How To: Create A Sandbox Vault In SOLIDWORKS PDM

By Chris Kolling on

SolidWorks-EPDM-Blueberry-Replicated.pngSometimes, you may want to test or make some changes to your PDM environment. Maybe you want to modify a workflow, change permissions or create a dispatch routine.
 
It’s advised to make such changes in a test, or “sandbox” environment, rather than risk upsetting the production environment.
 
These instructions can be used to create a sandbox PDM vault for testing purposes.
 
In this example, I will duplicate the production vault “ACME” to a sandbox vault named “ACME_TEST.”

First, create an empty vault in the PDM Admin Tool. Then, right click your server name and choose “Create New Vault.” I have named the example ACME_TEST.

Picture_1.png

Next, give it a description. Choose the default vault location, then Next.

If you are doing this work on the PDM server, you can enter (local) for the MS-SQL database server name. Otherwise, enter the SQL database server name.

Enter the name of the sandbox database and vault.

Picture_2If you do not know the name of your SQL server, you can find it in the registry by clicking on the start button and typing “regedit” in the search box.

Navigate your way to your PDM vault name, noting the path on the bottom of the screenshot below. DbServer is the name of your PDM SQL server name.  

Picture_3

Click Next and change to the date format of your choice.

Uncheck the admin password box, and enter an admin password (if desired) for your sandbox vault.

Choose Empty as part of the “Use a standard configuration” dropdown list. Click Next.

Picture_4

Click Finish to create the empty file vault and database. Once the empty vault is created, go to your sandbox vault in the PDM admin tool. Right click the new vault name and choose “Create local vault view.”

Export your production vault settings to an Administrative Export File by right clicking on your production vault name (ACME in this example) and choosing “Export.”

Select the top level Administrative Export File name with the “blueberry” PDM icon next to it. Drag and drop it onto your new sandbox vault name’s gold database icon.
  6.png

Now, the sandbox file vault is complete!

Interested in learning more tips and tricks you can apply to your own designs? Subscribe to our weekly Video Tech Tips to have them delivered straight to your inbox.