The Best of the Rest: Hidden New Features You May Have Missed from SOLIDWORKS PDM 2020-2025

Best of SOLIDWORKS PDM 2020

Enabling / Configuring Quick Search Column set and Search Fields

In SOLIDWORKS 2020, Quick Search was introduced to the SOLIDWORKS PDM menu bar displayed in Windows Explorer. This allows for rapid searching without a search card, with built in filters to limit/extend the search scope.

Whilst this feature is enabled for everyone automatically, Administrators need to perform two additional actions to get the best from this tool:

• Create or update a ‘Quick Search Variable List’ - allows for up to five data card variables to also be used within the Quick Search dialog box. Plus, you can set up multiple variable lists assigning them to specific user and groups as required. On its own, Quick Search only searches file or folder names.
• Define and assign column sets - a new section was added to the ‘Columns’ node in the Administration Tool. The ‘Quick Search Results’ column allows for user/group-specific column sets to be defined and assigned, much like existing ‘search results’ columns.

Check out this Feature Focus article from 2020 for full details on using the quick search tool in SOLIDWORKS PDM.

Best of SOLIDWORKS PDM 2021

Defining and Assigning customised Column Sets to Users or User Groups

In 2021, SOLIDWORKS PDM also added increased flexibility and control for column sets, allowing administrators to define and assign multiple column sets to users or groups, for all column set types.

In the SOLIDWORKS PDM File Explorer, file lists can be viewed based on assigned column sets, with the ‘preferred’ column set displayed by default, and alternatives accessed by right-clicking over any column header and selecting ‘Column Sets’.

Users with these new administrative permissions can therefore:

• View and modify ‘My Columns’ in file details
• View and modify ‘My Columns’ in file operations

It is also possible to select ‘My Columns’ and configure a set of columns to display whenever you need them.

Enabling Display of Derived Parts, Weldment Cutlists & BOMs within a Bill Of Materials

This enhancement is a 2-in-1, introducing two new options when configuring a bill of materials view within the Administration tool:

• Prior to SOLIDWORKS PDM 2021, the only way to view a cut list/weldment BOM in PDM was to select it explicitly as the preferred BOM view option for selected weldment files. SOLIDWORKS PDM 2021 can display this information within a higher-level BOM, either as a weldment cut list or weldment BOM.

  NOTE - If a cut list item is defined as ’Exclude from cut list’ in SOLIDWORKS, it is not displayed in the computed BOM.

• Also within the BOM configuration interface is the option to ‘Include Derived Part References’ within BOM structures.

  These references can also be displayed inside the SOLIDWORKS PDM Add-in within SOLIDWORKS Design by enabling the Tools > SOLIDWORKS PDM > Options under the view settings.

For more information on this feature, check out Displaying Derived Part References in SOLIDWORKS PDM and how SOLIDWORKS PDM 2021 Assembly BOMs now supports Cut List items.

Best of SOLIDWORKS PDM 2022

Remove Unnecessary Variables & Change the Display Names for Web 2.0

Prior to the 2022 release of SOLIDWORKS, users of SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional could find navigating and understanding data cards containing lots of optional or card logic-controlled fields challenging when viewing in Web 2.0 as they were simply displayed as a list of variable names alongside their values.

SOLIDWORKS PDM 2022 provided administrators with an additional set of tools accessible from within the Card Editor to enable individual field properties to ‘show in web card’, or on the whole card by ‘configure card for web’.

This update enhanced individual field visibility in Web 2.0 as they could now be controlled along with the option to edit the display name for any visible variable.

Hide Configuration-Specific Tabs/Show only the @ Tab on Data Cards

SOLIDWORKS PDM 2022 gave administrators and users more control over configurations.

Within the Card Editor for many card control types, it is possible to assign a default value to be used when a user saves a new file or adds it to the vault.

Prior to 2022, you could either apply default values to all configurations or use ‘Exclude Configurations’ to specify a list of configurations to ignore.

SOLIDWORKS PDM 2022 introduced the ability to apply default values only on the ‘@ configuration’ - this is the configuration that equates to the ‘Custom Properties’ when viewed inside SOLIDWORKS.

Via the Display menu, users may individually configure the display of configurations in data cards, while accessed in the SOLIDWORKS PDM File Explorer by clicking ‘Display’, choosing ‘Datacard Configuration Display’, and selecting one of the following:

• Show all configurations
• Show @ configuration only
• Hide @ configuration

Best of SOLIDWORKS PDM 2023

Enabling/Adding Tooltips on Data Card Controls

Tooltips can be added to Data Card Controls via the Card Editor - this feature is especially useful when onboarding new users or for informing users after implementing enhancements.

Tooltips are easily configured and have both a title and a body that are displayed when a user hovers over the corresponding card control.

To add a tooltip in SOLIDWORKS PDM, simply:

1. Open the data card in the Card Editor
2. Click on the field you want to help clarify the content for
3. Locate the Tooltip section In the properties, and:
1. Fill out the title field to clarify to the user what the tip applies to (usually the item they are hovering over)
2. Write a brief description in the body of how to use the item or what the user needs to do when interacting with the item.

Enabling Automatic Login to the Administration Tool

It has long been possible to configure automatic client logins with Windows accounts, pre-populating usernames and passwords for individual users with details specified in the user settings of the PDM Admin Tool.

However, in 2023, SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional introduced a secondary ‘Administration Login’ option, whereby administrators can also automatically login to the Administration Tool with a specific username and password.

Users can Check the Task List in Administration Tool without Modifying

A new administrative permission ‘Can view task list’ was added into SOLIDWORKS PDM 2023, allowing users to view the task list and perform all actions available within the Task List Dialog (e.g. Cancel) without requiring the ability to create or modify tasks as per previous releases.

Modifications still require the ‘Can update task settings’ permission to be enabled.

Enabling the 'Get' Log

SOLIDWORKS PDM 2023 made it possible to enable an optional ‘Get Log’ function to allow administrators to view information and error events for the files retrieved for a vault on all archive servers.

The log includes the date and method of retrieval (e.g. Desktop, API, or Web2), the name of the machine and user who performed the ‘Get’ action alongside the details of the documents themselves.

This level of logging is likely to create lots of data, so it isn’t enabled by default.

To enable it, users with the ‘File Vault Management’ permission can right-click on a vault inside the Administration Tool and, under Logging Operations, select the ‘Get’ option to enable logging for that specific vault.

Need a hand? Check out this step-by-step tutorial to enable logging file retrieval operations in SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional.

A New UI, Performance Enhancements, and 'Days in State' Column

Following the release of SOLIDWORKS 2023, new features also started being implemented in mid-year Service Packs (SPs) – we’ve picked out some of the highlights.

Service Pack 1 (SP1) was released in February 2023 and added two new features: the ability to pull and synchronize much more data from Windows AD (within PDM Pro), and a new system variable called ‘Days in State’ that can now be added to columns to provide greater visibility on project status and bottlenecks.

This variable was previously visible in Web 2.0, but not the desktop client and is available to be added to the following:

• File List (Explorer Columns)
• Quick Search Result
• Search Result

SP2 arrived in April 2023 and brought with it a new UI for configuring and understanding control logic in data cards, the ability to archive Workflow states, and a new grid view option inside Web 2.0 for viewing Thumbnail previews.

SP4 was the penultimate release of SOLIDWORKS 2023, delivered in September, and included several performance improvements within high latency environments.

Best of SOLIDWORKS PDM 2024

Automated Check Out on Workflow Transition/State Change

A new option in SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional 2024 was the Workflow Transition (Change State) dialog box.

This allows users to check a file out automatically after the ‘Change State’ operation completes.

To make use of this in older, upgraded vaults you need to customise the column set for ‘Change State’ and include the ‘Check Out’ system variable.

This will then display a checkbox that can be selected as part of the transition to trigger the check-out process after the state change, providing you have the required permissions to do so.

Assign Alternative Folder/File Cards within a PDM Professional Template

Prior to 2024 SP1, a key limitation in PDM was the inability to assign a different folder or file card to be used as part of a folder template.

This meant that, for example, if you wanted to have different metadata against ‘Change Documents’ to standard ‘Project Documents’ that were stored in different subfolders of a project, then card logic or post-processing were required to add a copy of a data card to a subfolder.

SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional 2024 SP1 added a new feature to allow a specific file/folder card to be assigned to a project folder as part of the template set up.

A new ‘where used’ feature was also added for data cards to allow viewers to understand the impact of a change.

View License Usage without Server Permissions

The administrative permission ‘Can update license keys’ was renamed to ‘Can update license server’ in 2024 and the ability to view license usage was made available without needing any special administrative permissions.

Best of SOLIDWORKS PDM 2025

“Add” and “Rename” Permissions for Files and Folders

Prior to 2025, granting a user the ability to add a file also gave them the ability to rename it.

Whilst the latter could be mitigated by layering on Workflow state permissions, it certainly wasn’t ideal.

Legacy ‘Add or rename file’ and ‘Add or rename folder’ permissions were split into separate permissions in SOLIDWORKS PDM 2025, so add and rename so should be reviewed in your upgraded vault.

Enabling SSL/TLS Authentication in SMTP Settings for Online Mail Servers

Using a remote SMTP server for email notifications with PDM Professional could require the use of a relay and wasn’t guaranteed to work before the 2025 release.

Now, we can enable Secured Socket Layer (SSL) or TLS (Transport Layer Security) authentication in the SMTP email notification.

The following SMTP servers are supported:

Enabling ‘Search Match Type’ Card Control Options

After the initial 2025 release, Service Pack 1 for SOLIDWORKS PDM added a new feature that allows us to define the default behaviour when searching against List and Combobox card controls.

The option to specify the ‘Search Match Type’ as either ‘Exact’ or ‘Implicit Wildcard’ is defined on the control within the file card (not the search card) and offers the following behaviours:

• Exact - Search for files, folders, and variables in the SOLDWORKS PDM File Explorer and get results that exactly match the search input. For example, if you search for “weldments” in Name, the search results include only those files, folders, or variables with the exact name “weldments”.

  If you want all files that include ’weldments’ in the name, enter an asterisk (*) as a wildcard, e.g. search for “weldments*” (for names that start with ‘weldments’) or “*weldments*” (for names that contain the term ‘weldments’).

• Implicit Wildcard - Search for files, folders, and variables in the SOLDWORKS PDM File Explorer and get results that include the search input. For example, if you search for “weldments” in Name, the search results include all files, folders, or variables whose names include “weldments”, e.g. for example, ‘weldments’, ‘weldments_box’, and ‘weldmentspro’).

Best of SOLIDWORKS PDM 2026

SOLIDWORKS PDM 2026 continues to add significant enhancements to SOLIDWORKS PDM with a few of these also falling into the ‘hidden’ features category.

Transfer Ownership/Vault View Synchronisation

This new feature in SOLIDWORKS PDM 2026 automatically synchronizes modified checked-out files to the archive server where the local view is connected to let different users work on these files on different computers without checking in the files to the PDM vault.

It is not enabled by default, and requires the following folder and state permissions to be granted:

• Can transfer ownership of files checked out by current user
• Can transfer ownership of files checked out by other users

Lower-Level Folder Access

A new Folder Permission ‘May see folders to navigate to subfolder’ has been added to allow users to be granted ‘Read file contents’ to discrete, lower-level folder access without needing to be granted full access to the folder or even ‘read file’ access to the parent folders.

Convert Task Enhancements

The Convert Task in SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional 2026 includes enhancements to the options for the Parasolid™, ACIS™, and eDrawings® file formats that may mean you need to review and reconfigure any Convert Tasks you have defined that handle any of those formats.

The ability to change the output path or file name in the ‘Draftsight to PDF’ and ‘Office to PDF’ tasks using the Advanced Scripting Options has also been enabled.

If after reading this blog you are worried that you may not be getting the best from the new releases of PDM each year, then please talk to us about our SOLIDWORKS PDM Continuous Improvement Program.

As part of this service, we review your existing setup and requirements for PDM against the new enhancements, advising and assisting to implement improvements as applicable.