We have 3 different numbering systems for different types of design items (Tooling, Product, Purchased) and each type needs to go into its own folder in the vault. I can handle this situation well using Templates, but it seems that they are only accessible from the Windows Explorer interface. My users would like to be able to create new files from within Solidworks as well (using File->New) they way they always have. The problem there is that SW can only be pointing to one 'Serial Number' at a time, so there is no way to specify that a part is tooling or product or purchased when creating or saving it from within SW.
If there is a way to add menu items to the SW file menu that activate the EPDM templates I've created, that would solve my problem, but so far I haven't been able to find one.
I think the best you can do without some custom programming is to teach your users to use the File -> Open dialog box inside SolidWorks when they need to use an EPDM template to create a new SolidWorks file. The File -> Open dialog allows you access to the right mouse EPDM menu items.