SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2010 offers the full support of SolidWorks Toolbox 2010.  Changes were made to Toolbox 2010 and Enterprise PDM 2010.  The EPDM Administration tool has a new node to allow EPDM to manage both the files and the Toolbox database.  Once configured, you use Toolbox as before and the following happens automatically:

• Toolbox parts are checked out and in as needed so the latest versions are used and preserved in the vault.
• Missing Toolbox parts and configurations are added to the vault.
• Assembly references are redirected to Toolbox parts in the vault.
  

User permissions
The new EPDM dialog offers a pull down to specify which user credential should be used when adding parts and configurations to Toolbox components.  This option allows vault administrators to restrict direct access to the library files for regular users and allow the Toolbox application to momentarily get access to it when required.  Obviously, the selected user account should have sufficient access to the library folders and the workflow state.

Toolbox root folder
The other field is to specify the location of the Toolbox library in the vault.  Browsing to the vault to specify this location requires a local view.  This fact could raise some interrogation for some of you... since a local could be created in any folder and it can be different from computer to computer that uses the same vault...  Everything is fine; this aspect was taken in account when developing the integration of Toolbox.  The first time the Toolbox add-in is loaded in a SolidWorks session, it will set itself to use the path specified in EPDM relative to the location of the local view.

Search
The option “Search subfolders for Toolbox parts on assembly check-in” is used my Windows Explorer only.  During check in, EPDM recursively scans folders under the Toolbox vault root folder to find the Toolbox parts. This option is recommended, particularly for Toolbox migration.  This option does not apply to the SolidWorks Enterprise PDM add-in because references are resolved by SolidWorks when you open the assembly in SolidWorks.  Beware that this option will change the references of library components inserted in assemblies and drawings from locations outside the vault.  Once a check in is performed, EPDM references will point to the files in Toolbox in the vault.  Again, this is only if components present in Toolbox are inserted from another location (very unlikely to happen).

Toolbox add-in
In a SolidWorks session, the new integration is handled by the SolidWorks Toolbox add-in; it can therefore be used without having the SolidWorks Enterprise add-in loaded.