Downloading client files
SolidWorks PDM is a data management solution from Dassault Systémes. It allows you to manage SolidWorks files and their revisions, along with metadata like Vendor, Material, Description, etc.
Prerequisites
The PDM Professional version must be used
The PDM Professional version API must be exposed to the internet using the Web API setup guide
We do support bi-directional sync on request, but this is disabled by default to prevent updates to already approved data
Installing the add-in
Extracting the files
When downloading the client from the Downloads
section, a new zip file will be created on your machine. Extract the files to a convenient location using Right click > Extract all...
Preparing the files for installation
By default Windows will block all .dll
and .exe
files downloaded from an internet source. Because of this the add-in will fail to install. You first need to unblock it. To unblock a file:
Right Click > Properties
At the bottom of the first tab, there is a warninig
Select the checkbox reading
Unblock
Click the apply button
Repeat for all other files in the folder
Failing to do so may result in the following message when installing a PDM add-in:
"The archive server could not open the Windows Registry",
There are several things that can cause this error but these are the fixes that resolved this issue 100% of the time:
Right click each
*.dll
file, go to Properties, and check 'Unblock' in the lower right hand corner. This works most of the time (example above).If that doesn't work, export the add-in from a working system as a
*.cex
and install it on the end users system by importing it. Bear in mind that this may cause other issues though, so only use it as a last resort.It can also happen when the .net framework that the add-in is written against does not exist on the machine where the -is being installed
It can also happen when the bitness of the add-in is wrong (e.g. your compiling a 64bit addin but trying to run it on a 32bit machine)
Next steps: See setup
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