About cloning structures

When creating structures, it can be convenient to create a structure that is based on one that already exists. For example, you may design standard requirement specifications that you can reuse as templates for typical products. Selecting an existing requirement specification or structure as a template is a convenient way to quickly generate another structure.

Use the File→New→From Template command to create a structure that is based on another structure that is not currently open. You also use this method to clone structures when you want to select configuration options for the cloning process.

Your administrator specifies cloning rules that determine the actions taken when you clone a structure, as follows:

Rule	Description
Clone	The new structure includes a copy of the object that is referenced by the source structure.
Reference	The new structure references the same object that is included in the source structure.
Ignore	The new structure does not include or reference the object.
Map	The system maps the template to a replacement structure. For example, this allows you to create a requirement structure from an existing specification or child structure. Optionally, this rule may be allowed by a second (default) action: Reference or Ignore.

Note: Cloning is a core capability and is used in various functions, such as create alternate, create from template, process synchronize, and isolated study. It is very recursive and database I/O intensive. To help reduce the number of database commits to the minimum needed, your Teamcenter administrator can create a preference named ME_defer_save_in_clone and set it to true.

IMPORTANT: The value of this preference should be made true only after running cloning usecases in a test environment. This is required as cloning may fail in specific data conditions when the preference is set to true.

Note: By default, trace links in the source structure are not reproduced in the clone. To reproduce trace links from internal defining objects to internal or external complying objects, add one of the following naming rules to the Product.Template.Cloning preference value:

• *:*:Relation.FND_TraceLink:Clone — Internal defining trace links are copied from the source to the clone.
• *:*:Relation.FND_TraceLink:Reference — The clone contains references to the source's internal defining trace links.

You cannot reproduce trace links from defining objects that are external to the source.