Questions about "association types"

[ssmith-6]

Thank you for helping me.

Since PTC tech support refused to answer these questions (yes true), I'm hoping someone here can explain this to me, or maybe point me to a document thatI can understand. I read all the PTC docs and help on the subject, still don't understand much about it. I'm an old man, an old drafter, 18 years using Pro/E, and my vocabulary is old school Pro/E, I don't understand the words PTC uses. I need different words. To me, a "representation" is a "simplified rep" in Pro/E, but I don't think that's what they mean. So I'll posta few questionseach day until I figure it out.

The questions for today are about the Owner association type, one of the association types between CAD Doc and WT part. This is fromthe Windchill Help file for this association type: "This association enables all functions: driving structure, passing attributes, and representation. In other words, it indicates the primary representation that also drives the structure and the majority of the attributes for the part."

1. What does "driving structure" really mean? Is that like "driving miss daisy"? No, I'm serious, I don't understand any of that definition. Remember I'm an old Pro/E drafter, not a computer geek or Java head.

2. What attributes are being passed, from where, to where? Do they mean "parameters"?

3. What attributes are not being passed, since "majority" is not "all" in our definition of words. Hey they used the word, I'm just trying to understand it.

4. What does "representation" really mean? Do they mean a simplified rep, and if so, which one?

Thank you for helping me.

Steven Smith, CADquest Inc.

[lhemminger]

See below

[GregoryPERASSO]

Hello Steven,

If you have question about "associations types", I assume you are not only a ProE User, but also a PDMLink user ...

All thes types of association are related to the WTPart. The object that symbolise a "physical" part your company has to design or manufacture ... It is the "central" object in PDMLink, and a proE CAD file (or several files, typically a 3D model + a drawing)is one of the Descriptors of a WTPart

To answer to your questions:

4- Representations in PDMLink is more generally different "views" of the Windchill Part (WTPart), and by extension,the ProductView viz displayed on the WTPart info page,and which is convert from your CAD File (by default, the CAD file linked by "owner" association)

1-driving structures : if you use the owner link between your CAD files for a whole assembly(asm and prt), for linking a corresponding WTPart, you will be able drive the WTPartBill of Material. automaticly or by a comparison tool. It updates levels and quantities, regarding the CAD structure you define in ProE. The owner link propagatesalso the PView rep on the WTPart. (and position matrix to be able to open a "configured" WTPart BOM, even if you never update or assemble this particular "configuration" in ProE)

The other types of links , notably "image" or "contributing image", can be used to add other "represenations" to the same WTPart. For example, an electrical harness. In owner , you can attach the flat definition, and in "secondary" image links, the differents prt files representing the same harness in different state or positions. If you use these "secondary" rep , in your CAD assembly, the corresponding WTPart BOM will be correctly updated (in term of quantity)

2 and 3- Attributes : Designated ProE parameter can be mapped to PDMLink CADDocument attributes (can be configured by a mapping table). And the CADDocument attributes can be mapped to WTpart attributes(same name but drived by preferencesto chooseALL or specific attributes) resulting having on the WTpart, some values coming from the CAD ...

Hope it's help

Gregory