SOLIDWORKS PDM Customisation

With over 35 years of experience, the TriMech Group offers a comprehensive range of design, engineering, staffing and manufacturing solutions backed by experience and expertise that is unrivalled in the industry. The TriMech Group's solutions are delivered by the divisions and brands shown here, use the links above to visit the group's websites and learn more.

TriMech’s Enterprise Solutions Team brings together experts from Adaptive, Forward Vision, Design Rule, Desktop Engineering, and Majenta Solutions Dassault Systèmes Division to form an elite solutions team.

The team's core function is to use their wealth of experience to deliver enterprise solutions from the Dassault Systèmes portfolio of products and solutions, including CATIA, DELMIA, ENOVIA, SIMULIA and the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform.

Explore the TriMech Enterpise site to find the full portfolio and more information on our offerings.

What are the Advantages of Customising PDM?

Increased productivity and less time on repetitive tasks

By utilising the Application Programming Interface (API) for SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional, our customers find that with our services, they are able to introduce additional functionality to PDM that allows them to save time by automating and programming key sections of their processes.

As well as specifying and developing those bespoke solutions, the team at Solid Solutions also develop and support a range of core tools that enhance or increase the existing capabilities of PDM Professional. Using these tools, you can keep your design team happy and productive by reducing, or even eliminating, tedious and repetitive work, freeing up their time to focus on innovation.

Discover our library of ready made add-ins or contact us to discuss your requirements for a custom solution.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is SOLIDWORKS PDM Customisation?

Unlike configuration, which is the tailoring of the PDM environment through the Administration Tool, with customisation we develop bespoke computer programs that interact with, or work within, PDM to generate more possibilities for your engineering design processes. Whether you’re looking to automate a section of your workflow, create specific outputs or need to push past SOLIDWORKS PDM’s regular limits, there is a likely to be solution that we can provide.

Who can benefit from Customisation?

Anyone who uses SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional can benefit, especially those who have to perform repetitive tasks as part of their workflow. Even complex design processes can be accelerated by a custom solution, provided there is a methodology behind the steps taken. Even work that is typically done outside SOLIDWORKS PDM can potentially be simplified. For example, customers currently exporting Bill Of Materials (BOM) data manually from SOLIDWORKS PDM in order to create Excel based Parts Lists or to populate ‘loading forms’ for their MRP / ERP system will find that, in many cases, this can be fully, or partially, automated using one of our Standard Products.

How much time can this save?

Time savings vary depending on the amount a process can be automated, but it is common to see up to an 80% reduction in time required to complete certain tasks. Automation also reduces the risk from mistakes that can be introduced when any repetitive task is carried out manually.

How are bespoke solutions implemented?

We can implement macros or SOLIDWORKS PDM add-ins that fit directly into the SOLIDWORKS interface, or create separate programs that interact with SOLIDWORKS PDM . The approach we take will be dependent on your requirements and so our first step is always to get a thorough understanding of your workflow and processes.

Key Benefits

Save Time & Money – By reducing the amount of time it takes to complete certain tasks we can help increase your productivity.
Innovation & Morale – Cutting out the tedious parts out of your workflow frees up time and allows you to focus more on creating new designs and improving old ones.
Customer Satisfaction– Increased efficiency allows for shorter lead times and increased responsiveness, helping to keep your customers satisfied.
Decrease Onboarding Time – By automating certain processes it makes it easier for new staff to get up to speed.
Improve Consistency – Programming solutions can help to remove human error and also ensure that design rules are followed.

Productivity Tools

PDM TOOLKIT

A Collection of Popular Add-ins

Currently featuring two popular requested enhancements for PDM Professional, Alias Plus and Web 2.0 URL Generator.

This add-in will continue to be built upon to enhance PDM Professional for our customers.

Learn More

PROJECT NUMBERING

Meet your Numbering Requirements

The Solid Solutions Project Number Add-in for SOLIDWORKS PDM provides greater control over project numbering and can be configured to suit virtually any numbering requirements. The configured add-in is linked to a PDM serial number which enables it to be triggered via Save (inside SOLIDWORKS), via DataCard (default value), Template Card, Copy and Move Tree.

Learn More

DOCUMENT UPDATE

Update Word & Excel Fields

The Document Update tool is a custom PDM Professional add-in which can be deployed to update fields in Word and Excel documents as they are transitioned via a workflow. The tool is configurable and can be made to cater for your workflows.

Learn More

DRAWING PACK TOOL

Easily Collate Drawings

If your collaboration needs mean that you regularly need to collate the native and / or neutral files referenced by a particular CAD Assembly or Drawing, then the Drawing Pack Tool from Solid Solutions has the opportunity to save you hours of manual effort, automating this process for you and reducing the risk of errors.

Based on user defined rules this tool will capture existing data, warning you when expected files are missing so that you can make informed decisions that allow you to focus on the tasks that matter.

Learn More

PROPERTY UPDATER

Mass Update Metadata

The PDM Professional Property Updater from Solid Solutions can be used to mass update Metadata on the files within your SOLIDWORKS PDM Vault.

Using a PDM search to create a spreadsheet of filenames and metadata to process, you are able to refine the content before sending the final document to the application to complete the process.

Learn More

CUSTOM PDM ADD-IN

Tailored Solutions for your Workflow

Save time and money by automating key parts of your workflow.

Contact us today to discuss your requirements and our team will work with you to create a solution that improves the efficiency of your PDM processes.

Custom Tasks

BOM EXPORT

Improved Bill of Material Creation

For users that have a requirement to automatically export Bills of Materials to either a comma (csv) or tab (tsv) separated text file, or who want to create a BoM Report within a formatted Excel spreadsheet, the BoM Export Add-in from Solid Solutions can provide this capability and more.

Learn More

DRAFTSIGHT CONVERT TASK (DWG TO DXF / PDF)

Robust File Conversion

For Draftsight Professional users that need to convert from DWG to PDF but also have a requirement to convert from DWG to DXF, or require more control over an output PDF file. This custom add-in from Solid Solutions adds additional capabilities not available in the out of the box solution.

Learn More

MICROSOFT VISIO CONVERT TASK (VSDX to PDF)

Expanded Conversion Options

For Microsoft Visio users that need to convert from native vsdx files to pdf for wider sharing and collaboration, this custom add-in from Solid Solutions adds an additional Convert Task capability to do just that.

Learn More

SOLIDWORKS ELECTRICAL TASK

Enhanced PDF Creation

This add-in has been specifically designed to work in conjunction with the SOLIDWORKS Electrical to PDM Connector to enable a single multi-sheet PDF to be created from a collection of DWG electrical drawings. This custom add-in from Solid Solutions adds additional capabilities not available in the out of the box solution.

Learn More

System Integrations

SHAREPOINT CONNECTOR

Link SharePoint and PDM

For users that are utilize Microsoft SharePoint to distribute published documents within their organisation we have developed a custom Webpart that can take a task generated file (e.g. pdf) of a Drawing or Document along with it’s metadata (XML export) that is added to a specified folder location and automatically import it into a specified SharePoint Library location.

SOLIDWORKS PDM

CUSTOMISATION AND ADD-INS

Related Content