Speaker 1: In this short video
on SOLIDWORKS PDM standard,
we're going to look at workflow
approval process. So we'll see
how PDM enables us to control
access to documents based on an
electronic workflow. This
enables us to streamline company
procedures and processes. It
gives access to the data when
it's needed, it enables approval
control. It gives us the ability
to automatically capture key
approval information to write to
the drawing border, and also
enables automatic PDF
generation. So let's, first of
all, see how we can use the
electronic workflow to limit or
grant access to files based on
the electronic state that file
is in. So if we log in as the
viewer browse into the project
that we're looking at today and
we can see the folder is empty.
So we don't have access rights
to the data in this folder. If
we now log in as an editor and
browse into the same project, we
can see that we have access to
this data now, and we can see
the state of the files are in
working progress. So I'm happy
with this design. I want to get
this design signed off. So I'm
going to push the file through
the electronic workflow by
changing state of the file So
I'm going to submit this for
check-in. I'm going to add in
some comments, which we can make
mandatory and then I can specify
who I want to notify
electronically. So when they log
into PDM, they will get the
notification that
the file has changed state. So I
want to change the state of all
of these files in this assembly,
select okay, And these files was
with progressed from working
progress to pending check. If I
try and push the files further
through the electronic workflow,
I have no access. I have no
rights to do that, so I'm not
able to self approve and sign
off my own work. So I'm now
going to log in as the, checker
user to push these files through
to the next stage in the
electronic workflow. As soon as
I log in, I get this
notification balloon, appear I
can click on, and it was telling
me what had changed. So we can
see that these files have
changed state from working
progress CAD to pending check.
And I can now select any of
these links, or I can view the
data card, look at the history.
So we don't need to know where
these files are within the PDM
system. I can simply click on
folder link and it will
automatically take me to that
data. Where I can then preview
this and sign this data off once
I'm happy with this. If I'm
happy with this, I can now go
ahead and change the state of
this. And I get the ability to
push this back to working
progress via the editing
required transition Or we can
say this is checked, ready for
approval. So let's
go ahead and do this. So again,
I'm going to add in a comment
and then again, I can select who
I'm going to notify dynamically
from a list of users. I'm going
to transition all of the data
set now and select, okay, and
once this is going to now change
the state of the file to pending
approval. But what it will also
do is it will capture who's
checked the file. So it's got my
initial there, the date it was
checked, and we still don't have
the approval information because
the file is pending approval. So
finally, now I'm going to log in
as the approver now. Again we
get the notification balloon
here, and if we click on this,
we can see that the file is
changed state from pending
check-in to pending approval.
Again, I can select one of the
hyperlinks, take me to those
files, and then I can review the
design. Once I'm happy with
this, I can then sign this off.
So if I now go ahead and change
state again, I can reject this
to go back to the check-in
stage, or I can approve this.
Select okay on this change state
of all of the files so they all
get released and select okay.
And these files won't now change
state from pending approval to
approved. What it will also do,
is it captures all of this
information on the data card. So
it captured my initials, The
date
the file was approved and also
stamps in the history of the
file revision A. and a PDF will
automatically be generated for
this file automatically as well.
So, as we can see now, the PDF
has been generated. If we look
at the preview of this, we can
say that we have all of the
information here. So all of the
drawing border has updated with
the metadata, from the data
card. So all of this
information, we can push onto
the drawing border, which in
turn updates the PDF file
automatically. So we've not had
to go and open this up manually
and change the drawing border
there.