Data Management Capabilities > Managing Part Structures > Windchill Options and Variants Capabilities > Creating and Managing Variants
  
Creating and Managing Variants
A variant specification is a managed definition of a filter that, when applied to a configurable part, fully or partially defines a variant. Different variant specifications offer different capabilities to fulfill different business process requirements and the system classifies a variant specification based on its usage.
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Variant Specification Classification
Description
Variant Specification
This variant specification, also known as a stand-alone variant specification, is used to manage a fully-defined filter applied to a specific view version to define, and optionally to generate, a variant solution or configuration context. It is created using the Configure process or programmatically loaded from a spreadsheet, and is updated through the Reconfigure process. This is the only variant specification process that supports Advanced Logic.
Variant Specification
This variant specification, also knows as an organized variant specification, is a standalone variant that is added into a product family as a child of a product model. This variant exists outside of a product family structure. An example of a standalone variant specification is a variant specification that is created using the Configure action on a configurable part.
For more information, see Variant Specification Information Page.
Managed Variant Specification
This variant specification is created in a product family as a child of a product model by first defining only the object’s metadata (name, number, folder location, and description). After it is created, an option filter can be defined using the Edit Option Filter window. Module variants selections can be manually defined by using the Modules tab.
Variant Specification
This variant specification is used to manage a fully-defined filter applicable to configurable modules or different view versions of the same configurable module associated with the same option set. As such, it does not support generating a variant solution or configuration context. It is created using the New Variant Specification process or is programmatically loaded from a spreadsheet and updated using the Edit Variant Specification Filter action.
Managed Option Filter
This variant specification is limited to managing the Option Filter and Option Filter configuration specification applicable to the configurable modules or different view versions of the same configurable module associated with the same option set. When applied to a structure, the default configuration specification is automatically used. As such, it does not support generating a variant solution or configuration context. It is created using the New Variant Specification process or is programmatically loaded from a spreadsheet and updated using the Edit Variant Specification Filter action.