How to retrieve an old version from within the PDM vault and save it as a new version

A question I often come across while on tech support is:

“How do I retrieve an old SOLIDWORKS PDM File Version from within my Vault and save it as a new version so that the versions in between remain preserved?”

SOLIDWORKS PDM File Version

Navigate to and select the file you’d like to get an older version of, then click on Actions > Get Version and select the older SOLIDWORKS PDM file version you’d like to retrieve.

Get Version

You can also select Get Version from the right-click shortcut menu.

Older Version Warnings

NOTE: the ‘Version 2/3’, ‘Local version: 2’ and ‘Latest version: 3’.

There is also an alert on the version tab to let you know that you do not have the latest version of this file on your local hard disk.

Right-click and Copy and Paste the file from PDM Vault to a local drive.

Check Out the file in PDM Vault.

File Check Out

Note: the local version updates to same as the latest version. In SOLIDWORKS PDM you can only check out the latest version of the files.

Copy and Paste the file from the local drive to the PDM Vault.

Warning: Replace File

Select Yes to replace the file in the PDM Vault or Yes to All if multiple files are selected.

Check In the file in the PDM Vault. Latest version 4 is same as version 2 and the version 3 is preserved.