Product data management (PDM)
Also called CAD data management
Product data management (PDM) is the engineering part of PLM: storing CAD models and related documents under version control, with check-in, check-out, revisions and access rules, so designers always work on the right version.
PDM answers “which file is current, and who changed it?” It handles vaulting, revisions, iterations, lifecycle states and the links between a CAD assembly and its parts.
PLM goes further: it carries that data out of engineering to manufacturing, suppliers and service, and it runs change management across all of them. Plenty of companies own a full PLM system and only use the PDM half of it. (We hear it as “we bought Windchill to store CAD files.”)
PDM is usually the right first step. The mistake is stopping there.
Related terms
Go deeper
Last reviewed November 2026 by Element Consulting
