PDMWorks Enterprise SolidWorks 2008 Migration Utility

Included in the latest Service Pack of PDMWorks Enterprise 2008 is a utility for upgrading all your SolidWorks files in your PDMWorks Enterprise vault to a SolidWorks 2008 format.  The utility comes in your PDMWorks Enterprise installation package under the folder "\Support\File Version Upgrade".  The utility is called "File Version Upgrade.exe".  Double click on this exe file on your file server and it will install the necessary files in your PDMWorks Enterprise 2008 Program Files directory.  There you will find a file called UpgradeUtility.exe with a help file to get you started.  Before you install, you need to be at PDMWorks Enterprise 2008 SP2 and you need SolidWorks 2008 and a PDMWorks Enterprise client installed on the machine that you are using for the upgrade.  It will use a seat of SolidWorks during the upgrade.  Below are some features:

1. Ugrade based on file type (ie sldprt, sldasm)
2. Upgrade based on file state or based on some data card variables
3. Break your upgrade job into mulitple jobs
4. Share processing across multiple computers
5. Stop and start the migration and it picks up where it left off
6. The tool will not attempt the upgrade if the file is already SolidWorks 2008
7. The application can automatically increase the system version (optional)

Keep in mind, that each SolidWorks file will be opened and save automatically in SolidWorks 2008 so you will not be able to open files in SolidWorks 2007.  You also have to make sure all files are checked in before starting.  If you PDMWorks Enterprise vault is large, you probably want to do this in batches during off hours to reduce impact on SolidWorks users.  Also, remember to BACK UP your vault before progressing with the upgrade.  Any questions...forward to InFlow Technology.

PDMWorks Enterprise 2008 Language Options

In the latest release of PDMWorks Enterprise 2008, we saw some additional languages added.  So, at this moment, PDMWorks Enterprise 2008 supports English, French, Korean, Russian, Czech, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, and Swedish.

From an IT perspective, it can be difficult to deploy in multiple languages, so all end user clients can be rolled out in one language and then changed after the fact.  In fact, the language choice can be made from the administration tool, just by changing user or group settings.  It is easy.  Just right-click on a user or group in the admin tool and select settings.  There is a tab called Language.  From there you can select a drop down menu to set the language for that user or group  (See image).  The language will take affect during the next reboot.

Using this tool, IT can deploy one client type, and the PDM admin can set or change the language settings whenever appropriate.  Any questions, send to InFlow Technology.

PDMWorks Enterprise 2008 Improves Security Options

With the launch of PDMWorks 2008 SP2, there is a new security option that is available for use.  Now users can choose to select specific files and decide whether or not they want to share the files with other users or block access.  To control the permissions, right-click on a file, Properties, and go to the permissions tab.  See image:

Here is a little summary:  Before this addition, the security of a file was typically determined by vault location and lifecycle state.  In other words, if you were in the engineering department, and you had rights to see all files in the "New Projects" vault, then you could see all files, no matter who created them.  With this new option, an individual user can chose to deny access to a file or set of files.  OR the administrator can set an option to deny access to any file created by a specific group.  In other words, if you are in the R&D group, you can create files all over the vault and no one can see those files except others in the R&D group.

Of course, this gives an individual a lot of power, and "With great power, comes great responsibility."  Any user can just decide to hide files in the vault.  So, this is a permission that the administrator has to grant a user or group.  Otherwise the option is not available.  The administrator can modify the option by editing the normal security profile for a group or user and selecting the option shown in the image.