Windchill PDMlink

Windchill PDM link Primary objects
1. Documents - all types of computer files *.avi *.txt *.jpg
2. CAD documents - all types of Pro/E or any cad software files
3. Parts and end items -They build product structure, they do not contain cad documents but make a reference
4. links - Hyperlinks to web pages to outside the enterprise
5. Change items - used to store change information of other items. It includes problem reports, change request and change notices.

WT Parts (Windchill technology parts or PDMlink parts)

In general, a WTPart represents a set of metadata (attributes and other related information) that is used to describe a CAD document, such as a Pro/ENGINEER part or assembly. A WTPart does NOT have any content. Instead, it may have a representation of the CAD file, such as a ProductView image. Usually, a WTPart contains more information than what is contained in the CAD document. A WTPart is normally associated with a CAD document, and/or other type of documents such as Microsoft Word or Excel. Therefore, the part can be considered as a center point from which you can navigate to other areas of the assembly, such as a CAD file, a Word document, or other objects.

You may wonder why you need a WTPart, and whether can you just use the CAD document instead. In Windchill, you may choose to represent your assemblies using CAD documents alone, or with WTParts that are described by CAD documents. There are distinct advantages to using WTParts.

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WTParts may be created manually and have no CAD document associated with them. This is useful for purchased parts for which you may not have CAD files, or if you do not have the workgroup manager needed to create a CAD document from the CAD file provided by the supplier.

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WTParts may be associated to different view versions. For example, a product may have two separate BOMs for the same product, one design view and one manufacturing view. If you use WTParts, both view versions of it may be described by a single CAD document but allows for the restructuring of the BOMs. This ensures that both manufacturing and design use the same CAD file.

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Multiple WTParts or versions of a WTPart may be represented by a single CAD document. This may reduce the storage space required by the system.

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You do not need a workgroup manager or CAD application to create WTParts. You may describe your WTParts with documents, or choose not to describe them at all.

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You can also manage occurrences, allocation, and incorporation, and use serialized parts.

For these reasons, it is a best practice to manage CAD information using WTParts and CAD documents. However, some organizations may not require the additional functionality provided by WTParts and choose to solely use CAD documents to represent their CAD information. PDMLink fully supports both approaches.

There are two types of WTParts, the part and the end item. Consider the end item as the salable object. The WTPart/end item structures enable you to perform additional configuration management operations, such as creating end item configurations and end item instances.

There are two types of links that connect the WTPart and CAD document. They are called owner and content links. There can be only one owner link for each WTPart, but there can be any number of content links. Metadata, such as the parameters/attributes and the viewables, are propagated to the WTPart from the CAD document by means of an owner link.

There are also various design approaches, such as CAD-centric, Part-centric, and a combination of the two. In the CAD-centric method, you design CAD models first, and then create (manually or automatically) and associate the WTParts. Contrary to that, the Part-centric method is used when you want to have the product structure (eBOM) in the system; this occurs during the concept phase. The CAD design begins, but is associated later. You may also want to start your marketing campaign for the product, but the CAD design is far from conception, so you create WTParts to provide a record in the database. Moreover, the empty WTPart structure enables you to route it through the workflow process and perform other data management operations. The WTPart structure may or may not be identical to the CAD structure.