Catalog, BOMs and sourcing

The catalog

The catalog is a tree of categories (the Classification page). Each category adds typed attributes to the ones it inherits from its parents:

Any attribute can be required. A child category may add attributes but never redefine one an ancestor has. Administrators shape the tree; a category that still holds parts or sub-categories cannot be deleted.

A part belongs to one category (or none) and has free tags. Its attribute values are checked against the category's attributes when they are written, but only need to be complete at release: a draft may leave a required value empty, and a release refused for it names every missing or invalid value at once. Moving a part to another category keeps the values the new category does not define; they can be cleared but not changed.

Attribute values belong to the part, not to one revision, so they can be edited without a check-out. With Lock released attributes on (Server settings), a released part with nothing in work refuses changes to its category and values; starting a new revision opens them again.

Revision and occurrence fields

Besides catalog attributes, administrators can define:

• Revision fields on a part type (Part types → Fields): values that belong to one revision of a part.
• Occurrence fields (Administration → Occurrence fields): values that belong to one placement of a part in an assembly revision, such as a mounting option.

The PLM's BOM and the CAD app's BOM panel edit the same stored values.

Finding parts

The Parts page searches part numbers, names, descriptions, categories, tags, attribute values and manufacturer and supplier part numbers, and filters by category (including its sub-categories), tag, manufacturer, supplier, attribute values, whether a part has 3D geometry, and whether it has a thumbnail. Results come a page at a time.

Uses lists

A revision's uses list is its assembly structure: the parts it is built from. Each line has:

• the child part, and a child revision: pinned to one revision, or empty, which floats to the child's current release (else its newest revision) each time it is read;
• a quantity (fractions allowed, for things bought by length or weight) and a unit (each unless it says otherwise);
• optionally a find number, reference designators and notes.

The CAD app publishes an assembly's uses list from its document every time the assembly is saved to the PLM, always pinning revisions. The web page's uses-list editor can also edit it.

Writing a uses list follows the document's rules: the revision must be in work and checked out by you. A released revision's list never changes. A list is refused when it names an unknown part, the part itself, a quantity that is not above zero, the same line twice, or anything that would make a cycle (checked through every revision of every part, so a floating line can never close one).

The BOM

Each assembly revision's BOM (on the part's Structure tab, beside Uses list and Compare revisions) comes in two views:

• Indented: one line per use, numbered 1.2.3, with the quantity per parent and the total for one top-level assembly (the quantities along the path multiplied). The depth shown can be limited; totals are always over the whole tree.
• Flat: every part revision once, with its quantities added up.

Costs. Each line shows the preferred manufacturer part (else the first) and its cheapest supplier offer at the quantity bought: the price break that quantity reaches, or the first break when it is below it. Totals are per currency and never add currencies together. Only parts with nothing beneath them are counted, so an assembly's own price is shown but not added.

Flags. A line carries a warning when its child revision is a draft or in review, superseded or obsolete ("uses superseded rev A; B is current"), floating with nothing released, waiting for a bake, or missing.

Columns. BOM column configurations manages named column layouts, shared or personal, chosen from the catalog attributes and the revision and occurrence fields. The CAD app's BOM panel offers the same layouts. CSV downloads follow the chosen layout, and can include each line's attachments.

Compare revisions shows what changed between two revisions of an assembly, one level deep: parts added and removed, and changes of quantity, revision or find number.

Where used

Where used (also on the Structure tab) lists the revisions that use a part, one level up or all the way to the top, each marked current or not and top-level or not. Given one revision, it lists the uses that point at that revision now, a floating use counting for what it resolves to.

Replace everywhere

Replace everywhere… on the Where used panel swaps a part, or one revision of it, for another in every assembly that uses it directly. Authors can run it.

1. Choose what to replace (the whole part, or one revision) and its replacement (another part, or another revision of the same part; with no revision the new lines float).
2. Choose the parent assemblies, or all current ones. Superseded and obsolete parents are history and are never rewritten.
3. Preview. Each row says what will happen: write in place, create a new revision, skip or refuse, with the reason and the lines it changes.
4. Run it. One refused parent does not stop the others.

• A parent in work is edited in place. If another user has it checked out it is refused; if nobody does, the edit is a check-out, write and check-in in one.
• A released parent gets a new revision with the swap, left checked in, unless the part already has a revision in work: then that revision is the one to change, and the released one is skipped.
• Floating lines change only when the whole part is replaced.
• Each changed line keeps its quantity, unit, find number, reference and notes.
• A swap that would make a cycle refuses that parent.

Only the uses list changes. The server never edits a CAD document, so the parent's document still places the old part until it is opened in the CAD app, which notices the difference and offers to move its occurrences to match the list. If you save without accepting, the list is published again from the document and the swap is undone.

Sourcing

The Sourcing page keeps two lists, manufacturers and suppliers. A company that both makes and sells appears in each. Authors add and edit them; an administrator deletes one, and only when nothing names it.

Each part lists its manufacturer parts: manufacturer, part number (MPN), status (active, nrnd or obsolete), whether it is preferred, a datasheet link and notes. Each manufacturer part lists its supplier offers: supplier, supplier part number, link, currency, price breaks (quantity and unit price), lead time, minimum order quantity, stock and notes.

• A part never lists the same manufacturer's MPN twice; the same MPN on two parts is allowed.
• Marking one manufacturer part preferred clears the others.
• Price breaks need whole quantities of at least 1 and no quantity twice.
• Sourcing can always be edited, even on a released part with Lock released attributes on.
• Prices are numbers with a free-text currency. Nothing converts currencies.