BWIR offers "Pro+ Services for EPDM", a pack of 6 add-in utilities around Solidworks Enterprise PDM that enhance the functionalities of EPDM and improve your productivity through savings in cost, effort and time. BWIR showcased these at SolidWorks World 2012 at San Diego and completed a hands-on demo session of our EPDM workflow automation solutions. The utlities have been very well appreciated by the global SolidWorks community

2. BWIR Add-Ins - Extending the Capabilities of Enterprise PDM

3. Overview
 BWIR through deep understanding and experience in
SolidWorks EPDM created a pack of 6 utilities for
Enterprise PDM
 Called “BWIR Pro+ Services”, they enhance the
functionalities of EPDM and help companies improve
their engineering productivity

4. BWIR’s Add-In Utilities for
Enterprise PDM
1. Doc-Ref Validation (Workflow Automation Solution)
2. Multi-CAD to PDF conversion utility for EPDM (PDF
Generator using Task-Convert)
a. AutoCAD Inventor
b. Pro/E
c. AutoCAD 2D Mechanical
d. Solid Edge
3. MS Project Server Integration Link for EPDM
4. Workflow Analyzer Solution
5. EWR Application integration with EPDM
6. Data Card Info print Solution

5. Document Reference Validation (Workflow Automation Solution)

6. What is Doc-Ref Validation?
 Interactive, admin-configurable and custom built Add-In
aimed at extending the functionality of EPDM workflows
 Designed to “Manage or Control" the lifecycle status of a
document (parent) and also the documents (child)
referenced based on the configured rules
 A design checkpoint module, a document VALIDATOR
and a productivity improvement Add-In

7. Why you need Doc-Ref Validation?
 Customer Voice: Business Need
 "I would like to prevent our staff from releasing
drawings until the part or assembly has been
released“
- SolidWorks EPDM Engineer from Australia
 "How can we prevent a Parent-document being
promoted ahead of a Child-document"
- SolidWorks EPDM Engineer from USA

8. Document Reference Validation
User Scenario: Example
1. Users should not be able to release the SW assembly model until and unless all
its referenced SW parts are first released in the engineering lifecycle processes
2. Users should not be able close an ECRECO(N) request until all the changes
are implemented and affected documents gets completely released to the next
phase of engineering lifecycle process
Business Need:
The workflow feature in SolidWorks Enterprise PDM provides greater flexibility
to define life cycles for documents in the vault and control them individually.
However, “Out of the BOX” EPDM workflows will not allow users to either hold or
release a parent document lifecycle from one state to another based on its
reference document lifecycle state.

9. Document Reference Validation
In this scenario, SW-100211 assembly cannot be “Approved” unless it’s referenced parts SW-201772 &
SW-201799 are released in the workflow or if not in transition to the released workflow state

10. Document Reference Validation
Document Reference Validation is an admin-configurable and interactive Add-In.
The tool is primarily designed to “control the lifecycle status of a document based on
pre-defined settings applied to one (or more) of its documents referenced”.
Admin Configurable EPDM Add-In
Admin Configuration required for Document Reference Validation

11. Document Reference Validation
Features:
 Admin configurable add-in and interactive
 Can be configured for any number of conditions with different combinations
 The reference documents can be of any file type. The reference documents can be of any
number
 The workflows definition can be same or different for parent & its reference documents
 Control on lifecycle of a document based on pre-defined settings (either state or variable)
applied to one (or more) of its referenced documents
• If Set State check box is checked:
o Specify the reference documents workflow state, the parent document will move
from the defined “from” state to the defined “to” state only when the reference
documents are in the state defined in this step. Users will get an alert message if
this condition is not satisfied
• If Set Variable check box is checked:
o Specify the reference documents Variable Name and value of the variable, the
parent document will move from the defined “from” state to the defined “to” state
only when the reference documents variable has the value defined in this step.
Users will get an alert message if this condition is not satisfied

12. Multi-CAD to PDF Conversion utility for EPDM
(Inventor to PDF)

13. PDF Conversion Add-In for
Inventor in EPDM
The BWIR’s EPDM Add-in for Inventor application will enable EPDM users to automatically
create PDF’s from the native Inventor CAD drawings when conceded through the workflow
processes.
The BWIR’s PDF Conversion Add-in is build on top of the EPDM “Task Convert”
functionality and further extended with required customization.
 The EPDM Add-In has an admin configurable interface for setting up the required Inventor
to PDF conversion rules and settings
 EPDM Admin will have two methods or options to configure and allowing the EPDM users to
use different ways of PDF creation process
 Workflow (state change) method
 Context Menu method
 Pre-requisites Add-In deployment :
 SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2010 sp5.0 and above
 Inventor 2011
 A dedicated CAD license on the CAD conversion server (or on archive server)

14. PDF Conversion Add-In for Inventor in
EPDM - Technical Framework

15. PDF Conversion Add-In for Inventor
– Workflow Configuration Settings

16. PDF Conversion Add-In for Inventor
– User Interface
State Change Method
Right Click Menu method

17. Multi-CAD to PDF Conversion utility for EPDM
(Pro/E to PDF)

18. PDF Conversion Add-In for
Pro/E in EPDM
The BWIR’s EPDM Add-in for Pro/E application will enable EPDM users to automatically create
PDF’s from the native Pro/E CAD drawings when conceded through the workflow processes.
The BWIR’s PDF Conversion Add-in is build on top of the EPDM “Task Convert”
functionality and further extended with required customization.
 The EPDM Add-In has an admin configurable interface for setting up the required PRO/E to
PDF conversion rules and settings
 EPDM Admin will have two methods or options to configure and allowing the EPDM users to
use different ways of PDF creation process
 Workflow (state change) method
 Context Menu method
 Pre-requisites Add-In deployment :
 SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2010 sp5.0 and above
 Pro/E WF 4.0 & 5.0
 A dedicated CAD license on the CAD conversion server (or on archive server)

19. PDF Conversion Add-In for Pro/E in
EPDM - Technical Framework
Pro/E CAD
drawings
Converted PDF
Drawing
Converted PDF
Drawing

20. PDF Conversion Add-In for Pro/E
– Admin Settings
Add-In Configuration Option
Add-In Configuration Settings
Add-In Success message

21. PDF Conversion Add-In for Pro/E
– Task Configuration Settings
EPDM ‘New’ Task Configuration
Linking EPDM ‘Add-In’ to Task Configuration
Linking CAD Conversion Server to the Task Configuration

22. PDF Conversion Add-In for Pro/E
– Workflow Configuration Settings

23. PDF Conversion Add-In for Pro/E
– User Interface
State Change Method
Right Click Menu method

24. Integration link for Microsoft Project Server to Enterprise PDM

25. Microsoft Project Server Link
for SolidWorks Enterprise PDM
MS Project Server link for SolidWorks Enterprise PDM (SW EPDM)
is an integration solution
designed for managing project resources, deliverables, workloads and timelines
in the MS project server by automatic mapping and synchronization of the
document-centric “Enterprise PDM” user interactions, workflow processes &
document objects.

26. Introduction
Brief on MS Project Server
 MS Project Server is a project management
server solution from Microsoft, an extension of
the standalone MS Project tool
 It allows management of multiple projects
within a single user interface by enabling group
level project controls and collaboration
 MS Project Server allows enterprise resource
workload allocation (including multisite) and
task assignments across disciplines with
automatic conflict resolution and overloading
notification
 Microsoft extends the capability of Microsoft
Project with Project Server and project Web
access. Microsoft Project Server stores project
information in a central SQL server database
protected from unauthorized access and
corruption

27. Why you need an Integration Link?
 An Out of the Box EPDM do not have an effective project, resource and task-
oriented product development and process control. There is a disconnect
between EPDM and MS Project Server tools, forcing engineering project
managers to work on multiple enterprise systems manually
 If an enterprise has only EPDM, project managers continue to feel the
requirement of proper project/task/resource management functionality within
EPDM or need for an integration to the project management tools
 If an enterprise has MS Project Server kind of tools and EPDM but with no
integration setup between the both systems, the project managers end up
duplicating their efforts in translating the project, work and resource status
information from EPDM to MS Project Server on a daily basis
The MS Project Server Integration Link for EPDM
“Enable project managers to automatically map document-centric EPDM
user events and document lifecycle status information to the project
metrics, such as task status updates, work completion status, resource
allocation, project deliverables etc.”

28. Business Benefits
 Enables association of project, resource and task related information to the
EPDM document deliverables. This will help seamlessly track the product
development status in relation to project management schedules
 Provides project managers with an effective means of managing project data and
product development simultaneously improving collaborative decision-making
 Improves productivity, especially in the management of multiple, large and complex
projects and when geographically dispersed
 Enables the exchange of product development metric values from EPDM and
the automatic synchronization with project metrics
 Seamlessly introduces project-based resource, task and workload allocation to
EPDM user events and document transactions
 Reduces time, effort and cost related to multisystem maintenance. Data entry
and duplication mistakes can be eliminated when the two enterprise systems are
independently integrated

29. High-Level Approach
 The integration link will utilize MS Project Server and Enterprise PDM objects (features and
functionalities) during the exchange of project-specific datasets between MS Project Server
and Enterprise PDM depending on the configuration rules preset in the integration link (Add-
In)
 MS project-specific objects that would get bi-directionally exchanged are as follows:
 Projects and project timelines information
 Summary Tasks & Sub Tasks information
 Resource information
 Resource workload allocation information
 EPDM specific objects that would get bi-directionally exchanged are listed below:
 EPDM project folders to mimic & encapsulate the MS Project server generated
projects. Project data cards to capture the required project information
 XML document object to mimic the MS project tasks assigned to that specific project
 XML data card to capture resource and resource related workload information
 EPDM Workflow states and transitions to kick off the data exchange services

30. Workflow Analyzer

31. Workflow Analyzer
Business Need:
The “Workflow Analyzer” add-in is designed to graphically represent the
workflow status information of any parent document in EPDM & its child
document references with graphical user interface.

32. Workflow Analyzer – User Interface
Right Click Menu
Interface
Represent the current workflow state (with color coding) of selected document (having
references) in the associated workflow through a graphical interface.

33. Workflow Analyzer – Additional Features
 Generate “Release status” in % by
calculating the percentage of
completion as per admin settings
 Build document reference hierarchy
with multiple levels (0, 1, 2 and so
on). List down the reference (child)
documents if any
 Highlight the parent document (with
color coding) of selected document
 Open the EPDM folder view for
selected document
 Extract the above mentioned data
into a MS excel file

34. Workflow Analyzer – Admin Interface

35. Engineering Work Request (EWR) process integration with EPDM

36. Engineering Work Request process
with EPDM
EWR (Engineering Work Request) Process: An EWR process is intended to manage “NEW”
engineering requests and to address the linked design work that needs to be taken up and
assigned to the engineering function.
The EWR request would further be analyzed to generate one or more engineering tasks and
each task would be assigned to one or more design engineers.
An EWR process can be build into EPDM (using Workflows extensively) provided the
engineering collaboration needs to be extended to the other functions like Manufacturing,
Quality, Purchasing and so on.
An EWR process can be build outside EPDM (with integration to EPDM) provided the
engineering collaboration needs to be extended to other functions like mentioned above. The
only difference is that the functions mentioned will reside outside EPDM.

37. Engineering Work Request process with EPDM
- Traditional Approach
EWR Document
Requestor
Engineer
CAD Documents
An EWR process setup completely in EPDM Vault

38. Engineering Work Request process with EPDM
- New Integration Add-in Approach
Requestor
Mfg. or Quality Eng.
Engineer-1
1
EPDM Data
Server
3
Business Unit Archive
Server, 3
Europe
Primary
Archive
Server
4 2
Business Unit Archive EWR form in ASP.NET web
Server, application form
USA
Engineer-2 IIS Web Server

39. Engineering Work Request process
with EPDM
ASP.NET web application form to capture Engineering work request order.
This web application can be re-hosted or integrated to any SharePoint Application

40. Engineering Work Request process
with EPDM
A new EWR word document gets created based on the web application request
made in the previous slide

41. Engineering Work Request process
with EPDM
EWR Search Application enabling to search the request status

42. Data Card Info Print Solution

43. Data Card Info Print Solution
 Business Need: The “Data card Print Solution” is a custom EPDM add-in developed to
print the data card of any document in SolidWorks Enterprise PDM vault. The meta-data
information captured in the data card of a document can be print exactly the way the data
card is viewed in EPDM
 User Scenario: The data card information print help users to have consolidated
representation of meta data about the documents during the design review process of the
documents. Ex: ECO format if captured in the data card of the EPDM virtual document
representing a ECO request
GUI (graphical user interface) of tool

44. Data Card Info Print Solution

45. Thank You
8020, Forsyth Boulevard, MPL Silicon Towers, 23 - 1/B3
St Louis, MO 63105 USA Velachery-Tambaram Road
Pallikaranai, Chennai - 600100 INDIA
Phone: +1 (314) 862 8000
Fax: +1 (314) 862 4154 Phone: +91 (44) - 4390 9100
Toll free: +1 (800) 862-8020 Fax: +91 (44) - 4390 9211
Email: info@bwir.com Website: www.bwir.com