About Product Structure Explorer

Functionality for part replacements and visualization that was previously only in the Product Structure Explorer (PSE) is now available from the Structure tab on part information pages. As a result, the launch points for the Product Structure Explorer are now hidden by default and are enabled through a preference. To enable the Product Structure Explorer navigate to the Utilities page for the organization or site and click Preference Management. Select PSE > Enable Product Structure Explorer (PSE) and change the setting to Yes.

A product structure is a hierarchical representation of the parts and other lower-level end items that make up a specific part, part configuration, or part instance, along with the documentation associated with them. The product structure displays the hierarchical assembly of the part. You can expand and collapse a product structure, thus navigating through it, viewing parts and assemblies, and expanding the assemblies to see the component parts. For each node, additional information about that part is displayed, and you can perform actions, for example open an information page, on that part. The content of the product structure is determined by the selected configuration specification and filtering criteria. If you change either the configuration specification or filtering criteria, the product structure is updated accordingly. Note that if filtering criteria are used, the product structure may be displayed with some components hidden.

Product Structure Explorer can be used to further manipulate parts and part structures. Product Structure Explorer consists of a dual-pane panel. The left pane, or navigation pane, displays the product structure in a tree table. The right pane displays tabs that contain information pertaining to the currently selected part in the navigation pane. If you have selected more than one part in the structure, the tabs display information for the last selected part.

Two black arrows

appear between the panes. Click on an arrow to display one pane in the entire window, or, to drag the divider, click and hold the left mouse button in the region below the arrows. The position of the divider is maintained in future explorer sessions.

The attributes that display in the columns of the structure and in the tables within the tabs are defined in Part Attributes. For information on selecting different columns to display or to switch their order, see Modifying Table Display.