SOLIDWORKS PDM Automation with Serial Numbers and Templates

SOLIDWORKS PDM serial numbers and templates can help your company stay on standard for naming conventions, folder structure, and remove the disconnect between an ERP and PDM system.

With them, your team can stay on the company standard and remove the manual interaction needed to build out a standard system for each new project. By leveraging SOLIDWORKS PDM automation, you can focus on design and not the traditional overhead of starting from scratch.

What Are Serial Numbers?

Serial numbers in SOLIDWORKS PDM allow you to automatically name files and directories using a uniquely generated string. This can help streamline file creation, build out automated folder structures, or append sequential values to card controls.

SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional has the ability to create multiple serial number generators to meet diverse operational requirements.

How to Create SOLIDWORKS PDM Serial Numbers

1. Launch the SOLIDWORKS PDM Administration tool.
2. Log in to the vault with administrator credentials.

   Double-clicking the vault to log in

3. In the Administration tool, navigate to the Serial Numbers node.
4. Right-click on Serial Numbers and select New Serial Number.
5. Configure the Serial Number based on your required specifications.

Configuring a SOLIDWORKS PDM serial number

Customizing Serial Numbers in SOLIDWORKS PDM

SOLIDWORKS PDM serial numbers can be configured and customized in a number of ways.

Configuring a SOLIDWORKS PDM serial number

When creating SOLIDWORKS PDM serial numbers, you can:

• Specify the name of the serial number. This will appear in the SOLIDWORKS PDM Administration tool when setting up future automation.
• Specify the type of serial number.
  • Serial number from list: Set up a predefined list of serial numbers to choose from.
  • Serial number from string: Set up a string format to use for the serial number.
  • Serial number from add-in: Set up the connections to use an external system or custom script for serial numbers.
• Specify the format for the serial number. This can include static text alongside the automatically generated information.
• Specify the next counter value. This is useful if you have existing files in your SOLIDWORKS PDM vault that will use this serial number.

Using Serial Numbers for Automatic File Creation

With the serial number created, you can use it for SOLIDWORKS PDM automation tasks, such as for templates.

To create a template using the serial number:

1. Specify the name for your template.
   

   Naming a SOLIDWORKS PDM template

2. Set the user permissions that the template will use to execute.
   

   Setting template permissions

3. Optionally, assign a template card.
4. Create a new Template Variable and select the serial number you created. Provide a name for future reference.
   

   Adding a serial number to a SOLIDWORKS PDM Template

   In this case, we set the Type to “Serial Number”, selected the serial number named “t_Drawnum”, then gave it the Template Variable Name (alias) “t_Drawnum”.

5. Determine the folder structure and add a file with the name generated from the serial number.
   

   Add a file using specific serial numbers

6. Select the Users and Groups that can leverage the template.
   

   Specifying the permissions for the template

7. Test the SOLIDWORKS PDM template.

Why You Need SOLIDWORKS PDM Automation

SOLIDWORKS PDM templates are a great way to ensure consistency in folder creation. It can also be used to create folder structures, such as subfolders and files. Each time a template is used, the folder structure becomes consistent for all users.

Users can still add any potential folders required manually if necessary. Files can be added during the use of a template. Once a template is used to create a folder structure, any or all folders can then be deleted and/or moved to any location within the vault.

Want automation but don’t have time to set it up yourself? Learn more about our SOLIDWORKS PDM services here.