We are making a significant system change and have created new data cards for our parts, assemblies and drawings and the one custom property is 'Parts Book Description' but many of the parts have the same 'NOT AVAILABLE FOR SALE AT THIS LEVEL' so I was wondering if it is possible to populate this field by accessing the database directly rather than checking out each file, updating the data card and then checking back in the file.
Charley,
What we were hoping to be able to do was export the database file out to a spreadsheet, make the necessary changes to the appropriate items and then import the updated info. The hope is that it would be quicker and easier to make the change this way rather than having to check out each individual file, run a scheduled task to populate the property and then check back in each individual file.
Robert,
Editing data in the database is not easily done and is in fact frowned upon by Solidworks. Also, if you added this variable after the files were in the vault, there will be no record that the variable is associated to a file until a subsequent check in.
A couple of things I can suggest.
If you don't have programming resources, I would second Michael's suggestion to add the variable to the folder text box (temporarily) then run the update command. You may be able to move the files that need to update to another folder just to do this, then move it back when done.
Another option is to create a transition to a workflow. Maybe call it "Variable update". Then write the description variable via a transition action and have it auto transition back to the original state.
Last, while its frown upon doing database edits, the VariableValue table is one of the safer tables to edit but you still need to know what you're doing with SQL, spend time understanding the table format, do this in a test environment....and always backup. However, if the value is mapped to a SolidWorks file property, it will not update the
value in the file, only the DB. The other methods above will update the file.
It would be nice if SolidWorks would give us some better admin tools to do this kind of stuff, edit history, etc. so you don't have to consider hacking the DB.
Thanks for the guidance guys, I think that a scheduled task or just to pick away at it one file at a time is my best bet. I'm hoping that it will be a one time event.
You can also try a right-click Dispatch action - it would at least allow you to select multiple files in one folder and change the variable - automate part of the work.
I'd be careful with letting Dispatch check stuff back in tho, sometimes it checks out more than you expect.
Good idea above to use the folder card to update files - where conditions allow.
Hi Robert,
We have developed a utility that extracts your data from EPDM, stores it in an external database, and allows you to update your data with rules or in Excel, then pushes your updated values back into EPDM. It also has a lot of other data clean up capabilities. Would you be interested in discussing?
Thanks,
David
Take a look at this blog post:
https://www.mcad.com/solidworks-topics/solidworks-using-folders-in-epdm/
Hey Robert,
Can you give a bit more info. Do you need to write a static value to a variable, or need to read the value from one variable and write it to another? Or is it something else entirely?