SOLIDWORKS 2023 SP5
UPDATE BELOW
I made a new datacard and after a long test phase I deployed it to one of our teams. We use default values in our card to add a dummy value to some fields and warn the user that we are going to overwrite them with our workflow action at the first checkin.
It worked as described below
QA00000117283
Default values generate in the data card when:
You add a new file to the file vault.
You copy a file within the vault.
If the variable or mapped custom property have an existing value, the default value only generates when the default overwrites option is enabled.
These default values updates in all configuration tabs in the data card, including:
The file custom properties (@) tab.
Configuration-specific property tabs for the SOLIDWORKS® part or assembly files.
Sheet tabs for SOLIDWORKS drawing files.
Model and layout tabs for DWG and DXF files.
When a new file is made with "copy & paste", or "save as" a card field is indeed reset with a default value and we clear it at the first checkin with an empty value. This is what we expected for newly created files.
Unfortunately I noticed after a couple of months, like a dozen of files (all assemblies*) that were added a new configuration (the first checkin was some months ago, last year so a situation apparently unrelated to the default value expected behavior) and that configuration fields in the datacard were all reset to the default value, like a newly created file! Since our card applies the datacard tab values to all configurations, those defaults overwrote all the correct values in the card including version free fields...
I checked the history of some files involved and the common point seems to be that at some point a new configuration was added.
I cannot reproduce the problem from scratch, but I have dozen of files with one configuration reset to the default card values (a dummy text) and looking at the past versions the only explaination is that there is a sort of a bug forcing the new configuration to the default values. It is absolutely something happened automatically, not a user mistake.
By the way with our old card, sometimes, we had some configuration with empty values. That is before introducing this new datacard. I used to think our users were at fault somehow, but looking at this accident I think the default overwrite is acting strangely.
@TI
*we use rarely multiple configurations with part files, but quite a lot with assemblies.
UPDATE1: I can reproduce an inconsistent behavior, depending on your pdm file being checked in or checked out when a new configuration is added to a file ALREADY in the vault, the default text is generated (checkout) or the datacard field is left blank (checkin).
The fields in the new configuration are supposedly applied to all configurations, but they come out as configuration specific.
According to the PDM manual
For many card controls, you can assign a default value to automatically fill in the control variable when a user saves a new file or item or adds it to the vault.
It is consistent with the QA mentioned above, which go deeper in some practical example and configurations are mentioned with regards to SERIAL NUMBERS only, in conjunction with the configuration option.
