Preferences in MPMLink
Preferences define the way the system operates when certain actions are performed. The preferences set for Windchill MPMLink determine the behavior of the manufacturing data accessed through the MPMLink browser.
For information on setting a preference, see Preference Management and Setting a Preference.
The following table explains the MPMLink preferences available in the Preference Management utility.
Preference
Description
Automatically Create Occurrences for New Usages
This preference controls whether occurrences are automatically created with new usages. When set to Yes, the default, inserting new or existing parts in Associative Part Structure Browser or inserting new or existing resources in Manufacturing Resource Browser automatically creates occurrences.
Automatically Save Position of Entities During Process Plan Playback
This preference controls the behavior of the Update Position action during playback. When set to Yes, the Update Position action automatically saves the position of entities during the playback without opening the Update Position dialog box. Applies to: Resources, EPM documents, Operated-on parts, Co-produce usage parts, and Raw materials. When set to No (default), the Update Position dialog box lets you edit and save the new position.
Automatically Create Standard Control Characteristics
This preference controls the creation of standard control characteristics in Windchill. When set to Yes, the standard control characteristics are automatically created when the CAD model is checked in with the annotations designated as control characteristics. When set to No, the standard control characteristics must be manually created in Windchill. The default value is No.
Allow Allocation from Multiple Assemblies for a Process Plan
This preference controls whether automatic allocation happens when you use the Auto Allocate Parts action available in the tree picker toolbar of the Process Plan Browser. When set to Yes, the system automatically allocates new parts to operations based on the previous allocation of parts. When set to No, the system does not allow allocations from multiple assemblies to a process plan.
Manufacturing Part Structure Related Information
Controls the visibility of extended data, control characteristics, Made From parts, Made From Sets, and co-produce objects in the BOM Transformer. Select any of the following values for Extended Data, Control Characteristic, and Made From.
Show and Display Automatically—The object is always displayed in the BOM structure.
Show—The object is displayed if you right-click the primary part in the BOM structure and select Show/Hide Specific Information > Show My Related Information.
Blank—The object is not displayed in the BOM structure automatically.
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Made From controls the visibility of Made From parts, Made From Sets, and co-produce objects.
Include All Collected Latest Alternate Parts
The working of the Collect All Latest Alternate Parts action depends on the value that you set in this preference. The available values for this preference are All, None and Initially Selected Only. The Include All Collected Latest Alternate Parts preference is an action specific preference. For example, if you want to collect the parent parts of the alternate part using the Revise action, you must set appropriate value in the Include All Collected Latest Alternate Parts preference located at the following location in the Preference Management Utility:Revise > Collector > Include All Collected Latest Alternate Parts.
Reconciliation Assistance Criteria
Specifies the criteria to reconcile differences between upstream parts and downstream parts. The default value is Out of Date. For more information, click Detecting and Resolving Discrepancies in the BOM Transformer.
Apply Configuration specification to the originally selected object
Allows you to specify if the selected configuration specification is applied to the originally selected items. The default value is No.
Track “Made From” History Through Change Notice
Tracks the usage history of Made From parts through a change notice. When set to Yes, you must specify a valid change notice or change task number when adding, updating, replacing, or removing a Made From part from the associated finished part.
This preference is applicable to the following actions:
Insert Made From in BOM Transformer.
Mass Update Manufacturing Objects in the Folder Contents table, Search Results table, or object information page.
Replace Made From in BOM Transformer.
Remove action in BOM Transformer
Update the attributes of a Made From association in the Made From table in BOM Transformer.
Make Children of Subcontracted Parts Unavailable
For parts that are subcontracted in a structure, set the availability of the children for the subcontracted parts. When set to No, all children of subcontracted parts are available. When set to Yes, no children of subcontracted parts are available. The unavailable parts appear dimmed. The default is No.
Make Children of Supplied Parts Unavailable
For parts that are supplied in a structure, sets the availability of the children for the supplied parts. When set to No, all children of supplied parts are available. When set to Yes, no children of supplied parts are available. The unavailable parts appear dimmed. The default is No.
Autosuggest in Object Search
Allows users to enable or disable autosuggestion when searching for an object. Autosuggestion is enabled by default.
Set Count of Autosuggest Options
Specifies the maximum number of autosuggested options that should appear when searching for an object. The default value is 50.
Default Effectivity Date
Specifies the default effectivity date when setting the filter criteria for editing plant information in the Manage Department Information window. Set the effectivity date to today or none. The default value is Today.
Highlight All Discrepancy Search Results In Structure
Highlights all discrepancy search results in the structure. The default value is No.
Select Yes to highlight all discrepancies in the structure, and to select all search results, after you launch a discrepancy search from the Compare Structures panel.
Select No if you do not want to highlight discrepancies in the structure, or select search results, after you launch a discrepancy search from the Compare Structures panel.
List of applicable department data types
Specifies the types of department data that apply when creating department data objects from Windchill. This preference is available at User and Site levels.
Load The Structure in Visualization Tab On Demand
Allow loading of part structure either automatically or on need basis in the Visualization tab of Process Plan Browser. The default value is No, the part structure is loaded automatically. When set to Yes, a manual action is required to load the part structure. Use this option when you want to load the part structure on a need basis and prevent performance issues, especially when loading large part structures. Click ‘Load the structure in Creo View’ in the Visualization tab toolbar to load the part structure manually. The Load the structure in Creo View action is disabled when the preference is set to No.
Automatically Create Department Data
Specifies whether department data objects can be created automatically when creating plant data or through a loader after creating the plant data. Select Yes to create the objects automatically or No to create the objects through a loader. The default value is No.
Part Types for Creating Department Data
Specifies the part types for which department data objects can be created as per the mapped plant data type. The mapping between the department data type and plant data type is defined in the preference: Department Data Types for Plant Data.
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If the Automatically Create Department Data preference is set to Yes, the department data objects are created automatically. If set to No, the objects need to be created manually.
Department Data Types for Plant Data
Specifies the types of department data objects that can be created for each plant data type. The plant data types are listed based on the values entered in the preference: Views with Specific Plant Data.
Department Data Types for Part Type
Specifies the types of department data objects that should be created for a part type. The part types are listed based on the values entered in the preference: Part Types for Creating Department Data.
Include related Department Data objects
Allows the user to specify which department data objects related to the selected parts or plant data objects should be displayed in the collector window by default.
Select All to display department data objects for the initially selected and collected parts or plant data objects.
Select Initially Selected Only to display department data objects only for the initially selected parts or plant data objects.
Select None to hide the department data objects.
Limiting Criteria for the Create Self-Equivalent Links Action
Allows user to specify the criteria to limit the creation of self-equivalent links only when using the Create Self-Equivalent Links action. The default value for this preference is null.
Specify the value in the following format: Type:<Part Type1,PartType2>. For example: Type:wt.part.WTSubPart1. Self-equivalent link is not created for the part type specified in the value field of preference. In the first example, self-equivalent link is not created for the part type WTSubPart1 and the child parts under it.
Maintenance of Equivalent Links to Self
Specifies whether the equivalent links to self, existing for downstream iterations reused as is from upstream, should be updated automatically or manually by end users when there is a change in the upstream structure. Valid option is Manual or Automatic. In the Automatic mode, the system does not create self-equivalent links for all the nodes in the structure. The link is created and maintained only for the first-level reused nodes when using structure transformation actions.
Stop Structure Expansion By Criteria
Allows user to stop expanding the structure by given criteria. Specify the value in the following format:
Type:< part type>
For example, Type:wt.part.WTSubPart1
Enable Structure Cache
Specifies whether to generate the cache for BOM Transformer and SAPSB sessions. The default value is No. This user level preference controls the default behavior for handling structure content to improve BOM Transformer and SAPSB performance.
Select Yes to store the entire structure information of a session in cache. This helps to improve performance in BOM Transformer actions.
Select No if you do not want to store the structure information of a session in cache.
Allows Reuse of Existing Downstream Objects
Specifies whether to reuse the existing downstream object when the New Downstream Part action is invoked. The default value is Yes. When set to No the action does not reuse existing downstream objects. When set to Yes the action reuses existing downstream objects.
Consider Applied Filters For APSB Actions
Specifies whether to consider the filter criteria for review and update actions while updating the downstream structure. The default value is No.
Select Yes to consider the filter criteria. The downstream structure is updated and refreshed to display the structure according to the filter criteria.
Select No to ignore the filter criteria. The downstream structure is updated and refreshed to display the structure without considering the filter criteria.
Some of the review actions are:
Select Equivalent Parts on Other Side
Select Equivalent Occurrences on Other Side
Select Equivalent Usages on Other Side
Implicit Replacement of Parts in Downstream for Replaced Part in Upstream
Specifies whether to replace a downstream part with a replaced upstream part. The default value is No.
Select Yes to replace the selected part in the downstream structure with:
A replaced upstream part, if an equivalent downstream part does not exist for the upstream part.
An equivalent downstream part, if it exists for the replaced upstream part. A warning message appears if multiple downstream equivalent parts exist for the replaced upstream part.
Select No if you do not want to replace the downstream part with the replaced upstream part.
Allow Plant-Specific Filtering in BOM Transformer/SAPSB
Enables the Plant Filter tab in the Edit Filter dialog box in BOM Transformer and SAPSB. This tab allows plant filtering in BOM Transformer and SAPSB. This is a site level preference. The default value is No. If set to Yes, the Plant Filter tab is visible in BOM Transformer and SAPSB.
Views with Specific Plant Data
This is a site level preference. The Assign Plant action is available only if you specify a valid value for this preference. The default value is null. The preference defines the plant data object types for different views. You can specify the value in two formats:
ViewName1:Type1 Plant Data,ViewName2:Type2 Plant Data
Plant1:com.ptc.windchill.extended.data.extendedfData.PlantSpecificExtendedData,Plant2:com.ptc.windchill.extended.data.extendedData.PlantSpecificExtendedData,Plant3:org.rnd.PlantData,Plant4:org.rnd.PlantData
Type1 Plant Data:ViewName1,ViewName2;Type2 Plant data:ViewName3,ViewName4
com.ptc.windchill.extended.data.extendedData.PlantSpecificExtendedData:Plant1,Plant2; org.rnd.PlantData:Plant3,Plant4
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You can use either of the formats. You cannot combine the formats when defining the preference.
List of Applicable Views
Defines the list of applicable views available in BOM Transformer and SAPSB components. The data is entered as a list of comma-separated values. For example: Design, Manufacturing, Service
List of Plant-Specific Views
Defines a list of valid plant-specific views. The listed views represent the actual plants in an organization. Specify plant objects as a comma-separated list. For example: Plant1, Plant2, Plant3. The behavior of this preference depends on the values configured in the List of Applicable Views preference. The default value is null, in which case, the views specified in List of Applicable Views preference is considered.
Load The Structure in Visualization Tab On Demand
Allow loading of part structure either automatically or on need basis in the Visualization tab of Process Plan Browser. The default value is No. When set to No, the part structure is loaded automatically. When set to Yes, a manual action is required to load the part structure. Use this option when you want to load the part structure on a need basis and prevent performance issues, especially when loading large part structures. Click Load the structure in Creo View in the Visualization tab toolbar to load the part structure manually. The Load the structure in Creo View action is disabled when the preference is set to No.
Allow Positioning for Analysis of Equivalent Occurrences
This is a site level preference. The default value is Yes. If set to Yes, the occurrences with the same absolute position as some occurrence on the other side of the structure is considered as consumed.
Display All Linked Iterations In Iteration Tables
Select True if you want the system to display every iteration of an object that is linked to the selected object.
Select False if you do not want the system to display every iteration of an object that is linked to the selected object. Only the iteration that matches the configuration specification is displayed.
Default Selection For Update Usage Options
When set to True processes downstream usages for which at least one valid occurrence link can be found to an upstream BOM.
Synchronize Configuration Specification and Filter Criteria between Upstream and Downstream
This preference synchronizes the configuration specification and filters between Upstream and Downstream based on the selected options.
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