Workgroup PDM Vault Transfer

With all of the acquisitions and merging of companies these days, there is often a need to merge SolidWorks Workgroup PDM (WPDM) vaults or to share project information between vaults. SolidWorks has provided a set of tools that enable users to perform these functions with relative ease.

There are two programs, “pdmwexport.exe” which creates an export data file stored in the source vault folder structure and “pdmwimport.exe” which reads the file produced by the export tool and performs the transfer of files into the target Workgroup vault. These programs are located in the vault computer program folder “Drive Letter”:\Program Files\PDMWorks Workgroup\Vault.

The Vault export tool allows the option to either transfer the entire contents of a vault to another vault or selected project folders. There is also an option that controls if all file revisions are included or just the latest revisions of files. A log file is created when the program is run and a couple of export files which are saved to the VaultDatapdmrc folder named export.pdmw and export.bin.

The source Vaultdata folder structure must be renamed to something other than VaultData if it is to be imported into a vault folder structure on the same machine, or copied to a different vault computer.

Starting the import tool, it first asks the user to point to the source folder structure. The import tool reads the export.pdmw and export.bin files and a validation is performed. The validation compares the two vaults for possible problems like duplicate file or folder names. Also it compares Revision schemes and Lifecycle settings. A report log is created for review. This log should be reviewed in detail since there is the possibility that problems will be reported that may cause issues with the migration.

The import tool allows the user to again choose to import the entire contents of a vault or selected project folders. There is also another opportunity to select all file revisions or only the latest revisions. Users, groups and file properties may be imported as well. Finally, the import tool presents the user with some options for dealing with duplicate folders and documents.

SolidWorks provides a detailed set of instructions in the WPDM help files for these programs. Both of these tools can be very useful, but the results must be reviewed and tested thoroughly before being utilized in a production environment.

Tags: migration, PDMWorks Workgroup, setting up solidworks workgroup pdm, WPDM