Have you ever looked at a blank space where you are supposed to fill in the information and have no idea what the title means?  This can happen anywhere, even in your SOLIDWORKS PDM vault!  So, how can you make it easier for users today and those in the future to understand what content is being asked for? If you are using SOLIDWORKS PDM 2023, it’s as easy as using the new Tooltip option. The steps are simple, and you can update your existing cards to take advantage of this new feature. The steps are:

• Open the data card in the Card Editor
• Click on the field you want to help clarify the content for
• In the properties, look for the Tooltip section and fill in the body to give further clarification.

Once this is done, you will see the text you added when you hover over a field on your data card in the vault view. Now you know it will be apparent to your users what they need to type. Easy, right?

You are sitting there going, “That’s nice, but is it really enough to upgrade my PDM?” I know, I know. So, to help you get an idea of what is available, let me tell you about a few of my other favorite options included in the 2023 release of SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional.

User Changes

New in 2023 is the ability to hover over a permission in the user property interface and see what group they inherited the option from.  This will save you time trying to figure out that user’s permissions in the vault and allow you to decide which group may need modifications quickly.

Another favorite for me in 2023 is that you now have a way to manage deleted users.  Previously, if you deleted a user, that was it.  There was no way to get that user back if it was an accident.  Now, if you right-mouse click on the user node in the Administration tool, you will see deleted users as an option, and you can choose to restore a user, just like restoring a deleted file in the vault!

Task Configuration

A third area SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional 2023 has improved is managing the computers listed in the task host.  Removing an old system could be a pain in prior years, but now it is as easy as modifying the task.  Let’s say you have a task in your vault to automatically save a PDF of your SOLIDWORKS drawing as a PDF.  Open the task, go to the Execution Method section, right-mouse, click on the system that no longer exists or is needed, and click to remove.  That’s it!  The system is no longer listed.

While these few options are not earth-shattering, they make my experience inside PDM neater and easier to administer.  For that, I love these simple yet helpful new tooltips in PDM options.  If you want to learn more about SOLIDWORKS PDM 2023, contact TriMech.  We’d love to hear from you!