Disabling warning blocks in SOLIDWORKS PDM

Warnings are an important part of SOLIDWORKS PDM properties and permissions. There are multiple warnings available that impact different operations performed in PDM. These warnings will appear when a user attempts an operation that meets the warning’s parameters and, if configured to do so, will block the entire operation. In this article, I will go over what warnings in PDM impact and how to configure them to block an operation or simply warn the user but still allow the operation to proceed.

Warnings are apart of the User and Groups properties, where Folder Permissions and Administrative Permissions are also housed. One can get there by opening the SOLIDWORKS PDM Administration tool > Opening the corresponding vault in question > Navigating to the ‘Users and Groups Management’ tab > and applying the changes either at the ‘Group’ level or the ‘User’ level.

Once the Group/User properties are opened, the ‘Warnings’ tab will be on the left-hand side, towards the bottom of the tabs. In this section, one can modify the ‘Affected operation:’ from the following choices: Change State, Check In, Check Out and Set Revision. Each ‘Affected operation’ will have different warnings that can be selected, which will then block the operation from occurring if that parameter is met.

For example, if the ‘Change State’ operation is chosen, and ‘The file is not rebuilt.’ warning is checked, a user will be blocked from changing the state of a file if said file is not rebuilt and the warning ‘The file is not rebuilt.’ will appear. Alternatively, if ‘The file is not rebuilt.’ warning is left unchecked, a user will still see the warning message displayed when changing the state of the file, but the operation will not be blocked, and the user will still be allowed to change the state of said file.

There are many warnings that can be selected to block the ‘Affected operation’ chosen, from blocking a ‘Check In’ operation to a ‘Change State’ operation if the warning is triggered. With this knowledge, an Administrator or PDM designer will be better equipped to customize their vault and control what a user can and can’t do. Adversely, if a warning is blocking an ‘Affected operation’ that the user wants to go through, regardless of the warning, then an Administrator can uncheck the warning impacting the user.

Knowing how to use SOLIDWORKS PDM warnings and when to disable them/enable them will allow greater control over the vault and provide Administrators with more tools to enable their users’ success.