I am having trouble converting from more mainstream, major PDM products such as Teamcenter, Metaphase, etc.  Since the SW PDM system seems to be more of a shared drive concept, the need to "Get Latest" on a continual basis has led to some problems.  Namely, retrieving and using parts that are not  up to date. 

I have tooled around in the PDM Administration settings (Standard version).  I did not see anything where it would allow me to change how this works.  I am assuming there are settings for this, but I could be wrong.  These are my expectations of what how I really want this to work...

1. PDM would do the work of "getting latest" whenever a part is "invoked" by the system.  In other words, if an assembly calls for a part, the system should automatically check if there is a newer version in the database and at that time automatically do a "get latest" on that part.

2.  Somewhere when launching or in settings, allow the user to choose the retrieve mode.  If he selects "retrieve lastest" then he would get the absolute latest released, and those pending parts that other users have checked-in but not yet released.  If he selectes "latest released", then he would get all of the latest released components from the vault, and would ignore anything pending.

It is my experience with these systems that they work the best when the system treats files as a "cache", and not copy them to areas that let you use them in the future.  I also like it when the PDM does not actually "copy" the file to a usable area to the user unless they are actually changing it.  Thus, the file in use would copy from the server and remain in a cache area until which point the user would checkout the file, or save a file that he has changed.  At that point, it would move it from cache to his user area.  Then, when he exits solidworks, the cahce is dumped, and the only actual files that would reside on his workstation would be those he checked out and changed, or created as new during his session.

It is this last scenario that ensures that ever time a user launches an assembly, he has the latest from the vault, and his local changes and new items are incorporated in his assembly.

Are these capabilities in SW PDM??

Thank you.