Non-Integer quantities / non 'each' unit

[sderoose]

Version: Windchill 13.0

Use Case: We have 2 use cases, the first one is creating some kind of costing BOM, in which we set the quantity to a negative number, so that we can calulate the price based on the 'default' price. In another case we would like to have the unit of the 'raw material' and it's unit in the BOM, so for a certain profile or tube we would like to have the length in meters instead of just each.

Description:

How to handle non positive/whole-integer quantities in combination with Creo Parametric or other CAD application? What's the best practice? Every component of an assembly coming from CAD has each as unit. But then we can't change the unit to m or 'as needed' to change the quantity to a non-integer value or even a negative value. It's possible but then you first have to remove the occurrences to be able to change the unit/quantity. How should this be handled? Better to do this using MPMLink and made from? Or using a custom link attribute to fill in the 'actual unit/quantity'?

When using the made from, is there an option to fill this automatically using a CAD parameter which contains the part number of the raw material and letting the unit and quantity be filled in based on calculated value from CAD?

[avillanueva · Accepted solution]

This addresses your question about each and non-integers: Is it possible to use non-integer value for "Quantity" if "Unit of measure" equals "each" in Windchill PDMLink 

If you have CAD models that builds you BOM, they will by default come over as each to the Windchill part structure. I have looked into bulk items but never saw them work in practice but feel free to investigate them. There are things you can do when you generate those CAD models so that they do not appear on your BOM by controlling the link from CAD to WTPart. There are also parameters and preferences to prevent creation of WTParts on check in. In the end, we opt to removing the line item in Windchill (Occurrence) and re-adding it manually with proper units. 

[sderoose]

Isn't that a lot of work for the engineer and confusing? When you change the quantity of the component in CAD, you get a second line, the first one excluded  and the second one built. 

Case you mentions, points to an old (archived) product idea. One person is also talking about adding a custom link attribute apparently.

[HelesicPetr]

Hi @sderoose 

It is normal. So the answer is that the system do not support your needs.

You can use just a workaround to use different usage attribute to cover your specific quantity. 

Try to find different method to cover your needs then the real CAD quantity. 

PetrH