How to change many parts in PDM with a macro (?)

Good day to you all, I have some questions regarding the PDM part of SolidWorks:

  1. Does it make a difference to freeze vaulted parts for the rebuild speed with a PDM system? Most parts are not checked out and are locked into the vault anyway. Or am I wrong here?
  2. How can I change custom properties to look like

    "SW-Material@@configname@partname.SLDPRT"

    ? Is the only way a macro or do I have other options?
  3. The BOMs here are basically done manually and we would like to automate things better. Any literature/courses/videos on this regarding PDM? Any additional best practices on how to deal with different materials from different vendors properly (shape stays the same, material changes, maybe thickness a bit, color changes....)?

    Any ideas?
  4. pdm ​​​​​​​pdm ​​​​​​​macro ​​​​​​​api ​​​​​​​custom properties ​​​​​​​ freeze ​​​​​​​bom ​​​​​​​