Managing Stock-Finish Parts in Windchill (Creo Elements/Direct Modeling)
When the finished part is saved to workspace in Windchill, both the finish and stock parts are saved to Windchill workspace. The stock parts are managed as required external reference dependants to the finish parts. The relation file is maintained as a hidden secondary attachment in Windchill.
On a CAD document property page, under the Related Object tab, finish part references the stock part and the stock part is referenced by the finished part. The following image displays relationship between finish and stock parts.
Managing Relation Files in Windchill
Relation files (.sdrc) store positioning and instance information of the finish part instance and link information to the stock parts. The file does not contain geometry information. These files are not exposed in Windchill and do not take part in part structure. They are managed as hidden secondary attachment to the finish part. A dedicated relation file is managed for each set of stock and finish parts. Windchill does not maintain the lifecycle of relation files.
Managing Relation Files in Creo Elements/Direct Modeling
For every set of a stock and finish parts, there is a dedicated relation file managed by Creo Elements/Direct Modeling. To ensure the name of every relation file to be unique in Windchill, the relation file name is tagged. This way even relation file names are also unique in Windchill as well as in user’s workspace. When finish part is renamed, the relation file is automatically renamed due to tagging.
 | Modification of relation Windchill file name and Creo Elements/Direct Modeling name in CAD tool is not recommended. |
Assembly Structure in Windchill
Assembly structure contains finished parts. Stock parts being external references to finished parts are not represented in an assembly structure. The following image displays the assembly structure with finish parts
Bill of Material (BOM) Support
In BOM, only the assembly structure is considered. Stock parts being external references are not a part of BOM. The following example displays the WT part BOM report.
Visualization of Assembly Structure
For visualization, only assembly structure containing finish parts are published. Since stock parts or intermediate parts are not part of assembly structures they will not be a part of visualization. The following image displays a simple dataset that contains stock finish relation.
