About Part Structure Filters

Part structures can be large and complex, including thousands of parts many levels deep from final assembly to discrete components. Part structures also change over time as products mature and are eventually retired from service. Part structure filters allow Windchill users to view past or future product configurations, displaying only those parts that are relevant to their task.

Part structure filters in Windchill are divided into two important categories, configuration specifications that display a complete bill of material, and specialized filters that show a subset of parts relevant to a design task. The types of filters are displayed as tabs in the Edit Filter window. Open the Edit Filter window by clicking on the Edit Filter

icon in the Structure tab toolbar on a part information page.

A configuration specification filters the part structure to show complete product configurations with a part version displayed for each structure node. Types of configuration specifications include:

A part master

icon is displayed when there is no part version satisfying the configuration specification criteria. The presence of the part master icon indicates that the configuration is incomplete. In other words, the parts displayed in the part structure do not constitute a complete bill of material for specified product configuration.

Specialized part structure filters reduce the complexity of the part structure by showing only those parts that are relevant to a design task or optional product configuration. Part structures that have been displayed using a specialized filter do not show part master

icons when no part versions is selected in the structure. In other words, specialized filters intentionally reduce a full product configuration to a subset of parts that are required for the task at hand. Types of specialized part filters include:

• Spatial Filter – Display parts whose geometry lies within a specified spatial volume. For more information, see About Spatial Filters.

• Option Filter – Display parts satisfying selected optional product capabilities. For more information, see Filtering a Configurable Product Structure.

• Attribute Filter – Display parts having specified attribute values. For more information, see About Attribute Filters.

For example, suppose an automotive design engineer wants to see all engine parts for a specific automobile that are part of the emissions control system for the optional 6 cylinder engine. The engineer can use the following specialized filters:

• A Spatial Filter can be used to draw an envelope around the engine compartment filters out all the parts that are associated with the engine.

Configuration specification and specialized filters can be used together. The result is a structure showing a subset of the parts in the full configuration that is also filtered by a configuration specification such as “Latest in Released state” or “for product serial number 12345.” All of the filtering criteria must be satisfied for a part to appear in the structure.

• The ability to view the filter criteria applied to the current part structure display. For more information, see Viewing a Structure’s Current Filter Properties.

• The ability to save complex part structure filters so that they can be used at a later time, and to share saved structure filters among multiple users. For more information, see Saving and Reusing Structure Filters.