The importance of properly managing your CAD data cannot be overstated. In this video we'll explain why your team needs a data management system, introduce you to SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard, and cover 10 things that you need to know about it. SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard is our entry-level data management solution, and it's best suited for small to medium-sized design teams. Typically, it's adopted when teams grow, and multiple users begin to design a variety of products and work across several projects. This is when the pains of managing SOLIDWORKS data without a PDM system become clear. These pains could be problems such as a lack of traceability, difficulty always getting the latest version of a file, poor searchability, or duplicating or overwriting each other's work. They can also come in the form of broken SOLIDWORKS references, file corruption from saving over a network, or just an excessive amount of time spent and emails sent trying to keep on top of all of this data and avoiding these issues. Ultimately, these are more than just pains. They all lead to wasted time, and therefore financial loss. SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard provides all the fundamental capabilities of a PDM system to address these issues. And to give you a quick overview, we've picked out 10 key things that you should know about it. So, let's get started with number one. So, let's get started with the SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard is included within both SOLIDWORKS Professional and Premium packages. And with seamless integration into the SOLIDWORKS user interface, it's the must-have data management system that makes for easy access and efficient load times. You can see which parts are up to date and check who is working on what at a glance, without even leaving SOLIDWORKS. Windows Explorer fully incorporates PDM to give a comfortable familiarity to a powerful tool. Manipulate and explore designs without loading large datasets through the dynamic preview, powered by e-drawings. Alter custom properties and design details in the data card, and pack and go files with copy tree, removing the need to even open SOLIDWORKS to send your data. PDF standard allows both experienced and non-SOLIDWORKS users to collaborate, coordinate, and customize designs easily and intuitively. Folders within PDM are not limited to containing just SOLIDWORKS files. Collate files from drawings to datasheets, quotes to quality assurance, and keep your projects organized and streamlined. Any data relating to your designs can be stored and managed within SOLIDWORKS PDM standard, with complete control over who can access or even see each file. You can even add extra data to non -SOLIDWORKS files through unique data cards. Attach them to SOLIDWORKS files through Paste as Reference, and push them through your Workflow to ensure these files are revision-controlled too. With Workflow, you can map out the pathway from initial design to approved release. Move files from a work-in-progress state through quality checks before approving designs for release. Send notifications manually or automatically when a file changes state in order to prompt an action such as checking or approving. You can also receive automatic notifications when files have been in a state for a given period to keep things moving and projects on track. Files move through the workflow along predefined paths, which are customizable and easy to follow, ensuring each file receives equal and proper treatment by the appropriate persons. PDM standard allows you to control who has access to specific files and workflow states. Dictate who can edit, access or even see certain files with user rights. Don't want your design team editing already released files? Or maybe you want to prevent the workshop from seeing unreleased designs? With PDM standard, you have complete control over a file's read and write privileges for anyone within the company. The check-in, check-out functionality associated with SOLIDWORKS PDM gives a new level of traceability to a file. Logged-in users must check out a file to work on it, and other users can only edit it themselves once it's checked back in. Comments can be added to let other users know what changes have been made during a session. SOLIDWORKS PDM keeps a complete version history of a file, allowing for save changes to be undone to the last checked state, and provides easy access to previous versions of the design. Revisions can also be created on release, with complete control over who can access and edit the revised versions. It's these permissions that give you such power over your data, as SOLIDWORKS PDM standard brings accountability to every stage of design. Pinning down where a specific file is used in multiple assemblies can be time-consuming. But with PDM standard, it does the heavy lifting for you. Track files and versions with ease to see where they're used, and look back through older versions of assemblies. Drawings, configurations and relationships can be tracked, so you can see at a glance how changes you make might impact other documents. With advanced searching capabilities, SOLIDWORKS PDM standard allows you to find your data quickly and accurately. Be confident that you're finding the right information and version from a central location, so you never have to recreate work. With advanced searching of custom properties, metadata, combined search terms and more, SOLIDWORKS PDM standard makes your data accessible and easy to find. We know that speed is of the essence, so advanced searching saves you time by trawling databases instead of drives. And you can create custom search cards to save yourself and your designers even more time. PDM standard keeps your data secure. Files are backed up to servers to protect against corruption and eliminate the risk of saving across network drives. We've seen many files corrupted by working on files stored on network drives, and SOLIDWORKS PDM standard removes that risk by taking advantage of the local cache, so you're working on and saving files locally to reduce the need to save and load over the network and increase reliability. Individual password-protected accounts bring traceability to modification, as interactions with the file are logged against user accounts on checkout. This also prevents data being overwritten when multiple people share access to files, as only one person can check out a file at a time. PDM standard provides a seamless transition to PDM Pro for more automation and more tasks. Script PDM actions with dispatch, script PDM actions with dispatch, automate workflow transitions, and employ multiple workflows with a larger number of states. Multiple site scalability can be achieved with PDM standard through the use of VPNs to connect your sites across a wide area network. Here at SOLID Solutions, we also offer a cloud-hosted service that can host PDM standard or Pro. So there you have it, the top 10 things that you need to know about SOLIDWORKS PDM standard. Take a deeper dive into how SOLIDWORKS PDM can work for you and your business with our video series, or get in touch with us to discuss your specific solutions today. At SOLID Solutions, we can not only implement SOLIDWORKS PDM, but support you and your users throughout your design journey with our expert technical support team, helping to give you a smooth experience and keep your projects on track.