How to Set Up Revision Tables
PDM - How to Set Up Revision Tables
Starting with the 2018 release, SOLIDWORKS PDM can now read and write values from or to a SOLIDWORKS revision table. You can configure SOLIDWORKS PDM variables to automatically add information such as revision date, description, and approver to a new row in the table or to update the last row.
When you change the mapped variable values in the file’s data card, the values in the latest row of the table are updated and vice versa.
The revision table row can be updated automatically by using:
• Set variable transition actions
• Set Revision command
Note, revision table integration is supported for SOLIDWORKS drawing format 2018 and later. The SOLIDWORKS drawing must include a revision table and the drawing’s Document Properties > Tables > Revision, Multiple sheet style must be set to See Sheet 1 or Linked.
Step 1: Enable Revision Tables
In the SOLIDWORKS PDM Administration tool, expand category SOLIDWORKS > Revision Table
• Activate the revision table integration checkmark Enable Revision Table
• Number of visible rows: 3
• Revision placeholder character(s): *
To update the Revision Table using the Set Revision command, you must configure the options on the Set Revision Command Settings tab. Note that the dropdown lists for Variable Name only display the variables mapped using SWRevTable block name described in the next section of this article.
Step 2: Map the PDM Variables
In the SOLIDWORKS PDM Administration tool, expand Variables. You can edit the default variables used by the revision table named Approved By, Date, Description, and Revision, or you can create and associate new variables following the instructions in the section named ‘Customizing Revision Table Header Links’
Edit variable named Revision and create a New Attribute
• Block name: SWRevTable
• Attribute name: Revision
• Extension: slddrw
Follow the same procedure to add new attributes for Approved, Date, and Description accordingly. If your revision table contains a column for Zone and you want Zone displayed on your data card, then you must create the Zone variable as read-only because the value of this variable is read from the drawing only.
Step 3: Add Actions to the Workflow to set the variables
For any transitions that have revision actions associated with them, actions will need to be added to set the revision table variables. The example in this article requires actions set for 3 transitions: Passed Approval, No Approval Required, and Revision Approved.
For each transition, add a Set Variable action type to update the variables used by the revision table. A separate action is required for each variable as shown below.
Step 4: Testing
Transition a test drawing through the workflow multiple times to confirm the revision table is updating with the desired variables.
Note, in this example, the Number of visible columns was set to a value of 3. Only the latest 3 table rows will be displayed, automatically removing any previous rows off the revision table permanently. When revision D row was added, revision A row was deleted from the table automatically.
Customizing Revision Table Header Links
To use variables other than the default Approved, Date, Description, and Revision, the revision table column headers can be modified to use custom links.
The image below shows the default PDM revision table variable Approved linked to the APPROVED column.
The image below displays the revision table variable set to Custom to use Approved By in place of APPROVED.
Note, for the PDM revision table variable to be set to Custom, the selected Custom Property MUST exist in the drawing’s custom properties to display in the list as well as be mapped using an additional PDM variable attribute as shown below.
• Block name: CustomProperty
• Attribute name: Approved By
• Extension: slddrw
Conclusion
This article used a general example to set up PDM revision table integration. If you have any questions regarding his functionality, please contact MLC CAD Systems SOLIDWORKS technical support.