How to Connect ERP Databases to SOLIDWORKS Electrical

Let’s show you how to connect ERP databases to SOLIDWORKS Electrical.

Regardless of whether these are databases for equipment stock, management databases, or manufacturer catalogues, the method below will show you how to connect a database to SOLIDWORKS Electrical.

First, let’s associate this SQLite database to the existing Manufacturer Part library.

We can associate up to 20 user data with cables and other 20 user data with manufacturer parts.

Below we can see only the technical data of a single part.

We can associate the ERP through the Library Tab > ERP connection Database. We need to tick the option Authorize connection to connect the database and select the database type:

• ADO Access Connection
• SQL Server Connection
• SQLite connection
• ODBC Data Source connection

For the SQLite we need just the database name and if you have specific credentials, you must insert them too.

The section Main Data is fundamental to mapping the database and ensure the attributes are assigned to the correct parts.

The reference number is alphanumerical code. Most of the time it is a unique cipher, but it may happen that two brands have the same reference number (e.g. Siemens and ABB).

Both parts should have the same part number but different attributes. To make sure these map correctly to their respective parts, we need two values. Ideally, these are the reference and the manufacturer.

Assign a name to each user data and sort them into groups before associated each user data with the right SQLite field.

Let’s test the new SQLite database. As we can see, the part that we assign to this push button has a dedicated ERP tab and all the values are pulled through as expected.

To show any of these properties on the scheme, modify the symbol and within the Part User Data section, add the right attribute. After adding any of these attributes, we can display their values next to the symbol.

The SQL database is edited and only the parts in the library will have this information updated. To update the parts already inserted into the project we can
use the command Update Data in the Process tab.

This tool shows all the parts that have some property discrepancies with the library and allows us to choose which part we want to update. In a few click we can update the entire project.

To show the new properties in the report, add a new column. Sometimes the user data that we want to show is not listed in the predefined query, so we need to add it manually.

Access the Expert Mode section, find the User Data fields, click edit and add them to the report query. The command Test will show us a preview of the available properties. Finally, we can add the column and save the report.

Every time we connect an ERP database a .EWINI file is generated on the server in the ERP folder, this file stores the connection settings, field mapping, database location, username, and password.

Open and modify it to change these settings.