To avoid redundant design work, designers often incorporate pre-designed library components into their assemblies. Online catalogs can offer a wide selection of such components; however, retrieving them into your Creo Parametric session, with proper references is not always straightforward.

Windchill PDMLink libraries provide a means for storing and controlling CAD parts that have been approved for use within your company. CAD parts contained in Windchill PDMLink libraries can be searched, browsed, and access controlled. They also work well with standard Creo Parametric commands such as Insert > Component. Creo Parametric can automatically resolve component references when using CAD parts stored in Windchill PDMLink libraries. Common parts, such as fasteners, that are used in many end objects can be stored in a common CAD parts library. This allows all product designers to access and use those parts. Company-approved libraries also help by reducing CAD part proliferation caused by the same part being redundantly gathered and assigned different part numbers by different engineers working independently.

For more information, see the following topics: