrawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Delete, Rollback, Archive Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

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Vault Log File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Vault Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Case Study: Global Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

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Custom Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Case Study: Adding Custom Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Case Study: Index the Vault . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

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Revision Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Case Study: Revision Table Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

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Triggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Exercise 1:
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Exercise 2:
Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Exercise 3:
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Revision Scheme & Lifecycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Lifecycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Lifecycle Rules: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Solution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Exercise 4:
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Revision Scheme. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Solution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Lesson 3:
B

PDMWorks Workgroup Administration

Maintaining The Vault . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Locking The Vault . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Vault Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Case Study: Vault Backup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Server Log File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Case Study: Log Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
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Tree Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Maintaining User Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
File Owner Leaves The Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
File Owner on Temporary Leave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
User Access by Property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
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Case Study: Modify Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Case Study: Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Regaining Disk Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Deleting Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Deleting Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

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Delete/Trash Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Deleting Obsolete Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Keep Latest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Case Study: Obsolete Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Archiving Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Case Study: Archiving Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

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Restoring Archived Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Mapping Custom Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Case Study: Property Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

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Copy Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Case Study: Copy Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Advanced Select/Replace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Bulk Loading Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

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Case Study: Bulk Check In Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Exercise 5:

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Maintaining the Vault . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Exercise 6:
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Exercise 7:
Archive Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Exercise 8:
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File Conversion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Lesson 4:
Administration - Part 2
Update Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
File Conversion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
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Case Study: Converting Files In The Vault. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Task Scheduler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Setting up Web Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
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Triggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Transfering Projects between Vaults. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Security of the Vault . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Backing up the Vault . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Time Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Maximizing Vault Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
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Deleting Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Copies of Latest Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Custom Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Files Without Revision Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
External References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
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Template Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

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SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

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Introduction

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SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

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SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

About This The goal of this course is to teach you how to use the administrative
Course functions of the PDMWorks™ Workgroup software to setup and
manage the system. A prerequisite to using the PDMWorks Workgroup
software is an understanding of the file structure and file referencing
used by SolidWorks and an understanding of PDMWorks Workgroup
from the user perspective.

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The focus of this course is on the fundamental skills and concepts
central to the successful use of PDMWorks Workgroup. You should
view the training course manual as a supplement to, not a replacement

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for, the system documentation and on-line help. Once you have
developed a good foundation in basic skills, you can refer to the on-line
help for information on less frequently used command options.

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The intended audience for this course is PDMWorks Workgroup vault
administrators.

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Vault As Vault Administrators must first be competent PDMWorks
Administrators Workgroup users and have completed the Using PDMWorks
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Workgroup for SolidWorks training course. Material covered in that

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course is not repeated in this course.
Prerequisites Students attending this course are expected to have the following:
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Q Basic experience with the SolidWorks software.
Q Experience with the Windows™ operating system.
Q Knowledge of SolidWorks file structure and referencing.
Q Completed the course SolidWorks File Management.
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Q Completed the the course Using PDMWorks Workgroup for

SolidWorks.
Course Design This course is designed around a process- or task-based approach to
B

Philosophy training. Rather than focus on individual features and functions, a

process-based training course emphasizes the process and procedures
you follow to complete a particular task. By utilizing case studies to
illustrate these processes, you learn the necessary commands, options
and menus in the context of completing a task.
Using this Book This training manual is intended to be used in a classroom environment
under the guidance of an experienced instructor. It is not intended to be
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a self-paced tutorial. The examples and case studies are designed to be

demonstrated “live” by the instructor.
Laboratory Laboratory exercises give you the opportunity to apply and practice the
Exercises material covered during the lecture/demonstration portion of the
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course. They are designed to represent typical situations while being

modest enough to be completed during class time.

About This Course 3

 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

About the A complete set of the various files used throughout this course can be
Training Files downloaded from the SolidWorks website, www.solidworks.com.
Click on the link for Services, then Training and Certification. There
you will see a link to the page where you can download the training file
sets. The files are supplied as signed, self-extracting executable
packages.

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The files are organized by lesson number. The Case Study folder
within each lesson contains the files your instructor uses while
presenting the lessons. The Exercises folder contains any files that

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are required for doing the laboratory exercises.
Windows® XP The screen shots in this manual were made using SolidWorks 2008 and
PDMWorks Workgroup 2008 running on Windows® XP.

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Conventions Used This manual uses the following typographic conventions:
in this Book

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Convention Meaning
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Bold Sans Serif SolidWorks and PDMWorks Workgroup

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commands and options appear in this style.
For example, Tools, DrawCompare means
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choose the DrawCompare option from the
Tools menu.

Typewriter Project names and file names appear in this

style. Names that you type appear in this style.
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Double lines precede and follow sections of

the procedures. This provides separation
17 Do this step
between the steps of the procedure and large
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blocks of explanatory text. The steps

themselves are numbered in sans serif bold.
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4 About This Course

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

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Lesson 1
Planning for PDM

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Upon successful completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
Q Understand the process of planning an installation of PDMWorks
Workgroup.
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Q Understand the tasks required to determine the VaultAdmin setting.

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5
Lesson 1 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

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6
SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 1

Planning for The focus of this and the other PDMWorks Workgroup training courses
PDMWorks is on the mechanics of using the software. This first lesson however is
Workgroup different in that we will look into the tasks and planning that are
necessary before we even load the software.
We must keep in mind that our goal in this process is to manage our
data. PDMWorks Workgroup is just a tool to help us with that

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management.
Questions Two common questions that come up when someone first looks at

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PDMWorks Workgroup:
Q Why are there no “out of the box” settings with PDMWorks
Workgroup that we can just use and then change later if we don’t
like them?

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The PDMWorks Workgroup setup will be unique to your company and
reflect the way you want to manage your documents. We must design

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our setup with the same care and forethought as the products we design.
Q Why don’t we just install PDMWorks Workgroup and put our file
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into the vault, then change the settings later if things are not

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working out?
While changing the settings in PDMWorks Workgroup is very easy, the
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consequences to our data flow, files already in the vault and work
procedures can be disastrous.
Our goal is to do the planning and testing up front, so that when we
finally make the decision to fully implement PDMWorks Workgroup,
we will get the management results we desire.
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The bottom line is: do it right the first time.

The Planning Our planning efforts should center around two plans, the Data
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Process Management Plan and a PDMWorks Workgroup Installation Plan. The

level of detail of these plans depends on the size of the organization.
Data The Data Management Plan is used to define the long-term procedures
Management of how data will be managed at the company.
Plan In the Data Management Plan we define the document flow and
management procedures that will be used after PDMWorks Workgroup
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is installed. This plan is done first as it establishes the end goal or how
business is to be run after PDMWorks Workgroup is installed. It may
even consider the path to upgrade to PDMWorks Enterprise based on
the growth of the company. The Data Management Plan is our Design
Intent for our PDM
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Procedures should be established to cover the work rules regarding

PDMWorks Workgroup. Depending on the size of the company, these
may require a flow chart or written instructions.
Things we need to consider:

Planning for PDMWorks Workgroup 7

Lesson 1 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

Metadata This is the data we want to keep for each document. The metadata is
stored as file properties and can be used in searches in the vault. Our
choices in this area will determine the input to the Properties tab. The
metadata will also appear in our search windows, check in dialogs,
document information, and reports.
Workflow While we do not have an actual workflow setting in PDMWorks

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Workgroup, we do use lifecycles to control the progress of a document
in the vault. We do not have to use lifecycles, but if we do they are tied
to the revision scheme and should be planned together.

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If lifecycles are going to be used, we should start by writing out what
we expect to happen in each lifecycle and how that relates to the
revision scheme. A block diagram can be very helpful and will make

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entering the settings in the VaultAdmin tool easier.
Revision Scheme The revision scheme is tied to lifecycles. This is another place where

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you should write out how you want revisions to be assigned and
incemented.
Users and Groups
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We may have four different types of users:

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Q Contributors - people who check in and check out files other than
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SolidWorks files. They access the vault through SolidWorks
Explorer.
Q SolidWorks users - people who will access the vault through
SolidWorks or SolidWorks Explorer. They may check in or check
out any type of file.
Administrators - the two or more people who will setup and
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Q
maintain the vault.
Q People who need read-only access the vault through PDMWorks
Viewer.
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In a small organization we can handle the users without establishing

groups, however as the number of users increases, groups become a
time saver for the administrator. By using groups, new users can be
given permissions just by putting them in the appropriate group.
Project Structure Projects will form the tree structure in our vault. The depth of the
project structure that needs to be established depends on decision to let
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users add their own sub-projects. If users will be allowed to create sub-
projects, only the top level needs to established, although you should
make the project structure as complete as possible for better control.
If users are not allowed to create sub-projects, the project list should be
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as complete as possible.
In addition to the standard projects, some additional projects that might
be considered:
Q Library project

8 Data Management Plan

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 1

This project can be used for standard parts that will be managed by
a single person or group, but can be used by anyone.
Q User’s or group work area
Each user can have an area where they can store files that are not
yet assigned to a formal project.

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Q Trash project
The trash project is just a visible recycle bin. Rather than let all
users have permission to delete files, they move files they want to

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delete to the trash project. The administrator can then review the
files and confirm that they are not referenced by other files before
actually deleting them from the vault.
Project names and descriptions must both be unique.

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Standard Parts The basic question to be answered is; will Toolbox and standard parts
and Toolbox be revision managed and checked into the vault. The settings for both

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PDMWorks Workgroup and Toolbox need to match. If Toolbox parts
are not checked into the vault, we use the master part files. If Toolbox
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parts will be checked into the vault, we create copies.

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Design Intent The Data Management Plan is important in that it forms the design
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intent to guide the setup of PDMWorks Workgroup.

Transition Plan Once you have a Data Management Plan, you create a transition plan to
determine the steps to get from your current data management
procedures to the long term procedures that we will use under the new
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data management plan. Some things to consider:

PDMWorks Where will the service be located. How much storage is available and
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Workgroup Vault how much RAM. When the PDMWorks Workgroup service starts, all
the metadata is loaded into memory on the server. The hard drive
storage needs to be sufficient for all the file and all their revisions plus
the expected rate of increase.
Software Installation How are we going to install PDMWorks Workgroup, Toolbox and
SolidWorks. How will we test the connections and installation before
we start setting up the vault and entering data.
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Vault Administrators Who will be the administrators? As far as PDMWorks Workgroup is

concerned, all administrators are equal. You need to specify the
individual responsibilities and seniority through written rules. One
administrator should have the overall decision making responsibly.
Other administrators can take care of specific functions such as adding
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or removing users and projects.

There should always be at least one alternate administrator just in case
something happens to the primary administrator.
Who can have direct (non-PDMWorks Workgroup) access to the vault.

Transition Plan 9
Lesson 1 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

This access will be necessary for certain vault maintenance activities.

Training Who will conduct training for users, contributors and administrators.
How will we train new hires?
Data cleanup What preparation will be necessary to remove duplicate file names or
revision numbers saved as part of file names. Will file properties need

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to be modified or can we map existing properties to those we will use
with PDMWorks Workgroup.
Data Entry What files will be placed in the vault and in what order. Will all legacy

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data go into the vault? If so, will it all go into the vault during the
transition or will it be checked in when needed for other projects.
The Tranistion When the vault is tested and ready, will everyone start using it at the
same time or will we start with only one workgroup or project?

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Commitment Once the vault is up and running, with all the required files, how will

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people be prevented from reverting to old methods?
The VaultAdmin Choosing the correct settings for the VaultAdmin tool is a process of
Tool y ra
applying the choices made in the Data Management Plan to the

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individual settings in the tool. There is no “magic bullet” when
determining the settings, it is just a process of looking at each setting
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and determining how it applies to the objectives, while at the same time
understanding how each setting affects the other settings.
Setup Order The VaultAdmin tool has numerous tabs with many settings. The order
we add information is important as may of the settings affect other
settings. Some setting must be thought out together so they do not
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cause problems.
If you are using lifecycles, they can control user access which can
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conflict with project and property access. Lifecycles are also dependant
on the revision scheme so they must be determined together.
When we look at the choices in the VaultAdmin tool, we have to
determine the order to start applying the settings. While some settings
are independent of others, many are not. We would also like to not have
to iterate too many times to achieve the final settings, so we want a
straight forward plan.
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Some things have dependencies and group together:

Q Users, Projects, Properties, Lifecycles and Vault Settings.
Q Revision Scheme, Lifecycles, Standard Libraries and Vault
Settings.
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The approach we will use in the following lesson will start with the tabs
that group together. As we are going to use Lifecycles, we need to do
them at the same time as the Revision Scheme. As many of the
Lifecycle settings control access to files, we need to have the Users
established first, so Users and Groups need to be done before

10 The VaultAdmin Tool

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 1

Lifecycles. User access can be controlled by way of file properties, so

they should be entered before users if that method of access will be
used.
The following diagram shows many of the relationships between the
various settings It is not all inclusive but still presents a case for
carefully planning the settings.

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The VaultAdmin Tool 11

Lesson 1 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

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12 The VaultAdmin Tool

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

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Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

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Upon successful completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
Q Backup the vault.
Q Restore or change a vault.
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Q Establish PDMWorks Workgroup settings.

Q Add users and set permissions.
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Q Control users by groups.

Q Change user passwords.
Q Create projects and set project permissions.
Q Create and define lifecycles.
Q Establish a revision scheme.
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Q Add custom properties.

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13
Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

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14
SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

Administrator To be a successful vault administrator, you must first be a competent

Topics PDMWorks Workgroup user. The topics covered in this and the
following lesson are intended for Vault Administrators only, after
completing the first five lessons of this course. Many of the items
discussed in this lesson affect the way the PDMWorks Workgroup
Clients uses PDMWorks Workgroup but the procedures covered here

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should be transparent to the user.
The Vault The Vault Administrator is the person or persons who control the vault
Administrator settings and perform routine maintenance operations on the database. It

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is more important for the administrators to understand how PDMWorks
Workgroup is being used rather than how the computer system works.
In large organizations, it is generally a good idea to have a member of
the IT staff as one of the administrators, however administrators should

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generally be SolidWorks and PDMWorks Workgroup users.

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The Vault To setup and maintain PDMWorks Workgroup, Vault Administrators
should have a basic understanding of the vault and how it stores
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information.

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There is one overriding rule when dealing with the vault:
Never alter the files in the vault manually.
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PDMWorks Workgroup runs as a service in the Windows environment.
The vault service is software that controls access to the vault through
PDMWorks Workgroup. When the PDMWorks Workgroup vault
service is running, it is constantly reading from and writing to various
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folders and files. Interfering with these processes can result in

undesired behavior.
There can only be one vault per computer. While we can have several
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copies, only one vault, usually with the name VaultData can be
active. The location of the vault is set during installation and stored in
the registry.
The vault is a folder named either VaultData or
pdmworks depending on when the vault was
initially installed. Installations created with
PDMWorks 2003 and earlier are named
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pdmworks and those created with PDMWorks

2004 and later are named VaultData. The vaults
can have five or six sub-directories.
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Important! Only the Vault Administrator should have read and write permissions,
through Windows, to the vault. PDMWorks Workgroup clients
should have neither read nor write access to the vault through
Windows.

Administrator Topics 15
Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

The Vault Folders The vault folders are as follows:

Q _TEMP
The temp directory maintains a list of transactions in progress.
Q data
The data folder holds the indexing information for the search

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function.
Q obsolete

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The Obsolete folder is the PDMWorks Workgroup equivalent to
the Windows Recycle Bin. This folder contains deleted projects.
There are other Obsolete folders in the projects and document
folders that contain deleted files.

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Q pdmrc
The pdmrc folder contains the top level administrative files for the

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vault. Contained here are: vault settings, software versions and
updates, user information and permissions, and revision scheme.
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Q projects
The projects folder lists all the projects in the vault and the
documents in each project including all previous revisions.
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Q updates
The updates folder stores the information to update the clients.
Vault Settings Most of the vault files that contain settings or database information
Files have the extension pdmw. These files are text files and can be read
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using any text editor. While you can read these files with a text editor,
Do Not try to edit them with a text editor, serious consequences may
result!
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Vault Backup The vault can be backed up by saving a copy of the VaultData
directory to a new name such as VaultData_dd_mm_yy, where
dd_mm_yy is the backup date. Before making a copy of the vault,
either stop the PDMWorks Workgroup service or lock the vault so that
the vault is not changing while you are trying to copy it.
Vault The process of replacing a vault with a saved backup is essentially the
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Restoration same as saving a backup except that we must do it with the PDMWorks
Workgroup service stopped. Locking the vault is not sufficient.
To replace the existing vault with the backup:
1. Stop the PDMWorks Workgroup service.
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2. Rename the existing vault.

3. Copy the backup vault to the drive that the holds the vault.
4. Rename the backup to VaultData.
5. Start the PDMWorks Workgroup service.

16 Vault Backup
SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

Case Study: The case studies in this lesson start as if PDMWorks Workgroup has
Replace The just been installed and we must take all the administrative actions to set
Vault it up to run.
To begin setting up PDMWorks Workgroup, we will first replace the
vault we have been using with a new vault. This new vault will be
equivalent to the empty vault installed during the initial PDMWorks

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Workgroup installation. Through this and the following case studies,
this new vault will be setup similar to the vault used in the earlier
lessons of this training manual.

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1 Stop the PDMWorks Workgroup service.
Vaults cannot be changed with the service running.
Click Start, Control Panel, Performance and Maintenance, then

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Administrative Tools.
Double-click Services.

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Right-click PDMWorks Workgroup Server and select Stop.
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Do not close the Services window.

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2 Locate the vault.
Start Windows Explorer and locate the vault.
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Vaults are normally located under the root
directory, but this is not a requirement.
Right-click the VaultData folder and select
Rename.
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Rename the vault to VaultData_used.

3 Move the new vault.
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Using Windows Explorer, copy the new vault (VaultData_New)

from:
Solidworks 2008 Training Files\PDMWorks Workgroup\
Vaults
to the same directory where the old vault is located.
4 Rename.
Rename the vault to VaultData.
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Important! There can only be one vault named VaultData.

5 Start the PDMWorks Workgroup service.
Make the Services window active.
Right-click PDMWorks Workgroup Server and select Start.
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Close the Services window and Control Panel.

Case Study: Replace The Vault 17

Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

VaultAdmin The VaultAdmin tool is the control panel for PDMWorks Workgroup. It
Tool should only be accessible to Vault Administrators. Using the
VaultAdmin tool we will setup user accounts, permissions, projects,
revision and lifecycle schemes and how the system handles library
parts.
Where to Find It Q Click Start, All Programs, SolidWorks 2008, PDMWorks

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Workgroup VaultAdmin.
VaultAdmin It is important to note that for a real installation, a lot of planning is

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Settings required before you actually begin setting up the VaultAdmin tool.
Your entire setup should be planned and written down.
Unlike SolidWorks where we can continue to change the settings and
allow users to make their own adjustments, with PDMWorks

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Workgroup, we want to get the setting correct before we start putting
production files into the vault. While change is possible, the disruption

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to the work flow can be costly.
For the rest of this lesson, we will be concentrating on the mechanics of
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setting up the VaultAdmin tool, not the planning.
We will set up the tabs in the following order:
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Q Users and Groups
Q Projects
Q Revision Scheme
Q Lifecycles
Q Standard Libraries and Toolbox
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Q Vault Settings
Q Properties
Q Revision Tables
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Q Search
Q Triggers
This order represents a logical approach, but is not the only order that
can be used. For example: If we plan to control vault access using file
properties, we might want to do properties first to avoid backtracking
later.
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User Accounts Before a user can access PDMWorks Workgroup, the administrator
must create a user account and assign permissions for the user. Once an
account is setup, the VaultAdmin tool provides additional methods to
group users to make their management easier.
User Groups User groups provide a simple way to apply permissions to many users
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at the same time. Users can be added to a group so that giving

permission to the group gives permission to all users in the group.

18 VaultAdmin Tool
SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

Modify User Modify user provides a method to correct errors in a user account such
as a change in E-mail address or to correct spelling. It also provides a
simple method to replace one user with another without loosing
ownership of files.
Delete User When you delete a user, any files owned by the deleted user will be
disowned.

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Change Password Change password can be used when a user forgets his password. The
administrator can assign a new password to the user without knowing

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the old password.

Case Study: When PDMWorks Workgroup is first installed, there are three default

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User Accounts users, pdmwadmin, user_w and user_r. They represent the
administrator, a user with write access and a user with read-only access.

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1 Start the VaultAdmin tool.
Start the VaultAdmin tool by clicking Start, All Programs,
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SolidWorks 2008, PDMWorks Workgroup 2008 VaultAdmin.

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Type the default name pdmwadmin and the default password

pdmwadmin.
For the Project vault, type the computer name where the vault is
located.
Click Login.
Note If the vault is on the same computer you are using to access the
VaultAdmin tool you can type localhost as the Vault computer.
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Case Study: User Accounts 19

Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

2 The VaultAdmin tool.

The VaultAdmin tool has several tabs to control access to PDMWorks
Workgroup and the procedures to be used to manage the files.

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Note The graphics show the VaultAdmin tool for the Advanced Server. The
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only difference between the Advanced Server and the Standard Server
is the ability to setup the PDMWorks Workgroup Viewer.
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20 Case Study: User Accounts

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

3 Users & Groups.

The Users & Groups tab is used to add, delete or modify users and to
create groups and control their membership.
Select the tab Users & Groups. The three default users are the only
users currently recognized by PDMWorks Workgroup.

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4 Create New User.

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Click New User.

Type sam_smith for User name
and sam for the Password.
Type Sam Smith for Display
name and
[email protected] for
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his Email.
Add the comment Electronics
designer as the Comment.
Select All document for
Documents visible to user.
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Click OK.

Case Study: User Accounts 21

Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

5 Add additional users.

Add three additional users using the data in the following table.

Name Password Display name Email Comment

jim_jansen jim Jim Jansen [email protected] Group supervisor

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bob_white bob Bob White [email protected] Mechanical systems
jane_doe jan Jane Doe [email protected] Designer

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Note The only field that is required to be filed in is the Username. If the
Password field is blank, the user can log on without a password.
6 Add additional users.

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We will add a few additional users to help demonstrate the use of
groups.

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Add the following users, just adding their names. All the remaining
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Q Brian Hursch Q Betty Black
Q Greg Johnson Q Sally Brown
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22 Case Study: User Accounts

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

User Access by The user accounts set up above, granted permissions to files based on
Custom Property the project to which they are assigned. Additional restrictions to access
can be controlled through custom properties.
Through the user account settings, all documents that do not have a
specific custom property can be hidden from a user. This can limit
certain users from seeing projects outside their area of responsibility.

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As we have not yet set up custom properties, we will have to modify
users that will have access controlled by custom properties later in the

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process.
Changing The administrator normally gives each user an initial password. The
Passwords first time a user logs into PDMWorks Workgroup they should change
their password.

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The administrator can change any user’s password from the
VaultAdmin tool without knowing the user’s current password. If a user

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forgets his password, the administrator can simply assign a new
password.
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7 Change the administrator’s
password.
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When initially setting up the
PDMWorks Workgroup system, it
is good practice to change the
default pdmwadmin password.
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Select the user pdmwadmin and

click Modify.
Type the new password crow.
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Type Administrator for

Display name.
Click OK.

Note There does not have to be a user named pdmwadmin. Once other users
are entered, one of them can be assigned as an administrator and the
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pdmwadmin user can be deleted.

Deleting Users As users leave the company, their accounts should be removed from
PDMWorks Workgroup. If the user owns any files, those files will be
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disowned when the user is deleted.

Case Study: User Accounts 23

Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

8 Delete users.
Remove the two default users.
Select user_r and click Delete.
Click OK to confirm the deletion.

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Repeat for the other default user, user_w.

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Groups Users may be assigned to groups to make it easier to control
permissions to projects. Assigning a permission to a group assigns the
permission to all members of the group.

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Users may be assigned to any number of groups.

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Case Study: To make it easier to assign project permissions, create a user group
Groups called Engineers and include Jim, Bob, Jane and Sam.
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1 Add a group.
Click New Group.
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Type Engineers and click OK.

2 Add users to the group.

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Select Bob White, Jane Doe, Jim

Jansen and Sam Smith.
Click Apply.
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Note Changes must always be applied. If you forget to click Apply before
selecting something else, PDMWorks Workgroup will question you. If
you do not apply the changes, they will be lost.

24 Case Study: Groups

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

3 Modify a group.
As we start up another product line,
we need to create another group called
Engineers. To keep the groups
separate we want to modify this group
name to Engineers-Project 1.

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Click Modify.
Type Engineers-Project 1and click OK.

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4 Add the Engineers group.
Now that the first group has been renamed, create another group called
Engineers. Add Brian Hursch, Greg Johnson and Jim Jansen to the
group.

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5 Add another group.
Create a new group called Managers.

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Add the following users to the group: Jim Jansen, Sally Brown and
pdmwadmin.
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Click Apply.
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Projects Projects provide the structure for documents stored in the vault. They
are like folders in Windows Explorer but they have a few differences
that we will see later.
Projects can have sub-projects to further break down the structure into
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finer increments.
Note Vaults perform better when there are fewer files in a project. When
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planning your installation, it is better to have a large number of projects

with less files in each than to have only a few projects with a large
number files in each.
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Projects 25
Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

6 The Projects tab.

The Projects tab is used to add projects and control user access to the
projects.
Select the Projects tab.

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There is one default project called sample. The users we just entered
are shown in the right pane.

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7 Create New Project.

Click New Project.
Type Flashlight for the Project
name and Hand Held
Flashlight for the Description.
no

Click OK.
Do

26 Projects
SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

Project Access Project access sets the permissions regarding who may see, copy or
alter files. Permissions are granted to either individuals or groups and
can be either Read only access, Read/Write access or none.
Read Access Read only access allows a user to see the documents in the vault, copy
the files to their local drive, and open them. Users, with read only
access, can not take ownership of the files nor check them back into the

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vault.
Write Access Write access allows users to take ownership of documents, check them

bu
back into the vault, bump revisions, change lifecycle and optionally
delete them.
Note There are three ways to control user access. In addition to access by
project, access can also be controlled by lifecycle rules and by custom

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properties.

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8 Set project access.
y ra
Write access will be granted to the Engineers-Project 1group and the

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vault administrator. Select the Engineers-Project 1 group in the
RW (read/write) column. The Engineers-Project 1 group will
op a D
have RW indicating the group has write access. Each member of the
group will have an rw indicating they have write access derived from a
group.
Select pdmwadmin in the RW column.
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B
no
Do

Project Access 27
Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

Read access will be granted to everyone else. Select in the RO (read-

only) column for everyone except those that have write access.
Permissions are color coded the same as for projects:
Q Black - Write access
Q Orange - Read-only access
Q Gray - No access

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Click Apply.

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y ra
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B

9 Create sub-projects.
There are logical sub-projects in the design of this Flashlight. To start,
we will create the first two. Additional sub-projects can be added later.
Click New Project.
Name the project Case and make
no

the Description Case.

From the Parent list, select
Flashlight. This makes Case a sub-
project of the Flashlight.
Do

Click OK.
Important! Every project name and description must be unique. While both the
project name and description are both the same in this case, there
cannot be another project named Case and there cannot be another
description Case.

28 Project Access
SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

10 Sub-project access.
When the sub-project was created, it inherited the same permissions as
the parent project. Once the sub-project has been created, the
permissions may be changed.
Add write permission for Greg Johnson.

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Click Apply.

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B
no
Do

Project Access 29
Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

11 Add another project.

Add an additional sub-project under
the Flashlight called Electrics with a
description of Electric
components.
Access is the same as the Flashlight,

te
except that Brian Hursch has write
access.

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B

Project Settings In a company with only a few users, setting project permissions is
relatively easy. With larger companies, setting read and write access
could be more challenging. To make the process easier, permissions
can be copied from one project to another.
no

Introducing: Copy Copy setting from allows the user permissions from one project to be
Settings From... copied and pasted into other projects.

Case Study:
Do

Create a new project under the top level and assign permissions the
Copy Project same as an existing project.
Settings

30 Project Settings
SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

1 Create a project.
Create a new project under the top level called Can Opener. The
project description is Can Opener assembly.
As initially created, no one has any access to the project.
2 Assign permissions.

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Click Copy Project Permissions.
Select Flashlight from the list. This copies the permissions from
Flashlight to any projects we select in the list.

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Select Can Opener in the box.
Click OK.
The new project Can Opener now has the same write permissions as

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the project Flashlight.

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B

Note If you right-click in the box you can select many

projects at the same time.
no

Apply Specific For some project, you may want everyone to have either Read/Write,
Permissions to Read-Only or No Access. Rather than having to apply the permissions
Everyone individually, you can apply the same permission to everyone at the
same time.
Do

Where to Find It Q In the Projects Permissions area, right-click and select the
appropriate option from the box.

Case Study: Copy Project Settings 31

Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

3 The sample project.

Apply read/write permission to everyone.
Select the sample project. Right-click in the Project
permissions and select All Read/Write.

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4 Save the new settings.
Click Apply.

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Revision The company’s revision scheme is normally determined prior to
Scheme PDMWorks Workgroup implementation and, if properly thought out,
rarely changed after implementation.

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Revision schemes can have up to three levels plus an additional
working level.

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or ft
The revision sequence can be specified as a range of values, such as A
to Z or 1 to 9, or they may be specified as discreet values when they are
y ra
non-consecutive.

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When entering a range, the From and To values must have the same
number of digits. To enter a range of 1 through 999, you must enter 001
op a D
through 999.
Revision schemes are displayed as follows:
Primary Secondary
separator separator
t c et

Dev.01.A+ Working
copy
B

Primary Secondary Tertiary

level level level

Working Copy Working copies differ from standard revisions in that working copies
continue to overwrite the previous working copy in the vault while
standard revision levels store additional copies of the document file.
no

If the working copy field is blank, users will not be allowed to create
working copies.
Sequential Sequential revisioning causes the revision numbers to cycle through
Revisioning each level in turn, rather than combine levels. If sequential revisioning
Do

is used, PDMWorks Workgroup will automatically eliminate the

separators.

32 Revision Scheme
SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

Example Sequential revsioning is easier to see with an example.

Q Primary Level: A through C Q Secondary Level: 1 through 3

Sequential Revisioning Sequential Revisioning

Selected Cleared

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A A1
B A2

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C A3
1 B1

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2 B2
3 B3

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or ft
C1
y ra C2

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C3
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5 Set Revision Scheme.
The revision scheme used in this course consisted of a single letter at
the primary level to specify the released revision of the file. Before the
first release of a file, the primary level is specified with a dash. The
t c et

secondary level is a two digit number to specify changes to the primary

revision. The secondary increment is from 01 to 99.
B

Select the Revision Scheme tab.

We cannot specify a range because we are using the dash. We will have
to enter the specific revisions we wish to use.
For the Primary revision, select Listing, then type the values: -, A,
B, C, D, E.
no
Do

Revision Scheme 33
Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

6 Set the secondary revision.

Use the existing secondary revision scheme. Range is selected for the
secondary revision level, and 01 and 99 are listed as the From and To
values.
Type a period “.” for the primary separator. The secondary separator,
tertiary range and listing boxes should all be empty.

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For Working Copy type working.

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B
no
Do

34 Revision Scheme
SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

7 Set remaining options.

In our revision scheme, the primary value only is used for files that are
released. To allow revisions with only a primary level, the secondary
level must be optional.
Clear Sequential revisioning and select Last revision type optional.
Click Apply.

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B

Lifecycles Lifecycles are used to indicate the status of the document (i.e., In
Design, Review, Released, ECO, or Obsolete). PDMWorks Workgroup
supports a lifecycle system where the properties of ownership and
revision control can be set.
The use of lifecycles is not mandatory as they may be turned off. If
no

used, they must be set up by the administrator and enabled before users
are able to use this function.
There may be any number of revisions per lifecycle phase. For
example, while in the In Design lifecycle, one part may have revisions
from -.01 to -.54 while another part may only have -.01 to -.06.
Do

Permissions to change lifecycle status can be granted to the owner,

administrator or a single group.

Lifecycles 35
Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

Controlling User User access to documents can be controlled in three ways, by:
Access Q Project
Q Lifecycle status
Q Custom property
The access control scheme must be careful thought out to avoid

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conflicts between the methods.

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Case Study: Careful thought should go into the setup of lifecycles. The first step is
Create to write out what you expect to happen in each lifecycle and how that
Lifecycles relates to the revision scheme. The lifecycle scheme used in this course
consisted of five lifecycles.

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Q In Design
All files are in the In Design lifecycle from the first time they are

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checked into the vault, until they are being reviewed for release. Any
engineer, designer, manager or the administrator may own files in this
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lifecycle. The primary level will be a dash (-) and only the secondary

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revision number will be used (i.e. -.01, -.02, etc.) to indicate different
revisions.
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Q Pending
This lifecycle is for files that are being reviewed for release. While
Pending, they will be owned by Jim jansen who is the reviewer.
When ready for release, the revision will be incremented to a primary
letter.
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Q Released
When released, no one will own the document. Engineers and members
of the Document Control group will be allowed to take ownership.
B

When the document is next checked in, it will change status to ECO.
Q ECO
When an Engineering Change Order is issued, the responsible engineer
will take ownership and make the changes. Only the secondary revision
level will be changed (i.e. A, A.01, A.02, etc.). When complete, the file
will go to the Pending lifecycle for review.
no

Q Obsolete
When a released document is replaced by a newer revision, the old
version is moved to the Obsolete status and removed from view or
access. The revision does not increment.
Do

36 Case Study: Create Lifecycles

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

Another way to set up the lifecycle structure is to create a flowchart.

Using the above descriptions, the flowchart might look like the
following:

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B
no

Note Rules set on the Lifecycle tab take precedence over client check in
settings.

1 Create new lifecycles.

Do

Select the Lifecycle tab.

Select Enable lifecycle. Until selected, nothing is available on the
Lifecycle tab.

Case Study: Create Lifecycles 37

Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

2 Control document assess.

Select Control document access using status. This adds another
level of control over which files users can access.
3 Lifecycle change on check in.
Select Allow status changes on check in and allow revision levels
based on the status. Then select Selected in the check in dialog

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box. This will allow documents to be placed in any lifecycle when
checked in.

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We are selecting this option because we have legacy data that is already
released. When these files are first checked into the vault, they can be
check in directly to the correct lifecycle.
4 Define the lifecycles.

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Click New Status and type In
Design. Click OK.

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or ft
Add four other status definitions
named ECO, Pending, Obsolete and
y ra
Released.

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5 Reorder the status.
The order of the lifecycles is important as
op a D
they define the progression of a project
from inception to release. Lifecycles
progress down the list, so we want
Pending before ECO.
t c et

Select Pending in the list and click

Move Up.
Select ECO and click Move Down twice.
B

Move Obsolete to the last position in the list.

The order of the lifecycles should now be: In Design, Pending,
Released, ECO, Obsolete.
6 Set Lifecycle status change
permissions.
Some of the lifecycle options are specific to
no

each lifecycle while others are global and

apply to all lifecycles. The left side of the
dialog controls global options and the right
side controls options specific to the
individual lifecycles.
Do

The Users, groups that can change

status control which users may change a file’s lifecycle status.
In our company, we want the user to be able to change lifecycle status.
Select Document owner with RW access.

38 Case Study: Create Lifecycles

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

We also want the administrator to be able to change a lifecycle status to

help troubleshoot problems. Select Administrators.
Jim Jansen is the group supervisor, to allow him to also change a file’s
status, select his name from the list.
7 Previous revisions.

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The change status options that were just set apply to all revisions. To
limit these permissions to only the current revision, select Allow only
administrators to change the status of previous revisions.

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Taking Ownership Lifecycle permissions allow an exception to the rule that only the
person with ownership of a file can make changes.

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By selecting Administrators, the administrator can, without
ownership, cause files to change lifecycle status. The new status can

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or ft
mean that the files have a different owner. This effectively means that
ownership can be taken from the original owner.
y ra
Allowing an individual or group to change status has the same effect,

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so permission settings should be carefully thought out.
op a D
Note In the next several steps, we will be making changes to the settings for
specific lifecycles. The changes we will make in the right side of the
dialog box only apply to the lifecycle selected on the left side.
8 Change owner on change
t c et

in status.
The person who owns a file
can be changed when the
B

lifecycle status of a file

changes.
Select the lifecycle In
Design. From the list select
<do not change>.
Select the lifecycle Pending.
no

From the list select

jim_jansen. Jim is
responsible for reviewing all
files before they are released.
When a file is changed to the
Do

Pending lifecycle, Jim

Jansen will automatically
become the owner.
Select the lifecycle Released. From the list select <none>. When a file
moves into the Released lifecycle the file becomes disowned.

Case Study: Create Lifecycles 39

Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

Select the lifecycle ECO. From the list select <do not change>.
During the ECO process, the rules will be essentially the same as for
the lifecycle In Design.
Select the lifecycle Obsolete. From the list select <none>. Once in the
Obsolete status no one should own the file.

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Ownership By The rules for file access can change with status. Unlike the permissions
Status set on the Projects tab which applied to the project, these permissions

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will apply to the individual files.
Establishing these rules must be carefully thought out to prevent
situation where a user may have write access to a file that is in a project
where he has no access and is hidden.

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9 Changing ownership rules by

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status.
In a previous step we enabled
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Control document access

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using status. This enables the
list of users.
op a D
Select the lifecycle In Design. In the RW column select Engineers,
Engineers- Project 1, and Managers. In the RO column, select Betty
Black. While in this lifecycle, everyone except Betty Black (Document
Control) has write access.
Select the lifecycle Pending. In this lifecycle, Jim
t c et

Jansen automatically becomes the owner and is the

only user who needs write access. Because there is
B

only one user who needs access other than read-only,

we can apply read-only access to everyone then just
change the access for Jim jansen.
Right-click in the permissions area and select All Read Only. Click in
the RW column for Jim Jansen.
Select the lifecycle Released. When a file moves into this lifecycle it
becomes disowned. In order to modify a released document, all the
no

engineers need access as well as the Document Control group (Betty

Black). Everyone else will get read-only permission. When an ECO is
required, engineers can take ownership and change the document. Once
changed, we don’t want them to check the document back in as
Released so we will force the status to move automatically to ECO.
Do

Select the RW column for both groups of engineers, pdmwadmin and

Betty Black. Click in the RO column for everyone else.
Select the lifecycle ECO. File access for this lifecycle will be the same
as In Design.

40 Case Study: Create Lifecycles

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

Select the lifecycle Obsolete. Betty Black, as a member of the

Document Control group, will have Write access, everyone else will
have no access. Right-click in the permissions area and select All No
Access Specified, then click in the RW column for Betty Black.

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Document Flow Lifecycle rules can force documents to flow through the system in a set
direction and can prevent files from returning to a certain status. In this
system, once a file leaves the In Design status, it is controlled and not

bu
allowed to return to In Design. It is expected to move through Pending
to Released. Once released, any changes are handled by ECOs so the
file must go to ECO, then Pending for review, then back to Released.

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10 Do not allow status return.
Select the In Design status. Select Do not allow a document to

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or ft
return to the selected or a prior status. This is the only status we do
not want a file to return to.
y ra
di
In turn, select Pending, Released, ECO and Obsolete and make sure
that Do not allow a document to return to the selected or a prior
status is cleared.
op a D

Revision Rules At each lifecycle, only certain revision increments my be allowed.

Lifecycle rules can establish which levels of revisions my change at
each status.
t c et

In our system, letters indicate released documents. We do not want a

document to get a letter revision while still in the lifecycle In
Design. While in the Status of In Design and ECO we want the
B

secondary revision to change. While in Pending, we need to change

either primary or secondary levels depending on whether or not the file
gets released.
no
Do

Case Study: Create Lifecycles 41

Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

11 Set allowed revision levels.

Select the In Design lifecycle.
Select Secondary and Working
copy; clear Primary and Tertiary.
Select the Pending lifecycle. Select Primary and Secondary; clear

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Tertiary and Working copy.
Select the Released lifecycle. Select Primary; clear Secondary,

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Tertiary, and Working copy.
Select the ECO lifecycle. Select Secondary and Working copy; clear
Primary and Tertiary.

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Select the Obsolete lifecycle. Clear Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and
Working copy. When documents move to Obsolete, their revision
does not change, only their status.

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or ft
Automatic Change
y ra
When a file is checked in, there may be a need to force a change to a

di
In Status certain lifecycle status. Lifecycle rules can be established to force the
document to move forward to the next status, backward to the previous
op a D
status, to the last or first lifecycle status or not to change.
In our system, we will only force one lifecycle change, when a
Released document is again checked in, it must move to ECO.
We can also force a change in other documents at the selected status.
t c et

For instance, we only want the most recent version of a released

document to be in the Released status. When a new version of a
document is set to Released, the old versions move to a different status
B

such as Obsolete. This way, people with access to only Released

documents, such as the shop floor, will only see one version of any
document.

12 Set next check in rules.

Select the Released lifecycle.
For When a document at the
no

selected status before check

in is next checked in, change the document status to, select ECO
from the list.
Select each of the four other lifecycles in turn and from the list select
<do not change>.
Do

Click Apply.
13 Set other revisions rule.
Select the Released lifecycle.

42 Case Study: Create Lifecycles

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

For Change other document revisions at the selected status to

status, select Obsolete from the list.
Select each of the four other lifecycles in turn and from the list select
<do not change>.
Click Apply.

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e

Standard Like the revision and lifecycle schemes, the method used to handle

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Libraries Toolbox and other standard parts should be determined prior to
PDMWorks Workgroup implementation.
Toolbox parts Toolbox parts are, in effect, just SolidWorks parts. From the user
perspective they are indistinguishable from other SolidWorks parts. To

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help manage Toolbox parts in PDMWorks Workgroup, they have an
internal flag that designates them as a Toolbox parts.

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or ft
When setting up PDMWorks Workgroup, the key question in
determining how to handle Toolbox parts is whether or not the parts
y ra
di
need revision control.
There are three ways that PDMWorks Workgroup knows that a file is a
op a D
Toolbox file:
Q Internal flag.
Toolbox inserts an internal flag into the part files.
Q Toolbox directories.
Any file in a directory that has \Toolbox\,
t c et

\Toolbox Parts\, or \SolidWorks Data\ in its path.

Q Specified directories.
B

Any file in a directory listed on the Standard Libraries tab.

Not Revision In addition to Toolbox parts, other documents such as library parts or
Managed Files vendor supplied parts may be managed through PDMWorks
Workgroup. These files do not have to be checked into the vault but can
be shown in the vault under a separate project.
Revision Options The check in of Standard Library files can be disabled. If Standard
Library files are not checked into the vault, they may still be shown in
no

the vault under a separate project. By showing these parts in their own
project, even though they are not physically in the vault, many of the
data functions, such as Document Information, are available.
When copies are created of Toolbox or standard parts, policy may
Do

dictate that they be checked into the vault. If this is done, the local copy
can be deleted to avoid confusion.

Standard Libraries 43
Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

Common Parts Common parts and features can be handled through the Toolbox tab by
Library creating a separate project for them. Like Toolbox parts, the issue is
whether or not you need revision control over these parts.
To prevent common parts from being checked into the vault, include
their folder in the list on the Toolbox tab.

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Common Part This approach is essentially the same as using Toolbox master parts.
Shared Folder Because these parts are not checked into the vault, they can be edited
by anyone and will not be subject to revision control.

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Procedure This procedure uses the Toolbox function in the VaultAdmin tool to
exempt these common parts from check in.
1. Create a folder on a shared drive.

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2. Place all the common parts in this folder and its sub directories.
3. In the VaultAdmin tool, add the directory path to the Shared
Libraries tab.

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or ft
4. In SolidWorks Options, set the path for the Design Library to the
y ra shared directory.

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Common Parts The common parts project is essentially the same as the project we set
Project up for templates. Because these parts are checked into the vault, they
op a D
are subject to ownership and revision control.
Procedure These are the basic steps to set up the vault for Common Parts.
1. Create company approved parts, fasteners and features.
2. Create a Common Parts project, and subprojects as desired, to hold
all the parts and features.
t c et

3. Assign write access to the project to the person responsible for

maintaining the files.
4. Assign read access to everyone who will use theses parts and
B

features.
5. Check in the common parts to the Common Parts project.
6. Users drag and drop the parts and features from the vault directly
into their assemblies as needed.

Case Study: Add a common parts directory to the Standard Libraries tab to prevent
no

Toolbox Parts them from being checked into the vault with the parent documents.
Setup the VaultAdmin tool and Toolbox to work together.
1 Create a common directory.
Common and library parts are stored in a central location.
Do

Using Windows Explorer, create the directory

C:\SolidWorks Common.

44 Case Study: Toolbox Parts

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

2 Add a directory.
In the VaultAdmin tool, select the Standard Libraries tab.
Click Add.
Type Standard Fasteners for the Display Name.
Browse to the C:\SolidWorks Common directory.

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Click OK.

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or ft
3 Revision management options.
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di
Toolbox parts and standard library
parts will not be checked into the
vault but will be shown in the vault
op a D
in a separate project.
Select Disable check in of
documents and select Display referenced files in a separate
project.
t c et

4 Set Toolbox options.

We want to setup Toolbox to
use configurations of the
B

master part files. We must

configure Toolbox so that
configurations are created
rather than new parts.
Click Toolbox, Configure
from the menu.
no

Select the Settings tab.

Select Create
Configurations and Always
change read-only status of
documents before writing.
Do

As master part files are generally read-only, when Toolbox creates a

new configuration it will temporarily change the master part file to
allow the change to be written to the file.

Case Study: Toolbox Parts 45

Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

5 Revision management options.

Toolbox parts and standard library
parts will be checked into the vault
and revision managed.
Select Allow check in of
documents and Allow delete local

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copy on check in.
6 .Set Toolbox options.

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We want to setup Toolbox to
create new part files for each
item it creates. We must
configure Toolbox so that

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new parts are created rather
than new configurations of
the master part files.

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or ft
Click Toolbox, Configure
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from the menu.

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Select the Settings tab.
Select Create Parts and
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Error when writing to a
read-only document.
Click and select a folder where the newly created parts will be
saved.
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7 Apply the change.

All changes to the VaultAdmin tool settings must be applied.
B

Click Apply.

Vault Settings The Vault Settings tab provides the general control over vault
activities.
Admin Privileges PDMWorks Workgroup allows more than one administrator. There are
a few simple rules for assigning Administrator Privileges:
no

Q You need at least one person assigned Administrator Privileges.

You will never be allowed to remove all administrators.
Q There should be a backup administrator.
There should always be a person ready to take over the administrator
Do

duties if the primary administrator is not available.

Q All users with Administrator Privileges are equal.
This is significant in that any administrator can remove all the others!

46 Vault Settings
SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

Q You cannot remove yourself as an administrator.

To remove your account from the Admin Privileges list, another
administrator must remove it.
Q One administrator needs access to the vault through Windows
Explorer.
There are several tasks the administrator must accomplish directly

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through Windows. At least one administrator will need both read and
write access to the vault through Windows Explorer.

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Q The administrator should be a PDMWorks Workgroup user rather
than an IT person.
Most of the actions taken by the administrator deal with how the users
interact with SolidWorks and the vault, not computer or network issues.
While it may be beneficial in large organizations to have a member of

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the IT team trained as a Vault Administrator, it is generally not
necessary.

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or ft
Important! No one, other than the administrator, should have read or write access
to the vault through Windows.
y ra
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Global Settings These settings are normally determined at installation, then left
untouched. Many of these functions were discussed during the previous
op a D
lessons.
Q Keep extra copy of latest files.
Whatever version of the document that was checked in last will be
stored in an additional folder in the vault call “Latest.” This provides a
redundant copy of the file in the vault in the event the primary copy is
t c et

corrupted.
Q Hide projects with no access.
Projects that a user has neither read nor write access will not be visible
B

in the Vault View. Selecting this option can speed access to the vault by
reducing the amount of information that must be transmitted across the
network.
Q Force user login.
This prevents users from storing their passwords. Users must type their
passwords at log in because Save password is disabled.
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Q Allow revision bumping.

Users can bump a revision without opening the document.
Q Allow latest revision overwrite.
When checked, users can check in a document at the same revision
level which overwrites the previous copy. This is similar to working
Do

copy, but no suffix is added to the revision number.

Vault Settings 47
Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

Q Allow change document properties.

This allows users to change custom properties within PDMWorks
Workgroup, such as in list boxes. With this option cleared, users can
still change document properties through SolidWorks or Windows.
Q Allow users to create subprojects.
When selected, users can create or rename sub-projects under projects

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which they have write access. If cleared, only the vault administrator
can create projects.

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Q Do not allow read-only users to open documents in PDMWorks
Workgroup Viewer.
If selected, users that access the vault through the PDMWorks
Workgroup Viewer, will not be allowed to open any document from a
project where they have read-only access.

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Q .prt/.asm/.drw extension not associated with SolidWorks.

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If cleared, files with these extensions are considered to be SolidWorks
documents. If checked, they will not be considered SolidWorks
documents and will not form automatic associations. If you check in
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documents from other CAD systems that use these file extension, this
option would normally be selected.
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Q Allow attachments to documents owned by other users.
If this option is cleared, users cannot create a reference to a document
owned by another user when they are checking in a document type
other than SolidWorks.
Q Set file system read-only attribute if not owner.
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If selected, users who open files from the vault that are owned by
someone else, will have them open with read-only access in Windows.
Q Allow users to rename documents in the Vault.
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The Rename function allows files in the vault to be renamed while

maintaining all references. If there are problems with users renaming
files, the administrator can turn the function off. If the administrator
needs to rename files, it can be turned on to make changes then turned
back off.
Q Enable performance email.
Allows the performance log to be automatically emailed to SolidWorks
no

Corporation.
Q Bind ownership to SolidWorks read-write/read-only access.
When this option is selected, making a change to the read/write status
of a file in SolidWorks affects the ownership of the file in PDMWorks
Do

Workgroup. Conversely, changing ownership in PDMWorks

Workgroup affects the read/write status of the file in SolidWorks.

48 Vault Settings
SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

Q Skip drawings validation during check in.

When selected, drawings are not opened during the check in process.
This can speed up the time to check in the drawings, but also assumes
that the drawings are correct as is. Notes or text that is linked to a
revision custom property will not be correct in the vault.
Q Create PDF files in the Vault on normal check in of SolidWorks

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drawings.
When selected, a PDF file is created of the drawing to allow the
drawing to be previewed as a PDF. Note that the PDF file is stored

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internally in the vault and will not be listed in the vault view.
Locking The Vault When making a copy of the vault, it is important to make sure that no
transactions take place during the copy operation. When the vault is locked,

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the service will continue to run but the vault will stop all transactions.
The vault can be locked for everyone except a single user to aid in

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troubleshooting a problem.
Note If the administrator closes the VaultAdmin tool without unlocking the
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vault, PDMWorks Workgroup will provide a warning to insure that the

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vault is not left locked inadvertently, but the vault can be left locked if
desired.
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Viewing with eDrawings are used to view documents in all three PDMWorks
eDrawing Workgroup interfaces. Administrators can allow clients to use the
Measure, Markup and Save tools in eDrawings even if they do not
have an eDrawings Professional license.
t c et

Delete, Rollback, Permission to perform these functions can be limited. Setting

Archive permissions to No one, can prevent an unintended deletion from the
Documents vault. If an administrator needs to perform one of these functions,
B

permission can be can easily be changed in the VaultAdmin tool to

Administrators only for the time needed to complete the task, then
returned to No one.
Vault Log File PDMWorks Workgroup maintains a log file, to record interaction with the
vault and errors that occur. The log file is a text file that is kept in the root
directory of the vault. As a text file, it can be read in any standard text
editing software, such as Notepad. Periodically, this file should be archived
no

and deleted.
The vault log file is a resource to help the vault administrator to
troubleshoot problems.
Vault Validation The vault structure and tree should periodically be validated. This is
Do

done during the vault startup. As this process can take considerable
time on large vaults, we can turn this process off.

Vault Settings 49
Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

Case Study: Setting the options on the Vault Settings tab is straight forward.
Global Settings
1 Administrative privileges.
Select the Vault Settings tab.

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Assign Vault Administrator privileges to
Sally Brown and pdmwadmin.

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2 Global Settings.
Establish the global settings
shown in the graphic.
Click Apply.

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3 Vault Validation.
Clear Validate vault. Unless we are having a
problem, or a time change, we can let the
vault start up without validation.
4 Viewing with eDrawings.
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Select all three options to allow Measure,

Markup and Save.
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Click Apply.

Custom Within PDMWorks Workgroup, custom properties can be controlled

Properties and shown in reports and document information. The Properties tab
provides two functions:
Q Specifying which custom properties will be shown in PDMWorks
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Workgroup
Q Mapping existing properties to those used by PDMWorks
Workgroup
Properties added in the VaultAdmin tool only affect the capabilities to
Do

display and add custom properties within the PDMWorks Workgroup

functions. Additional custom properties can always be added through
SolidWorks or Windows Explorer.
Custom properties can also be used to control vault access through
individual user permissions.

50 Case Study: Global Settings

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

Case Study: We will add several custom properties to show in our reports, then map
Adding Custom existing file properties to those used in PDMWorks Workgroup.
Properties
1 Open the cylinder.

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In SolidWorks, open the part Cylinder.sldprt from the
…\Lesson03\Case Study folder.

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2 Log in.
Log in to PDMWorks Workgroup as the administrator (password:
crow).
3 File properties.

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Click Properties on the File menu.
There are no custom properties assigned in this file.

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Click OK.
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B
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Case Study: Adding Custom Properties 51

Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

4 Check in the part.

Check in the cylinder to the sample project. Do not add a
Number or Description. Use the default revision number.

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File properties.

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Click Properties on the File menu.
Six file properties were added, even though several of them have values
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that are blank.
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B
no

Click OK.
Do

52 Case Study: Adding Custom Properties

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

6 The report.
In the Vault View, right-click the cylinder part and select Reporting.
Right-click anywhere in the header row and select Restore default
state.
The only columns in the report are default file properties added by

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PDMWorks Workgroup.
Click Close.

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B

7 Add additional properties.

In the VaultAdmin tool, select the
Properties tab.
Click New Property. Type
Material and click OK.
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Repeat the process and add

the properties ApprovedBy
and DrawnBy.
The three new properties are
Do

now listed in the left pane.

Click Apply.

Case Study: Adding Custom Properties 53

Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

8 Refresh the Vault View.

Whenever a change is made in the VaultAdmin tool, the Vault View
must be refreshed before the new changes take effect.
Right-click in the Vault View and select Refresh Vault View or click
Refresh in the Vault View toolbar.

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9 Check in the part.
Check in the Cylinder to the sample project.
The additional properties are now listed, even though their values are

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blank.
Click Check In.

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54 Case Study: Adding Custom Properties

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

10 File properties.
Click Properties on the File menu.
The three new properties were added.

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11 Add a property value to the file.

Select the Value/Text Expression cell in the row for the Material
property.
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Type Steel.
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Case Study: Adding Custom Properties 55

Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

12 Add a property to the file.

Add a custom property for Vendor directly to the file.
Select the blank Property Name cell in row ten, then select Vendor
from the pull-down list and type SolidWorks for the value.
Click OK.

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13 Missing entries.
SolidWorks issues the message:
There are rows with missing entries in the custom
B

properties grid. These rows will not be updated. If

you want to complete these rows, click Yes now.
This indicates that there are properties with no values. We will leave
them blank for now.
Click No.
14 Save the part.
no
Do

56 Case Study: Adding Custom Properties

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

15 Check in the part.

Check in the Cylinder to the sample project.
The value of Steel has been added to the Material cell.
Because Vendor is not one of the properties recorded by PDMWorks
Workgroup, it is not listed in the Check In dialog.

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Case Study: Adding Custom Properties 57

Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

16 The report.
In the Vault View, right-click the cylinder part and select
Reporting.
The columns in the report now include the three new properties added

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through the VaultAdmin tool but not the property that we added
directly into the Solidworks file.
Click Close.

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58 Case Study: Adding Custom Properties

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

17 Document Information.
In the Vault View, right-click the Cylinder and select Document
Information.
The Properties tab in the Document Information window shows all the
properties listed in PDMWorks Workgroup as well as the properties
entered directly into the file in SolidWorks.

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Click Close.

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Search The search functions speed can be dramatically increased by using

indexing. The process requires that Microsoft Indexing Service is
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enabled and the vault is indexed.

Before we can index the vault, we must turn on indexing in the
operating system. Once Windows indexing is available, we will index
the vault itself.
Note We only have to index the vault once. As additional files are added or
removed from the vault, indexing will take place automatically.
no
Do

Search 59
Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

Case Study: In this case study, we will enable Microsoft Indexing Service and index
Index the Vault the vault.
1 Enter the Control Panel.
Click Start, Control Panel.

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Click Add/Remove Programs.
Click Add/Remove Windows Components.

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2 Start Indexing Wizard.

Select Indexing Service.
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Click Next.
Follow the prompts until the Indexing Service is installed.
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60 Case Study: Index the Vault

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

3 Build the index catalog.

In the VaultAdmin tool, select the Search tab. Before we can use the
indexed search capability, the vault has to be indexed. To do this we
will build a catalog.
The default catalog location should be used. This will put the indexing
information in the vault under the data folder. For a standard

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installation, the folders would be:
Catalog location: C:\VaultData\data

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Index files folder: C:\VaultData\data\MSSearch

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Case Study: Index the Vault 61

Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

4 Build the catalog.

Click Build Catalog.
You will be warned that the process may take a long time. As we are
indexing a vault that is practically empty, it will go very fast.
Click Yes.

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Note For existing vaults, it is better left to an overnight or over the weekend
B

task as this really is a long process. Remember however, that you only
have to index the vault once.

Revision Table The revision scheme in PDMWorks Workgroup is integrated with the
SolidWorks revision table. Changes in the PDMWorks Workgroup
revision can be set to add additional rows to the revision table.
no

The administrator controls which level of revision changes cause

updates to the revision table in the drawing.
Do

62 Revision Table
SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

Case Study: Set PDMWorks Workgroup to add revision table rows for primary and
Revision Table secondary revision number updates. In order for PDMWorks
Properties Workgroup to add the revision numbers to the revision table, a revision
table must already be inserted into the drawing.

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1 Revision Table tab.
Select the Revision Table tab in the VaultAdmin tool.
2 Enable.

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Select Enable Revision Table. Until selected, all functions are grayed
out.
3 Rules for revisions.

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Select Primary and Secondary. Clear Tertiary and Working copy.
This will cause a new row to be added to the revision table in the
drawing to be added whenever the drawing is checked in with a new

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revision number that increments either the Primary or Secondary
revision number.
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4 Number of rows.
Use the spin box to set the number of visible rows in the revision table
to 4.
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B
no
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Case Study: Revision Table Properties 63

Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

5 Revision order.
Select Ascending. This will set the revision sequence in the table so
that the newest revision is on the bottom.

Ascending Descending

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Click Apply.

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64 Case Study: Revision Table Properties

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 2
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

Triggers The Triggers tab implements a message queuing architecture that

provides a framework for triggering custom applications. We will not
be able to use Triggers until we have a custom application available.
Clear Allow notifications.

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Triggers 65
Lesson 2 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Setup

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66 Triggers
SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

Exercise 1: In this exercise, we will replace the PDMWorks Workgroup vault used
User Accounts in the previous exercises with a new vault. Then, we will add user
accounts, passwords and user groups.
1 Stop PDMWorks Workgroup service.
Vaults can only be copied and replaced when the PDMWorks
Workgroup service is stopped.

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Click Start, Control Panel, Performance and Maintenance,
Administrative Tools.

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Double-click Services.
Right-click PDMWorks Workgroup Server in the list and select Stop.
Leave the window open as we will need to restart the service once the

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vaults have been switched.
2 Rename the old vault.

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Start Windows Explorer and navigate to the directory
C:\VaultData.
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Rename this directory VaultData_old.
Copy the directory VaultData_New from the SolidWorks 2008
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Training Files\PDMWorks Workgroup\Vaults directory to
the root directory and rename it VautlData.
3 Restart the PDMWorks Workgroup service.
Press Alt+Tab to make the Services window active.
Right-click PDMWorks Workgroup Server in the list and select Start.
t c et

Close the Services window and Control Panel.

4 Start the VaultAdmin tool.
B

Click Start, All Programs, SolidWorks 2008, VaultAdmin.

5 Log in as the default administrator.
Use the following information to log in:
Q Name: pdmwadmin
Q Password: pdmwadmin
Q Project vault: localhost
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6 Delete Users.
Delete the default user user_r.
7 Modify User.
Modify the user user_w to become Sam Black.
Do

Exercise 1 67
 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

8 Add new users and groups.

Create users and groups based on the table.
User names will be the first letter of the first name plus the last name.
Example: the user name for Joe Smith is jsmith.
Display name will be their full name. Example: Joe Smith.

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Give everyone a default password that is the first three letters of their
first name in lowercase. Example: password for jsmith is joe.

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Engineers Project A

Engineers Project B

Document Control
Administrator

Managers

Drafting
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Users

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Joe Smith X

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Barbara jansen X X
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Bob Brown X X X
Sam Black X
Brian Hursch X
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Bill Mack X X
Sally Smyth X
B

John Leon X
Jack Montgomery X
Pam Stanford X
Greg Johnson X
Jon Brown X
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Kari White X X
Mike Knight X
Phil Baxter X
Do

68 Exercise 1
SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

Exercise 2: In this exercise, you will create the project structure and permissions.
Projects With small companies, projects and permissions can be managed on the
fly. For larger companies, it is easier to make a spreadsheet like the
following table to determine permissions for each user. Once the
spreadsheet is created, it is easier to input the settings into PDMWorks
Workgroup.

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1 Create projects and assign access.
Use the table to create projects and assign user access. Indented
projects are sub-projects of the project above. Example: Locking

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Mechanism and Structure are both subprojects of Tool Vise.

Tip Use groups and Select All to speed the process. Permissions may be
copied from one project to another.

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Groups Users

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Document Control

Jack Montgomery
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Administrators

Barbara jansen
Eng Project A
Eng Project B

Greg Johnson
Pam Stanford
Brian Hursch
Projects

Mike Knight
Sally Smith
Bob Brown

Phil Baxter
Kari White
Sam Black

Jon Brown
John Leon
Bill Mack
Joe Smith
Managers

Drafting

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Tool Vise W W W R W W W W W W W W R W R R R W W W W
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Locking W W W R W W W W W W W W R W R R R W W W W
Mechanism
Structure W W W R W W W W W W W W R W R R R W W W W
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Fasteners R R R R R R R R R R R R R W R R R R R R R

U-Joint W W R W W W W W W R R W W W W W W W W R R

Handle W W R W W W W W W R R W W W W W W W W R R

Rotating W W R W W W W W W R R W W W W W W W W R R
Elements
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Trash W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W

Training W W R R R W R W W R R W R R R R R W R R R

Sample W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W
Do

Exercise 2 69
 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

Exercise 3: When establishing the company’s Lifecycle and Revision scheme, it

Revision Scheme may be easier to write out the rules in words, then translated them into
& Lifecycle the PDMWorks Workgroup settings.

Note If your company does not use Lifecycles, do Exercise 4 instead of this
exercise.

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Establish a Lifecycle and Revisioning scheme that does the following:
Lifecycles Lifecycle status can be one of the following:

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Q Development
Q Review
Q Release
Q Obsolete

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Lifecycle Lifecycles will not be used to control document access.
Permissions
Lifecycle status may be changed by the document owner,
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administrators and managers.

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Lifecycle Rules: Set the lifecycle rules as follows:
In Development: The revisions will run from X1 to X10.
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Q
Q Documents do not change status on check in.
Q Once documents move out of this status, they cannot return.
In Review: Q The revisions run from X1.1 to X10.9.
Q Documents do not change status on check in.
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In Release: Q The revisions run from A to G. with .1 thru .9 added to note minor
changes.
Q Documents do not change status on check in.
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Q Only one released version of a document is permitted. Old released

documents move to Obsolete.
Q When released, the owner will change to Bob Brown (document
control manager).
Obsolete: Q Document revision will not change when a document moves into
Obsolete.
Q No one will own documents in this lifecycles.
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Working Copies Working copies will be designated by the suffix “WORKING”.

Working copies are only permitted during Development and Review.
Do

70 Exercise 3
SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

Solution The following screen shots show one possible solution.

Revision Scheme

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Development
Lifecycle
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B
no
Do

Exercise 3 71
 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

Review Lifecycle

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Release Lifecycle
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72 Exercise 3
SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

Obsolete Lifecycle

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Exercise 3 73
 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

Exercise 4: When establishing the company’s Revision scheme, it may be easier to

Revision Scheme write out the rules in words, then translated them into the PDMWorks
Workgroup settings.

Note If your company uses Lifecycles, do Exercise 3 instead of this exercise.

Establish Revisioning scheme that does the following:

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New Development: During initial development, the revisions will run from X1 to X10.
In Review: When files are being reviewed for release, the revisions run from X1.1

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to X10.9.
In Release: When released to manufacturing, the revisions run from A to G. with .1
thru .9 added to note minor changes.

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Working Copies Working copies will be designated by the suffix “WORKING”.
Working copies are only permitted during Development and Review.

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Solution The following screen shot show one possible solution.
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74 Exercise 4
SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

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Lesson 3
PDMWorks Workgroup

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Administration

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Upon successful completion of this lesson, you will be able to:

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Q Lock the vault and stop the PDMWorks Workgroup service.

Q Replace the vault with a copy.
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Q Maintain user accounts.

Q Change user passwords.
Q Clear Obsolete folders.
Q Archive projects.
Q Use custom property mapping.
Check in documents in bulk
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Q Update the VaultAdmin software.

Do

75
Lesson 3 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Administration

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76
SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 3
PDMWorks Workgroup Administration

Maintaining The Maintaining the vault generally does not require much time on the part
Vault of the administrator as there are only a few things that need to be done.
The general actions taken by the administrator to maintain the vault
include:
Q Backup the vault.

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Backup copies of the vault should be made periodically. In the
event of system failures, the most recent backup copy can be used
to minimize loss of data.

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Q Archive log file.
The log file will become very large with time. Archiving the log file
allows the vault to limit the log information to current events.

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Q Maintain user accounts.
As the workforce changes, user accounts must be added, deleted or
modified.

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Q Remove unused files from the vault.
There are several actions required to keep the vault from getting too
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large. Deleted files need to be completely removed and old
revisions may need to be archived.
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Q Map custom properties.
Custom properties in existing files may be named differently from
those used in PDMWorks Workgroup. These properties can be
mapped to resolve differences.
Q Bulk load files.
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When a large number of files need to be check into the vault, the
administrator can use the bulk check in function to speed the
process.
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Q Update PDMWorks Workgroup.

As service packs and newer versions of PDMWorks Workgroup are
released, the administrator updates the vault software.
Q Update the vault data.
With each version of SolidWorks, the file structure of the individual
files changes. Converting the files in the vault to the current version
can speed up opening time for SolidWorks files.
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Locking The Vault When making a copy of the vault, it is important to make sure that no
transactions take place during the copy operation. Either stop the
service or lock the vault.
The vault can be locked for all users except a specific user such as the
Do

vault administrator. This can be useful when troubleshooting the vault.

Where to Find It Q Select Locked on the Vault Settings tab of the VaultAdmin tool.

Maintaining The Vault 77

Lesson 3 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Administration

Vault Backup The vault can be backed up by saving a copy of the VaultData
directory to a new name such as VaultData_dd_mm_yy, where
dd_mm_yy is the backup date. Before making a copy of the vault, the
vault must be locked or the service stopped.
To create a backup copy of the vault:

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1. Start the VaultAdmin tool.
2. Select the Vault Settings tab and Lock the vault.
3. Copy the vault to a drive location for storage.

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4. Rename the backup to VaultData_dd_mm_yy.
5. Unlock the vault.

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Case Study: In this case study, a backup copy of the vault will be created, then the
Vault Backup existing copy of the vault will be replaced.

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1 Stop SolidWorks.
Exit SolidWorks.
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2 Start the VaultAdmin tool.
Click Start, All Programs, SolidWorks 2008, PDMWorks
Workgroup VaultAdmin.
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Log in as the administrator.
3 Lock the vault.
Select the Vault Settings
tab.
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Select Locked.
Click Apply.
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Note If you click OK to close the VaultAdmin tool, PDMWorks Workgroup

will warn you that the vault is locked.
WARNING: You have left the vault locked. You must
unlock the vault before users will be able to use it.
You can still close the VaultAdmin tool, you just have to remember to
unlock the vault later.
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4 Create a backup directory.

Use Windows Explorer to create a directory called Vault Backup.
5 Copy the vault.
Copy the vault to the Vault Backup directory.
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6 Rename the backup copy.

Right-click the copy of the vault and select Rename.
Rename the copy VaultData_dd_mm_yy where dd_mm_yy is
today’s date.

78 Case Study: Vault Backup

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 3
PDMWorks Workgroup Administration

7 Unlock the vault.

In the VaultAdmin tool, click
Unlocked on the Vault
Settings tab.
Click OK to close the VaultAdmin tool.

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8 Restore a backup vault.
For the remainder of this lesson we will use a vault that already has
been in use. The first step is to replace the existing vault with that vault.

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Note The vault we will use is essentially the same vault we had at the end of
the PDMWorks Workgroup for SolidWorks training course.
9 Stop the PDMWorks Workgroup Service.
The PDMWorks Workgroup service must be stopped to change a vault.

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Just locking the vault is not enough.

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Click Start, Control Panel, Performance and Maintenance,
Administrative Tools, then double-click Services.
y ra Right-click PDMWorks Workgroup Server and select Stop.

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10 Rename the vault.

In Windows Explorer, right-click the vault (VaultData) and select
Rename.
Rename the vault to VaultData_setup.
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11 Rename the replacement vault.

Locate the vault we renamed to VaultData_used at the beginning
of the previous lesson. Rename this vault to VaultData.
Do

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Important! This vault must be in the same location as the old vault as the path to
the vault is stored in the Windows registry.
12 Restart the PDMWorks Workgroup service.
Make the Services window active. Right-click PDMWorks
Workgroup Server and select Start.

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PDMWorks Workgroup is now using the new vault and all its settings
and passwords.

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13 Close.
Close the Services window and the Control Panel.

Server Log File PDMWorks Workgroup maintains a log file to record both application
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related events and errors. The log file is kept in the root directory of the
vault and is a text file and can be read in any standard text editing
software, such as Notepad. Periodically, this file should be archived
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and deleted.
The log file is a resource to help the vault administrator troubleshoot
problems as it keeps track of all events and errors within the vault.
no
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PDMWorks Workgroup Administration

Case Study: PDMWorks Workgroup has been installed for some time and we want
Log Files to clean out the log files.
This case study will examine and archive the PDMWorks Workgroup
log files.
1 Locate the log files.

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Use Windows Explore to locate the
file server.log in the vault
directory.

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Note In the next two steps, the content of the files will be different from the
images shown as they will reflect the activities on your computer.

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2 Open the server log.
y ra Use Notepad to open the file server.log.

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Examine the contents of the file. The server log can be useful when
tracking down problems with files being checked in or out.
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3 Close the log file.

4 Start the VaultAdmin tool.
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Log in as the administrator. Remember, on this vault the

administrator’s password is still pdmwadmin.
5 Lock the vault.
Before making an archived copy of these logs, we want to insure there
Do

are no transactions taking place.

In the Vault Settings tab, select Locked.

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Lesson 3 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
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6 Save the vault log.

Click Save for the Vault log.
Save the file as vault log to the Vault
Archive folder found in the
…\SolidWorks 2008 Training Files\PDMWorks
Workgroup\Vault Archive directory. The file will have a default

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name of PDMWorks Server.yyyy.mm.dd.hh.mm.ss.log
where yyyy.mm.dd.hh.mm.ss will be the current year, month, day, hour,
minute and second when the file is saved.

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7 Clear the vault log.
Click Clear for the vault log. Click Yes to confirm the deletion.
8 Open the vault log.
Use Notepad to open the file server.log.
The application log file is now empty.
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9 Close Notepad.
10 Unlock the vault.
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Tree Options Every time files are added to the vault, the tree structure is updated.
With a lot of vault activity, the Vault View may not accurately represent
the contents of the vault. To correct this problem, the vault needs to be
rebuilt.
This process is similar to the Rebuild function in SolidWorks. When
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we add features or rebuild the model (Ctrl+B), SolidWorks only

rebuilds from the last change. If we want the model to rebuild all
features, we do a forced rebuild (Ctrl+Q).
PDMWorks Workgroup can rebuild and validate the vault tree structure
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when the vault service is started (like Ctrl+Q in SolidWorks). This

process could take from a few seconds to a half hour depending on the
size of the vault and the processing power of the server. This validation
and rebuild are off by default, but may be enabled through the
VaultAdmin tool.

82 Tree Options
SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 3
PDMWorks Workgroup Administration

Validate Vault PDMWorks Workgroup goes through each project in the vault to make
sure that every document is valid. PDMWorks Workgroup then rebuilds
the vault tree from the beginning.

Where to Find It Q Select Validate Vault on the Vault Settings tab of the VaultAdmin
tool.

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11 Set tree rebuild options.
In the VaultAdmin tool, select the Vault

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Settings tab, then Validate Vault.
Select Next startup. This will cause the
vault to rebuild on the next startup and then Validate vault will turn

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itself off.
Click Apply.

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Maintaining y ra
There are only a few actions required for user accounts once

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User Accounts PDMWorks Workgroup is installed and operating. As users leave the
company, their accounts must be removed from the system, and as new
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users arrive they must be added.
File Owner Leaves One concern when users leave, is whether they still own files in the
The Company vault. There are two approaches depending on the ownership
requirements of the files.
Q Disown the files.
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The administrator can delete the departed user. Any file that the
user owned will become disowned (no owner).
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Q Modify the old user to become the new user.

When the departed user is being replaced by a new user, the old
user’s account can be modified to the replacement’s name. The
replacement will then own all the files of the departed user, and will
have all the same project and lifecycle access as the departed user.
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PDMWorks Workgroup Administration

File Owner on When a file owner is away and other users need access to his files, the
Temporary Leave vault administrator can release ownership. To do this, the administrator
uses the VaultAdmin tool to assign a new password to the user. The
administrator can then log in as the user and release ownership of the
documents.
The administrator then notifies the user that his password has been

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changed.
User Access by User access to files can be controlled by custom properties within the

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Property files. This can be particularly useful when adding users who have
access to the vault through the PDMWorks Workgroup Viewer.

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Case Study: Bob White left the company and has been replaced by Sally Brown.
Modify Users Bob left without releasing ownership of his project files.

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Sally is to be responsible for all of Bob’s files. Modify the user Bob
White to become Sally Brown.
1
y ra
Log in.

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Start SolidWorks and log in to PDMWorks Workgroup as pdmwadmin.
2 Label display.
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Right-click in the Vault View and select Display Labels With, then
select Owner.
Locate the file Grabber.SLDASM.
Bob White owns the assembly and most of the component parts.
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3 Log in.
Log in to the VaultAdmin tool and select the tab Users & Groups.
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4 Modify a user.
Select Bob White in the user list.
Click Modify.
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5 Change user’s name.

For New name type Sally
Brown.
For Password type sal.
For Display name type Sally

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Brown and for Email type
[email protected].
Click OK.

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6 View the project.
Refresh the Vault View.
y ra The Vault View shows that all of Bob’s files now belong to Sally.

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Before After
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7 Group permissions.
B

In the VaultAdmin tool, select the

group Mechanical Design.
Because Bob White was a member of
this group, Sally Brown is now a
member of this group and Bob White
is no longer listed.
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PDMWorks Workgroup Administration

Case Study: Brian Hursch is on vacation and can’t be reached. His boss wants the
Passwords MiniGrab Assembly revision changed to -.02. When Brian left
on vacation, he maintained ownership of the file.
1 Select the Users & Groups tab.
Select Brian Hursch in the list and click Modify.

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2 Create a new password.
Type Pass4bh as the new
password.

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Click OK.
3 Log in.
Log in to PDMWorks Workgroup

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as Brian Hursch using his new
password.

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4 Bump revision.
Right-click the MiniGrab
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Assembly in the Vault View and

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select Bump Revision.
Bump the revision to -.02.
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5 Logout.
Logout as Brian Hursch.
When Brian gets back, he won’t be able to log in because his old
password is not valid. He will have to contact the administrator and be
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given a new password.

Regaining Disk
B

Over time, the vault may become very large. There are several ways to
Space recover disk space in the vault.
Q Delete files.
Files that are no longer needed may be permanently removed from
the vault.
Q Empty Obsolete folders.
Files and projects that are deleted stay in the Obsolete folders
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until permanently deleted.

Q Remove Latest folders.
The vault maintains an extra copy of the latest version of each file
in a folder called Latest. This options can be disabled and these
Do

folders removed.
Q Archive old revisions.
Entire projects or just selected revisions can be archived to another
folder or removable media.

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SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 3
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Deleting Projects Over time, project structures may become obsolete, or projects become
empty as the files are released for manufacturing and moved to
different projects.
Projects can be deleted by selecting the project on the Projects tab in
the VaultAdmin tool and clicking Delete Project.

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Caution! Projects can be deleted even if they are not empty. Any files in the
project will be deleted and links to them broken. While the files can be
recovered from the Obsolete folders, reestablishing the links and

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getting the files into the correct project can be tedious. Before deleting
a project, it is always a good idea to make sure the project is empty.
Deleting Files The administrator controls who my delete files. Either everyone, no
one or just the administrator may be given permission to delete files

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from the vault. This option may be changed at any time.

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Care must be taken when deleting files to prevent files that are referenced
by other files from being deleted. The Where Used function should always
be checked before deleting files. Because the vault maintains copies of all
revisions to the files, a part may no longer be used in an assembly, but if an
Do

earlier revision of the assembly used the part, the part should not be
removed from the vault.
Delete/Trash When the company’s decision is to limit permission to delete files to
Project administrators only, an easy way to allow users to remove files from
their projects is to create a new project called Delete or Trash.

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Delete Procedure Give all users write access to the Delete/Trash project. Instead of
deleting files, users just move the files they want deleted to the
Delete/Trash project using the Change Project function. The
administrator then goes through the project and deletes files that are no
longer referenced by other files.
Deleting Obsolete Files and projects that are deleted from the vault move to Obsolete

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Folders folders. These Obsolete folders are essentially the vault’s recycle
bin. To regain disk space, the Obsolete folders need to be
periodically removed from the vault.

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To remove files from the Obsolete folders, the Obsolete folders
themselves may just be deleted rather than deleting each individual file
in the folder. PDMWorks Workgroup will create new copies of the
Obsolete folders as necessary when additional files are deleted.

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The obsolete folder in the vault root directory contains the deleted

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projects. The remaining obsolete folders contain the deleted files from

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the document under which the obsolete folder is positioned.
Keep Latest y ra
For added security, an “extra”

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copy of the latest version of each
document can be kept in the Deleted
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vault. If disk space is critical, this Projects
option can be turned off and the
“extra” files deleted.
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B
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Where to Find It Q Select Keep extra copy of latest files in the Vault Settings.
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88 Regaining Disk Space

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 3
PDMWorks Workgroup Administration

Case Study: To reduce the storage requirements for the vault, we can remove the
Obsolete Obsolete and Latest folders. In our vault, the “latest” folders
Folders are not used, so we will turn them on to see the effect, then turn them
back off.

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1 Examine the vault.
Examine the vault in Windows

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Explorer. There should be no
“latest” folders under any project.
2 Keep latest.

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In the VaultAdmin tool, select the
Vault Settings tab.

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Under Global settings, select Keep
extra copy of latest files.
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You will get a warning that says:

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WARNING: changing this setting may require an
extended period of time for processing once you
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elect to apply any changes made to this page.
When we apply this change, PDMWorks Workgroup will create
latest folders for each project. With a large vault this can take some
time. As our vault is very small, it will only take a few seconds.
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Click OK, then Apply.

3 Examine the vault.
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Examine the vault in Windows

Explorer. There are now latest
folders under the projects. Each latest
folder should have a copy of the latest
version of each file in the project.
4 Remove latest folders.
As we only added the latest folders
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for demonstration, use the VaultAdmin

tool to remove them.
Select the Vault Settings tab and clear Keep extra copy of latest
files. Click OK.
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5 PDMWorks Workgroup Warning.

PDMWorks Workgroup will remove all the latest folders from the
vault.
PDMWorks Workgroup will again issue the warning.
Click OK, then click Apply.

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6 Stop the PDMWorks Workgroup service.

Unlike the latest folders, the obsolete folder must be manually
deleted from the vault. Never attempt to work with files in the vault
with the PDMWorks Workgroup service running.
Click Start, Control Panel, Performance and Maintenance,
Administrative Tools. Double-click Services.

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Right-click PDMWorks Workgroup Server and select Stop from the
list.

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7 Locate the vault.
Using Windows Explorer, navigate to the drive where the vault is
located and open the folder Projects.
Under each project is a folder for each document.
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Delete each folder named obsolete.

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Note As we are only doing this for practice, you only need to delete one or
two of the obsolete folders.
8 Restart the PDMWorks Workgroup service.
In the Services window, right-click PDMWorks Workgroup Server and
select Start.

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The service will start, validate each file and rebuild the tree structure.

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9 Close.
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Close the Services window and Control Panel.

Archiving Files To save vault space, files can be archived to a different location. Users
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can archive individual files but the administrator can archive entire
projects.
B

Where to Find It Q Select Archive Project on the Projects tab of the VaultAdmin tool.

Case Study: The speaker project has multiple revisions with the most current
Archiving Files revision being Revision C. To save disk space we will archive all
revision except the current revision and the next oldest.
1 Start the VaultAdmin tool.
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Start the VaultAdmin tool and log in as the administrator.

Select the Projects tab.
2 Set the archive directory.
Set the path to the directory where the archive will be stored.
Do

Click Browse and navigate to the …\SolidWorks 2008

Training Files\PDMWorks Workgroup\Vault Archive
directory.
Click OK.

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Note When users archive individual files, they will be archived to this same
directory.
3 Select the project to archive.
Select the Speaker Assembly project.
4 Archive the project.
Click Archive Project.

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The Archive Document Revisions window lists all the files and
revisions for the Speaker Assembly project that are in the vault.

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Files to be archived can be selected individually or selection filters can
be used to limit the list.

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5 Set the filters.

Select Archive as the Task and All but latest 2 for Primaries.
Select All but latest 1 for Secondaries and All but latest 0 Tertiaries.
This limits all secondary revisions selected to only the first in the list
and eliminates tertiary revisions.

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Click Clear All. We do this before selecting files just to clear the
selection set.
Click Select. All the files that will be archived are now selected.

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6 Click Archive.
All the selected files are archived to the Vault Archive directory we
selected.
The Archive Document Revisions window now only shows the files
that have not been archived.

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7 Open the Speaker-Dual assembly.

In the Vault View, right-click the Speaker-Dual assembly and select
Open / Check Out Document.
Select As built for references.
Select the revision cell for the assembly and select revision A.04 from

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the pull-down list, then click Apply.
Select the Revision cell for the Speaker Frame and examine the
pull-down list. The revisions list shows that all the old revisions are

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archived. Also note that the Open/Check Out button is grayed out as
we cannot open all the files we have selected.

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Note If any archived revisions are listed in red, it indicates that the archive
directory cannot be found.
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8 Cancel.
Click Cancel to stop the Open Document process.

Restoring The process to restore files from the archive is essentially the same as
Archived Files that used to archive the files.
Once the Restore option is selected, the list will show the files in the
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archive rather than the files in the vault.

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9 Restore files.
Select Restore as the Task and Latest 3 for Primaries.
Select Latest 0 for both Secondaries and Tertiaries. This will restore all
the primary revisions. Click Clear All, then Select.
Click Restore.

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10 Close.
Close the Restore Document Revisions window by clicking Cancel.
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SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 3
PDMWorks Workgroup Administration

Mapping Custom Existing file properties can be mapped to the properties used in
Properties PDMWorks Workgroup. For example, if a company had been using
“partno” as a custom property, it could be mapped to the custom
property “Number” used in PDMWorks Workgroup. When the file is
checked into the vault, the value found in the “partno” field will fill in
the PDMWorks Workgroup “Number” field.

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Where to Find It Q Select Property Mappings on the Properties tab of the
VaultAdmin tool.

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Case Study: In this case study we will check in files that uses different custom
Property properties than those used by PDMWorks Workgroup. By mapping the

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Mapping existing properties to those used in the vault, no additional typing will
be required.

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1 Open the block.
Open the part Block.sldprt from the …\Lesson03\
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Case Study folder.

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2 File properties.
Click Properties on the File menu.
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There exists two properties for part number and description but the
property names are not the same as used by PDMWorks Workgroup.
Click OK.
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3 Map the properties.

Select the Properties tab in the VaultAdmin tool.
Click Property Mappings and then select the SolidWorks tab.
The left column lists all the file properties recognized by PDMWorks
Workgroup. This includes both the default properties and the ones we

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added.

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4 Enter mapping values.
To match the properties “partno” and “desc” found in the files we are
going to check in, to Number and Description, edit the value in the
SolidWorks Property column.
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Double-click Number in the SolidWorks Property column, then type

partno.
B

Double-click Description in the SolidWorks Property column, then

type desc.
Click OK, and then click OK again.
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Note These values are case sensitive, Partno is not the same as partno.
5 Refresh the Vault View.

6 Check In the block.

Check the Block into the Sample Project.

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The value for partno is filling the Number field and the value for
desc is filling the Description field.
Click Check In.

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7 File properties.
Click Properties on the File menu.
The properties in the file retain their names as partno and desc.
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Click OK.
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8 Document Information.
In the Vault View, right-click the Block and select Document
Information.
In the vault, the information is recorded as Number and
Description but is shown to be mapped to the existing file
properties.

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9 Close all open files.

10 Open the hex part.

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Open the part hex.sldprt from the …\Lesson03\Case Study

folder.
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Do

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11 File properties.
Click Properties on the File menu.
There exist three properties num, descrip and mat.
Click OK.

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12 Close the part.

The mapping properties cannot be set from an open file.
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13 Map the properties.

Instead of typing the properties we want to map, we can also choose
directly from the properties in the file.
B

Select the Properties tab in the VaultAdmin tool.

Click Property Mappings.
Select the SolidWorks tab.
Click Load from File.
Navigate to the …\Lesson03\Case Study folder and select the
no

hex.sldprt.
Click OK.
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14 Select mapping values.

For each PDMWorks Workgroup property there is a pull-down list in
the SolidWorks column.
From the list select num for the Number, descrip for Description, and
mat for Material.

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Click OK.

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15 Open the hex part.

16 Check in the hex part.

Refresh the Vault View.
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In the Vault View, right-click the Sample Project and select Check In
Active Document.
B

The properties num, descrip and mat have mapped to Number,

Description and Material.
Click Check In.
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17 Document information.
In the Vault View, right-click the hex part and select Document
Information.
The custom properties have been properly mapped.

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18 Close all open files.

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Copy Project There are times when a new product is based on an existing product
with many of the parts and assemblies being derivatives of existing
parts and assemblies. Copy Project copies existing projects and all
B

their files to a new project with new names.

When copying projects and their files, each project and file must have a
unique name so the copy project function provides several tools to
either modify existing names or add a prefix or suffix to each file.

Where to Find It Q Click Copy Project on the Projects tab of the VaultAdmin tool.
no

Case Study: In this case study we will create a duplicate of the current Limit
Copy Project Mechanism project with all new file names.
The new project will be called Limit Mechanism 2008 and all
Do

parts will be differentiated from the original parts by adding the suffix
2008.
1 VaultAdmin tool.
Start the VaultAdmin tool.
Select the Projects tab.

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2 Copy project.
Select Copy Project.
3 Source project.
From the pull down list, select the project Limit Mechanism.

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Note We could also have selected the Limit Mechanism project first then
selected Copy Project.
4 Select files.
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All the files in the source project are listed and selected. If we didn’t
want copies of all files, we would clear the files that were not required.
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Do

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5 New project name.

By default, the new project name, project description and all files get
the suffix Copy appended to their original names.
Edit the project New Name and Description to replace Copy with
2008.

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Before After

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6 Change file names.
To differentiate the new files from the

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original files, we what to add 2008 as
the suffix rather than Copy.

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Type “ 2008” (space 2008) for Append document names with.
y ra Click Apply.

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Before After
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Advanced Select/ Instead of adding a suffix to each file, the new files could have had
B

Replace selected information in their file names changed using a search and
replace.
Advanced Select/Replace can also search the document name,
number and descriptions for selected values and select or deselect
documents based on the search criteria.
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7 Advanced select.
We only want to make copies of the files that already have Cam as part
of their name. First we will clear all the selections.
Clear the check box next to Document. This will clear the selection of
all documents.

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Click Advanced Select/Replace.
8 Selection criteria.
Select Document for

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Search.
Type cam in the for box.
This will search for all
documents with cam in their

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name. Select Ignore case.

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Leave the default <no action> for Add/Replace text.
From the list select Check Items for When applying.
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Click Apply.
All document with cam in the document name are now selected.
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9 Additional selections.
We could repeat the above step to select additional documents based on
additional criteria.
10 Change owner.
Greg Johnson is responsible for the new project so we will make him
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be the owner of the new parts.

Select the column head for Owner. From the list select Greg Johnson.
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11 Copy project.
Click Copy
Project.
The new project is
created with the
copies of the selected files.

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12 Project permission.
The new project has the same user permissions as the source project.

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Give the Mechanical Design group Read/Write permission to the new
project and Read-Only permission for everyone else.

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Bulk Loading When large numbers of files need to be checked into the vault, the
Files administrator can speed the process by doing a bulk check in.

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Bulk check ins can be done for both SolidWorks and non-SolidWorks
files.
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Custom properties can be mapped to the PDMWorks Workgroup
properties during bulk check in just as was done in the previous case
study.
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Case Study: We have received several AutoCAD drawings from a sub-contractor

Bulk Check In and need to check them into the vault.
Files
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1 Projects tab.
Select the Projects tab in the VaultAdmin tool.
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2 Set the destination project.

Select the sub-project AutoCAD
Bulk found in the Bulk Load
Projects parent project.
Click Bulk Check In.
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Lesson 3 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Administration

3 Select files to check in.

In the Local Drives pane, navigate to the
Bayside Gearboxes folder found in the
…\Lesson03\Case Study directory.
Click Add files to list ==> to move all the
files in this folder to the check in box.

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4 Summary.
Adding Files to List shows the number of files moved to the check in
box.

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Click OK.
5 Select files.
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All the files are currently selected. If we did not want all the files, we
could deselect those that were not to be checked in.
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SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 3
PDMWorks Workgroup Administration

6 Map the properties.

Rather than mapping file properties, we will map AutoCAD block
attributes.
Click Property Mappings.
Select the AutoCAD tab.

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7 Title block options.
Click AutoCAD Title
Block Options.
We want to search for
title blocks in both
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model space and paper

space, select both
options.
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For multiple attributes

we will accept the first
value found.
Click OK.
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Lesson 3 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Administration

8 Attributes map.
All attribute blocks in the drawings will be listed. In this case there is
only one block listed.
Select Blockname: BDR-2, then Edit.

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9 Map the properties.
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Use the pull-down lists to map:
Q DWG_NO to Number
Q REV_LTR to Revision
Q DRAWING_NAME to Description
Q MATERIAL to Material.
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Click OK to accept the mappings, then OK again.

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10 Set the remaining options.

The options in the bottom of the box determine which project and at
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what revision the files will be checked in. There is also an option to
apply a note. A default note will indicate that the files were a bulk
check in with the date and time.
Set the project to AutoCAD Bulk.

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SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 3
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Select Default for the revision.

Select Default for the lifecycle status.
Browse to the C:\Working directory for the report file.
Click Check In Files.

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Click OK to confirm you want to check the files into the AutoCAD
Bulk project.
Note If we selected Read from File for the revision, each file would go into

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the vault at a different revision determined by the information in the
AutoCAD block. If we tried to check the documents in, the two
documents with the letter revisions would fail to check in because these
revisions are not supported by the lifecycle In Design. If lifecycles

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were not enabled, we could use the Read from File option.

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11 Bulk Check In Finished.

One the files are checked in, the number of files successfully checked
in and the number that failed are reported.
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Click Open Report File

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Lesson 3 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual
PDMWorks Workgroup Administration

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12 The Check In report.
The report will give details on the check in process and any failures that
may have occurred.

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13 Close.
Close the report, the VaultAdmin tool and any open files.

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SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

Exercise 5: The tasks in this and the following exercises are similar to what vault
Maintaining the administrators must do to maintain the PDMWorks Workgroup system.
Vault Create a backup of the vault, then delete the Obsolete and Latest
folders.
1 Change Vault settings.

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To reduce the size of the vault, prevent PDMWorks Workgroup from
keeping an extra copy of the latest version of each file.
Start the VaultAdmin tool. Select the Vault Settings tab. Clear Keep

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extra copy of the latest files. Click Apply and OK to close the
VaultAdmin tool.
2 Stop the PDMWorks Workgroup service.

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Never work on the PDMWorks Workgroup vault with the service
running.

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Click Start, Control Panel, Performance and Maintenance,
Administrative Tools, Services.
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Right-click PDMWorks Workgroup Server and select Stop. Leave the

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services window open.
3 Copy the vault.
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Before making any changes to the vault, it is a good idea to create a
backup copy. Use Windows Explorer to locate the vault
C:\VaultData.
Create a copy of the vault. Rename the vault copy as
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VaultData_dd-mm-yy where dd-mm-yy is the current date.

Replace the vault with the vault VaultData_Case Studies.
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4 Delete the Latest folders.

Each file in the vault has a Latest folder which holds a second copy of
the most current revision of the file. By clearing the Keep extra copy of
the latest files option in the VaultAdmin tool, PDMWorks Workgroup
will no longer create additional Latest folders or copy files into the
ones that exist.
Examine the vault. There should not be any Latest folders.
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5 Delete the Obsolete folders.

The Obsolete folders are the Recycle Bin of the vault. Periodically
they should be cleaned out to save storage space in the vault.
There can be numerous Obsolete folders in the vault. You must look
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in each project to find all the folders. Using Windows Explorer locate
the Obsolete folders in the PDMWorks Workgroup vault. Delete
these folders.

Exercise 5 113
 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

Note Each Obsolete folder can be deleted rather then just deleting the
contents. PDMWorks Workgroup will create Obsolete folders as
necessary when other files are deleted.
6 Start the PDMWorks Workgroup service.
Make the Services window active. Right-click PDMWorks Workgroup
Server and select Start.

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Exercise 6: Use the bulk check in function to check in

Bulk Check In a SolidWorks assembly with a drawing and
Excel file.

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1 Start the VaultAdmin tool.

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2 Projects tab.

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Select the Projects tab.
Select the SolidWorks Bulk project.
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Click Bulk Check In.
3 SolidWorks files.
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Navigate to the …\Lesson03\Exercises directory and select the
folder overender.
4 Load files.
Click Add files to list ==> to select all the files.
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5 Map properties.
Map the properties of the SolidWorks files to the PDMWorks
Workgroup properties. Set the mapping to default by clicking Reset to
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Defaults.
6 Revision number.
Use the default revision number.
7 Check In.

8 Report.
Examine the report. Make sure all 22 files were successfully
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checked in.
9 ProjectManager.
In the Vault View, examine the SolidWorks Bulk project. Notice
that besides the parts and assemblies there was also a drawing, and a
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design table Excel file.

10 Close all open files.

Exercise 6 115
 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

Exercise 7: Reduce the vault size by archiving old

Archive Files revisions of the speaker assembly.

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1 Start the VaultAdmin tool.
Log in as the vault administrator.

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2 Projects tab.
Select the Projects tab.

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Select the Speaker Assembly project.
Click Archive Project.
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3 Set the filters.
Set the filters to archive all but the latest revision.
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4 Archive.
Archive all but the latest revision of the files.
5 Document Information for the assembly.
Select Document Information for the Speaker-Dual assembly.
Examine the revisions for several of the parts. Everything but the latest
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revision should indicate that it is archived.

6 Restore.
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Restore all the revisions to the vault.

Select the Projects tab.
Select the Speaker assembly.
Click Archive Project.
7 Set the filters.
Select Restore for the Task.
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Click Select All.

Click Restore.
8 Document Information for the assembly.
Select Document Information for the Speaker-Dual assembly.
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Examine the revisions for the assembly and several of the parts. There
should no longer be any revisions listed as Archived.
9 Close all open files.

116 Exercise 7
SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

Exercise 8: In this exercise the SolidWorks Task Scheduler will be used to convert
File Conversion SolidWorks 2004 files stored in the vault to SolidWorks 2008.
The assembly Limit Mechanism and its parts were created in
SolidWorks 2004 and checked into the vault. Convert the files to the
current version of SolidWorks.

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1 Start the SolidWorks Task Scheduler.

2 Update PDMWorks Workgroup files.

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Select Update PDMWorks Workgroup Files.
3 Login.
Log in as pdmwadmin.

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4 Add a project.
Select Update by project.

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Add the project Limit Mechanism found under Miscellaneous
Projects.
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5 Set the schedule.
Set the Task Schedule to run once in the next few minutes.
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6 Check the progress.
Seven files should be converted.
7 Examine the report.
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 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

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118 Exercise 8
SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

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Lesson 4
Administration - Part 2

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Upon successful completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
Q Update the PDMWorks Workgroup software.
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Lesson 4 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

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SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 4

Update The PDMWorks Workgroup Client and VaultAdmin software can be

Software updated directly from the vault. There is no need for the administrator
to update each client and VaultAdmin individually.
When service packs or new versions of the software are received, the
administrator should install it on the vault. When any PDMWorks
Workgroup software (VaultAdmin, Client, PDMWorks Workgroup

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Add-In for SolidWorks Explorer) is started, the user will get a message
stating their software is not compatible with the version in the vault.
Clicking the Update button will provide instructions to update their

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software.
File Conversion In the SolidWorks File Management course, the need to run a file
conversion on existing SolidWorks files after updating SolidWorks to a

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new release was discussed. Files not in the PDMWorks Workgroup
vault can be converted using the SolidWorks Conversion Wizard. The

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Conversion Wizard cannot however be used on files in the vault.
To convert files in the vault, the SolidWorks Task Scheduler is used.
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This conversion process can be run on files in the PDMWorks

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Workgroup vault without having to check out the files.
During the conversion process, the vault locks automatically to prevent
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other transactions.
Introducing: The SolidWorks Task Scheduler runs specified tasks at times set by the
SolidWorks Task user.
Scheduler
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Where to Find It Q Click Start, All Programs, SolidWorks 2008, SolidWorks Task
Scheduler.
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Case Study: In this case study, the SolidWorks Task Scheduler will be used to
Converting convert files in a specific project.
Files In The
Vault
1 Open a part.
Click File, Open and select the PDMWorks Workgroup vault. Select
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the part Input Disk found in the Geneva Gear project found under
Miscellaneous Projects. Clear the Check Out box and click
Open.
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Update Software 121

Lesson 4 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

2 Old file.
Click Yes when asked if you want to open the file read-only.
SolidWorks gives us the message that the file will be converted when
saved because this file was created in a previous release of SolidWorks.
3 Close.

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Close the file without saving.
4 Exit SolidWorks.
We will convert all the files in this project with the task scheduler

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which will run in the background.
5 Start the task scheduler.
Click Start, All Programs, SolidWorks 2008, SolidWorks Task
Scheduler.

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The Task Scheduler window shows the tasks that can be scheduled and

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a list of tasks that are currently scheduled.

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Scheduled tasks
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Task options
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6 Update PDMWorks Workgroup Files.

Click Update PDMWorks Workgroup Files.
7 Login.
You must be a PDMWorks
Workgroup administrator to
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update the files in the vault.

Login as the administrator.

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SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 4

8 Select a method.
The entire vault or just selected projects can be updated.
Select Update by project.

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9 Select a project.
Click Add Project.
Select the project Geneva Gear
located under Misc Projects.
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Click OK.
10 Select file type.
From the pull-down list, select *.sldprt,
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*.sldasm, *.slddrw. This will filter for

all SolidWorks parts, assemblies and
drawings.
11 Options.
Click Options.
Select Latest revision only. Unless you are regularly opening older
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versions of the files, you can save considerable time by just converting
the latest revisions as those are the files you will be using.
Click OK.
12 Task Schedule.
Set the Running mode to Once and the start time for a few minutes in
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the future.
Click Finished.

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Lesson 4 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

13 Progress.
As the Task Scheduler runs, it will provide an update on its progress.

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14 Close.
When the Task Scheduler completes, close all open files and windows.
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Task Scheduler Export PDMWorks Workgroup Files

Print PDMWorks Workgroup Files
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SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 4

Setting up Web In this lesson, we will setup a Web Viewer.

Viewer

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Triggers In this lesson, we will enable triggers in PDMWorks Workgroup and
use them to create additional document copies as edrawings.

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Transfering In this lesson, we will copy several projects between our current vault
Projects and a new vault we are establishing.
between Vaults

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Lesson 4 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

Best Practices Each company must establish its own procedures for document control
and the way PDMWorks Workgroup will be used. The following are
just guidelines to help establish the company procedures.
Security of the The Vault directory should be accessible to only one administrator, the
Vault person who is responsible for installing updates, deleting files,
maintaining passwords, and other administrative tasks. Users should

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not have any access to the Vault through Microsoft Windows Explorer.
Backing up the Back up the entire Vault folder, which contains both project documents

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Vault and PDMWorks Workgroup configuration information. You should do
the backup operation when no one is modifying the Vault (checking in
documents, changing ownership, and so on). To ensure no one is
accessing the Vault, first lock the Vault (see Vault Settings) or stop the

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service. You can then copy the Vault folder with Windows Explorer.
Back up the vault regularly, and test the backup occasionally to be sure

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you backup procedure is valid. Store the backup on a server different
from the one where the vault resides.
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Time Changes For PDMWorks Workgroup 2006 and earlier, restart the vault server
after a time change, such as from Standard time to Daylight Savings
time. This resets the time stamp. With PDMWorks Workgroup 2008,
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this is no longer necessary.
Maximizing Vault A large number of documents in a project degrades performance. More
Performance projects with fewer documents results in better performance.
Clients can hide projects to improve performance. Hiding projects
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reduces the amount of data that needs to be transferred from the vault to
the client.
If you operate over a network, network performance affects
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PDMWorks Workgroup performance. PDMWorks Workgroup cannot

make a slow network faster.
Deleting The vault administrator specifies permission to delete documents on
Documents the Vault Settings tab of the VaultAdmin tool. For security,
Administrators only or No one is recommended.
The top level directory contains an Obsolete folder, and each project
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also contains an Obsolete folder, all created automatically by

PDMWorks Workgroup. When vault administrators delete projects, the
files move into the top level directory Obsolete folder. When users
or administrators delete documents, the documents move into the
project Obsolete folder. The Obsolete folders are hidden from the
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PDMWorks Workgroup interface. The vault administrator with access

to the Vault directory should delete the Obsolete folders periodically
through Windows Explorer. PDMWorks Workgroup creates new
Obsolete folders automatically.

126 Best Practices

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Lesson 4

Copies of Latest In Vault Settings, the vault administrator can choose to keep an extra
Files copy of the latest files (that is, the latest revision of every file). Select
or clear the Keep extra copy of latest files check box.
The copies are in a folder called Latest that only the administrator
can see (in Windows Explorer). The Latest folder does not follow
Vault folder structure. The files in this folder use the complete real file

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name (in other folders, file names appear as an underscore).
Q If disk space is an issue, you can save disk space by clearing this

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check box. All the “Latest” folders will be deleted.
Q If you select the check box, all the “Latest” folders and files are
created.
Custom Properties Entering custom properties for assemblies with many sub-assemblies

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and parts can be time-consuming. An efficient approach is to add the
custom properties (part numbers, descriptions, and so on) in

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SolidWorks. This can be done using the SolidWorks API to generate
custom properties for large numbers of documents; for example, to
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serialize document numbers or to standardize on a format of all caps.

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Custom properties can be created by creating links to the SolidWorks
properties in the template files.
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Files Without There may be files that do not require revision control such as fasteners
Revision Control or vendor supplied parts. References to these parts can be maintained in
the vault without actually checking these files into the vault.
Determining which files do not require revision control should be done
as part of the initial setup of PDMWorks Workgroup.
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External To control file use (for example, references to Toolbox or other files
References when opening documents in a PDMWorks Workgroup Vault), clear the
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option Search file locations for external references in Tools,

Options, System Options, External References.
Template Files You can handle company template files through the PDMWorks
Workgroup Vault. Add templates to the Vault only if they need revision
control or to provide secure storage. Users must copy the template files
to their local workspace.
To maintain templates:
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1. In the VaultAdmin, create a project to hold the templates

(Templates, for example).
2. Assign write access to the person maintaining the templates and
read access to everyone using the templates.
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3. Check in the templates to the Template project.

4. Users copy the templates using PDMWorks Workgroup Open
Document.
Users should periodically check the Local View to be sure their local
copies are equal to the versions in the Vault.

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Lesson 4 SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

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128 Best Practices

SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual Index

Index

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A O vault software 112
access 36 obsolete folders 16, 88 user 36
admin privileges 46 options delete 19, 23
archive files 91 tree 82 groups 18, 24

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ownership 39–40 modify 19
B password 19, 23
best practices 126 P user accounts 18

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bulk loading 107 password 23
change 19, 23 V
C project 25 vault 15
common parts 44
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copy project 103 copy 103 folders 16
custom properties 50, 127 delete 87 locking 49, 77
mapping 97 settings 30 maintaining 77
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trash 87 regaining space 86
D project access restoration 16
delete read access 27 security 126
user 19, 23 write access 27 validate 83
documents properties validation 49
delete 126 custom 50 vault administrator 15
flow 41 VaultAdmin tool 18
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R global settings 47
F read access 27 settings 46
files restore files 95 tree options 82
archive 91 revision
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bulk loading 107 rules 41 W

conversion 121 sequential 32 working copy 32
delete 87 table 59 write access 27
log 49, 80 revision scheme 32
not revision managed 43
restore 95 S
templates 127 search
Microsoft Indexing Service 59
G sequential revisioning 32
groups 24 SolidWorks Task Scheduler 121
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status
K automatic change 42
keep latest 88 structure validation 83

L T
lifecycle 35 template files 127
locking 49 Toolbox
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log files 49, 80 shared 44

trash project 87
M triggers 65
Microsoft Indexing Service 59
U
N update
not revision managed files 43 client software 35

129
Index SolidWorks 2008 Training Manual

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130
Question: What do you call an elite SolidWorks user?

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Answer: A Certified SolidWorks Professional.

Get trained, get tested, and join our worldwide community of proven talent.
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See reverse for more details.

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