CAD Data Management in Windchill

This section provides an overview of CAD data management in Windchill and includes links to related topics that explain common CAD data management concepts.

CAD data management in Windchill uses business objects called CAD documents to contain and manage CAD information within a Windchill database. In Windchill, a document is an object containing files in application format. A CAD document is a revision-controlled, lifecycle-managed object containing a CAD model or drawing file. The CAD model can be a file or a set of files containing information in a CAD application format. While CAD documents can have other information related as attachments, the model file is the primary content. For Windchill users, the CAD document becomes almost synonymous with the CAD file. For example, initiating the Open action (in a CAD application) on a selected CAD document in Windchill opens the model file into the authoring application.

In the simplest case, CAD data management in Windchill helps you store and retrieve CAD files as you work on them. When design files are modified and checked in to Windchill, the changes are then visible to other users, enabling group collaboration.

CAD documents typically represent elements of a CAD assembly structure and can be associated to Windchill part objects that comprise a parallel product structure. This allows the exchange of attributes between Windchill parts and CAD documents. When related Windchill part objects (see Parts) and product structures are included and managed, then CAD data management becomes elevated to product data management (PDM).

• Commonspace—The sum of locations in Windchill that are available to all users with appropriate access privileges. See The Commonspace and the Workspace.

• Windchill context—The defined Windchill projects, programs, products, or libraries, within which users work. For more information, see About Contexts.

• Workspace—A private area, defined within a Windchill context, typically used for segregating and managing work-in-progress. For more information, see Introduction to the Workspace.

• CAD structure—A hierarchical grouping of CAD documents whose relationships reflect the relationship of CAD models in an authoring application’s model structure.

• Product structure or part structure—A hierarchical grouping of Windchill parts that form a product or subassembly of a product. For more information, see Managing CAD and Part Structures in Windchill

• Associating CAD documents to Windchill parts—Establishing the relationships between CAD documents and parts that allow for the propagation of structure, attribute, and representation information. For more information, see Association Overview.

• Top-down design—Working from a product structure to design new or enhanced products. Modifications in a product structure can be pushed to an associated CAD structure using a ‘reverse build’ process. For more information, see Top-down Design.

Creo, CATIA V5, NX, and Autodesk Inventor data can be migrated to Windchill from the flat file directories through Windchill Bulk Migrator.

Windchill Bulk Migrator is a collection of tools that are meant to facilitate the permanent, one-way migration of data into Windchill. The tools work within an overall Extract, Transform, Load and Validate (ETLV) migration approach whereby data is pulled from one or more source systems, mapped and transformed to conform to the Windchill application, and then loaded into the Windchill database and file vaults.