The target assignment strategy used by Windchill ESI is controlled by the preference Distribution Target Finder. It is important to understand the differences between the above listed assignment strategies. If these differences are not understood, the published objects may not reach the intended distribution target systems, or objects may be published unintentionally to the wrong distribution targets.

In the preceding figure, circles represent Windchill PDMLink part master objects; rectangles represent part iteration objects, and diamonds represent Windchill ESI distribution target objects.

Once a child object in a product structure is published to an implicitly assigned distribution target, the implicit assignment will be persisted and will appear in the UI as an explicit assignment for the object. Also, based on the organization that the object belongs to, an object can have a default distribution target assignment upon triggering its publication.

An underlying assumption in the above example is that both the distribution targets 1 and 2 belong to the same ERP instance.

Unless part 300 has been created in the distribution target 1 by a previous publishing activity, the request fails in the distribution target when attempting to create BOM 100-A. Part 300 is not created for the Windchill ESI distribution target 1. As a general rule, every component of an assembly must be assigned to all of the Windchill ESI distribution targets that are assigned to the assembly. The components may also be assigned to additionalWindchill ESI targets; however, in order to publish a successful component part, such targets should belong in the same ERP instance(s) as those that are assigned to the parent assembly. Also, based on the organization that the object belongs to, an object can have default distribution target assignments upon triggering its publication.

From an ESI services perspective, the distribution assignment strategies described above are applicable not only to product structures, but also to CAD document structures. By using the Default for Context option, when creating or editing a distribution target you can designate the specified target as the default distribution target for all business or manufacturing objects residing in the target's context. The object in the context will be automatically assigned to the default target upon triggering its publication. Automatic assignment of default distribution targets to a part however depends on the value set for the Windchill ESI preference View To Distribution Target Mappings. See the Preference Management utility for a description of this preference. For more information on how the value of this preference may impact automatic association of distribution targets, see the online help and the following guides: