How SolidWorks Configurations are Treated in Windchill

In Windchill Workgroup Manager, the PTC_IS_INSTANCE configuration-specific property is used to identify SolidWorks configurations that should be treated as instances. By default, Windchill Workgroup Manager does not manage SolidWorks configurations as family instances. Therefore, if you want a SolidWorks configuration to be treated as an instance in Windchill, set the value for PTC_IS_INSTANCE to Yes for that configuration. If no SolidWorks models’ configurations have PTC_IS_INSTANCE set to Yes, the model is not treated as a family.

When entering the PTC_IS_INSTANCE custom property, make sure to type it in using all capitals, or it will not be recognized by Windchill.

When you create SolidWorks configurations, it is possible that the part or assembly file template has already set the PTC_IS_INSTANCE configuration-specific property to a default value that represents a typical configuration usage.

If PTC_IS_INSTANCE is not added from SolidWorks – either by a user or by a file template – Windchill Workgroup Manager assigns PTC_IS_INSTANCE to all configurations using these rules:

If PTC_IS_INSTANCE is set to Yes for the Default configuration, it is treated not as a generic, but like any other configuration.

PTC_IS_INSTANCE is a Boolean-type configuration-specific property. You can change the PTC_IS_INSTANCE value either by using the Design Table, or manually for each configuration. The Design Table is convenient for changing multiple values in multiple SolidWorks configurations.

If the Manage new model instances by default preference is set to Yes, PTC_IS_INSTANCE is then automatically set to Yes, and the Configurations are exposed to Windchill as instances of CAD documents.

The next figure shows the Design Table with PTC_IS_INSTANCE property values set in column B.

The next figure shows how SolidWorks configurations are created manually without the use of the Design Table.