I am setting up SolidWorks PDM Professional 2024.  I have several variables set as read only in the file card whose values are managed by state transition actions (Revision, Approver, etc...) These variables are necessary for the title block in the drawing and convenient to have in the model in case the model is copied out of PDM.

In my testing for accidental/enthusiastic/malicious actions by a user, I realized that while a user with check out/check in permissions cannot edit these variables on the file card, the same user can edit the mapped CustomProperty in the part/drawing which then updates the value of the mapped read only variable on the file card when checked in.

I have tried to address this by adding "shadow variables" to the file card, assigning each of these shadow variables the value of their primary variable during state actions, and mapping these shadow variables to the relevant CustomProperty in the document.  Then if the user updates the CustomProperty in the document, the shadow variable is changed, but the primary variable is not changed.  Then, on the next state transition the primary variable value can overwrite the edited shadow variable.  I am investigating using dispatch to "correct" the shadow variables on check in.

As I get into this, it all seems rather cumbersome.  Is there a better way?  Do you just tell your users not to modify parameters in the model/drawing that are mapped to read only variables on the file card?  Do you build some system like I just described?  Or, is there some PDM feature I am not aware of that allows updating a CustomProperty from a file card, but not letting changes in that CustomProperty update the file card?