Data Management Capabilities > Managing Part Structures > Windchill Options and Variants Capabilities > Using Option Sets to Organize Product Families > Merging Option Sets > Rules for Merging
  
Rules for Merging
An option belongs to an option set if one or more of its choices are members of that option set. You can merge the choices for options that belong to a lower-level option set but not the choices for options that belong to a top-level option set. Choices are merged according to the following rules:
• If an option does not belong to the top-level option set, but it belongs to a single lower-level option set, all the choices for that option that are members of the lower-level option set are merged with the top-level option set.
• If an option does not belong to the top-level option set, but it belongs to multiple lower-level option sets, the choices for that option that are common members of the lower-level option sets are merged with the top-level option set.
• If date effectivity is enabled for a merged choice that is used in more than one of the option sets that were merged:
◦ The start date is set to the earliest date assigned to the choice in any of the originating option sets.
◦ The end date is set to the latest date assigned to the choice in any of the originating option sets.
The following table illustrates how these rules are applied.
Option
Top-level Option Set
Lower-level Option Set 1
Lower-level Option Set 2
Merged Top-level Option Set
Option A
Choice A1
Choice A2
Choice A3
-
-
-
-
-
-
Choice A1
Choice A2
Choice A3
Option B
Choice B1
-
-
Choice B4
Choice B1
Choice B2
-
Choice B4
Choice B1
-
Choice B3
-
Choice B1
-
-
Choice B4
Option C
-
-
-
-
-
-
Choice C1
Choice C2
Choice C3
Choice C1
Choice C2
Choice C3
Option D
-
-
-
Choice D1:
2016-09-01
2016-12-31
Choice D2
-
Choice D1:
2016-10-01
2017-01-31
-
Choice D3
Choice D1:
2016-09-01
2017-01-31
-
-
If a choice, belonging to a lower-level option set, is a part of the THEN statement of a rule but not a part of the merged option set, the rule executes but the choice is not displayed. If that choice is further used in the IF statement of a dependant rule, that rule also executes.
The following table describes the condition using an example wherein English is the choice missing in the merged option set.
Rule Definition
Rule Execution
Country (single select) = Canada –> Language (single select) = English
If you select Canada, English is selected by default but not displayed. German and Spanish are displayed but disabled.
Language (single select) = English –> Color (multi select) = Blue
As English is the default selection, Blue is selected but disabled. Green and Red are available for selection.