Add A Watermark To Your PDFs

Watermarks and Annotations in PDMPublisher for SOLIDWORKS PDM

When exporting drawings or models from SOLIDWORKS through PDMPublisher, you may want to include additional visual information such as PREVIEW ONLY labels, dates, or custom notes. This is where the Watermark and Annotations tab of PDMPublisher becomes important.

Watermarks in PDMPublisher

A watermark is a text element, for example PREVIEW ONLY, that is automatically overlaid on published deliverables such as PDFs or neutral formats without modifying the original drawing.
Watermarks are useful for:

Marking documents as Preliminary or For Review Only before release
Preventing unauthorized use of exported PDFs
Identifying printouts generated from preview or staging environments

In the example shown, the drawing view on the left includes a model with the PREVIEW ONLY watermark applied diagonally across the sheet. The watermark does not affect the SOLIDWORKS file itself. It is added at the moment of publishing.

Configuring Watermarks

Inside PDMPublisher, the Annotations tab provides control over the watermark’s:

Text (static text or variable placeholders such as revision, filename, date)
Font and size
Positioning (X and Y coordinates or percentage relative to the sheet)
Sheet scope (apply to all sheets or selected sheets)
Activation toggle (enable or disable per job without deleting settings)

The Active checkbox determines whether the watermark is rendered during publishing.

Annotations Beyond Watermarks

PDMPublisher also allows you to place text annotations in fixed positions on the drawing. These can be used to:

Insert dates, usernames, or metadata pulled from PDM variables
Add project-specific stamps or review information
Display export-specific information such as revision or configuration

In the example, there is a date annotation in the bottom-right corner. You can configure this using variable placeholders like %Date%, %User%, or custom PDM variables.

Visual Positioning

Annotations can be positioned visually in the embedded preview pane or precisely using X and Y coordinates. PDMPublisher supports:

Scaling text relative to sheet size
Anchoring to corners or center
Layering multiple annotations at once

This allows templates to be created once and applied consistently across multiple exports and tasks.

Why It Matters

Watermarks and annotations help teams:

Maintain clear status visibility on exported documents
Automate labeling workflows without modifying CAD data
Standardize compliance and communication across teams and suppliers

Whether you are marking Released, Preliminary, or adding a date or time stamp to every published drawing, PDMPublisher integrates these features directly into the publishing pipeline without requiring any post-processing.