Data Management Capabilities > Managing Part Structures > Windchill Options and Variants Capabilities > Overview of Product Configuration Strategies > Terminology Used In Options and Variants
  
Terminology Used In Options and Variants
The following terms are specific to the Options and Variants functional area.
Term
Definition
advanced expression
Advanced expressions include choices, operators, and functions. Advanced expressions can be assigned to parts and part usage links to specify the conditions when a component should be included in the product structure.
advanced selection logic
A set of parameters and constraints developed for a configurable module to guide a user’s input during the part configuration process. This logic is used for defining customizable aspects of a configurable module.
basic expression
Basic expressions are the option choices that you can assign to parts and part usage links to specify the conditions when a component should be included in the product structure.
choice
A value assigned to an option. For example, an option Country can have USA, Mexico, and Germany as choices. Windchill distinguishes between sales and design choices, which can be defined for sales and design options.
conditional rule
Conditional rules use the “IF” and “THEN” statements to specify when certain option choices should be included, enabled, or disabled based on the choice selections in the Option filter.
configurable module
A Windchill part that may have one or more children parts, which represent variations in the design and configuration of a component or a functional unit. Windchill uses configurable modules to build in variability into a product structure.
configurable product structure
A product structure that includes configurable modules to support the ability to create multiple product variants from the same product structure.
deliverable
Same as variant.
enable rule
An enable rule allows you to make only specific choices appear for selection once a certain target choice is selected.
exclude rule
An exclude rule restricts the selection of choices that are incompatible. For example, if option Voltage has the choice 110 selected, then option Frequency cannot have the choice 50 Hz selected.
include rule
An include rule associates a selection of one option choice to one or more related option choices. For example, if option Country has the choice United States selected, then option Voltage should have the choice of 110 selected automatically.
Option Filter
A set of criteria, defined by the user, to filter the product structure based on choices assigned to parts and the usage of parts in a structure.
Option Manager
A Windchill context role with an authority to create options and choices, and maintain option sets and other related information.
option
A capability or a feature of a product, which can be designed with variations. For example, an option Voltage may have choices of 100, 110 and 220 and option Color may have choices Red, Green and Blue for the product.
In Windchill, an option is created in an option pool and can be reused by option sets. An option can be characterized as a design option or sales option. For example, one sales choice for a navigation system may allow you to select from several design choices such as antenna, GPS, touch screen, or map software.
option pool
The options, choices, and associated rules that are defined in a Windchill product or library context. Each Windchill product or library context can have a pool of options to be used in option sets.
option set
A collection of options and choices, with rules defined among the choices, referenced from the option pool.
parameter
An attribute defined locally within the context of a configurable module to support advanced selection logic. A parameter can be an integer, real, Boolean, string, or other type of variable. A parameter can have constraints for its values based on other parameters, case tables, and input expressions. The value of a selected option choice can be mapped to a parameter value and used during the part configuration process.
product family
A set of related products that offer a range of capabilities and share a substantial percentage of the same parts. In Windchill, a product family is defined by an option set and the associated configurable product structure.
variant
A part or part structure representing a specific configuration of the configurable product structure. The inputs used to create this variant are stored in the variant specification. A variant is a type of deliverable created during a part configuration process.
variant specification
A record of user inputs, including option choices and parameter values, when applicable, that are provided during a configuration process and are used to generate a variant part structure. A variant specification is a type of deliverable created during a configuration process.