SolidWorks Link

The Meridian Enterprise application link for SolidWorks provides similar functionality to the other CAD application links:

Property data exchange
Assembly/subassembly/part structure management

These features are important because they can affect the data integrity of your drawings. Assembly structure management is automatic and doesn’t require any action on your part. Property data exchange is also automatic or it can be activated at your discretion.

Besides these features, the SolidWorks link is unique in that it shows a Meridian vault browser inside SolidWorks that you can use to find and work with SolidWorks files that reside in a vault. For information about using this browser, see Meridian Enterprise Browser.

Property data exchange between SolidWorks and Meridian occurs by a link between Meridian properties and SolidWorks properties (evaluated values). If your SolidWorks files contain properties that are used in title blocks, for example, that text can be synchronized with properties in a Meridian vault (PowerUser client only). Normal SolidWorks text cannot be linked with Meridian. Meridian can support multiple property sets simultaneously. Property data exchange is configured by a system administrator and described in the Accruent Meridian Enterprise Configuration Guide .

Assembly/subassembly/part management by Meridian Enterprise entails automatically detecting and tracking SolidWorks files regardless of where the files may reside in a vault, including local workspace. This means that Meridian can maintain the referential integrity of SolidWorks files as you import them into a vault, move them, create revisions, and even exchange them with other parties using briefcases. When you open a file in SolidWorks that has references to other files, the SolidWorks link finds the current location of the reference files in the vault and updates the locations of the reference files in the current file. The link will even detect if the reference files have been renamed in the vault and will resolve them correctly in SolidWorks.

The SolidWorks link automatically creates and maintains Meridian references between assemblies, subassemblies, and parts. These links can be used to view files that might be effected by changes to a different file and for other uses.

Together with the basic integration provided by Application Integration, any file created or used by SolidWorks can be managed in a Meridian vault. Conversely, SolidWorks commands that request a file can access Meridian vaults for document selection.

The commands for using the SolidWorks link features can be found on the Meridian menu and in the Accruent toolbar in SolidWorks. Some commands are also available within the PowerUser application.

The easiest way to correctly import SolidWorks assemblies while maintaining their references is described in Import Assemblies.
For viewing SolidWorks files in PowerUser, we recommend that you install the SolidWorks eDrawings viewer on your computer and set it as the default viewer for SolidWorks files as described in Change Viewers.
For the best performance when loading SolidWorks assemblies, enable the SolidWorks Performance option Automatically load components lightweight. By default, the option is disabled.
If you work on SolidWorks models with PowerWeb in Remote mode, consider setting the ReadOnlyReferences registry value to improve the performance of saving assemblies with read-only sub-assemblies or parts. The value is described in the Accruent Meridian Enterprise Administrator's Guide.

Note:

SolidWorks note annotations that are linked to SolidWorks properties will also show the value of Meridian properties if the properties are mapped to one another. However, this synchronization is only in one direction from the SolidWorks property to the annotation. Manual changes to the annotation will not be synchronized to the Meridian property.
Property and reference synchronization does not work in SolidWorks lightweight mode because external references are not resolved by SolidWorks.
The functionality provided in SolidWorks by Application Integration is subject to the general limitations of Application Integration described in Application Integration.
Do not copy references in PowerUser while any of the files to which the references refer are open in SolidWorks. The references might not be updated correctly due to the files being held open by SolidWorks. For more information about copying references and the configurable options, see Duplicate References.
Meridian uses SolidWorks itself to update properties. Because Meridian will start and close SolidWorks for each document, this will add a significant delay to actions that involve multiple documents, for example releasing an entire assembly. To improve performance significantly, simply launch SolidWorks and keep it running in the background before starting the action.

The following topics describe each feature.