PDM Add-ins Failed To Extract Add-in

SOLIDWORKS SOLIDWORKS PDM
1

Recently we upgraded to SOLIDWORKS PDM 2024 SP5 from 2021 SP5.1 and some clients randomly have been unable to extract a certain PDM Add-in we have, which previously had no issues with. The behavior seen is the CAF doesn’t extract all of the add-in files to the local system every time.

Certain functions like the external PDM Search crashes when attempting to open a specific search, while PDM in file explorer functions (without that add-in functioning).

We have standardized hardware and for the most part, software on users computers, so there could be a specific client issue as to why this isn’t working properly 100% of the time.

I’ve been manually removing the affected add-in from users local system,
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\SOLIDWORKS\SOLIDWORKS PDM\Plugins\<VaultName>\<Add-in GUID>*, but created a batch script that we could trigger on that user’s system.

@ECHO OFF
::Replace <VaultName> with the name of the vault affected
SET VaultName=<VaultName>

ECHO ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ECHO This process refreshes the locally cached versions of the PDM Add-ins we are using.
ECHO File Explorer and PDM will restart at the end. 

ECHO Stoping Windows Explorer...
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
ECHO Stopping PDM...
taskkill /f /im edmserver.exe


set PluginsPath=C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\SOLIDWORKS\SOLIDWORKS PDM\Plugins\%VaultName%\

CD %PluginsPath%

ECHO Removing Add-in files...

for /F "delims=" %%i in ('dir /b') do (rmdir "%%i" /s/q || del "%%i" /s/q)

ECHO Starting Windows Explorer. Login to PDM when prompted to.

START "File Explorer" "C:\Windows\explorer.exe"
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe "c:\%VaultName%\"
ECHO ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ECHO The locally cached add-in files have been removed and refreshed. 
ECHO ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ECHO Process complete!

timeout /t 20

Once this is run, all files and folders are deleted from the local system. The next time the user logs in (during the code execution) the add-in(s) that are stored in the database are copied to the local system.

I still may report this to our VAR, but I figured I would share our struggle and a band-aid solution to this problem.

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