In the world of Windchill, a part is a database object that represents a physical component or assembly within the structure of a manufactured product. The part object is used as the container for all information that describes or defines that component or assembly. Technically, the part object type is wt.part.WTPart. However, for simplicity, this object is often referred to as a “part”.

When you create CAD designs (component or assembly) in your authoring application and save them to your workspace, a CAD document is created on-the-fly to represent it in terms that Windchill understands. When you are ready, the CAD documents are then involved in a “build process” where they are converted to Windchill parts. In the case of an assembly model, a Windchill product structure is created that uses the associated child parts as the building blocks of a manufactured product.