Sample Scenarios for AnyBOM Assembly
Depending on the design process that is followed, you may start your work on a configurable structure either in Creo or in Windchill. Regardless of where you start, AnyBOM Assembly allows you to produce a variant product CAD assembly in Creo and the matching variant product structure in Windchill.
Example of a Top-Down Configuration Approach: From a Configurable Product Structure to a Configurable CAD Structure
In this scenario, you start with a part structure in Windchill, and then propagate information on options and choices to the CAD structure in Creo.
In Windchill:
1. Create an option pool to contain all required options, choices, and rules to configure product variations.
2. Create an option set that contains the relevant options, choices, and rules for the configurable product.
3. Use configurable modules to capture variations within the components of the product structure.
4. Assign basic expressions to child parts of configurable modules.
5. Generate a CAD structure from the configurable product structure. The basic expressions assigned to configurable modules and part usage links in Windchill are propagated to the corresponding CAD objects in Creo as assigned choices.
6. Configure the part structure to generate a variant and validate your selections. Save the variant specification and the product variant.
In Creo:
1. Open the configurable product (an overloaded assembly with all optional components) and review the placement of configurable modules and position them correctly, if needed.
2. Check in the configurable product.
3. In Creo, configure the product using a variant specification that was created in Windchill.
4. Check in the variant product (variant top-level assembly).
5. Associate the product variant assembly (created in Creo) with the product variant part structure (created in Windchill).
Example of a Bottom-Up Configuration Approach: From a Configurable CAD Structure to a Configurable Product Structure
In this example, you start with a configurable product in Creo and then create an associated configurable product structure in Windchill.
In Creo:
1. Open an overloaded assembly in Creo and review its configurable modules.
2. From Creo, check in the configurable product in Windchill to build the corresponding part structure in Windchill. During the checkin, the system generates associations between CAD documents and parts in Windchill.
In Windchill:
1. Define options and choices in an option pool.
2. Create and assign an option set to a top-level item in the configurable product structure in Windchill.
3. If desired, designate the top-level configurable module as the configurable product (an end item).
4. Assign basic expressions to configurable modules and part usage links where variability is required.
5. Configure the product to generate a product variant and the corresponding variant specification.
6. In the Dual Structure Browser, build the structure to propagate the choice assignments on parts to the corresponding CAD documents.
In Creo:
1. Open the configurable product in Creo.
2. Review the choice assignment. Assign additional choices to the CAD configurable modules, if needed.
3. Check in the configurable product.
4. In the variant builder, configure a variant product CAD assembly.
5. Check in the product variant to Windchill and auto-create a part structure for the variant.
In Windchill:
1. Verify the newly created variant structures by comparing CAD structure and part structure in Dual Structure Browser.