Solidwors Explorer & PDMWorks access control

[CADFlyer]

I am trying to set up PDMWorks for my company and would like to have employees outside engineering to be able to view the documents in the vault (using eDrawings in Soldworks Explorer), but not be able to check out or save a local copy. is this something PDMWorks or PDM Enterprise can handle, or am i just barking up the wrong tree

 

[SBaugh]

Solidworks Explorer can view files only (as well as Edrawings)... if they don't have a licensed copy of the explorer/Edrawings on their machine... if they do, then they can use it to change Ownership.

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[macduff]

Scott,
So you're telling me that people outside SW user world can view doc's in PDMWorks?

Colin

Macduff
Colin Fitzpatrick
Mechanical Design Engineer
Solidworks 2007 SP 2.2
Dell 390 XP Pro SP 2
nVida Quadro FX 3450/4000

 

[automationbabe]

The web-portal (can't remember the 2007 name) is another option.

 

[rporter]

We use the web portal. It is less expensive than having to get stand alone lisence of pdmworks.

 

[rporter]

In 2007 they changed the name of web portal to PDMWorks Workgroup viewer.

 

[macduff]

How much is the PDMWorks Workgroup viewer?

Macduff
Colin Fitzpatrick
Mechanical Design Engineer
Solidworks 2007 SP 2.2
Dell 390 XP Pro SP 2
nVida Quadro FX 3450/4000

 

[Standing]

Our non-SolidWorks people who want to view and print drawings from the vault get a license of standalone PDM. They can get into the vault and view change ownership add notes. Check in and out non-SolidWorks documents like Word and Excel files. The license not to long ago was about $500 with a yearly fee. The administrator can setup any read/write for any project folder they want.
The viewer and e-drawings is free. To see inside the vault is what cost.


Bradley
SolidWorks Premim 2007 x64 SP3.1
PDM Works, Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 4 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB, nVidia 3400

 

[ctopher]

I think it is safer to have people outside engineering to look at dwgs as PDF's or eDrawings, not PDMW or SW. Once they see they can use PDMW, they think they will eventually have a need to change the dwgs.

Chris
SolidWorks 07 3.0/PDMWorks 07
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 04-21-07)

 

[macduff]

That's a very good point, Chris!

Macduff
Colin Fitzpatrick
Mechanical Design Engineer
Solidworks 2007 SP 2.2
Dell 390 XP Pro SP 2
nVida Quadro FX 3450/4000

 

[Standing]

Chris has a very good idea here. We have thought about this also. SolidWorks can make a pdf file which in turn can be saved outside the vault. The problem we ran into was it takes someone to maintain the system. The logistics of keeping a full set of pdf’s up to date was too overwhelming.
The advantage of each having a standalone PDM seat far out weighed the issue of persons messing with the drawings. Most of the time, (no all of the time), the ones with standalone PDM do not know how to mess with the drawings. Then they can also maintain our ECN excel spreadsheet.
Departments outside our department like the mechanics are buying their own seats. Training was not hard at all.


Bradley
SolidWorks Premim 2007 x64 SP3.1
PDM Works, Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 4 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB, nVidia 3400

 

[J-C]

Here's an idea.....if you have PDFs in the vault...they can be automatically "synced" to an external folder on a network somewhere.

Look a this program called "Syncback" which is free for the basic version. The regular version is inexpensive and offers more capabilities.

http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/syncback-hub.html

With Syncback, you can set it up on the server running PDMworks to scan and copy files to a folder of your choice. You can filter it so it only copies PDF files....or whatever format/filename combination you want. It will even setup a Windows Task scheduler task to run automatically, say at night...or every hour...whatever you want.

I use it (free version) at home to backup files on my hardrives....basically it just copies selected folders between the two drivers. Lot of cool options.

Jason

UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
UG NX4.01.0 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2007 SP3.1 on WinXP SP2

 

[rporter]

I dont remember how much we paid for the PDWorks veiwer aka Web Portal but it ended up being cheaper than buying stand alone seats for those needing to view the drawings.

 

[rporter]

The PDWorks workgroup viewer uses E-drawings for viewing files through a web browser. The acess rights are set up by the admininstrator.