About Annotating

Annotating and using annotation sets is disabled by default, and will be completely removed in a future release. To continue using this feature you must complete the following procedure:

1. In a Windchill shell execute the following command:

xconfmanager -s EnablePSEStructureAnnotations=true -t codebase/wt.properties -p

2. Restart the Method Server.

Similar to working in draft mode, annotating allows you to suggest changes in a product structure (such as adding or removing parts) without making those changes permanent.

The collection of annotations you make, called an annotation set , serves as a proposal that other users can review, comment on, and possibly approve. The structure may advance in real time if updated, but the annotation set remembers the structure at the time of the creation of the annotation set.

If the proposed changes are approved, the annotation set can be applied , that is, the changes are made to the product structure in the database. This operation causes the affected parts to be checked out and the changes applied.

The " Checkin deferred changes after apply" preference in the Preferences window, manages this action. This preference gives you the option to manually check in each affected part.

Use the Validate Changes action, to ensure the proposed changes do not produce any errors when applied to the database.

To annotate an assembly, you must first create an annotation set, or open an existing annotation set. When you create an annotation set, select only a single part in the product structure tree display (in the left pane). A baseline of the product structure is created from the selected part and the view of the structure is updated to reflect the annotation set. Since the changes are not made directly to the database, a visual markup of the changes is shown. Annotation is also referred to as " BOM markup."

The annotation set may display part masters, in which case the annotation operations are restricted. For example, you cannot do the following to a part master:

If you attempt to apply an annotation set when the structure has changed such that the changes cannot be all applied, the Validation Tool appears. For more information, see Validating Changes.