A quick way to make your PDM files dirty

Let’s imagine you have a lot of SOLIDWORKS files in your PDM vault. Many of these files have a file property defined within them that you now would like to appear on your PDM data card. (This seems to happen a lot after a recent migration.)

The problem is that simply adding a control to your SOLIDWORKS data card and linking its variable to the SOLIDWORKS custom property isn’t going to work. PDM only updates its data cards when you check in a file. It isn’t as easy as checking out all files within a folder and simply check them all back in because PDM recognizes that the files have not changed, thus treats it as an UNDO checkout and does not update the files then either! You need to make a change to a bunch of files quickly, but I hear ya, you got other stuff to do.

The best way I have found is to push variable values into file cards from their folder card. Temporarily make a variable, name it something clever like “JeffIsCool” make a text box on the SOLIDWORKS card and link it to “JeffIsCool”. Now do the same thing in the folder card.
Next you need to checkout all the files you need to update. Don’t forget you can checkout all files within a folder by highlighting a folder and choosing to check it out. (The folder doesn’t really get checked out, but its files do.)

In the folder card, put any value in your new “JeffIsCool” text box, and save the data card. Single click on the folder, from the menu choose “Modify”, “Update”, “Values in Files…”

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Follow the clever wizard to push your folder card value into all the files you need to update. Now you can remove the text box from the file and folder card and delete the “JeffIsCool” variable. This process has fooled PDM into thinking the files have changed so when you check the files back in, PDM won’t do an UNDO checkout, it will check the files in, and re-read the file properties finally getting the value that has been hidden within your file’s properties onto the data card.