This document provides general information about SolidWorks® Enterprise PDM 2012 SP03. For information about new features, see What's New for SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2012.
SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2012 supports SolidWorks 2012 and two previous versions. The combination of a newer version of SolidWorks and an older version of Enterprise PDM is not supported.
Although you can use SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2012 with SolidWorks 2010 and SolidWorks 2011, for best compatibility you should use SolidWorks 2012.
To ensure successful installation and optimum performance, verify that your system complies with the requirements specified in www.solidworks.com/sw/support/pdmsystemrequirements.html.
The 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Microsoft® XP Professional SP03, Microsoft Vista® Business and Enterprise, and Microsoft Windows® 7 are fully supported for Enterprise PDM client installations.
For Enterprise PDM server components, Windows 2008 Server is recommended.
SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2012 supports the following SQL Server® versions:
If you participated in the SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2012 Beta or PR1 tests, you should remove the vault and uninstall the client and server components. It is not possible to upgrade the Beta or PR1 installation or vaults to the release software.
The process has changed for upgrading a previous major version SolidWorks Toolbox dataset to 2012 when Toolbox is being managed by SolidWorks Enterprise PDM. See Knowledge Base Solution S-058099 for the revised upgrade procedure.
Following Microsoft’s retirement of the Windows XP operating system in April of 2009, SolidWorks 2013 and SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2013 will not install on Windows XP. See www.solidworks.com/sw/support/pdmsystemrequirements.html for more information.
SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2013 will be the last release to support the Windows Server® 2003 Operating System for the database, archive, and Web servers.
After specific XP security updates are applied, SolidWorks compiled help files (.chm) cannot be accessed over a network (although they can be accessed from a disk or local installation). The Microsoft Knowledge Base article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896054/ includes a resolution to this problem.
A new feature in SolidWorks Web Help automatically displays related SolidWorks Forum content for any Help topic. This feature lets you discover related content that already exists in the forums. You can also click Start a Discussion at the bottom of the page to ask a related question for the community to answer.
When using SolidWorks Enterprise PDM from within SolidWorks or from Windows Explorer, click Help and select Use SolidWorks Web Help. Start Help from either of these locations. As you display help pages, the help content appears at the top of the page and Related SolidWorks Forum Content displays at the bottom of the page.