The SOLIDWORKS 2017 PDM product line is full of new enhancements that will make managing your SOLIDWORKS files even easier and more efficient. For one, SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard and Professional 2017 now offer the ability to overwrite versions, which will help reduce the number versions that are stored and tracked by PDM, making search and overall performance better. It will also encourage users to do more frequent check-ins so their edits are visible to other users sooner and provide better backup in case they encounter a hardware issue.
Other benefits include the ability to fix minor mistakes on released files, such as spelling errors, without they need to send the file(s) through another approval process. Assemblies can be updated more frequently to point to the latest versions of their referenced files without adding unwanted versions.
Of course, overwriting versions may not be desired in all circumstances so new folder and state permissions have been added. These permissions allow the administrator to control who has the ability to choose the overwrite option at check in and in what workflow state the action should be allowed. For instance for files in a preliminary design state where there are frequent changes, version overwrite may be a good option so others can see the changes without creating lots of versions. However, once the files are released, maybe only administrators would have the overwrite ability.
We didn’t stop at just adding this new capability as a user option; we also added it for workflow transition actions, set variable in Dispatch, and via the API. Now when transition actions write to variables, like Revision, the system can overwrite the version. To keep track of when file versions are overwritten, there is a new history line item titled “Checked-In with version overwrite” that captures who and when the action was taken.
Explore the SOLIDWORKS 2017 website to see all of the great SOLIDWORKS PDM enhancements along with more than 200 new, user-driven features.
