A Quick Way to Log In and Off (Out) of SOLIDWORKS PDM

While helping a Javelin customer, I was explaining how to log off (out) of SOLIDWORKS PDM. This is a simple process, that I have explained several times and I had always meant to write an article about it. I looked to see if any of my colleagues had already written about this and I was a bit surprised that this had not already been covered, so I decided to write this article.

I’m sure that most reading this article are familiar with how to log in to the SOLIDWORKS PDM Local Vault View, by means of the PDM icon in Windows Quick Access or from Windows Explorer. It may be that you have even added short-cuts to Windows Quick Access, in order to navigate to a particular folder in your vault.

From the Windows Task Bar

But logging in/out of a vault can also be done from the Windows Task Bar. By clicking on the upward pointing arrow of the Windows taskbar, close to where the date and time are displayed. You can view apps that are currently running on your system. Some may be familiar with this area when specifying a computer as a SOLIDWORKS PDM Task Host.

Windows Task Bar Apps

Clicking on the PDM icon will display several options including Log In and Log Off.

Log In/Off

Being able to Log In/Off from here, is useful when you need to log in as a different user or into a different vault. I use this often for troubleshooting user permissions, by logging in as the PDM Admin.

As a side note, it is also possible to log out of a vault from inside the Local Vault View.