SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional API Help

Bitmasks

Bitmasks are essentially bitwise comparisons. Understanding how bitmasks work might make more sense if you think of their binary representation.

The binary representation of the decimal number 1 is 0001, 2 is 0010, 4 is 0100, etc.

Think of each bit as a switch. For example, the decimal number 5 in binary is 0101. The third bit (0100) is on and the first bit (0001) is on. So, 0101 = 0100 + 0001.

 If a SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional enumerator has a bitmask like the following:

 

Decimal

Option

Binary

1

OptionA

0001

2

OptionB

0010

4

OptionC

0100

8

OptionD

1000

 

and you want OptionA and OptionC on, then add their two values together:

 

Decimal

Option

Binary

   1

OptionA

0001

+ 4

OptionC

0100

= 5

 

0101