About setting up design and engineering BOM alignment

Before manufacturing a physical product, it is conceptualized and developed using a 3D visual representation. In a PLM system with design-part separation, the design and engineering BOM (Usage BOM or Assembly BOM) of a product are managed as separate entities. Therefore, for 3D visualization, the design and engineering BOM must be aligned with each other.

Example

To know what the part Wheel of a car looks like in the floor position, the part is aligned to its corresponding design. In Teamcenter, this alignment is called the design-part alignment. To know what the Wheel looks like when placed in the car, the four instances of the wheel are aligned with the corresponding design occurrences of the Wheel's design structure. This alignment is called the design occurrence-part occurrence alignment.

Users can manually align the design and engineering BOM of a product. But this is a complex, time-consuming, and error-prone process for a product with numerous parts. Therefore, Teamcenter allows administrators to configure automated generation of the design structure and engineering BOM with the alignment already performed.

Frequently asked questions

What should I do to set up the new alignment solution?

You must first disable the existing alignment solution and then enable the new one. Next, you must migrate the absolute alignment data as relative alignment data.

Is there a process I can follow to deploy and administer design and engineering BOM alignment?

You may refer to the task flow to set up design and engineering BOM alignment.

Can certain parts or designs be skipped while generating the corresponding design structure or engineering BOM?

Yes, when configuring the generation of the design structure and engineering BOM, you can choose to skip certain parts and designs by setting preferences.

How can I group part occurrences in the generated engineering BOM?

You can set a criteria to group design occurrences into a single part occurrence in the generated engineering BOM.

Can I use custom parts and designs for alignment?

See the processes to set up custom parts and custom designs for alignment. Additionally, for engineering BOM management, you can set up custom Usage BOM for alignment.

Where can I get a list of preferences that I need to set for the design and engineering BOM alignment?

There are several sources from which you can retrieve a list of preferences. You can view the list in Administration data report, Teamcenter rich client, Active Workspace, and raw XML file. The preferences that are specifically used for alignment start with the prefix pma.