File vault backups should be part of the daily management of SOLIDWORKS PDM – for both Professional and Standard environments. Without regular and complete backups, you could be left with major data loss in the event of a failure or security breach. The entire purpose of PDM is to house your intellectual property, and for many of our customers, their IP is a foundational component of their entire business. Losing that could be disastrous, and we’re hoping to help you avoid that outcome by making sure your environment is set up properly before anything comes up.
The nature of our current technological landscape is such that when it comes to server crashes, outages, and security breaches – it’s a matter of “when” it happens, and not “if” anymore. This makes it all the more important that you and your team understand how to recover your SOLIDWORKS PDM environment from backups if something goes wrong.
SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard is a great data management tool included with SOLIDWORKS Professional and SOLIDWORKS Premium. However, it is built on an SQL Express database, which unfortunately means there are no automated maintenance plans in SQL Server Management Studio. This makes automating the SQL backup procedure more difficult, but it’s absolutely still possible, and you even have a few different options to suit your needs.
SQL Maintenance plans create a workflow of the tasks required to make sure that your database is optimized, regularly backed up, and free of inconsistencies. The Maintenance Plan Wizard comes with prebuilt core plans, but manually creating plans gives more flexibility in execution. They can only be used with SQL Standard or higher, and so are only compatible with SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional.
Whether you’re using PDM Standard or PDM Professional, you can interact with SOLIDWORKS files in two ways: directly in the PDM vault or through the PDM Add-in fly-out panel in SOLIDWORKS. This interaction includes, but is not limited to: checking a file in and out, reviewing a file’s version and associated file versions, and getting previous versions of a file*.
How do you store your data? If you’re like most people, you probably take advantage of your hard drive space before shifting files onto USB drives or external storage when you need more space. But what about for business? How do you store your data? If you’re like most people, you probably take advantage of your hard drive space before shifting files onto USB drives or external storage when you need more space. But what about for business? In this article, we discuss why proper data management matters and the steps you can take to mitigate the negative consequences.
SOLIDWORKS PDM 2025 has gotten a lot of attention this year. You'll notice the first update during the PDM client install, where the option to install the SOLIDWORKS Electrical Connector is now available.
Whether setting up a server for the first time or moving to new hardware, setting up your SOLIDWORKS PDM Server correctly is crucial. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process with step-by-step instructions. Please review all of the documentation prior to installation to ensure a smooth installation. The steps are simple, but it’s very important to not miss any pieces of the puzzle.
Configurations are a great tool in SOLIDWORKS for creating and managing designs. One of the most convenient abilities of a configuration is the use of configuration-specific properties to detail and organize individual configurations as if they were standalone files. When utilized in the Bills of Materials, data cards, and drawing annotations, these configuration-specific custom properties are indistinguishable from those defined in individual files and remain just as easily accessible in both SOLIDWORKS and SOLIDWORKS PDM.