- [Instructor] Now that you've decided to look into
Solidworks PDM, we have to begin by understanding
what product data management means for the CAD user.
For us, this means that we'll be using
a software package to manage all of our digital files,
CAD and non-CAD based, for various projects
and teams of engineers.
This management can include things such as
version and revision control, engineering approval
processes, and automating drawing creation
after these processes have been followed through.
Solidworks has two different offerings in this realm.
Going to the Solidworks Product Data Management page,
we can see that they list both Solidworks
PMD Professional and Solidworks PDM Standard.
Beginning with Solidworks 2017, Solidworks PDM Standard
is now included for all 2017 premium
subscription services holders.
So if you have Solidworks 2017 Premium installed
in your office, you also have the ability to install
Solidworks PDM Standard at no additional charge.
Please reach out to your value-added reseller,
because they'll have the information that you need
based on the type of licenses that you have,
if it's a server network license or
just a set of standalone licenses.
They also offer Solidworks PDM Professional, which
is a more complete and full package with many tools
that can be used in product data management.
If we jump over to the Product Data Management Matrix,
which can be found following this link,
we see the differences between the two versions.
So with Solidworks PDM Standard, you can have
secure logins, version and revision control,
copy and move data, all over the place really.
You can have an audit trail, this means that
you can track all of your changes.
There's an integrated search function
which is very possible.
And then inside the Windows Explorer, it has
an integrated e-drawings preview, so that you don't
need to go to files and open them to see
what's going on in the latest version.
As you can tell, Solidworks PDM Professional
has many other capabilities, and included beyond this,
are things like macros and APIs that you
can download through the Solidworks 3D Content Central,
find on the Solidworks forums, or through your local
reseller by talking to their applications engineers
that handle Solidworks PDM.
All-in-all, the main thing we want to focus on
is revision control and the check-in check-out
functionality of Solidworks PDM.