Policy-managed Naming and Numbering
Windchill Workgroup Manager supports four policies to determine how newly created objects are named and numbered.
Automatic numbering
Name-driven
Parameter-driven
Custom
These policies are only utilized during the initial creation of parts and CAD documents. These policies are used during upload of new CAD data (when a new CAD document can be created based on a model), and auto-associate (when a new part is created for a CAD document); if the policy is changed at a later date, existing data is not affected. The CAD document number is provided by the automatic CAD document number generator (by using the standard Windchill number generator, through customization.
These policies can be used together to drive the naming and numbering behavior. For example, automatic numbering can be used with customization to form a numbering policy. The four policies can be described as follows:
* 
Rename is not supported in this release.
Automatic numbering
Automatic numbering is the default numbering policy.
When using auto-associate to create new parts, the part number is provided by the part number generator.
When using auto-associate to create new parts, the default value for the part name is copied from the associated CAD document name. If a file extension is present in the CAD document name, it can be optionally dropped from the part name controlled by a preference.
Name-driven
When automatic numbering is disabled, the name-driven policy comes into effect.
The Windchill CAD number is copied from the CAD model file name (the file extension can be dropped and is controlled by the Windchill preference, Upload Drop Number File Extension). The Windchill number is propagated to the CAD environment and stored in a property in the CAD file called PTC_WM_NAME.
The Windchill CAD document name is also copied from the CAD model file name. The Windchill number is propagated to the CAD environment and stored in a property in the CAD file called PTC_WM_NAME.
The default value for the part number is copied from the CAD document number (the file extension can be dropped and is controlled by the Windchill Auto Associate Truncate Number File Extension preference).
Parameter-driven
Parameter-driven naming and numbering is where Windchill name and number attributes are mapped to existing properties in the CAD file.
The CAD document number is copied from the value of the CAD application property identified by the Windchill Numbering Parameter preference.
The value for the CAD document name is copied from the CAD application property identified by the Windchill Naming Parameter preference.
The value for the part number is copied from the value of the soft attribute identified by the Windchill preference, AutoAssociate Numbering Parameter.
The value for the part name is copied from the value of the soft attribute identified by the Windchill preference, AutoAssociate Naming Parameter.
Custom
The Object Initialization Rules Administration utility, available from the Utilities page, provides a way to specify default values for the attributes and display constraints on attributes of a specific object type. The default values and attribute constraints are then used when Windchill creates objects of that type. Each object initialization rule (OIR) can contain default values and constraints for one object type. The rules only apply on object creation and do not change or set values for existing objects. Rules can be set up to provide automatic number generation as well as to provide custom behavior. Object initialization rules are set per Windchill context, allowing different naming/numbering rules to be applied to different contexts.
For more information, see the Windchill Specialized Administration Guide, located at the PTC Reference Documents website.
* 
Regardless of the naming and numbering policy used, when creating a new object, system uniqueness constraints require that the CAD document attributes Number and File Name must both be unique within a Windchill organization or project.
Related Topics
Was this helpful?