A number of Windchill information objects, including all document types and change objects (change requests, change orders, and change activities), are modeled as content holders. A content holder is an object to which files and URLs can be attached. For example, when you create a Windchill document object and save it to the Windchill database, files and URLs can be added to the object. The files and URLs are then uploaded to the database or to an external file vault.

For information about file vaults, see External File Vaults.

Content can be uploaded to and downloaded from content holder objects in the following ways:

The content attached to a Windchill object can later be viewed, downloaded, removed, or replaced with new or updated content, subject to user permissions and the status of the Windchill object.

All content holder objects can have unlimited content attachments, but only FormatContentHolder objects can have a primary content attachment in addition to their unlimited secondary content attachments.

Content can be replicated to increase the productivity of Windchill users. For information about content replication, see Replication.