How to install and register the Solidworks PDM Microsoft Office Add-in manually

SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional includes a Microsoft Office add-in for Excel, Word and PowerPoint that allows you to perform vault operations on documents opened in the Office application. Normally you would select the Office add-in (Microsoft Office Integration) option during the client installation if Office is detected on the system. If for some reason you were not able to select the option via the install wizard, you can manually install the Office add-in as follows:

1) First verify if your Office version is 32-bit or 64-bit. The best method is to open the Office application and go to File, Help, and view the About information. It should state if the application is 32-bit or 64-bit.

An alternate method is to start the Office application and view the process details for the application. If it shows 32 next to the process name, the application is 32-bit. Otherwise it is 64-bit.

2) Browse to ..\SWPDMClient\ folder on the install media and locate the Office add-in .CAB file

3) Open Office.cab for 32-bit Office. Extract epdmlib.dll and office.dll into the SOLIDWORKS PDM 32-bit program folder location (c:\Program Files (x86)\SolidWorks PDM). OR, Open Office64.cab for 64-bit Office. Extract epdmlib.dll1 and office.dll1 into the Enterprise PDM install folder (c:\Program Files\SolidWorks Enterprise PDM) and rename the files to epdmlib.dll and office.dll.

4) Start a command prompt using the Run as Administrator option.

5) Step into the install folder where the two files were extracted and type the following commands (followed by Enter keystroke): regsvr32 epdmlib.dll regsvr32 office.dll

6) Start the Office application and the SOLIDWORKS PDM add-in tab should now show up.

7) If it does not show, go to File, Options, Add-Ins, Manage COM Add-ins and press Go…

8. Make sure the SOLIDWORKS PDM integration add-in is listed and enabled. If it is not listed, try starting the Office application using the “run as administrator” option, then use the Add… option in the COM Add-Ins dialog to locate and load the office.dll file.

9) If the SOLIDWORKS PDM tab still does not load, try restarting the system.

Nikesh Shrestha

Applications Engineer Central Innovation

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