What is SOLIDWORKS PDM?
SOLIDWORKS® Product Data Management (PDM) products manage and synchronize your design data across your entire enterprise with a single, easily deployable solution tightly integrated with all SOLIDWORKS applications.
Highly Configurable CAD Data Management
By leveraging a secure vault, you can extend the access to your 3D design environment and associated files, for all participants from engineering through manufacturing. This enables everyone involved in your projects to share information and collaborate on designs, while automatically protecting your intellectual property with the automated version and revision control systems.
With SOLIDWORKS PDM software you can bring your design data under control and improve the way your teams manage and collaborate on product development.
Overview Demo
Get to know SOLIDWORKS PDM
SOLIDWORKS PDM Capabilities
Easily store, access, and share data in one location, improving the way your teams manage and collaborate on data
“Our engineering processes are well defined and well documented. I can tell new customers with confidence that we’re delivering on milestones because we’re tracking our performance on speed and quality every day.”
Ray Minator
Owner, Inertia Engineering + Design
“When we chose SOLIDWORKS PDM, we hoped that the technology would progress in parallel with our product development efforts. Now, it’s extremely gratifying to not only see how prevalent SOLIDWORKS has become with other companies we deal with, but also to benefit from the powerful solutions that SOLIDWORKS has introduced.”
Claudio Perfetti
Product Engineering Manager at Teknion
SOLIDWORKS PDM Features
Enable everyone involved in your projects to share information and collaborate
SOLIDWORKS PDM takes care of your data
SOLIDWORKS PDM centralizes the storage of all your engineering data and related files with a single, easily deployable solution tightly integrated with SOLIDWORKS applications.
You extend the reach of your design system—locally or remotely, from engineering through manufacturing—to share information, collaborate on designs, and automatically protect design data with integrated tracking and version control:
- Secure repository for fast information retrieval.
- Version control for both minor changes and major revisions to help prevent data loss.
- Integrated workflows that automate your design and approval processes for more efficient review and release of final designs.
- Implemented in a fraction of the time required by other product data management solutions.
With SOLIDWORKS PDM, you can dramatically reduce the time you spend searching for parts, assemblies, and drawings.
Collaborate across boundaries
Product development organizations can span continents and time zones. SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional creates a collaborative community regardless of distance and location.
- Search for data in multiple ways, using parameters such as document or file name, contained data, or custom properties like part number, description, and current workflow state (e.g., released or in process).
- Give distributed users quick access to designs, specifications, and documentation through vault replication.
- Enable staff and partners to contribute through web enabled portals from various connected devices including smartphones and tablets.
- Control access to specific engineering data and project information through secure access including integrations to Active Directory (AD) and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).
Streamline essential processes
SOLIDWORKS PDM uses an intuitive graphic interface to help you map workflows and minimize administrative work, while automated tracking of approvals and sign-offs maintains accuracy and accountability.
- Model company workflows and processes
- Increase productivity, quality, and accountability by automating workflows and approval processes
- Instantly access audit trails to meet internal and external reporting requirements, document quality control and standards compliance, and drive process improvement
- Automatically create files in common formats, such as PDF, at the end of an approved process
Get productive fast
Immediately get up to speed through a fully integrated bundle that includes database software, CAD connectors, replicated servers, and an API for customization.
The integrated Windows Explorer search tool makes it easy to quickly find information and take action. Full integration of SOLIDWORKS PDM with Windows® Explorer provides a familiar environment and unparalleled ease of use. The short learning curve also leads to higher productivity and a faster return on investment.
- Engage new users quickly with the intuitive Windows Explorer interface
- See “where used” and “contains” information for any design with one click
- Increase productivity with customized menus and personal preferences
- Find files faster and reduce desktop clutter using integrated Windows Explorer search and browse capabilities
- Instantly communicate with colleagues through information pop-ups
SOLIDWORKS PDM Packages
Three product data management packages to choose from
Package
SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard
SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard, powered by Microsoft® SQL Server Express and fully embedded into SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD and Windows® Explorer, provides an intuitive set of configurable tools to manage your SOLIDWORKS files.
Designed for the smaller workgroup environments in one geographic location.
Package
SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional
SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional, powered by Microsoft SQL Server Standard extends the capabilities of SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard to allow your entire enterprise to easily share data and collaborate on designs.
By leveraging a secure vault, you can extend the access to your 3D design environment and associated files, for all participants from engineering through manufacturing.
Package
SOLIDWORKS Manage
SOLIDWORKS® Manage provides a unique set of advanced data management tools. This is accomplished by leveraging the file management capabilities and ease of use of SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional and adding powerful project, process, and item management capabilities.
Takes the place of the separate tools that an organization might use to manage engineering resources and processes.
SOLIDWORKS PDM Matrix
Compare the different versions of SOLIDWORKS PDM software
| Feature | SOLIDWORKS Manage | PDM Professional | PDM Standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Secure Access Establish a secure file vault to control access to sensitive or proprietary product information. | ● | ● | ● |
| Revision Control Track design changes and avoid the errors of manual methods. Track changes and maintain a complete revision history of a design’s evolution. | ● | ● | ● |
| Find and Reuse Design Data Quickly locate and reuse existing design data to save time and control costs. | ● | ● | ● |
| Audit Trail Maintain a complete history of your product design, engineering, and development activities for reporting and auditing purposes. | ● | ● | ● |
| Integrated Search Save time and reduce development costs through design reuse by quickly finding needed data across a range of file types using the powerful searching tools. | ● | ● | ● |
| Integrated eDrawings Preview View eDrawings®, SOLIDWORKS, and AutoCAD® documents in eDrawings. | ● | ● | ● |
| Engineering Change Management Reduce the time to complete your design approval and Engineering Change Order (ECO) processes. Graphically represent the product development process through an easy-to-use flowchart interface. | ● | ● | |
| Bill of Materials Management Maintain, manipulate, and leverage Bill of Materials (BOM) information to support downstream applications and systems. Create individual BOM objects from existing CAD file structures that automatically update in parallel with the evolution of the CAD model, eliminating the frequent manual updates required when using spreadsheets. Connect your CAD data with your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) systems, enabling you to easily update BOM information in other businesses enterprise systems. Use customizable templates to display BOM information in multiple formats or to format BOM information to meet the needs of a user or group. | ● | ● | |
| Regulatory Compliance Facilitate compliance with government regulatory requirements and industry standards. SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional can bolster compliance for several types of regulatory requirements, such as FDA, RoHS, ISO 9001 and 14000, ANSI, and others. | ● | ● | |
| Advanced Search and Favorites Save and share search criteria as “favorites”, providing you with instant access to common searches. | ● | ● | |
| Multi-Document Preview View multiple documents in the Preview window. | ● | ● | |
| Scalability Easily connect the design data needs of your entire enterprise, whether for just a few users in a single location or hundreds of contributors working in multiple locations. | ● | ● | |
| Automated Neutral File Creation Save time and effort communicating by configuring SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional to automatically create neutral file formats. | ● | ● | |
| Custom Configuration Map variables to both predefined properties (such as Title and Author) and custom named properties in SOLIDWORKS files. | ● | ● | |
| Automated Data Import and Export Import variable values from an XML file into a vault database. Create an export rule to export SOLIDWORKS PDM BOM variables that can be read into ERP systems. | ● | ● | |
| Serial Number Generators Use serial numbers to assign automatic names to files and folders, to assign unique IDs to items, or to add unique running values to card controls. | ● | ● | |
| Distributed Design Teams Tools and capabilities that your enterprise needs to keep people connected, up-todate, and working on the same set of data. | ● | ● | |
| Remote Access Enable staff and partners to contribute through web-enabled portals from various connected devices including smartphones and tablets. | ● | ● | |
| Automated Approval Process Automatically facilitate multiple required approvers with parallel transitions. | ● | ● | |
| Email Notifications Logged-in user will receive an email message when a predefined event occurs in a file or folder. | ● | ● | |
| Project management Provide critical information to help teams focus on important tasks, and provide an overview of resource capacity for better planning and utilization. Manage project stages, timelines, and milestones along with resource utilization and capacity. Utilize user tasks and timesheets to automatically track progress. | ● | ||
| User Tasks Provide users with the knowledge they need to work more effectively by utilizing tasks and calendars.. | ● | ||
| Process management Track design changes and avoid the errors of manual methods. Track changes and maintain a complete revision history of a design’s evolution. | ● | ||
| Item management Create, edit and compare complete bills of materials (BOM) by associating items, files and free text. Manage product variations for different use cases and applications. Drive SOLIDWORKS drawing bill of materials and item numbers directly from system data. | ● | ||
| Dashboards and reports Create and distribute interactive graphical dashboards to display critical information. Configure reports to company standards and publish automatically or on demand. | ● |
Looking for a Cloud Alternative?
3DEXPERIENCE Works provides a Safe, Social, Connected, Informed and Structured alternative to SOLIDWORKS PDM for team leaders, project managers and other professionals who want to manage data on the cloud and collaborate without constraints.
Safe: Customer controlled access. Transparent cloud backup. Encrypted communication protocols. Data always safe-no overwrite, no loss of data.
Social: Integrated structured and unstructured collaboration tools enabling social innovation. Collaborate on product design or engage with your stakeholders early in product development.
Connected: Every user always connected to a single, common database. Access data anywhere, anytime, on any device. Review and markup models.
Informed: Choose from the widget library, Create and share Dashboards. Get the latest information about your product development. Always have access to your latest data.
Structured: Zero overhead data management - store and manage data across collaborative spaces, share information in communities. Find indexed data faster by using tags, custom search, etc.