Attribute and Parameter Introduction

Attributes are entities that define properties of objects, such as CAD files or Windchill business objects. They always consist of a name and value. For example, Life Cycle State can be assigned the value In Work.

In Windchill, there are two types of attributes: hard and soft. System attributes are hard, available by default, and are “hard-coded” into the Windchill system. They typically define a set of characteristics that most business objects share, such as NAME or NUMBER. Soft attributes are not hard-coded; and therefore are not available by default. The user defines soft attributes, for example, COLOR or LENGTH, for individual objects or classes of objects. CAD applications have analogous entities, variously called properties, parameters, or attributes, that can be mapped to Windchill attributes so that their values can pass between the CAD application and Windchill, as needed.

For purposes of clarity in discussing attribute management, it is the standard of this guide to refer to Windchill attributes as attributes and to refer to CAD application attributes, properties, and parameters as parameters.