SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2014 Released

Recently SolidWorks released the latest version of Enterprise PDM, release 2014.  One of the highlights is the new variable display options available from reference dialogs.  From here, a user can add variable columns like part number, description, etc. so the reference trees are easier to navigate.  Here is a screenshot:

Notice the new description column.  The user can add columns as necessary to this screen or other reference dialogs (where used, contains, check out, check in).  You can also set the check out, check in, and change state dialogs to only show top level, which reduces the time to display large assembly trees.  You can then chose to expand the level you want instead of waiting for the entire tree to expand.

Some other highlights:

• Automatically clear cache on logout
• Automatically refresh folder cache on login
• Quick compare in SolidWorks Task pane to check if the latest version is saved in the assembly (warns users when they are saving assemblies with older version parts)
• Workflow updates version free variables (variables updated without versioning the file)
• Flexible "work with latest version" option.  This new option allows users to get previous versions of files in their SolidWorks session even when "always work with latest versions" is set.
• Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 Support

I will post more enhancements as I run across them.  Post comments if you like and check us out at www.inflow-tech.com.