Common PDM Issues and Solutions

If you have any problems with PDM and manage to solve them, please add a write up here so others can troubleshoot their issues using what you’ve learned:

SolidWorks PDM File Explorer Loading

Author: @Evan Janakievski

PDM can cause issues with Windows 11 as there is not a proper integration at the moment. Some computers do not have any issues, and some have a lot. My computer was one that had many issues, I tried many fixes that others suggested in discord, but could not get anything to work.

My issue was File Explorer taking 5 minutes to load at times. The quick access bar would have nothing there and navigating to files was tedious. Creating a folder would also cause File Explorer to crash. After doing a clean install of Windows (no other fixes worked) I installed SolidWorks again and thought my problem was solved. After my first time using PDM the issue came back. I found that when logged into PDM there were major errors with File Explorer. The first thing I tried was removing the vault from my quick bar. This worked temporarily until I logged into PDM again, then File Explorer failed to load once again. Now to solve this issue, I switch to offline mode every time I am done using PDM. While there are still errors, this has kept it working the best and my laptop is usable. The offline mode allows File Explorer to load other items rather than trying to pull information from the server. This will be done only when switched to online mode.

TLDR: File Explorer fails to load when opened due to PDM. Each time I want to use PDM, I switch to online mode and log in (this has issues at times) and when done I switch to offline mode.

Error logging into ‘User’ for new members

Author: @Smile Khatri

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There appears to be a new error where people cannot log into the ‘User’ account on PDM to log in to their actual PDM account. The solution? Spam enter.

SolidWorks PDM license not found

Author: @Alison Thompson

If the error is “license not found, cannot connect to license server”, try the instructions in this website with Port 3030 TCP and UDP instead of the port they give for Solidworks: How to fix "SOLIDWORKS cannot connect to license server" error

Another theory is that the license error is caused by improper ZeroTier connection. To restart zerotier:

1. Search “Services” in the windows search bar

2. Scroll down until you find Zerotier.

3. Right click Zerotier, and left click ‘Restart’

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5. Try logging into PDM a couple of times.

ZeroTier Address Changing (Especially Mac Users)

Author: @Nathaniel Li

If rebooting your computer (or virtual machine for Mac users) causes your ZeroTier address to change, this may prevent you from connecting through ZeroTier properly. Your address in ZeroTier would be different and you would also see that for status it says “ACCESS_DENIED”. The fix for this is to set your IP address statically. Both Windows and Mac users (using a VM) can follow these instruction for statically setting their IP: https://kb.parallels.com/en/112093

How to Configure the Local HOSTS file to Resolve Server Name

Can’t connect to warg-server

Author: @Smile Khatri

First, open the ZeroTier UI and ensure that its content matches the picture below. If the status shows ‘Access-Denied’ then you need to ping @Nathan Green in #mech-cad to authorize your device. Please give him the device address as well (which is blocked in red in the pic below).

If you do not see a ‘PDM-SelfHost' beside the network ID, then please try restarting the ZeroTier services: Common PDM Issues and Solutions | SolidWorks PDM license not found

I had the same issue once, but it went away after a few hours on its own. I think restarting the Zerotier service can also help. If ‘PDM-SelfHost’ does appear and you still cannot connect, then restarting the Zerotier service can help as well.