Subtypes and reusable attributes can be created in either the site or an organization context. When subtypes and reusable attributes are created within an organization context, they are kept separate from all other organizations and remain private.

There are two scenarios where subtypes and reusable attributes can be seen and used by all organization contexts:

Each Windchill system has, at a minimum, one site context and one organization context, each with an associated owning organization participant. When a site has multiple organization contexts, each has an owning organization participant. During the installation process, an organization participant is created and associated with the site context.

When an organization context is created, if the same organization participant that owns the site context is chosen as the owner for the new organization context, all types and attributes created within the organization context are available in the site context, see the following graphic. To keep the subtypes and attributes private to an organization, its owning organization participant must be unique from the organization participant associated with the site context.

For example, in the following diagram, any subtypes and attributes created in the Demo organization, remain private to that organization context. Any subtypes or attributes created in the Acme organization context, however, can be seen by all organization contexts within the site, since the owning organization participant of the organization context, Acme, is also the owning organization participant for the site context.

Each organization participant has an internet domain that is used to identify the organization contexts for subtypes and attributes. When subtypes and attributes are created, Windchill provides a suggested prefix for the name of the new type or attribute. The suggested prefix is based on the context from which the Type and Attribute Management utility is launched. The suggested prefix is the reverse of the internet domain for the owning organization participant of the organization context. For example, an organization with the internet domain, acme.com would suggest the prefix, com.acme.

For more information on contexts, see Contexts – Distributed and Hierarchical Administration.