Setting Your SOLIDWORKS PDM Viewer

The SOLIDWORKS PDM eDrawings viewer is used in multiple places in the SOLIDWORKS PDM user interface. It can be used to view previous versions in the history, in the preview, and can be used to view a part or drawing in eDrawings without needing to open the file in SOLIDWORKS. However, sometimes when you attempt to open the viewer, you are greeted with an error message like the one shown to the left. 

This message indicates that the viewer needs to be set in either the user or group settings. (Note: While the group settings allow the viewer to be set for more users, oftentimes different users have different file locations, so it may be necessary to set up the viewer for each user.) Let’s get started. 

Before setting the PDM viewer in the PDM admin tool, you will need to complete the following steps.

1. Obtain the PDM admin password
2. Locate the viewer in the file locations or search your C drive for emodelviewer.exe. Common locations include:

•  C:\Program Files\Common Files\eDrawings20xx
•  C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\eDrawings20xx
•  C:\Program Files\SolidWorks Corp\SolidWorks eDrawings
•  C:\Program Files (x86)\SolidWorks Corp\SolidWorks eDrawings 

     3. Ensure that the emodelviewer you are looking at is the correct version for your PDM. (Note: The icon contains the year in it as seen below).

Set the Viewer in the Admin Tool

1. In the admin tool, right-click on the user who is having the issue and select settings.
   
   
2. Select Viewers. 
3. Select or add a viewer for extensions sldasm, sldprt, slddrw, eprt, easm, edrw, dwg, dxf, 3dxml, stl, prt, xpr, asm, prtdot, asmdot, drwdot. 
4. Hit the browse button and navigate to the eModelviewer.exe you located earlier.
   
   
5. Hit the arrow next to browse and select Argument 1. This will add [ “%1%”] after the file location.
   
   
6. Save and close the admin tool and restart Explorer from the command manager.
7. Your PDM viewer should work as expected.

I hope you found this SOLIDWORKS tip helpful. For more SOLIDWORKS tips and tricks be sure to subscribe to our blog. 

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About the Author

Heather Dawe is a Senior PDM Support Engineer at Fisher Unitech based out of office in Horsham, Pennsylvania and is a graduate of Penn State University with a degree in Nuclear Engineering. Heather has been using SOLIDWORKS for 8 years and has 17 SOLIDWORKS Certifications including her CSWE, CSWP-D, and CSWP-S.