SOLIDWORKS PDM to Dynamics 365 Business Central Integration

Send

Right-click the assembly, send all levels

In the vault view in Windows Explorer, right-click the assembly and choose ERP Integrator, Send to Business Central all levels. The add-in reads the file card variables and the multi-level bill of materials from PDM, runs your company rules and writes everything to Business Central in one pass. The same send can also be triggered by a button or during a workflow approval.

• Items, a production BOM for the assembly and for each sub-assembly, the BOM version and every line.
• The Sending data to ERP dialog lists each item with its result per step: Created, Updated, Update skipped or Not Applicable.
• Failures are collected on a separate Failed action list tab, and a long send can be moved to the background.

Result in Business Central

Production BOM version A, certified

After the send, the production BOM version for ENGINE_ASSY2 is certified with version code A. Each line carries the component number, the description from the PDM data card, the quantity per and the unit of measure.

• The piston sub-assembly gets its own production BOM and appears as a line on the engine BOM.
• Quantities come straight from the PDM bill of materials: two bearings in the assembly is quantity 2 in Business Central.
• Production BOMs or assembly BOMs, whichever your Business Central setup uses.

Files

Item pictures and a link back to the vault

The SOLIDWORKS preview stored in the vault becomes the picture on the Business Central item card. Each item also gets an Open in SOLIDWORKS PDM link, so a planner looking at the item in Business Central can get to the model.

Files can also be attached to items, sales and purchase documents directly from SOLIDWORKS or PDM.

Additional actions

Routings from the ERP Integrator menu

Additional actions sit in the same right-click menu as the send: create and update routing, routing header and PDM link. Create routing opens a dialog with the routing header and its operations; Create/Update writes them to Business Central and the status column changes to Created.

• In the demo: operation 10 on work center 100, 15 minutes setup time and 5 minutes run time.
• The routing then shows up in Business Central under ENGINE_ASSY2 with the same operation.
• Customer and vendor details can be maintained from SOLIDWORKS or PDM in the same way.

Check in PDM

The Business Central item on the Item Details tab

Select a file and the Item Details tab reads the matching item live from Business Central or Dynamics NAV, so you see straight away whether the part already exists in the ERP and with which values.

• Add or remove the item properties the tab shows.
• Save Settings keeps the layout for the next file.

Check in PDM

The production BOM as Business Central has it

The ERP BOM tab shows the production BOM lines for the selected file, filtered by status and date effectivity. Where BOM versions are in use, older versions can be listed as well.

• Pick the configuration when the file has more than one.
• Add or delete BOM columns and save the column settings.

Compare

PDM and Business Central side by side

The ERP Data tab sits next to Data Card and Bill of Materials in the vault view. It lists the PDM BOM and the Business Central production BOM line by line: item details, BOM details, BOM header and BOM version. A value changed in the vault after the send, here the cap screw description, shows red, with the ERP value and the PDM value in the tooltip.

• Property changes on first-level children are listed, not just quantity changes.
• Everything that still agrees gets a green check, sub-assemblies included.

Compare

Comparing BOMs as of a date

Untick Use latest BOM and the tab takes a Source date and an ERP date, so you compare what each side held on a given day. With the ERP date set to the day before the release, Business Central had no BOM for the engine yet and every line shows red; on today's date both sides match.

Traceability

Reports on every PDM-to-ERP transfer

The PDM2ERP reporting tool records the data sent from PDM to Business Central and charts it by period.

• Items created or updated in a selected time period, and which user did it.
• Export the report to Excel.
• Old logs in the log viewer and run details in the process list, for tracking down a failed transfer.

Rules and AI

A replenishment rule from one sentence

Company rules live in a macro that runs on every send, and the AI Macro Chat tab writes it for you. The request in the video: screws, rings and pins are bought, everything else is made on a production order. The assistant confirmed the Business Central field (Replenishment System, values Purchase and Prod. Order), added the rule to the macro and checked that it compiles.

• It matched whole words and said so: Conrod Cap Screw M6 counts as a screw, a description like Spindle does not count as a pin.
• For this assembly the cap screw is set to Purchase, everything else to Prod. Order.
• Nothing goes to Business Central until you save the rule and send.

Questions and search

Ask the vault and Business Central together

To "Do the component descriptions of this assembly match Business Central?" the assistant read the PDM bill of materials and the live Business Central lines, answered with a table and pointed out the one difference: PDM has Conrod Cap Screw M6, Business Central still has Conrod Cap Screw.

• Searches combine both systems: find the vault files with conrod in the name and check which exist in Business Central, answered in one table.
• The assistant runs on the model you choose: your own API key for Claude, OpenAI, Azure OpenAI or a compatible endpoint, a ChatGPT sign-in, a coding agent such as Claude or Gemini, or your own assistant through the MCP connector.
• Whatever it proposes, nothing is changed until you approve it.