Configure variants in manual mode

Configure variants in manual mode You can configure variants using the manual mode. The manual mode help you view all the available features, including potentially invalid ones, and manually select and validate configurations. You can identify and resolve conflicting constraints, understand system indicators for violations, and apply configurations to customize product structures. You can view all the product lines and product models in a configurator context. Product lines are sometimes referred to as series and provide a high-level organization of product models. Procedure Find and open the product to be configured and choose Details > Variant Configuration. The system displays a list of available product lines, product models, and groups. If the product has a variant configuration defined, the selections in the configuration show with the variability in the context. Note Your administrator can deploy the system with the Cfg0PrimaryBusinessRelevantAttribute global constant that allows you to use either Name or ID as the primary business-relevant attribute. When the system is configured with the global constant that points to Name as a primary business property, all Product Configurator views display Name instead of ID in the corresponding areas. Switch to Manual mode by selecting Guided > Manual. You are now in manual mode. You see all available features, including features that are not valid in the current context. Summary models are listed below the models in a particular product group and act as a dependency chain to other places in the model. For example, one particular car model requires gasoline, while another requires diesel. Choosing one of these fuel categories triggers changes in other parts of the model, such as the engine itself, the need for spark plugs, the need for a fuel receptacle, and so on. You can look at entire variability, choose variety of features, and assess if those selections are valid based on the configurator rules. You can validate your selections and save your configuration. If there are any conflicting constraints, the system reports violations as error messages and specifies the conflicting selections. Single select groups are designated as such to show the intent of the groups. However, when you select a feature, other features in the same family remain displayed, allowing you to select additional features. Configurator rules and defaults are not automatically applied. You must manually apply configurations by clicking . Automatic selection, filtering, and indications of invalid selections are not automatically provided. You must manually validate and apply system selections . Note If you have an invalid configuration, the system does not allow you to switch from manual to guided mode. Select the appropriate model and the summary model. When you make some selection changes and revert them, the system continues to display the Save icon. Select the desired group to see the features. You can only view one group at a time. Use the Filter box to help locate the appropriate feature. The text filter is not case-sensitive and is based on both the family and the feature names. Example You type mfv into the Filter box. The filtered list shows the families containing mfv in the family name, along with all the features in that family. The filtered list shows the features containing mfv in the feature name, along with its parent family. Because manual mode allows multiple selections for multiselect and Boolean families, you can select as follows: indicates include. indicates unselected. indicates exclude. To exclude a feature, hover over it and select the Exclude icon. Select the appropriate features for this custom variant configuration. An optional feature family contains product configurations where users are not required to select a feature for the family. For example, you may have a family with features for optional equipment. If optional feature families are defined in a product model, two options display in the family section header. Click to allow any of the optional family features to appear in the structure. Click if you want none of the optional family features to appear in the structure. Typically, features are predefined for each family, but free-form families allow you to enter a value for a feature at any time. If a family is specified as free-form, you can enter numbers, strings, or dates, depending on the data type defined. Select an assembly that contains free-form families in the Variant Conditions tab, and click the Add Feature option. You can use operators such as >=, >, <=, and <. If you select <= or < in the From field, the To field is disabled. If you have a SpeakerWire free form family in your configuration context, then you can enter the free form value as a discreet value or a range in the text box or use the Add panel to author the range. According to the range or the discreet value you specified, the configuration context displays only the correct BOM lines. For combining the values, you can use the AND (&) operator. The OR (|) operator is not supported. When you apply the configuration to the structure, the system filters the structure to show only the items that meet the condition for the feature. At any time, click Validate to validate the configuration. Each violation is identified using the error indicator. Note The type of violation assigned to a feature or feature group is based on the severity assigned by your configuration analyst. You cannot change the severity level in the current Active Workspace release. The severity is currently set to error by default. Hover over the indicator icon next to a feature to view the reason for the violation. Next to a feature to view the reason for the violation. Next to a group to view the features within that group that have a violation. The system identifies violations in the configuration using the following indicators: error warning information Note The type of violation assigned to a feature or feature group is based on the severity assigned by your configuration analyst. You cannot change the severity level in the current web client release. The severity is currently set to error by default. Hover over the indicator icon: Next to a feature to view the severity and reason for the violation. Next to a group to view the features within that group that have a violation. As you make selections for the custom configuration, in the Selection Summary , filter your selections using one of the following options from the Selection Type list. Selection Type Description User Displays the features selected by the user. All Displays all features that are selected. These include user and system selections. Incomplete Families Displays the families from which you have not made any selections yet. In the selection summary table, you can: Identify the type of selection by viewing the icon in the first column. For example, user positive selections are indicated by . To know more about the icons and the type of selection they indicate, hover over the icon in the column header. View information about the Family, Feature, and Group of the selected features. Sort the columns in ascending or descending order as required. To do this, click the header cell of the specific column and select the required option. Filter the column contents. To do this, click the header cell of the specific column, select the option from the Contains list, enter the filter criteria in the search box and click Filter. The selection summary options help you cross-probe to narrow down and select specific features to complete your configuration. Note You can export the contents of the selection summary if required. To do this, in the Variant Configuration tab, in the Selection Summary view, click Export to Excel . At any time, click Expand to apply system selections. The system makes selections based on configurator rules or constraints and displays the indicator to designate the system selections. The completeness indicator at the top displays one of three states: Valid and Complete, Valid and Incomplete, and Invalid. Valid and Complete (applicable for both guided mode and manual mode) Valid and complete means that the BOM is targeting a complete structure, that is, a 100% BOM. When a configuration is valid and complete, you could take this configuration input and execute an order entry in the order system. On the contrary, if you do not see this completeness indicator, you should not typically perform the above action. It means that you have less content or more content. When a configuration is valid and complete, it assigns a value to every family. This is irrespective of whether the family is mandatory or discretionary. Valid and Incomplete (applicable for both guided mode and manual mode) In guided mode, you can select the Next Required or the Previous Required option to navigate to the next or the previous family or feature that requires a value to be assigned to complete the configuration. Invalid (applicable for manual mode only) It means that the input criteria is invalid based on the configurator rules set in the current configurator context. At any time, click Clear Selections > Clear System Selections to clear any system selections that may have been previously calculated, while preserving your user selections. Alternatively, click Clear Selections > Clear All to clear all user and system selections, as well as any reported violations across all groups. (Optional) Save the custom configuration. Click Apply Configuration to apply the selected variant configuration to the current content. Note If you save the current context (for example, the subset definition or workset), the variant configuration displays in the list of saved variants. Engineering BOM Management ─ Usage, 2606 Unpublished work. © 2026 Siemens