The Windchill installation establishes a set of business object types that are available in the site context and then can be inherited by organization contexts and then by application contexts. The use of object types allows you to categorize objects by providing a set of attributes and user interface functions for each type. For example, objects that are typed as documents (using the type wt.doc.WTDocument) have a different set of attributes and actions available in the user interface than those objects typed as parts (using wt.part.WTPart).

Commonly used business object types include those described in the following table:

All data stored in a Windchill solution are stored as objects of specific types. The type is identified when the object is created or imported. By typing data, you establish patterns for handling the data within the Windchill solution. For example, you can decide if part data is numbered automatically or manually and decide who has access to part data. Separate decisions can be made for each type of data by setting object initialization rules. A set of these rules is established when each context is created through the context template that is used. Additional object initialization rules can be set using the Object Initialization Rules Administration utility, accessed from the Utilities page of the context where you want the rule stored.

In addition to the object types that are provided out of the box, object types can have subtypes. Your Windchill solution provides some document subtypes as part of its installation. Additionally, Windchill PDMLink and Arbortext Content Manager provide subtypes for dynamic documents and bursting configuration files that are used when authoring document content through the Windchill connection to Arbortext Editor.

If your site needs additional types, you can create specific subtypes from within the site or an organization context using the Type and Attribute Management utility.

Windchill Visualization Services (WVS) integrates Windchill with Creo View, a PTC data visualization tool that allows you to view, annotate, analyze, measure, and animate CAD documents and parts. You may also view, mark up, and print the content of documents in Creo View. All information viewed or annotated in Creo View is saved and stored back into the Windchill database.

Creo View supports watermarking of 3D, drawings, images, and documents. Watermarks are defined in INI files created and edited using the Creo View watermark editor. The administrator that manages watermarks manually transfers the INI files from the watermarks directory into the Windchill server.

Windchill Visualization Services can also be used to integrate Windchill with the Arbortext Publishing Engine for creating representations from dynamic documents. Supported formats include PDF and HTML. This is done through the WVS publisher.

For more information about administering visualization data, see Visualization and Thumbnail Overview.

Data files created by CAD applications and saved to Windchill using a workgroup manager or Creo Elements/Pro 5.0 are managed in Windchill as CAD documents.

CAD documents are associated with a subtype of the wt.epm.EPMDocument modeled object type and can be used to manage many different types of CAD files including parts, assemblies, drawings, layouts, and manufacturing files. In addition, a CAD document can have secondary content. The secondary content is typically used for additional supporting information or derived files such as STEP, IGES, JPEG, and others.

The CAD Document subtype defined as <prefix>.DefaultEPMDocument is established during the installation process, where <prefix> is generated by reversing the internet domain specified as part of the organization properties during the installation. For example, if the internet domain specified is acme.com, then the <prefix> used in the soft type name is com.acme.

Administrators can create and update CAD document templates. These templates can be used to create CAD documents.

Windchill supports data files that are created by the Arbortext Editor. These files are saved to Windchill using the Windchill connection for the editor and are managed in Windchill as dynamic documents. The data files can then be published using the WVS publisher if the publisher has been configured for the Arbortext Authoring Application.

The Arbortext Editor and the Arbortext Publishing Engine are optional Windchill products that can be purchased through PTC.

Dynamic documents are associated with the <prefix>.DynamicDocument subtype or are possibly associated with a subtype of <prefix>.DynamicDocument, where <prefix> is generated by reversing the internet domain specified as part of the organization properties during the installation. For example, if the internet domain specified is acme.com, then the subtype for dynamic documents is named com.acme.DynamicDocument.

Using additional subtypes helps categorize the types of dynamic documents and is often required when deploying a complex content authoring system that connects to the Arbortext Editor.

For general guidelines on creating product and library contexts to use with dynamic documents, see Configuring Products or Libraries for Dynamic Documents.

For information on setting up the WVS publisher for publishing dynamic documents, see About Publish Rules.

General documents (such as Microsoft Word files and text files) stored in the Windchill database have the wt.doc.WTDocument object type or are possibly associated with a subtype of wt.doc.WTDocument. Using subtypes helps categorize the types of documents.

Administrators can create and update document templates. These templates can be used to create documents.

Administrators can also change the preference settings related to documents (such as file name uniqueness and template file name length). These settings can be found under the Documents category in the Preference Management utility.

Parts stored in the Windchill database have the wt.part.WTPart object type.

Parts created in Windchill can be associated with a view. A view identifies what the part is used for. The Windchill installation provides two out-of-the-box views: design and manufacturing. Before allowing users to create parts, you can rename these views and add other views that make sense at your site by using the View Administration utility.

For more information, see Views and View Associations.

The auditing utilities are designed to record and report user and system events for auditing and traceability purposes.