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Introduction to SOLIDWORKS Document Manager API

SOLIDWORKS Document Manager API{ width=150 }

This section introduces you to SOLIDWORKS Document Manager - powerful stand-alone library supplied by SOLIDWORKS which exposes API and allows to read and write metadata directly from SOLIDWORKS files stream.

Benefits​

  • Free for customers or SOLIDWORKS partners (research, solution or gold) on subscription
  • Lightweight - library is about 13 MB in size
  • Stand-alone - doesn't require SOLIDWORKS to be installed in order to access the files
  • Quick - data is accessed directly from the stream without the need to load the full file into the memory

Supported Functionality​

Document Manager has a limited functionality compared to full SOLIDWORKS API. The following list are the main modules supported by Document Manager library.

  • Basic

    • Reading/Writing Custom Properties (including configuration specific and summary information)
      • Reading file relationships (assembly Bill of Materials and drawings)
      • Replacing file relationships (components and drawing view references)
      • Reading components transformations in the assembly
      • Reading tables data in models and drawings
      • Reading 3rd party storage data
      • Getting the information about the configurations, drawing views and their properties

  • Previews

    • Getting 2D image previews from files and configurations

  • DimXpert

    • Accessing DimXpert dimensions
      • Accessing DimXpert features

  • Geometry Streams

    • Getting Parasolid geometry

  • XML Streams

    • Reading embedded assembly XML data
      • Reading 3D Content Central data

  • Tesselation

    • Getting the tessellation (triangulation) data (if stored in the model)

Application​

List of possible applications which could be developed with SOLIDWORKS Document Manager API includes but not limited to the following types of software:

  • Product Data Management (PDM) or Product Life cycle Management (PLM) application
    • Bill Of Materials
      • Preview
      • Properties
  • 3D Viewers for SOLIDWORKS files
  • CAD systems with the requirement of importing the SOLIDWORKS files
  • Inspection software with requirements to access DimXpert data

Refer the Getting Started article for an overview of steps required to start development with Document Manager.