CAD Integrations

CAD Integrations

EasyPDM ships ready-made macros for SolidWorks, Autodesk Inventor, and FreeCAD. All three add the same two operations inside the CAD program, with the same browser-driven flow:

• Upload — send the active document to EasyPDM. Your browser opens (already logged in) and asks: new item, duplicate of an existing one (copies its properties, no files), or attach a new version to an already-existing item. You choose and confirm in the browser; the macro detects completion on its own and finishes the upload (renames the local file to the PDM number, attaches the file, optionally exports a STEP/PDF preview). For a whole assembly with new, not-yet-uploaded components, the macro detects them on its own and walks through each one before sending the main file — with the option to skip adding a component to any project at all if it should only exist as a BOM entry under the assembly.
• Download — fetch a Part/Assembly from EasyPDM, together with the entire component tree for an assembly, and open it directly in the CAD program.

Technical drawings (a .SLDDRW/.idw/.dwg or a FreeCAD TechDraw page) are recognized and matched to the Part/Assembly they document automatically, uploaded as their own attachment, and can optionally be exported to PDF.

Installing each macro

Each platform has its own detailed README in the repository, covering installation, exact behavior, and anything version-specific worth knowing:

• SolidWorks — live-tested on SolidWorks 2026.
• Autodesk Inventor — live-tested on Inventor 2027.1; see its "Known risks" section for two Inventor-specific COM automation quirks worth knowing if you ever need to touch the macro's source.
• FreeCAD — targets FreeCAD's native Assembly workbench.

Macro files themselves (.bas / .FCMacro) are attached to every release — download the ones matching your CAD program and the version of EasyPDM your company runs.

Shared behavior worth knowing

• PDM link tracking: once a document is uploaded, the macro remembers which PDM item it belongs to (SolidWorks/Inventor: a custom file property; FreeCAD: read back from the server by file name) — re-running Upload on the same file attaches a new revision instead of asking again.
• STEP/PDF export questions are always asked last, after the macro has confirmed the upload can actually go through (e.g. after you've agreed to a new revision, or confirmed the item isn't locked) — so you're never asked to export something for an upload that then gets blocked or declined.
• Login is shared across all three macros and the browser app: log in once from any of them, and the session (valid 30 days) is reused everywhere.