What's the difference between a product and a library?

[gchampoux]

Here's another newbie question:

What is the difference between a product and a library?

In all that I have read so far, they appear to work identically.
Do either of them have unique functionality?

Gerry

[ZacharyAlexande]

Gerry,

They have the same functionality. The difference is use case. Libraries are
for standards part or parts that may be used across multiple Projects.
Projects are for parts and documents specifically associated to a particular
Project or End Item.

Hope this helps,
Zack

On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 6:59 AM, Gerry Champoux
<->wrote:

> Here's another newbie question:
>
> What is the difference between a product and a library?
>
> In all that I have read so far, they appear to work identically.
> Do either of them have unique functionality?
>
> Gerry
>

[RussPratt]

The only functional difference is that for a Product, but not a Library, you may select one end item to be the "Primary" end item for the Product. When you do this, you get the "Product Structure" sub-tab in the Product which will always take you directly to the details and product structure page of that one end item.

Russ

[MikeLockwood]

The only (but important) difference is that Products have an End Items table on the Details page of the Product (populated with all WTParts in that Product context that are End Item type). From here , one can drill down to the structure of all actual things that one sells to customers. This has started to become very useful to us as we gradually build product structure.

[akelly]

Using Pro/Intralink 9.1 M030

A couple of users chimed in that you can assign a primary end-item to a
Product, but not a Library. That functionality apparently only exists
in PDM/Link and Windchill. The Product Details page of Pro/Intralink
(which doesn't have WTParts) doesn't have this option.

We have A LOT of Products. When you navigate to Windchill Cabinets from
inside Pro/Engineer, Products, Libraries, and Workspaces show up as
different folders. If you want a fastener, for example, and you want to
navigate to it instead of searching (maybe you don't know exactly what
you need to search for), it's a lot easier to navigate to the right
library under the Libraries folder than it would be to navigate through
a very long list of Products.

Andrew Kelly, P.E. | Senior Engineer | Crane Aerospace & Electronics |
+1 440 326 5555 | F: +1 440 284 1090

[ddemay]

Yeah having the correct balance of libs and products is useful. I think many people just overlook the simple idea of a non technical purpose to separate and organize data that is product specific from those data items which are more generic.


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