Windchill 10 Customized revise model (major/minor revision)

Do I understand correctly that you're currently using part of a part's number as it's version identifier? Are you doing "Save As" for major revisions now?

Are you already "in production" with this system? Have you considered using one-off versions? Or Options and variants?

People get themselves in a world of problems doing this sort of thing - mixing up the meaning of Revision, Iteration, State, etc. Do yourself and your company a huge favor and stick to the meanings provided.

Maurizio,

I understand exactly where you're coming from. Many companies struggle with the same problem. It's sadly not always understood by every-one and a common reply is that 'you shouldn't do that' and 'that's not the right way', etc. The fact of the matter is these are often well established part numbering systems which were setup before there was such a thing as a computer. If you have the luxury of setting up a new part numbering system; yes; avoid too much intelligence into the PN. But that luxury may not be yours.

One possibility we once considered was to replace or remove the revisioning positions of the PN and use the Windchill revision instead for _parts_. The related CAD documents would still use the full PN including the revision, which could be created by merging the _part_ number with the revision. It was also suggested to create a parameter to the part, which would show this latest PN and use that instead.

However, this method was finally not selected, because it was feared to quickly become messy and difficult to automate without customization (..avoid customization...). Eventually, the save-a-copy method was selected, eventhough it is flawed. Alas it seems though Windchill is a great product, it doesn't seem to be able to be setup for these PN mechanisms.

Again, in your support and as a friendly lesson to others; this PN style is very common, like or not. One should be carefull to be too judgmental. These PN systems were used to build wonderous machines before any of us were born.

But, times _do_ change and maybe so should PN system. But, try selling THAT to a customer...

Good luck.

regards,

Dylan

Dear Collegues

we have customized Windchill 8 so that our Part which is derived from WTPart has two attributes ChangeLevel1 and CangeLevel2. The internal Windchill ChangeLevel isn't shown to the user. Whene ever a user want's to revise a Part he gets a dialog to select whether he wants to do a minor or major change.
A minor change is a change that isn't affecting costs like a simple addition of explanation text on the drawing.

In oder to do this we had to hide the original Version Number within the search results and modify the revise functionality.

If you do this you'll also kepp in mind that the esi interface for transfers into an ERP system relies on a 1:1 relationship between a Windchill Part and a part in SAP. By using a new versioning scheme you break this logic and you will have to rewrite parts of the interface.

Greetings