This document provides general information about PDMWorks® Enterprise. For information about new features, see What's New for PDMWorks Enterprise.
To ensure successful installation and optimum performance, verify that your system complies with the requirements specified in www.solidworks.com/pages/services/PDMRequirements.html.
The 32-bit and x64 versions of Microsoft® XP Professional and Microsoft® Vista Business and Enterprise are fully supported.
On some x64 systems that have both PDMWorks Enterprise and SolidWorks 2008 x64 edition installed, the following warnings appear when you start SolidWorks:
This application has failed to start because Database.dll was not found
This application has failed to start because StoredProcs.dll was not found
To avoid the warnings, add the PDMWorks Enterprise program folders to the PATH environment variable:
When only SolidWorks 2008 x64 is installed on the 64-bit system, add:
C:\Program Files\PDMWorks Enterprise\
When both SolidWorks 2008 x64 and x32 are installed, add:
C:\Program Files\PDMWorks Enterprise\;C:\Program Files (x86)\PDMWorks Enterprise\
Visual Basic 6 is no longer supported. All add-ins must be written as multi-threaded applications (using, for example, the Visual Studio.Net environment).
Contact your re-seller to obtain a PDMWorks Enterprise 2008 license before upgrading.
To upgrade from an earlier version:
Download the application or load it from the installation media.
Click How to upgrade from a previous PDMWorks Enterprise version and follow the instructions to complete the installation.
When you upgrade to PDMWorks Enterprise 2008 from Conisio versions 6.4 and earlier, API components shared with Autodesk® applications may become unregistered. If AutoCAD crashes when you attempt to open a DWG file after upgrading, perform this repair:
Select AutoCAD in the Add or Remove Programs list in the Control Panel.
Select Change/Remove, then Repair.
PDMWorks Enterprise 2008 offers Processor Licenses for 50, 100, or 200 seats. A Processor License allows for any combination of Enterprise, Contributor, Contributor Web and Viewer clients, up to the total number of seats permitted by the license. One Processor License is required for each CPU in the PDMWorks Enterprise Database Server. However, using a dual or quad-core computer as a PDMWorks Enterprise Database Server requires only a single Processor License.
Pro/ENGINEER Add-in
PDMWorks Enterprise now supports Pro/ENGINEER®. This support requires:
One of the following Pro/ENGINEER installations on the 32-bit version of Microsoft XP Professional:
Pro/ENGINEER 2001
Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 1, 2, 3, or 4
PDMWorks Enterprise 2008 SP4 on the 32-bit version of Microsoft XP Professional
Ensure that PDMWorks Enterprise 2008 and a supported version of Pro/ENGINEER are installed.
If either is missing, the installation stops.
Download the add-in by logging on to the SolidWorks Downloads Web page:
https://www.solidworks.com/pages/services/downloads.html
Unzip the download file and run setup.exe.
The server components are installed to <install_dir>\ProE Connector server components
where <install_dir> is the location where PDMWorks Enterprise is installed.
The PDMWorks Enterprise add-in is automatically activated when it is installed.
Custom Pro/ENGINEER Startup
When you use PDMWorks Enterprise through the Windows Explorer interface, PDMWorks Enterprise starts a background session of Pro/ENGINEER when needed. The PDMWE_PROE_START environment variable is created during installation and points to the Pro/ENGINEER startup routine. For Wildfire 1, 2, 3, and 4, the default value is set to proe.exe. For Pro/ENGINEER 2001, the default value is set to proe2001.bat.
If you have custom settings that require that Pro/E to be started with a custom script, set the value of PDMWE_PROE_START to the custom startup script path.
Pro/ENGINEER 2001 and Wildfire 1.0 Timeout
If you use PDMWorks Enterprise in conjunction with a version of Pro/ENGINEER 2001 released prior to Datecode 2003441 or Wildfire 1.0 released prior to Datecode 2003490, you may be affected by PTC's timeout issue. If you have not already patched the nmsd.exe of your Pro/ENGINEER installation, do so before using PDMWorks Enterprise with Pro/ENGINEER.
Download the PTC update from:
http://www.ptc.com/go/timeout/technical_resource.htm
To cancel a check-in but continue to work in the current Pro/ENGINEER window, select Cancel in the Check In dialog box, and then select Activate from the Pro/ENGINEER Window menu.
If a Pro/ENGINEER model does not display in the graphics window when you open it from PDMWorks Enterprise, minimize the Pro/ENGINEER window and open it again.
To continue to modify the active model when you close the PDMWorks Enterprise tree browser, select Activate from the Window menu after closing the browser.
To successfully copy supported Pro/ENGINEER files into the vault, review the content of the vault folder for duplicate file names before dragging Pro/ENGINEER files into the vault.
In the normal use of Pro/ENGINEER, support files are written to the local file system, but not added to the vault. To suppress the display of local files that are not in the vault, in the PDMWorks Enterprise Administration tool, right-click Users and click Settings. On the Explorer tab, under File types to show, select Show only files that are part of the file vault.
Dragging a combination of Pro/ENGINEER files and non-Pro/ENGINEER files into a PDMWorks Enterprise Explorer local vault adds the Pro/ENGINEER files to the vault without stripping numbers Pro/ENGINEER appends to the file extension.
If, while using Pro/ENGINEER, your computer enters hibernate mode, a second instance of Pro/ENGINEER might launch when you start up again. Log out of Windows and log in again to close the second instance of Pro/ENGINEER and resume work in the original Pro/ENGINEER session.
Service Pack 4.0
PDMWorks Enterprise 2008 SP04 supports Windows XP SP3.
Follow the installation guide to update the file vault when you upgrade to Service Pack 4.
If your file vault uses the Dispatch add-in, you should update to the latest Service Pack 4 version., which is located on the installation CD:
<CD Drive>\Support\DIspatch\
Service Pack 3.0
There are no items for the Service Pack 3 release of PDMWorks Enterprise.
Service Pack 2.0
eDrawings® Professional is installed as part of the PDMWorks Enterprise installation process. The preview window of PDMWorks Enterprise does not support creating markups on documents. However, you can create them in eDrawings and view them in PDMWorks Enterprise.
PDMWorks Enterprise administrators can permit users or groups to assign access to individual files.
Users or group members who are permitted to assign file-level access can assign access on a per-group basis.
The File Version Upgrade Utility upgrades files in the PDMWorks Enterprise vault to the SolidWorks 2008 format.
To install the upgrade utility, run the following file from the installation CD:
<CD Drive>\Support\File Version Upgrade\File Version Upgrade.exe
To run the upgrade wizard, run the following file:
<Install_dir>\Program Files\PDMWorks Enterprise\UpgradeUtilty.exe
Service Pack 1.0
There are no items for the Service Pack 1 release of PDMWorks Enterprise.
Service Pack 0.0
You must create a new vault when you upgrade beta or pre-release versions of PDMWorks Enterprise 2008 to Service Pack 0.0.
When you open a SolidWorks assembly with references to Toolbox parts, if the parts are not in the vault, you are prompted to add them. Click Update Toolbox References to point the references to the file vault.
After you use the Update Toolbox References tool on a Toolbox part, the part preview is not available.