Vault Archives

The physical files in a vault are stored in an archive folder under the archive server root folder. The archive folder structure uses hexadecimal ID names and is maintained in the vault database with decimal ID names.

The vault archive folder contains 16 subfolders named 0-F. Each file in the vault is assigned a unique folder ID. Inside a file's archive, all or parts of versions of the file are stored. To find the archive folder of a vault, check this registry key on the archive server:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SOLIDWORKS\Applications\
  PDMWorks Enterprise\ArchiveServer\Vaults\VAULTNAME\ArchiveTable

An archive folder can contain the following file types:

*.sldprt The latest version of a file is stored uncompressed with a version number (00000006) and a file extension (sldprt in this example).
*.gz Older versions of the file are normally compressed on a recurring nightly schedule.
*.img For files that support thumbnails, a thumbnail image is stored for each version created.
Index.xml An index file for the archive containing information about each version of the file and, in most cases, the filename.