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Install COSMOSWorks Designer and PDMWorks software from an administrative image

SolidWorks® Office Premium which includes COSMOSWorks® Designer design validation software. This Tech Tip offers instruction to install COSMOSWorks Designer and PDMWorks® software, two products included in the Premium suite, from what's called an "administrative image."

During installtion of SolidWorks Office Premium from CD, COSMOSWorks Designer is installed along with SolidWorks software, SolidWorks Routing software, PDMWorks and other SolidWorks add-on solutions. However, if you use the Administrative Director or other administrative image techniques provided by Windows® Installer you will need to follow additional steps to properly install COSMOSWorks Designer software at the time you deploy SolidWorks.

Admin Image and COSMOSWorks Designer

The first step is to create an administrative image of the COSMOSWorks Designer software. To do this you should run the following command line at a command prompt (Start, Run and then type cmd and click ‘OK' to get a command prompt):

Msiexec /a “D:\COSMOSDesigner\i386_COSMOSWorks_English.msi”

Where the D: is the CD-ROM drive that contains disk 3 of the SolidWorks 2005 SP1.1 install CDs. Please choose the appropriate language version msi file to match your SolidWorks installation.

At this point, the installation wizard prompts you to indicate the location to place the administrative image. You can now create a new share for the directory where the administrative image is kept so that other users will be able to access it with a UNC path name (as opposed to a path containing a mapped drive letter). Once the image is created, make a .bat file that will be used as part of a post install operation for the Administrative Director.

To create the .bat file open up Notepad, create a new document, and type in the following line:

Msiexec /I “\\Computer name\share name\i386_COSMOSWorks_English.msi”

This will launch the install for COSMOSWorks Designer from the administrative image. Alternatively, if you would like to deploy this silently you could pass the installation parameters within the .bat file as follows:

Msiexec /I “\\Computer name\share name\i386_COSMOSWorks_English.msi”

INSTALLDIR=”C:\Program Files\Cosmos Applications\”

SOLIDWORKSPATH=”C:\Program Files\SolidWorks\” SWDISTSUBTYPE=0

LICENSEFILEPATH=”C:\temp” /qn

The /qn at the end is the option to specify a silent installation. As with other Windows Installer applications you could also use “/qb” instead to make it install automatically, but have a basic interface with a cancel button. To view a complete list of the silent install options and what the choices are for their values, insert disk 3 of the SP1.1 SolidWorks CDs, browse to the COSMOSWorks Designer folder using Windows Explorer, double click on the Manuals.cab file which will open it in WinZip and then extract the file “COSMOS_GettingStarted.pdf”.

Now save the text file created above, but instead of using the default .txt extension change it to a .bat extension. Now launch the Administrative Director and create the administrative image for SolidWorks and when you get to the step to choose a post install command browse for the .bat file created above. Remember to use a UNC path name when browsing to the location of the .bat file, and also that it has to be in a location that the clients can all see.

Admin Image and PDMWorks and eDrawings

In order to deploy the PDMWorks client version and eDrawings™ software at once with the SolidWorks Admin Director you need to create an admin image of PDMWorks and then write a batch file to deploy both PDMWorks and eDrawings software silently.

Creating an Admin Image of PDMWorks Client:

1. Open a command prompt by going to “Start” and then “run” and then type in “cmd” and click ok.
2. Place disk 3 of the SolidWorks CDs in your CD-Rom drive and then type: msiexec /a "D:\pdmwclient\PDMWorks Clients.msi"  The “D:\” part should be changed to reflect your CD-Rom drive letter.  You can type the msiexec /a part and then drag and drop the msi file from a Windows Explorer window into the command prompt window to add the path to the file automatically.
3. The PDMWorks Client installer should now be up and it will step through creating an Admin Image for the PDMWorks Clients.  Specify a location to store the image and then once it is created you will need to share that folder and take note of the UNC path name to the msi file that is in the directory.

Now browse Disk 3 and copy the folder for eDrawings to a shared location available to the clients. You can also download and extract the installer from the Subscription Services page as well.

Writing the .bat file:

1. Open a new text document in Notepad
2. Type: msiexec /i "\\ts-mrece-2\PDMWorks_Client_Image\PDMWorks Clients.msi" INSTALLDIR="C:\Program Files\PDMWorks 2005" ADDLOCAL=VaultAdmin,Client,Standalone /qb
3. msiexec /i "\\ts-mrece-2\eDrawings\eDrawings.msi" INSTALLDIR="C:\Program Files\eDrawings 2005\"  /qb
4. Save the file in a location that can be seen by the clients and make the extension a .bat instead of a .txt file.

Notes:

• The paths need to be in UNC format. The name after the \\ is the computer name and the name after the next \ is the share name.
• The path to the msi file in quotes because of spaces in the file name.
• The /qb option will make it a silent install with a basic interface (it has a cancel button) if you want it totally silent then you could use a /qn.
• To see a list of the options that you can hand off to the installer in the bat file you should refer to the PDM/Works installation guide that can be found under the Guides and references area on the subscription service page.

Now that the batch file has been created, rerun the admin director and when it gives you the chance to select a command that will be run after the install is complete you should select the batch file.

Another means to do the same would be to edit the ini file and at the bottom in the extra options section add the line: AFTERCMD=\\Ts-mrece-2\SolidWorks 2005\Postupdate.bat and point it to the location of your bat file again you need to make sure a UNC path is used that is accessible by clients.

In order to have each seat installed with individual serial numbers you need to edit the SolidWorks_2005_SP1.1_client_options.ini and make a uniquely named ini file and then change the serial numbers and options that are listed inside to suit each client.  Then you need to edit the StartSWInstall.htm file in notepad and find the line that references the ini file and change it to match the names of each of your new ini files and then save the html file for each one of the ini files.  Then, distribute the correct html file to each client and it will install SolidWorks,PDMWorks, and eDrawings software on each client with the correct serial number.

Patching

When you install with the admin director the SolidWorks portion of the client installs will be patched automatically on next launch of SolidWorks when you patch the admin image on the server.  The PDMWorks clients will be patched automatically when the clients try to connect to a server that is of a newer version.

As for eDrawings you should create a new folder on the server for the updated version and pass the same command line that you used in the first batch file but reference the new location of the updated version and you can also leave out the install directory since it is already installed and it should upgrade the eDrawings on each client when they run the .bat file. You can universally share help files if when you download the help files for the service pack you unzip them and place them inside the admin image on the server; this way, when the clients are patched they will also get the help files. Otherwise you can have each client update their own help files individually.

Conclusion

The use of MSI installation technology makes many things possible. Using the admin image can lower your TOC (Total Cost of Ownership) and reduce or eliminate trips to the desktop to update SolidWorks.