Off-line mode - trick to keeping your vault clean

I’m often asked why sometimes when you add a file to the SOLIDWORKS Enterprise PDM vault, it shows that the file is at version two, other times it shows as version one. Version one is what that file looked like at the moment you added the file, version two will exists if you modified the file in any way before you check the file in for the first time.

Most of the time this isn’t a big deal – who cares if you have one version or two.

However, It can be a big deal if the file has file properties in it that you don’t want to go into the vault. Consider making a copy of a part, then in the newly copied part you change  the manufacture part number from “123” to “456”. Now imagine later someone does a search leaving the “Search in all versions” checked…

and does a search for “123”. Your “456” part will come up, because that part was “123” in version one. (The search results can display the version the information was found in, but if the searcher is careless/clueless —)

There are several other reasons you may want to modify information before it officially goes into the vault [and thus gets saved in the database forever -you can’t ever change version one]. One last example: Perhaps you make a drop down list of all unique vendors in the vault…and because version one is created without any opportunity for validation, these “version ones” could quickly junk up your list!

I think I have two solutions for you:

1. You could copy the new files to a location outside of the vault, get the file properties setup the way you want them, then move the files into the vault
2. If you go to “Off-line” mode, copy the files directly in the directory you want them to exist, make all the changes you want and the database won’t see these changes. Then when you go back on-line, RMB click on the files and add them to the vault. Everything will be at version one, clean as a whistle.

I like the “off-line” mode option a little better, seems like less steps to remember and you are assured SOLIDWORKS will be able to resolve all of the references properly.