Add A Watermark To Your PDFs

FEATURE AVAILABLE IN: SOLIDWORKS 3D, SOLIDWORKS PDM

Add A Watermark To Your PDFs and Screenshot of SOLIDWORKS 2025 with the PDMPublisher (SOLIDWORKS) add-in open. The main drawing area is mostly empty and beige, displaying a small projected view of a colourful 3D speaker component (orange cone, purple surround, and grey frame) in the top-left corner. Centered in the drawing is a large semi-transparent white banner with bold black text reading PREVIEW ONLY and a small red close button. At-branded watermark "Amen Billi" appears near the speaker view. The top command bar shows the PDMPublisher tab active with sub-tabs Annotations, Conditions, Logs, and About. The title bar at the top right reads "speaker - Sheet1". The status bar at the bottom indicates "Editing Sheet1" and "Under Defined". The interface shows the PDMPublisher add-in in preview mode, preventing editing until the document is formally published.

Watermarks and Annotations in PDMPublisher for SOLIDWORKS PDM

When exporting drawings or models from SOLIDWORKS through PDMPublisher, you may want to add a watermark to your PDFs with visual details such as PREVIEW ONLY lables, 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.

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