Introduction
Revisions are the fundamental way that we capture improvements to design developments. They represent the evolution of a design over time and indirect control of the effectivity of a product or part downstream in MES (Manufacturing Execution System) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems.
“Branching” expands this power of revision management by allowing designers to create revisions independent of the primary development effort or to work on issues independently of it.
Use cases
Branching capability on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform can support various business use cases. Here are two examples:
Concurrent Engineering - Branching can be used in this case by different teams to work in parallel on different product branches. Each branch represents a different variant or version of a product. This enables multiple teams to collaborate simultaneously, making independent changes, experimenting with new features, or exploring alternative design options.
Collaborations with Suppliers - Branching can be used in this case to facilitate collaboration with suppliers or external development teams. By creating separate branches for external partners, the mainline development can remain undisturbed while allowing partners to contribute to specific features or components.
Usage of Branching
The specific scenarios and usage vary depending on your organization and its needs. Let’s next see some common use-cases where branching can be useful:
1. A flaw in the current design revision that cannot be corrected in the current development and must be addressed after a future revision
2. A design trial to explore design alternatives in parallel to the current development
3. A means of maintaining multiple independent configurations of a design with independent evolution lifecycles.
4. Development of product derivatives that do not affect the original product
Branching on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform is available with the 3D Product Architect, Product Release Engineer, and the Collaborative Lifecycle application. Let’s see how to create branches in a structure using the Product Structure Editor...
