Before reading this post, we recommend that you read the following post on the Configuration Management using Model definition in ENOVIA
Introduction
Ever-changing customer needs requires greater development velocity and business agility. It is important that every stakeholder has a complete, up-to-date view of the product offerings.
For managing the definition of products containing complex, high variability and mapping it with its associated instance in 150% Engineering Definition, following two roles can be used:
- Product Manager (PDM) role allows you to define variants and options at the enterprise level, then use them to manage the variability of all the company's models. You can also define specific rules for each model to ensure model variability consistency and to drive product configuration definition.
- Configuration Engineer (CFG) role allows you to define a configured product structure (150% Definition) which contains all possible variations, which can later be narrowed to a single structure through filtering. You can define effectivity within the configured product structure by mapping product instance with the appropriate variant value or option.
This effectivity mapping is required to filter the configured structure and extract meaningful subsets of objects or predefined product configuration.
Filtering the Configured Structure
Once effectivity definition is complete, you can filter the configured structure (150% Definition) to obtain resolved structure. You can apply filter based on predefined or on-demand product configuration. These filters can be leveraged by the complete engineering community with various intents including configurations review, simulation, and validation. You can filter configured structures in various apps such as Product Explorer, Product Structure Editor, and Engineering Release etc.
Filtering Based on Predefined Product Configuration
Product configurations (PCs) can be used to filter the configured structure. Predefined configurations may be saleable configurations defined by marketing or evaluation configurations defined by engineering for analysis purposes.
In the Engineering Release app, from the summary view of the configured structure, you can select and apply required Model Version and Product Configuration to filter the configured structure.
Image 1: Applying Pre-defined configuration in the Engineering Release app
Note: When you filter a configured structure, you can only filter objects that have a defined effectivity. Any object that does not have a defined effectivity is always included in the filtered structure.
In the Product Explorer or Product Structure Editor apps, configuration filter provides an option “Edit Variants and Options from Product Configuration” that lets you search and select existing product configuration defined by Product Manager (PDM) role.
Image 2: Applying Pre-defined configuration in the Product Explorer app
Filtering Product Configuration On-the-fly
In the Product Explorer or Product Structure Editor apps, configuration filter provides an option “Edit Variants and Options from Configurator” that lets you:
- Create on-the-fly product configuration by defining values for each variants and options for each option groups.
- Edit and update the variant values and options of the pre-selected product configuration.
Image 3: Creating On-the-fly product configuration in the Product Explorer app
This option is useful to create custom product configuration for analysis purpose. However, it does not modify the original Product Configuration. It only allows you to temporarily change the pre-selected values of variants for analysis purpose(What-if scenarios).
For example, an engineering configuration could be defined to show a car with all possible engines to design or to verify potential hood alternatives.
Notes:
- The option to “Edit Variants and Options from Configurator” is available with the Configuration Engineer (CFG) role.
- Filters can be saved in the platform and reused by others
Refer the following video for more information on this functionality:
Comparing Filtered Configured Structures
You can use ENOVIA Compare widget to compare filtered configured structures. The comparison returns following results:
- Structural Comparison: Product structure differences are displayed on each object of the structure with a color code mentioned in the Compare Status bar.
- Properties Comparison: The properties panel displays a comparison of the properties of the two objects loaded in Compare.
- Geometry Comparison: The 3D viewer displays a geometrical differences between two filtered configured structures
Image 4: Comparing Filtered Configured Structures
Refer the following video for more information on this functionality:
