The system automatically displays CAD document drawings on the Windchill parts that have an owner association with models in the drawing (that is, the children of the drawing link).

When you check in the drawing for the first time, the model version (revision.iteration) is captured in the As Stored configuration against the drawing CAD document. This records which version/iteration of the drawing is related to which version/iteration of the CAD model. This As Stored configuration is used to display related drawings on the Windchill part. The following graphic illustrates the relationships between part, CAD model, and drawing.

The relationship between the model and its derived drawing is maintained until the model is revised. At the time of revision, if the drawing and the model are revised separately, then the model’s new version will not be related to any drawing, and the original model version remains compatible with the existing drawing version. However, if the drawing and the model are revised together, the As Stored configuration is maintained for originals and a new As Stored configuration is established for the new drawing/model versions.

For example, if you create a new drawing with a previous version of the CAD part in the workspace, then the later versions of the CAD part will not be related to the new drawing. If there are older iterations of the model (created before check in with the drawing), then the older iterations of the model will not be related to the drawing. Only starting from the iteration of the model in the as-stored configuration of the drawing should there be a relationship to a drawing.

The relationship between the model and its derived drawing is severed if the drawing no longer references the model. That is, if you change the drawing in the CAD tool such that this model is no longer referenced by the drawing, then from this iteration forward, the drawing is no longer related to the model.

The Windchill part finds related drawings by first finding the actively associated model, and then using that model to find its related drawing. If there are no As Stored configurations of the drawing, then the system looks for a related drawing for the Windchill part using any existing content (formerly, passive) links. If the drawing has no models, then the system will not create an association with any Windchill part. You have the option to manually create a content link using the Associate action.