Razorleaf Corporation » Office Applications Articles

Configuring EPDM Dashboard in Office2PDM

Jonathan Scott — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 13:30:32 +0000

EPDM Dashboard is a very interesting part of the Office2PDM package - it provides a quick look into the status of files in your SolidWorks Enterprise PDM vault. Despite its obvious usefulness, configuring the tool requires a few pieces of information, and following a couple of simple steps. Here are the basics of getting EPDM Dashboard for Office2PDM setup and running. EPDM Dashboard is installed by default with Office2PDM. No separate installation is required. However, because EPDM Dashboard generates reports directly from Microsoft SQL Server database, additional configuration steps are required after installation, in order to configure EPDM Dashboard to connect with your SQL Server database. You must enter the server name of your database as well as provide credentials for accessing the database.

Step 1 - Determine Your EPDM Database Server Name

Log into the SolidWorks Enterprise PDM Administration Tool (typically requires Administrator privileges). Locate the file vault of interest (the one that you want to report against), and select the Properties command from the right-click menu. In the File Vault Properties dialog, take note of the Database Server field - this is your EPDM Database Server Name. The two screenshots below depict this process:

Step 2 - Determine Your SQL Server Credentials

Next, you need an account for your Microsoft SQL Server system that allows you to read data in the database that houses your EPDM information. This will require some discussion with your SQL Server DBA (database administrator) about accounts and authentication modes. For the purposes of this article, let's assume that you'll use integrated authentication (your Windows account provides you access to SQL Server). You can alternatively specify a username and password for your access to Microsoft SQL Server.

Step 3 - Configure EPDM Dashboard

Launch the EPDM Dashboard Options dialog from within Outlook (depicted in the image below). Once the EPDM Dashboard Options dialog is open, be sure that Enable EPDM Dashboard is checked and then set your EPDM Database Server Name, and provide your access information for Microsoft SQL Server (see the image below).

Now you are all set to start accessing EPDM Dashboard from within Microsoft Outlook. If you're still having trouble, contact us.

Razorleaf Announces Office2PDM Acquisition

Jonathan Scott — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:30:03 +0000

Razorleaf is proud to announce the acquisition of Office2PDM and EPDM Dashboard from Extensible CAD. Office2PDM offers a seamless integration between Microsoft Office products and SolidWorks Enterprise PDM (EPDM). EPDM Dashboard provides real-time access to Enterprise PDM vaults, right from Microsoft Outlook, for monitoring the status of documents and workflows. More details about these tools are available on Razorleaf's utilities page for Office2PDM and a separate dedicated microsite.

Razorleaf plans to extend and enhance EPDM Dashboard and Office2PDM, as we strive to deliver on its promise of making PLM tools work better for our clients. Office2PDM and EPDM Dashboard are SolidWorks Partner Products, offering one of the highest levels of integration for access to the Enterprise PDM system. The transition from Extensible CAD to Razorleaf should be transparent to existing customers, and a net benefit given Razorleaf’s long history with Enterprise PDM and its predecessor, Conisio. If you’re planning an EPDM deployment with heavy Microsoft Office users, or have existing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint users that you'd like to bring into the PDM system, download a free trial of Office2PDM to experience a rich integration for Microsoft Office within Enterprise PDM. Office2PDM and EPDM Dashboard are available through a global network of resellers. Contact us today if you need more information.

Searching Tip: Context

Jonathan Scott — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 03:29:48 +0000

Are you ready to take your search capabilities to the next level? If you’re like many professionals today, you’re inundated by information at work, and sifting Read More...

ENOVIA SmarTeam Excel Add-in Problems

Sean Kuner — Thu, 27 May 2010 01:43:30 +0000

Occasionally, after installing SmarTeam Editor with the Excel or PLMDB add-ins, one or both of these add-ins does not appear when starting Excel. This article discusses one possible cause of this problem. Read More...

Create SharePoint Lists From Excel

Derek Neiding — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 01:21:53 +0000

Excel can be very helpful in cases where you need to create a custom list in SharePoint and want to populate that list quickly, and perhaps Read More...

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Paul Gimbel — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:00:18 +0000

Everyone knows Excel. Well, everyone knows OF Excel. Very few people, though, realize that it is a fully functional data tool with over 340 functions ranging from math to text to counting to searching and on and on. This arsenal of tools makes it ideal for manipulating, cleansing, plugging gaps, formatting and validating large data sets. Read More...

Why You Need SP4.1 for SW2009

Daniel Rohats — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:56:04 +0000

SolidWorks Corporation released a minor service pack, 4.1 on August 10th. A minor release is never a good thing. If you have an earlier version of Read More...

Office 2010 and Collaboration

Jonathan Scott — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:00:52 +0000

Microsoft recently announced Office 2010, and is actively touting its benefits to the IT world. Although many will bemoan this information as marketing hype about interface Read More...

Missing (SolidWorks) Components in SmarTeam

bethb — Fri, 29 May 2009 02:22:47 +0000

n this article, we will explain some of the reasons when and why this message is displayed, what happens when you click the Yes, No, or Cancel buttons, and some tips on how to avoid the message. When the SolidWorks Integration is enabled, SmarTeam monitors many of the events that occur behind the scenes. One of those events is when a referenced file is about to be opened in SolidWorks. For instance, if an assembly is about to be opened and one of the components of that assembly is missing from the folder location the assembly expects it to be in, the SmarTeam missing components dialog box will be displayed. Read More...

SharePoint Licensing Basics

bethb — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:21:47 +0000

So you want to roll out SharePoint to help collaborate on documents and data. You have heard that Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) is free and Read More...