Integration with Other Applications > Windchill Workgroup Manager Documentation > CATIA V5 > Administrator > Administration and Configuration for CATIA V5 > Configuring Business Practices > Configuring Attributes and Parameters
  
Configuring Attributes and Parameters
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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.”
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. The system attributes that are hard-coded into Windchill, are therefore available by default. System attributes are typically defined for a set of characteristics that most business objects share, such as name or number. User-defined attributes, are not hard-coded; 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 are communicated between Windchill and the CAD application, if desired.
As an administrator, you can configure attributes and parameters so they are published (viewable) in CATIA V5 and in Windchill.
For more information, see the following topics.
Attribute and Parameter Types
Windchill Default System Attributes
Custom Parameters
Configuring Attributes and Parameters
Adding New Authoring Application Parameters
Standard Authoring Application System Parameters
Customizing Existing Windchill Attributes
Editing the Delegate
Mapping User-defined Authoring Application Parameters
Mapping Attributes and Parameters
Soft Typing CAD Documents
Implicit Parameter-to-Attribute Mapping
Explicit Property-to-Attribute Mapping
Mapping Properties and Parameters with Units
Exposing CATIA Properties to Windchill
Exposing Extensive Design Information
Setting mass Properties to Read-only in Windchill to Prevent Incorrect Information