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jwagh17-Peridot
17-Peridot
April 15, 2026
Question

Managing WTPart Data Model with Attributes governed by SAP

  • April 15, 2026
  • 7 replies
  • 128 views

We are currently planning for WTParts and we are trying to figure out how to manage attributes that are to be governed in SAP. 

 

Our Current Workflow

  1. Finished Goods (End Items) meetings are held to discuss necessary attributes to be entered into SAP  
  2. An Administrator fills out a spreadsheet with the required new finished goods. Sometimes there can be dozens of finished goods at once (even hundreds).
  3. The spreadsheet is sent to the SAP team for SAP import and part creation.

Windchill Implementation Assumptions

  1. Windchill/SAP Integration will be custom, 1 way (still to be developed)
  2. Some of the attributes for a Finished Good should not be managed in the WTPart, as they should be governed by SAP and any changes in SAP will cause a disconnect with the data in Windchill (due to the custom 1 way SAP Integration).
  3. We will be converting the current process from Excel and Email to Windchill. All attributes that were sent through Excel will be sent through Windchill.
  4. Windchill users will never want or need to see these attributes in Windchill

Proposed Worflows

  • Option 1

    1. Create multiple WTParts at once with the 'New Multiple Parts' tool, with ALL the attributes that will be governed in Windchill & SAP
      -All tables and views will not show the SAP attributes

    2. A change will be created where the process workflow will send the attributes to SAP

  • Concern 1

    1. A user can add any attribute at any time, to their table view and see the wrong data in Windchill.

  • Option 2

    1. Create multiple WTParts at once with the 'New Multiple Parts' tool, with ALL the attributes that will be governed in Windchill & SAP
      -All tables and views will not show the SAP attributes

    2. A change will be created where the process workflow will send the attributes to SAP and the workflow would change the SAP attribute to a Value of N/A

  • Concern 2

    1. The workflow and wtpart editing method/process is unclear and may not be feasible or preferred for unknown data reasons.

 

Questions (Finally 😕)

  1. How do other companies predominantly handle attributes that should be governed in SAP?
  2. Are any of the proposed workflows doable or recommended?
  3. Should any of our assumptions be changed?
  4. On the flip-side, if we have attributes that we want only in Windchill, but not SAP - how can we modify those Windchill attributes that won't affect downstream teams and vendors.

7 replies

HelesicPetr
HelesicPetr22-Sapphire II
22-Sapphire II
April 16, 2026

Hi ​@jwagh 

This requirement is definitely for a new integration that updates the attributes in the Windchill if the sap attribute is changed.

 

On the other hand you can hide the attributes by profile configuration. 

 

One of the easiest way how to update the information in the Windchill is to create own view in database to get information from the SAP and call it by own java code from Windchill to update information in the Windchill on daily basis by queue management from Windchill. . 

 

PetrH

 

MarcoTosin
MarcoTosin21-Topaz I
21-Topaz I
April 16, 2026

You can read some interesting discussion about PLM → ERP integration below

 

 

Marco
P
PW_133812205-Regular Member
5-Regular Member
April 23, 2026

Hi,

You should definitely look into the Extended Data model (Enterprise Data, Plant Data, and Department Data) to manage SAP attributes in Windchill.

J
jwagh17-PeridotAuthor
17-Peridot
April 23, 2026

Do you have a link I can read? Thanks!

P
PW_133812205-Regular Member
5-Regular Member
April 24, 2026

Look in the Windchill Help Center or the PTC Technical Support Knowledge Base for “Extended Data”.

https://support.ptc.com/help/windchill/r13.1.0.0/en/#page/Windchill_Help_Center/mpmlink/ExpMPM_ED_InfoPage.html

    A
    anursinghCommunity Manager
    Community Moderator
    June 1, 2026

    Hi ​@jwagh,

    I wanted to see if you got the help you needed.

    If so, please mark the appropriate reply as the Accepted Solution. It will help other members who may have the same question.
     

    Thanks,
    Anurag 

    joe_morton
    joe_morton18-Opal
    18-Opal
    June 2, 2026

    I’d recommend taking a step back and reviewing the data model overall:

    You want to have a “Single Source of Truth” for all data. Practically what that means is that you want to keep the systems in sync, or deliberately choose to not display certain attributes in one or the other.

    Decide what attributes are Windchill-only, what attributes are SAP-only, and what attributes are shared. Once you do that, I’d recommend this workflow:

    • Start data creation in Windchill. Add all Windchill attributes, and shared attributes
    • One-way push sends only the shared attributes to SAP
    • Later, add the SAP-only data just in SAP

    We have Windchill workflows that give a task alerting someone to do actions in SAP. There’s no automated feedback from SAP, but the user completes the task in Windchill so we can show that all the steps are completed. This helps bridge some of that gap.

    Best of luck, I hope you find a suitable solution!

      J
      jwagh17-PeridotAuthor
      17-Peridot
      June 3, 2026

      The issue, is that the SAP Only attributes are being entered now during creation via an excel importer. If we break it out, especially manually, the process would end up becoming more tedious and labor intensive, making buy-in practically impossibe. 

      MarcoTosin
      MarcoTosin21-Topaz I
      21-Topaz I
      June 3, 2026

      It is also possible to perform bulk creation directly from an Excel spreadsheet within Windchill, and—using the integration with SAP (in our case, Tibco acts as the intermediary between the two systems)—to create or modify parts, BOM, and Process Plan, potentially linking them via ECNs (Engineering Change Notice).

       

      For certain attributes or lifecycle states, after creation, changes are made in SAP and returned to Windchill via a semi-automated procedure.

       

      Every 5 minutes, changes made to a defined list of attributes are extracted from SAP.

      This information is then imported into a queue created specifically for updating data in Windchill.

      This ensures that the common attributes that can be modified in both systems are always aligned.

       

      SAP-only attributes are managed both via Excel upload and through the GUI.

       

      After creating a new code in SAP, when Windchill sends a status update defined as requiring the subsequent entry of SAP-specific attributes, a Workflow (WF) is automatically triggered, involving all the entities necessary to populate the minimum attributes required to manage the code in SAP.

       

      BOM and Process Plan are created/modified ONLY in Windchill.

       

      We have been working this way for about ten years without any particular issues.

       

      Marco
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