Stupid, stupid, stupid f***ing PDM! I use CircuitWorks extensively, and a drafter recently suggested that we use workgroup PDM to manage the CircuitWorks component library. Fine, let's do it. Cut to a few weeks later, and suddenly I lose HOURS of work because the part that I recently revamped with configurations and parametrized construction has inexplicably reverted itself. I can't figure out what happened, so I redo the work, pissed as can be.

Now this morning I go to create a new assembly with CircuitWorks, and need to add a new component that I've added as a configuration to an existing model. I open the CWX library, add the new part (selecting the existing SLDPRT file), and select the new configuration from the dropdown. I hit OK and suddenly it says it can't find that configuration. I edit the library entry and look at the configuration dropdown and the damned thing has reverted to the configurations I had before I revised the part! I check another part that I completely overhauled a couple weeks ago and behold, all my changes are gone! WHAT. THE. F**K.

Turns out, when CircuitWorks goes and checks PDM to see if the part exists in the vault, and sees that the local copy doesn't match the vault, IT JUST BLOWS THE LOCAL COPY AWAY! No prompts. No "hey, we noticed these files don't match, what do you want to do about it?" no "your local copy is newer than the file in PDM, would you like to commit it?"

I cannot convey how livid this made me. The only thing that saved me from exploding was that I had SolidWorks' backup setting at 5, so I was able to dig in and find the backup copies that PDM didn't touch. If I hadn't had that... well, this probably would have been the post that got me banned.

Ryan R.