PDM File Version Upgrade Utility (FVUT)

Shannon Meyer

Updated September 18, 2026 16:50

Problem

The PDM File Version Upgrade Utility (FVUT) upgrades native SOLIDWORKS files in the PDM vault to the latest version. It automatically checks out, upgrades, saves, and checks in Part (.sldprt), Drawing (.slddrw), and Assembly (.sldasm) files while preserving references, revision tags, and workflow states. Template and Block files must be upgraded manually. Upgrade the Toolbox separately if it is managed in PDM.

A PDM Upgrade does not require the use of the File Version Upgrade Utility; however, there are situations where using the tool can be beneficial. Upgraded files will show Improved Performance when upgrading from a version more than two years older to a newer version, such as upgrading from 2017 to 2021.

When the vault is very large, using the FVUT can help ensure that users do not have issues when accessing the files in the new version. Since SOLIDWORKS will attempt to save all components in the new version, if the user does not have check-out permissions, this can cause issues with assemblies.

When using FVUT, multiple workstations can be involved to help with upgrading files. The first workstation that is set up would be the Coordinator Workstation, and each of the remaining workstations would be the Agent Workstations. The maximum number of workstations cannot be greater than the number of PDM CAD Editor licenses available.

Solution Step 1: Before Upgrading Files

There are specific requirements and recommendations for each workstation involved with the upgrade. Ensure there is a full backup of the PDM Vault Archive prior to running the upgrade. FVUT will give an estimate for the space requirements before the upgrade is started; make sure the Archive Server has enough space for the upgrade.

Each Workstation requires an installation of the File Version Upgrade Utility software.
Steps for installing the FVUT software:

Navigate to <path of installation media>\SWPDMClient\Support\File Version Upgrade
Double-click File Version Upgrade.exe
Click "Next"
Accept the license agreement and click "Next"
Click "Install"
Click "Finish"

Additional recommendations when setting up the workstations that will be used for the process:

Install the target SOLIDWORKS version.
Disable all SOLIDWORKS add-ins and prevent them from loading at startup. Note: The Enterprise PDM add-in unloads automatically during the upgrade.
Close SOLIDWORKS and all other applications.
Stop nonessential processes to maximize system resources.
Verify that each workstation meets the minimum SOLIDWORKS requirements and can open the largest assemblies being upgraded.
Use consistent SOLIDWORKS settings on all upgrade workstations. To restore defaults, select Tools > Options > Reset All.
Make sure no files are checked out on the client. The upgrade tool must clear the local vault cache while processing upgrade batches. As the Admin user, search for checked-out files and match the workstation hostname in the "Checked out on" column.
Verify that each vault user has permission to read and check out all files being upgraded. When possible, use the Admin user with full folder and workflow permissions.
Test the upgrade on a small batch of files to confirm that the tool processes them successfully.
Give participating clients read/write access to all files in the vault you are upgrading.
Create a shared folder drive on the network for the work instruction files and share it with full (read/write) permissions for all participating clients.

Solution Step 2: Upgrading Files

Before upgrading the SOLIDWORKS files in a production vault, perform the upgrade on a copy of the production vault to ensure that there are no upgrade problems. Click here for steps to create a test environment

Running the Upgrade Utility:

Start the File Version Upgrade Utility by doing one of the following in steps 2-3:
On Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 or later, from the Windows Start menu, click SOLIDWORKS PDM > File Version Upgrade.
On Windows 7, click Start > All Programs > SOLIDWORKS PDM > File Version Upgrade.
On the Welcome screen, do one of the following in steps 5-7:
To set up the upgrade with Work Instruction Files, click "Initiate a new upgrade process (Coordinator Workstation)".
To run a work instruction file created for the upgrade, click "Participate in an upgrade process (Agent Workstation)".
To retry an upgrade that was terminated unexpectedly, click "Restart an interrupted upgrade process (Coordinator and Agent Workstation)".
Follow the instructions in the upgrade wizard to complete the upgrade

Creating and Using Work Instruction Files:

Work Instruction Files are used to run the upgrade tool concurrently on several workstations to reduce the upgrade time. The work instruction files can be created on the first workstation that runs the upgrade tool, which becomes the coordinator workstation.

Create a shared folder and give each workstation that will participate in the upgrade Read/Write access.
Start the File Version Upgrade Utility by doing one of the following in steps 3-4:
On Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 or later, from the Windows Start menu, click SOLIDWORKS PDM > File Version Upgrade.
On Windows 7, click Start > All Programs > SOLIDWORKS PDM > File Version Upgrade.
On the Welcome screen, select "Initiate a new upgrade process (Coordinator Workstation)" and click "Next"
Following the upgrade wizard instructions until the "Upgrade Settings" page
On the "Upgrade Settings" page, complete the following in steps 6-9
Under Upgrade Settings, select "Divide the upgrade work into multiple work instruction files"
Specify the number of work instruction files to create.
For the Shared location for work instruction files, enter the name of the shared folder created in step 1 or click the Browse button to navigate to the folder. Note: The folder name must be in UNC format.
Click "Next"
On the "Ready to Upgrade Files" page, complete the following in steps 13-14 depending on needing to upgrade now or later
To upgrade now, click "Yes" and when a completion message appears, click "OK"
To exit the upgrade utility and run work instruction files later, click "No".
If No was selected in step 12, start over from step 2 to run the File Version Upgrade tool again on the agent machines to perform the upgrade using the work instruction files.
On the Welcome screen, select "Participate in an upgrade process (Agent Workstation)".
On the "Select Work Instruction File" page, browse to the location of the Work Instruction files, select the file to process, click "Next", review the Work Instruction File Summary, and click "Next"
On the "Ready to Upgrade Files" page, click "View Files" to see a list of files that will be upgraded, and when ready to upgrade the files, click "Yes"
Once the upgrade is done, there will be a completion message displayed
Click "OK" to close the window

Completing an Interrupted Upgrade:

Sometimes an upgrade is interrupted unexpectedly, for example, when a network connection or power is lost. Follow these steps to retry the upgrade:

Click "Retry" in the error message.
In the message indicating that the conversion did not complete successfully, click "OK"
Click "Exit"
Solve the problem that caused the interruption, such as restoring the network or restarting the computer
Run the File Version Upgrade Utility again
On the Welcome screen, select "Restart an interrupted upgrade process (Coordinator and Agent Workstation)" and click "Next"
On the "Continue Interrupted Migration" page, click "Next"
On the "Work Instruction File Summary" page, click "Next"
On the "Ready to Upgrade Files" page, click "Finish"

Solution Step 3: After the Upgrade

After the upgrade is done, check that it completed correctly by checking the logs. These log files will also list which files did not upgrade via the tool and require manual upgrading. Additionally, if the ‘overwrite existing version’ option was used during the upgrade, we can restore from a backup if there is something incorrect with the upgraded copy. After confirming the upgrade is complete, we can delete the backup files to free up space on the server.

After Upgrade Recommendations:

View the upgrade log files.
Manually upgrade files that the tool was unable to upgrade automatically. Note: Manual upgrade creates new versions. If the File Upgrade Utility option "Overwrite Existing Versions" was used, manually upgrading files will invalidate the reference structure.
Optionally, use "Get Latest Version" to create local copies of files that were converted on other workstations.
Open a subset of converted files in SOLIDWORKS to verify that the conversion was successful.
After ensuring that the upgrade was successful, remove the backup files from the archive server.

The file names in upgrade logs take the following formats:

Logs for Files that have been upgraded are named "Upgrade Utility <id>Batch<n>.log" where: <id> is a unique alphanumeric string and <n> is the number of the batch file for which the log was created. Example: Upgrade Utility 471F2FDS Batch 4.log
Logs for Files that could not be upgraded are named "Upgrade Utility <id> Batch <n>.logExcluded.log". Example: Upgrade Utility 471F2FDS Batch 4.logExcluded.log

Backup Files:

If the File Upgrade Utility is set to overwrite existing versions of files when upgrading, the upgrade tool creates a backup file for each overwritten file. These backup files remain after the upgrade, and we can remove them after verifying that the upgrade succeeded. It is not possible to disable the backup option, so ensure that there is sufficient free disk space on the archive server before starting the upgrade. The "Ready to Upgrade Files" page will give an estimate of the amount of space that is needed.

This is how the backup files are made:

The upgrade tool retrieves the original version of the file from the file archive folder to the client system that is running a work instruction file to perform the upgrade.
The tool opens the file in SOLIDWORKS, upgrades it, and sends it back to the archive folder when the batch process completes.
Before the version is replaced, the original version in the archive is renamed using the format "bak_counter_version.extension", where "bak" is the prefix for all backup files, "counter" is a unique counter in case the existing file with the same backup name exists from a previous upgrade, "version" is the number in hexadecimal format of the file version that is being replaced, and "extension" is the file extension.
The upgrade tool places the upgraded version of the file in the archive using the original file name.

Restoring an Incorrectly Upgraded Version from a Backup:

If an upgraded version of a file is incorrect, the backup file can be used to restore the original content of the file with the steps below:

In the Local File Vault View, determine the name of the file to find
Open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio and click "Connect"
Expand "Databases" and select the Vault containing the file to restore
Click "New Query"
In the right pane, type a query in the following format:
select * from documents
where filename like 'filename.ext'
For example:
select * from documents
where filename like 'speaker_frame.sldprt'
Click "Execute" to record the files "DocumentID", which is listed in the Results tab.
Exit Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
Use a calculator to convert the DocumentID to hexadecimal format
In an Explorer window, navigate to install_dir\Program Files\SOLIDWORKS PDM\Data\vault_name.
If the archive server data folder is not listed above, locate it in the Registry Editor under the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks\Applications\PDMWorks Enterprise\ArchiveServer\Vaults\vault_name\ArchiveTable
The archive tables will be listed here, and they are the 0-F folders.
Expand the vault archive that matches the last digit of the hexadecimal number. For example, if the hexadecimal number is "3B", expand the folder labeled "B".
Expand the folder that matches the hexadecimal number
Rename or delete the version of the file to restore. For example, rename 00000002.sldprt to 00000002.backup.
Rename the appropriate bak_ file to the original file name. For example, rename bak_0_00000002.sldprt to 00000002.sldprt.

Locating and Removing Backup Files:

When the upgrade is complete and all the files are converted to the latest version, the backup files can be removed to free up disk space on the archive server. Each file archive is stored under the file vault archive folder.

To locate the file vault archive folder:

Open the Registry Editor
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks\Applications\PDMWorks Enterprise\ArchiveServer\Vaults\vault_name\ArchiveTable
The file archives are spread out over 16 subfolders(0-F). If the vault archive has been split up, some of those subfolders may be on different drives. Use Windows Search or another search method to search for all files under the vault archive with a name starting with bak_.
Delete all the files that are found.

Addendum for 2020 SP4 or higher

When using SOLIDWORKS and PDM 2020 SP4 or higher, there are two potential SOLIDWORKS settings that affect saving. Turning these settings off should improve performance when opening older files and saving them to the new version. Turning off these settings will allow several environments where the FVUT is recommended to be able to skip its use while not seeing performance degradation.

When running SOLIDWORKS 2020 SP4 or 2021, go to System Options > Drawings > Performance to uncheck “Include Detailing Model Data when saving”. This setting can cause drawings to take a very long time to save due to a bug that this article covers: Drawings are Slow to Save in SOLIDWORKS 2020 and 2021 – Hawk Ridge Systems

Uncheck include Detailing Mode Data when saving

Under System Options > External References, the setting “Force referenced documents to save to current major version” requires SOLIDWORKS to save all referenced documents for assemblies or drawings in the newer version. Turning this off will allow users to save/update only the files that are checked out at the time rather than forcing all referenced files to be checked out and resaved.

Uncheck Force referenced document to save to current major version

For additional support, existing customers can submit a ticket or new customers can contact Hawk Ridge Systems.