SolidWorks Enterprise PDM – A Geek’s View

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This is my first post to the SolidWorks Blog. I will be posting on the technical aspects of the SolidWorks data management products.

The 2009 release of SolidWorks Enterprise PDM (EPDM) includes support for Microsoft® SQL Server 2008. Since I was updating to the recently released EPDM SP2 I decided to update SQL Server at the same time.

Here are some of my thoughts and suggestions for those of you moving to SQL Server 2008:

  • Before updating, be sure to perform a full back-up
  • The installation is slightly different than the 2005 version but pretty straightforward. The details of menu selections can be found in the EPDM Installation Guide.
  • If you want to install the Microsoft sample AdventureWorks databases on x86 platform, make sure "Full Text Search Feature" is turned on AND enable "SQL Full-text Daemon Launcher (MSSQLSERVER)" service, before installing the sample databases. This should be done during the SQL Server install.
  • If you use SQL Server Management Studio to run T-SQL queries, you’ll be excited by the new T–SQL IntelliSense support – very cool!
  • In SQL Server Management Studio, the Design Query in Editor… icon is no longer on the toolbar by default, but if you right-click in the query window you will find it there.
  • Reporting Services has also been improved. If you have not explored this functionality, it allows you to generate a wealth of standard reports that can be accessed via a web interface.

Report

In conclusion, the move to SQL Server 2008 was almost seamless and offers some cool new features that can enhance any EPDM installation.

Joy Garon