Propagating Upstream Changes
There may be some updates made to the upstream structure recently; for example, new parts added or existing parts removed. These updates may not be reflected in the downstream structure. You can use the Propagate Upstream Changes pane in Associative Part Structure browsers to update the downstream structure with the latest upstream changes. The application compares the current iteration of the upstream structure with the previous up-to-date iteration that was linked to the current downstream structure. You can review the detected changes and propagate the required changes to the downstream structure.
By default, equivalence association is used as the criterion to compare the iterations. You can change the criterion to compare based on time. For more information, see
Customizing the Comparison Mechanism.
To propagate upstream changes:
1. Click
on the middle pane tool bar and select the appropriate parts in the upstream structure.
The Propagate Upstream Changes pane opens to the right of the browser.
| The mechanism for detecting upstream changes requires users to select a part in the upstream structure. The search then detects changes made to the first level children linked to a downstream part. The selection made in the downstream structure does not impact the search results. |
2. Enter the search criteria to specify the type of upstream changes to be listed. The available search criteria are as follows:
◦ Added Parts: Specifies parts that were added recently.
◦ Removed Parts: Specifies parts that were removed recently.
◦ Out of Position: Specifies parts with updated location coordinates.
◦ Quantity: Specifies parts with updated quantity values.
◦ Assigned Expressions: Specifies parts with updated options and choices. For more information, see
options and choices.
3. Click Search.
The box in the Upstream Changes panel displays the search result of the search task. The table lists the changes detected for the parts in the upstream structure. Each row in the table displays the updated part details and the current and previous values for a particular search criterion.
| The Current Value cell in the table displays blank when a part is removed. Similarly, the Previous Value cell displays blank when a part is added. |
4. Select the changes that you want to propagate to the downstream structure, and click
.
| The selection made in the downstream structure does not impact the propagation results. |
5. Click OK to confirm.
The box in the Resulting Downstream Changes panel displays the result of the propagation task. The table lists the changes that were propagated to the downstream structure. Each row in the table displays the updated part details and the updated and previous values for a particular search criterion.
The changes that are successfully propagated to the downstream structure are removed from the Upstream Changes table. The changes that were not selected or could not be propagated continue to be displayed in the Upstream Changes table.
| After propagating a change, it is recommended that you update the equivalent link for the corresponding parent node in the downstream structure. This will ensure that subsequent upstream change searches provide relevant information. |
| When propagating the changes related to added parts, by default, the application considers the equivalent links and common equivalent context that exist between the structures. If you are using the Generate Downstream Structure feature, this default behavior can be changed through the property com.ptc.windchill.associativity.reconciliation.addUsageUsesBomGeneration. The newly added parts in the downstream structure will then follow the logic defined for generating the downstream structure. |
The following actions are available in the Upstream Changes and Resulting Downstream Changes table tool bar.
Icon | Action | Description |
| Clear all | Clears the selected entries. |
| Select all | Selects all the entries listed in the table. |
| Invert selection | Inverses the current selection. Clears current selection and selects the entries that are not selected. |
| Select in structure | Highlights the parts that are associated with the selected changes in the upstream or downstream structure. | Click or  Clear All Highlighted Rows action on the  menu to remove highlights from the selected parts. |
|
| Propagate changes to downstream | Propagates the changes selected in the Upstream Changes table to the Resulting Downstream Changes table. |
| Search | Refines the result based on the keywords specified in the Search box. |
