PDM Works 2007 Parameter Incorrect 1

[JamesBarlow]

I am trying to convince my employer to not only upgrade to 2009 but to start running a vault/PDM Works. To do this I created a vault on my machine and am setting everything up so others can use it. Once he likes it we will move to a server.

Having said that here is my problem. I have been running into some parts that are giving me a lot of grief putting them into the vault. It has always been vendor parts, i.e. downloaded files from supplier. I will check in an assembly and the status window pops up. It gets to Query Info: for a file then an error message pops up with "The parameter is incorrect". I hit OK and go to open the file that caused the problem and I then get "Failed to open: already open" error. I have to restart the machine to be able to open the file. I look and everything seems OK. I check in the file by itself and no problem. I then open the assembly and I get the same problem.

I would assume from the error that there is something in the file that PDMWorks is having a problem with but I can't seem to find it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

I'm not a PDMWorks user, but why do you need to keep vendor supplied (presumably read-only) parts in the vault?

 

[JamesBarlow]

One of the biggest benefits to using a vault is that all your working files are kept locally and are linked to the files on the server.

We have a very slow network here (it's a gigabit setup but there is so much traffic it's very slow) so working on a local machine, without going over the network, makes for a tremendous speed improvement.

I agree that the files don't need to be in the vault for revision/control purposes but the less my computer communicates with the servers the better.

 

[NL8]

James,

Does the error message contain an error code at all?

Joe Hasik, CSWP/SMTL
SW 09 x64, SP 1.0
Dell T3400
Intel Core2 Quad
Q6700 2.66 GHz
3.93 GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600

 

[JamesBarlow]

No error code, just the pop up box with the red circle/x.

As an aside I did figure out a work around.

My last place this was not a problem but I was able to check everything in once I resolved all the parts. I load all the parts lightweight to start then do my work and send it to the vault. These parts were giving me trouble so I tried resolving everything and it seems to work.

I would still like to know what was wrong, or wasn't working, so I can make sure to address the problem in the future since I don't always resolve the lightweight stuff before check in.

 

[NL8]

What SP of 2007 are you on?

Joe Hasik, CSWP/SMTL
SW 09 x64, SP 1.0
Dell T3400
Intel Core2 Quad
Q6700 2.66 GHz
3.93 GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600

 

[JamesBarlow]

Unfortunately I'm at 0 right now. I have been unable to locate any service packs still out there for PDMWorks 2007.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Do your versions and SPs of SW and PDMW match?

 

[NL8]

If you're on the subscription service you can pull down SP's for the vault through the customer portal but there's a trick to it. Are you on the subscription service?

Joe Hasik, CSWP/SMTL
SW 09 x64, SP 1.0
Dell T3400
Intel Core2 Quad
Q6700 2.66 GHz
3.93 GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600

 

[JamesBarlow]

I am on subscription but when I go to the portal I don't see any SP's for the vault server.

 

[NL8]

What you have to do is step through the download process like you were pulling down the full SW services pack. When the site comes up for the automatic start of download, cancel any automatic downloads that try to start and choose on the link that says "If you experience a download problem, [blue]click here [/blue]" When you follow the link it will ask you a couple of questions, what are you upgrading from, what level of SolidWorks are you running(office, profession, premium), language and OS. Answer those. About halfway down the next screen you will have a link to download PDMWorks server. That's the SP for the vault itself.

Joe Hasik, CSWP/SMTL
SW 09 x64, SP 1.0
Dell T3400
Intel Core2 Quad
Q6700 2.66 GHz
3.93 GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600

 

[JamesBarlow]

Don't know if that will solve my problem but I'm downloading the SP now.

Thank you for the information. I can honestly say I would have never thought about trying any of those steps.

I'll post the results of what happens.

 

[JamesBarlow]

Thank you so much for the help.

I downloaded the SP and now everything is running great.

Next step is to put it on some other machines and get everyone's buy-in.

 

[NL8]

Expect some resistance at first, and make sure you have some strict rules in place. When we made the conversion there were a lot of upset people complaining about how different things were. That was two years ago, now they can't live without it. I wish we had been stricter when it came to rules, maybe then we wouldn't have the mess my vault is now. Though it's finally back under control. Good luck.

Joe Hasik, CSWP/SMTL
SW 09 x64, SP 1.0
Dell T3400
Intel Core2 Quad
Q6700 2.66 GHz
3.93 GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600

 

[JamesBarlow]

What kind of rules would you have had?

The company I was at had been running PDMWorks for a while before I got there so I have never been threw the conversion.

The one thing they did say they would have done different is to not have any files outside the vault. The started by leaving fasteners/hardware/ and OEM parts outside and it caused more trouble then it was worth. That's what started this thread so I am starting with that but what else would you suggest.

I think once people see it doesn't take 30min to open a large assembly they will buy in pretty quickly but I can already hear it now about standardized naming conventions and needing to convert toolbox components before check in but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that things go smoothly.