Data Management > Troubleshooting in Data Management > About Incomplete Objects
  
About Incomplete Objects
An incomplete object is an object whose meta data is defined but the physical data does not exist. Incomplete objects are created in two instances:
You created a new CAD Document (with no template) without any content.
You retrieved an object from disk and saved it to the workspace, but the saved object has a dependent that did not get saved to the workspace.
Incomplete object are represented by the icon in the workspace.
Incomplete objects have the following properties:
They can be uploaded.
They cannot be checked-in.
Any object with a incomplete object as a dependent also cannot be checked-in.
What to do if you have an incomplete object that is preventing a checkin?
On the Check In page, select the Auto resolve incomplete objects check box. When you check-in the object, the system compares the name of the incomplete object to the names of known objects on the Windchill PDM server.  If a match is found, the system substitutes the incomplete object with the existing object. If a match is not found, the system ignores the incomplete object.