Introduction

When an alternate Engineering Item is added to a primary item, a new object of type ‘Interchangeability’ is automatically created, in order to establish a relationship between the two.
This newly created object allows users to enrich the definition of the alternate in relation to the primary item by:

• Defining attribute values specific to the interchangeability context
• Attaching specification documents directly to the Interchangeability object

The platform administrator can define/configure the following:

• Additional attributes on the Interchangeability object
• Subtypes of the Interchangeability object
• Attributes specific to each subtype
• Maturity state rules for both the Interchangeability object and its subtypes

Alternate definition with interchangeability

While defining alternates in the Engineering Release app, you can select from the list, the appropriate type of the Interchangeability object to associate with the alternate:

(Interchangeability being the default type, while the others in the list as referred to as Subtypes)

Once the alternate is defined, the Information Panel allows you to:

• Enter values for both out-of-the-box and custom attributes
• Attach specification documents to the interchangeability object

In the example above, the information panel displays the following:

Alternates per instance:

Starting from R2025x GA, you can visualize a new column “Alternate (Instance)” that is available in both Reference and Usage views, and provides access to the alternates of the Engineering Item.

In the case of Reference view, you can view how many instances have alternate definition:

For more information on the alternate definition, you can review this post (from 2022):

https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexperience.3ds.com/community/swym:prd:R1132100503382:community:38?content=swym:prd:R1132100503382:communitypost:3JyEMX6ERdyww8qZrG4v3A 

The following video illustrates the concept of interchangeability: