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TM_145153686-Contributor
6-Contributor
September 29, 2026
Question

Simplified BOM and Visualization for Design WPart used in End-Product Design BOM

Hello,

I need your point of view to solve a need.

Windchill 12.0.2.8 and SolidWorks, CAD-Centric, Engineering to order.

We have a team designing the Product working with other Team specialized for designing specific sub-assembly.

  • Team working on the product Design do not want all the detail of the sub-assembly, for CAD and Part visualization performance but also to not sharing some detail to sub-contractor.
    In some case they need to see all the detail.
  • Simplified Design need to have the same value as Detailed Design attributes (Mass, Volume, Center of Mass,...)
  • Volume of simplified part CAD need to have the same position as Detailed CAD for the Structure Visualization of the Parent.

Concept : Use Configuration filter to choose between multi-level BOM without or with detail, default filter is the simplified view. BOM Type Engineering is only for detailed sub-assembly.

In this example, by default I don’t want to see the Helicoil in BOM, Visualization or CAD.

Question 1: Is there a way to setup association between CAD Document Assembly.SLDASM and WPart 0001 (Design) in a manner to have the CAD attributes and a Visualization (In the Parent Structure) without a BOM ?
I try wihtout succes:

  • Image with Assembly.SLDASM
  • Image from a .SLDASM CAD without the Helicoil
  • Image or Owner from a .SLDASM CAD with all child Exclude from BOM

=> In all these cases, no Visualization in Parent Structure.

Question 2: We don’t have acces to Contributing Image and Contributing Content.
Not available for our Windchill version ?
Are there any good reason with a CAD-Centric approach with SolidWorks ?
(Auto-association CAD to Part, rebuilt Part from CAD, multi-owner feature disable)
How can we allow these options ?

Solution envisaged:
I’m not a fan about maintaining Reference and Equivalent link bcause we actually don’t have enough resources to do governance, but this solution will be more flexibility in case of CAD volume rework for simplification.

For simple case, Machined_part.SLDPRT will be re-used for the Image association instead a dedicated CAD like Simplified.SLDPRT.
Not sure about the utility of a Reference link between Assembly.SLDASM and Simplified.SLDPRT, circular reference with the Equivalent link ?

Question 3: Can Assembly.SLDASM have an association Owner and Contributing Image on two differents WPart, in the context of a CAD-Centric approach using rebuild WPArt from CAD and auto-association?

Question 4: In your opinion, are there any other solutions that should be studied?

Thank you !

2 replies

anursinghCommunity Manager
Community Moderator
October 5, 2026

Hi ​@TM_14515368,

Thank you for your question.  
Your post has not yet received any response. I am replying to raise awareness. Hopefully, another community member will be able to help. 
 
Also, feel free to add any additional information you think might be relevant. It sometimes helps to have screenshots to better understand what you are trying to do. 

Thanks, 

Anurag 

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Dobi17-Peridot
17-Peridot
October 13, 2026

It sounds like what you’re trying to implement is the idea of Simplified Representations through Solidworks? In other words, you want to have multiple file states in CAD that either display full structure and details or just some subset. You then want to have those representations drive appropriate WTPart structures. 

Question 2 (and question 4): We don’t have acces to Contributing Image and Contributing Content.
Not available for our Windchill version ?
Are there any good reason with a CAD-Centric approach with SolidWorks ?
(Auto-association CAD to Part, rebuilt Part from CAD, multi-owner feature disable)

To me this sounds like SW configurations that are perhaps used in conjunction with Options and Variants. 

If that doesn’t do what you need you may want to go down the path of Configurable Links. It’s not for the faint of heart, though. There’s a good bit of backend work to get it setup. 

Question 1: Is there a way to setup association between CAD Document Assembly.SLDASM and WPart 0001 (Design) in a manner to have the CAD attributes and a Visualization (In the Parent Structure) without a BOM ? I don’t think this is possible. You can have your CAD document roll up to the next level part in the parent structure if you use a Gathering Part but that just takes the structure of your CAD and moves it up. In theory, you can NOT create the WTPart BOM of your CAD assembly but the CAD itself will always have a structure to it. 

Question 3: Can Assembly.SLDASM have an association Owner and Contributing Image on two differents WPart, in the context of a CAD-Centric approach using rebuild WPArt from CAD and auto-association? You have some options here with a CAD document owning multiple parts. However, that same CAD can only have 1 Contributing Image association to a part. 

 

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