How to manually install SOLIDWORKS PDM Microsoft Office Add-in
SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional includes a Microsoft Office add-in for Excel, Word and PowerPoint that allows you to perform vault operations on documents opened in the Office application.
Normally you would select the Office add-in (Microsoft Office Integration) option during the client installation if a supported version of Office is detected on the system.
Note, PDM client can be installed from the SOLIDWORKS Installation Manager (left image) or the SOLIDWORKS PDM Client.msi located in <downloaded installation files>\SWPDMClient (right image)
If for some reason you were not able to select the option via the install wizard (grayed out), you can manually install the Office add-in. Note, the logged in Windows user will need administrator permissions to register the required .dll files.
Step 1: Verify the Microsoft Office version is 32-bit or 64-bit. The best method is to open the Office application and go to File, Help or Account, and then view the About information section. It should state if the application is 32-bit or 64-bit.
An alternative method to check the version is to start the Office application and view the process details for the application in Windows Task Manager. If the Office application displays 32 next to the process name, then the application is 32-bit. Otherwise, the application is 64-bit. The image below is from a 64-bit machine.
Step 2: Browse to the installation media and locate the Office add-in Cabinet (.cab) files. The default location is …\Documents\SOLIDWORKS Downloads\SOLIDWORKS <version>\SWPDMClient
For clients installed using a SOLIDWORKS Administrative Image, the default location is:
<admin image location>\64bit\SOLIDWORKS PDM Client\program files\SOLIDWORKS PDM
For 32-bit Office, open the Office.cab. Extract epdmlib.dll and office.dll into the SOLIDWORKS PDM 32-bit program folder location (C:\Program Files (x86)\SOLIDWORKS PDM).
For 64-bit Office, open the Office64.cab. Extract epdmlib.dll1 and office.dll1 into the Enterprise PDM install folder (C:\Program Files\SOLIDWORKS Corp\SOLIDWORKS PDM). Once extracted, rename the files to epdmlib.dll and office.dll.
Step 3: Start a Widnows command prompt using the right-click Run as Administrator option.
Step into the install folder where the two .dll files were extracted and type the following commands (followed by Enter keystroke). A confirmation dialog will be displayed after registering each .dll successfully:
(for 32-bit) cd C:\Program Files (x86)\SOLIDWORKS PDM
(for 64-bit) cd C:\Program Files\SOLIDWORKS Corp\SOLIDWORKS PDM
regsvr32 epdmlib.dll
regsvr32 office.dll
Step 4: Start the Office application and verify the SOLIDWORKS PDM add-in tab is displayed.
If the tab is not displayed, go to File, Options, Add-Ins, Manage COM Add-ins and press Go…
Make sure the SOLIDWORKS PDM integration add-in is listed and enabled. If it is not listed, try starting the Office application using the “run as administrator” option, then use the Add… option in the COM Add-Ins dialog to locate and load the office.dll file.
If the SOLIDWORKS PDM add-in tab is still not displayed, try restarting your system. If you’re still unable to get the tab to display, contact MLC CAD Systems technical support.
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