Workgroup PDM..... Has it a future?

[dmctiernan]

Well, I have just finished some PDM training and my VAR has unofficially informed me that Solidworks have basically halted any further development on Workgroup PDM, as we may have seen over the past few major releases there have been very little new features/functionality added.

What he believes is happening is that Workgroup PDM is going to be replaced by PDMWorks Enterprise Express which will be a cut-down version of Enterprise, while still using a SQL-Server based backend.

I guess this will actually be a good thing but I would like to know how Solidworks will market/sell this one. Will it be part of the Professional and Premium license, since Workgroup is part of that license/bundle as this is going to be its replacement. Will it be covered by maintenance fees so anyone with up-to-date maintenance gets it or will it require a seperate investment..........

I would like to hear others views on this.

Thanks,
DMcTiernan.

 

[ctopher]

I don't know what they are doing, but it was discussed here.
thread559-248245

Chris
SolidWorks 09, CATIA V5
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[macduff]

Chris,
Thanks for pointing DMcTiernan over to my thread.

DMcTiernan,
Did they say how they're going to convert Workgroup PDM files over to Enterprise Express PDM?

Colin Fitzpatrick (aka Macduff)
Mechanical Designer
Solidworks 2009 SP 3.0
Dell 490 XP Pro SP 2
Xeon CPU 3.00 GHz 3.00 GB of RAM
nVida Quadro FX 3450 512 MB
3D Connexion-SpaceExplorer

 

[dmctiernan]

Hi Macduff,
They weren't too sure how the migration was going to be handled, however he did point out that there are two small utilities located within "C:\Program Files\PDMWorks Workgroup\Vault" called "pdmwexport.exe" and "pdmwimport.exe" which at the moment are supposed to be used for importing and exporting from workgroup vaults and he feels they may expand on these little utilities in order to assist in upgrading. That was his opinion anyhow, but one thing is for sure, it isn't going to be a 100% smooth transition from Workgroup to Enterprise Express.

DMcTiernan.

 

[macduff]

That's great info, thanks!

Colin Fitzpatrick (aka Macduff)
Mechanical Designer
Solidworks 2009 SP 3.0
Dell 490 XP Pro SP 2
Xeon CPU 3.00 GHz 3.00 GB of RAM
nVida Quadro FX 3450 512 MB
3D Connexion-SpaceExplorer

 

[kellnerp]

Wow. This would be a good time to look into other PDM packages. I wonder what happens to those who purchased Office Pro? Going to a SQL server based solution is a big jump.

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