Graphics Systems SolidNotes

The Six Million Dollar PDF question…

Ever since I can remember working with PDMWorks Workgroup (PDMWG), one question that potential customers ask from me would be how to allow non-engineers who don’t have SolidWorks nor have access to the PDMWorks Workgroup vault see drawings. My standard answer would have been that

a. Non-engineers can view the files using PDMWorks Workgroup Contributor or
b. Non-engineers can view the files using PDMWorks Workgroup Viewer.

Both options require client licenses. However, I will sometimes get responses which indicate that the client machines in the shop floor are not the fastest and that the customer just wants his users to access PDF files from a network share.

With the arrival of SolidWorks 2008, they have introduced new PDF integration functionality inside PDMWG. You see, PDMWG now allows users to automatically generate PDF files in the vault during a check in. They also allow users to use Task Scheduler to generate PDF files and store them inside or outside the vault (emphasis mine). This automatically brings visibility to your drawings to more non-SolidWorks and non-PDMWG users.

Now, if somebody were to ask me the above question, I still would definitely recommend them to either use PDMWG Contributor or PDMWG Viewer since these are still the ideal solution. Everybody should be using a PDM system. However, now we have a potential workaround.

P.S. If you’re wondering what the reference to Six Million Dollar is, then you’re probably younger than I am and will have to ask your parents what that is all about. Hint: It’s related to the Bionic Woman.

Note: This post courtesy of Gerald Go, IT Support Specialist at Graphics Systems Corporation.

How to Enable the Indexing Server in PDMWorks Workgroup

In my last entry, I discussed whether you needed to use Indexing Server or not. For today, I shall discuss how to enable the Indexing Server in PDMWorks Workgroup.

1. Go to your PDMWorks Workgroup server and click Start… Control Panel… Add or Remove Programs…Add/Remove Windows Components and select Indexing Service.

It may ask you at this time to provide your Windows Server CD.         

                   

2. Open up PDMWorks Workgroup Vault Administrator and go to Search tab. Click the Enable Indexing Service Search checkbox and select Build Catalog. You will see that it will create a count of how many documents are catalogued.

After doing the above steps, you should have a better results when working with PDMWorks Workgroup.

NOTE: This article provided courtesy of Gerald Go, PDM Specialist at Graphics Systems Corporation

To index or not to index…

When Microsoft introduced Windows 2000 Server to the world, it came with a component called Microsoft Indexing Server.  Not many applications used this functionality.  Starting with SolidWorks 2007, however, PDMWorks Workgroup 2007 gives you the option of taking advantage of this component.  Microsoft Indexing Server allows applications to have their own “index card.”  This means that it allows applications to create their own special index entries to let them search any data or vault content more quickly.  Thus, the question for you as a CAD administrator is “Do I need this?” and “How will this benefit us our engineers and users

The Good

• The main benefit of utilizing Microsoft Indexing Server is searching performance and creation of an assembly and component list when you check in or check out an assembly.  This is done by letting the PDMWorks Workgroup Server create “index cards” directories.  Thus, whenever a user would like to search for files, it doesn’t scan each record.  It now refers to the “index cards” directory and give you the answers. 
• It also creates indices of the relationships of the parents and children so that when you check in/out an assembly, it produces the list of the component model children at a faster rate.

The Bad

• I’ve noticed that if I check in a new document into the vault and I immediately do a search of that file right after, PDMWorks Workgroup cannot find the document.  This does not mean that Indexing Server does not work.  It simply means that it takes time to create the indices.  If somebody does a search while the index has not been created yet, they don’t get the desired result.
• I’ve spoken with some IT people who prefer to not install Indexing Server component since it’s an additional infrastructure to maintain.  It will also add to the hard drive space usage albeit not as significant as the actual vault data.

In my humble opinion, the magic number of records to use the Indexing Server is if you have more than a thousand or so documents in the vault, enable indexing searching in PDMWorks Workgroup.

In my next blog entry, I shall talk about enabling Indexing Server in PDMWorks Workgroup.

Note: This article comes courtesy of Gerald Go, PDM Specialist at Graphics Systems Corporation.

Looking for PDMWorks Client in SolidWorks 2007?

Say you've installed Solidworks Office Professional or Premium 2007. You go through the same choices in setup as you have in past versions, but when you try to turn on the PDMWorks Workgroup add-in, it's nowhere to be found. You go back to your SolidWorks 2007 install and look into the Customize area, but you notice that PDMWorks Workgroup client, admin tool, etc. are not even options. What happened?

Well, in Solidworks 2007, the PDMWorks Workgroup client options were made to be part of the Solidworks Explorer install, not the core Solidworks install. The trick is in the new Explorer installation question: "do you want to use PDMWorks Workgroup extensions with Solidworks Explorer." If you say "no" to that, then Explorer installs right off without any more questions. But if you answer "yes" to that question, then the next screen is, lo and belold, the PDMWorks Workgroup client installation options screen. Here is where you have the ability to load the Solidworks client, standalone client, and admin tool. So, even if you don't use Solidworks Explorer, you want to install it with the PDMWorks Workgroup extensions so you can get access to the other PDMWorks Workgroup client install options.