How to Publish STEP, PDF and eDrawings in One Go From SOLIDWORKS

When a part or assembly is ready to go out, you rarely need just one file. The supplier wants a STEP file, the shop floor wants a PDF of the drawing, and the customer wants an eDrawings file they can spin around without SOLIDWORKS. Doing that by hand means opening each document and running Save As three times, then renaming and moving every file to the right folder.

With PDMPublisher for SOLIDWORKS you set this up once and publish all three formats with one click. Here is a short video that shows the whole thing, followed by the steps.

Step 1: Create a publishing profile

A profile remembers which formats you want, where they go and how they are named. In SOLIDWORKS, open the PDMPublisher tab and go to Settings, then Publish. Select New, then New From, and start from the PDF And Step profile. Give it a name you will recognise, such as Supplier release, and save it.

Step 2: Pick the file formats

In the profile, open the File formats selector and tick the formats you need. For this example that is PDF for drawings, STEP for parts and assemblies, and eDrawings. You can add DXF, DWG, IGES, Parasolid or 3D PDF the same way if your customers ask for them.

Step 3: Set the folder and file name

Enter an Export location and a Filename. Both can use placeholders, so the folder and name can come from your custom properties instead of being typed every time. If you publish several configurations, add (ConfigurationName) to the file name so the outputs do not overwrite each other.

If each format should land in its own folder, for example STEP files in a supplier share and PDFs in a release folder, click Locations by file format next to Export location. Tick Use on the rows you want and enter a folder for each one. Any format you leave unticked goes to the main location.

Step 4: Include the references

When you publish an assembly or a drawing, you usually want the parts inside it too. Tick Export references to file formats individually, and PDMPublisher will publish the referenced files as well. You will see the full list before anything runs, and you can clear any file you do not want.

Step 5: Publish

Open the part, assembly or drawing, select the arrow beside Publish and choose your profile. With Show dialog before processing turned on, you get one last look at the files and the folders they will go to. Confirm, and PDMPublisher creates the STEP, PDF and eDrawings files in one run.

When it finishes, the results window shows each file as Completed, Warning, Skipped, Error or Cancelled. If anything looks off, the Logs tab shows the exact file name and folder that was used.

Free or Premium?

You can try most of this for free. Here is what each edition covers:

• The free Community Edition publishes PDF, DXF and STEP in one run, with up to 5 references per run and one export location for all formats.
• Premium adds eDrawings, DWG, IGES, Parasolid and 3D PDF, removes the reference limit, and lets each format go to its own folder.

So if you only need PDF and STEP, the free edition already saves you the repeated Save As. If you want eDrawings in the same click, or you publish large assemblies, Premium is the one to look at. You can compare both on the PDMPublisher for SOLIDWORKS page or start a free trial of the full version from the trial page.

A few tips

• Make one profile per audience. A Supplier profile with STEP only, a Shop profile with PDF only, and a Customer profile with PDF and eDrawings keeps every release consistent.
• Clean up your properties first. Since file names come from custom properties, a typo there shows up in every file name. Our guide on finding and replacing property values fixes that in seconds.
• Need one PDF for a whole assembly? PDMPublisher can also merge assembly drawings into one PDF.
• Using SOLIDWORKS PDM? PDMPublisher for SOLIDWORKS PDM runs as a PDM task on a workflow transition, so files publish themselves when a drawing is approved. See which PDMPublisher you need.

If you prefer to script it yourself, we also have free macros to batch export configurations to STEP and to save a copy as eDrawings. PDMPublisher simply does all of it in one place, without code.