There are multiple use cases for adding/removing Part to Document associations as an administrative change. Some scenarios include:
- Remediating associations from during data migration activities, especially when related datasets have been managed in separate environments previously
- Adding/removing associations to reference data for the traceability, where the Part's definition is not modified by the change in associations
- Adding/removing associations for graphical representations of how the Part is installed/applied, where the Part's definition is not modified by the update to available graphical representations
Processing a full change to the Part’s revision is undesirable in such use cases due to significant effort/impact within and downstream of Engineering. The specific purpose of this idea is to propose capability for adding/removing Part to CAD associations for Parts in controlled lifecycle states (such as "Released"). It would be preferable for the capability to be configurable to allow each customer to specify the valid lifecycle states where it could be applied, and whether a build should be executed or not for each association type when an association is created. For reference the primary background scenario and a resulting customization to meet the business needs at Cummins Inc. are described in the attached presentation which was shared at the 2019 PTC/User Winter Technical Community Open Forum in Charleston, South Carolina.
