PDM Vault
Overview
PDM Vault provides product data management through a folder/file tree, version and revision history, locking (checkout/checkin) and custom property management. A separate SolidWorks Add-in (C#/.NET) is available for saving directly from within SolidWorks; a connector prototype for PTC Creo (Creo Add-in / COM connector) is under development.
Key Concepts
- Checkout / Checkin — the locking mechanism that prevents other users from making conflicting changes while you work on a file.
- Revision history — access to, and restore of, every previous version of a file.
- Where-used / Uses — querying which parent assemblies a part is used in (where-used), or which child parts an assembly uses (uses).
- Custom Properties — custom fields synchronised with the SolidWorks property manager (material, weight, approval status and so on).
- Card Template — a template that defines the appearance and the mandatory fields of folder/file cards.
Typical Workflow
- Open PDM Vault from the left-hand menu and navigate to the relevant product/project folder in the tree.
- Upload a new CAD file, or lock an existing file with checkout.
- Make your changes and return the file with checkin — the system automatically creates a new revision record.
- Query where the file is used (where-used) or which child parts it contains (uses).
- If needed, roll back to an earlier revision (restore), or push the file into BOM Intelligence to include it in a reconciliation analysis.
- Produce a release report with the version information.
Feature Reference
- Folder/file tree, move, trash and restore
- Checkout/checkin based revision control and full version history
- SolidWorks custom property synchronisation
- Where-used / uses relationship queries and manual relationship synchronisation
- BOM extraction from a file (
files/{id}/bom) - Folder/file card templates via card template
- Release report (HTML export)
- Saving directly from the SolidWorks Add-in (C#/.NET); Creo Add-in prototype
Constraints / Known Limits
- CAD file visualization depends on the native format conversion infrastructure (see CAD Viewer).
- The Creo integration is still a prototype and must be separately certified for a production environment.
- Enterprise-grade checksum, encryption, virus scanning and retention policies should be added in the production phase.