Javelin / TriMech Author
Andrew Lidstone, CSWE
Removing Old SQL Database Backups
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on December 6, 2017
To ensure the safety of your SOLIDWORKS PDM data, it’s essential to have a maintenance plan in place to perform regular (preferably nightly) backups of the vault database and the ConisioMasterDB database. A Maintenance Plan that will automatically backup the databases can be set up…
Setting the SOLIDWORKS Workgroup PDM Working Folder
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on December 4, 2017
When working with SOLIDWORKS files from the Workgroup PDM vault, a copy of the files is cached to the local computer. It’s generally best practice to set a specific folder for these local copies of the files to be stored in so that they are…
How to change the SOLIDWORKS Workgroup PDM User Password
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on December 4, 2017
If you need to change your SOLIDWORKS Workgroup PDM user password, this can be done directly within the SOLIDWORKS add in for Workgroup PDM. Right click within the Workgroup PDM tab in the Task Pane and select “SOLIDWORKS Workgroup PDM Options…” Go to the “Vault”…
Manually Setting The SOLIDWORKS PDM Archive Server Folder Locations
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on December 4, 2017
Generally it’s best practice to use the SOLIDWORKS PDM Archive Server Configuration utility to relocate the PDM Archive folders, however there may be times (perhaps during a server migration or after a restore due to a system failure) where you might need to be able…
Exporting Search Results from the Integrated Search in SOLIDWORKS PDM 2018
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on November 27, 2017
Beginning with SOLIDWORKS PDM 2018, users no longer have to go to the Search Tool to export search results from SOLIDWORKS PDM. The “Open Search Results” and “Export Results” commands are available directly in the integrated search tool within the PDM Vault View. The “Open…
SOLIDWORKS Workgroup PDM Cleanup Tool
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on November 22, 2017
As you work with projects in SOLIDWORKS Workgroup PDM, your PDM working folder may come to have a very large number of files cached locally. How can you determine which files are safe to remove and which ones you may still be working on? The…
Setting a limit for Microsoft SQL Standard Memory Usage
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on November 21, 2017
Microsoft SQL Server doesn’t share it’s toys well with others. By default, SQL Server Standard will dynamically use up memory based on what resources are available. As a result, it’s fairly common for it to take up ALL available memory on a system and not…
Collecting information for SOLIDWORKS PDM Support
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on November 20, 2017
When you are encountering issues using SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional or Standard, the first thing that your Value Added Reseller’s SOLIDWORKS PDM Support technician will want to review in most cases are the log files, from both the local client and the server. Thankfully, this information…
Managing large SOLIDWORKS PDM file lists more effectively
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on November 19, 2017
When working with large file sets in SOLIDWORKS PDM, the file list generated for actions such as Check Outs, Check Ins and Transitions can get quite long and potentially difficult to manage. For instance to Check Out an entire file set of several hundred files,…
Working with Assigned Folder Permissions in SOLIDWORKS PDM 2018
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on November 18, 2017
SOLIDWORKS PDM 2018 now allows Administrators greater flexibility and control when working with Assigned Folder Permissions. Previously, each folder had to be assigned permissions one at a time. Starting with 2018 however, multiple folders can be selected at a time and their permissions set. To…
Installing SQL Management Studio for SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on June 19, 2017
The backbone of the SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard vault is the database in Microsoft SQL Server Express.The SQL Express server databases can be managed and maintained using the SQL Management Studio. This program is not installed automatically when installing SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard server components, however it…
How To Schedule SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard Database Backups
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on June 14, 2017
SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional runs on Microsoft SQL Standard which allows maintenance plans to be set up which will automatically create backup files for the PDM databases. However SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard runs on Microsoft SQL Express, which does not include the SQL Server Agent and thus does not have…
Managing SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional Search Favorites
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on May 26, 2017
In SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional, users can set up custom Search Favorites to dramatically speed up the process of finding relevant files. This is great functionality that can be a huge time saver, however, sometimes things can get a little out of hand and Search Favorites…
Reserving SOLIDWORKS PDM and SOLIDWORKS Manage Licenses
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on May 10, 2017
Sometimes it is necessary to ensure that certain users always have a license of SOLIDWORKS PDM or SOLIDWORKS Manage available. This can be done by using the Options File for the SolidNetwork License Manager. In other posts we’ve discussed how the Options File can be…
How to increment a Revision Automatically in a SOLIDWORKS PDM Workflow
By Andrew Lidstone, CSWE on April 4, 2017
In SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional and Standard, your Workflow can be set up to automatically increment the revision value as a file moves through the approval process. Looking through the properties of the States and Transitions in a pre-established workflow you might have noticed a number…