Solve behavior for default rules

Default rules anticipate common settings that align with most users' preferences. When conflicts arise, Teamcenter resolves them by determining which default rules to suppress based on their sequence number and affiliation with the input configuration.

Default rules, created by the configuration specialist, enhance usability by assisting users in forming a complete product configuration. These rules anticipate common settings that align with the preferences of most users.

Default rules that are in conflict with the user input or constraint rules with a higher severity are automatically skipped when expanding the configuration. Teamcenter automatically resolves all conflicts that involve default rules by determining the optimum set of default rules to be suppressed based on their affiliation with the input configuration and their ranking based on sequence number. Default rules with a higher sequence number are evaluated later and therefore have a lower ranking. Those with the same sequence number have the same ranking. The system infers the rank of default rules based on site preferences set by the administrator.

Prerequisites

This topic assumes that the administrator has set the required site preferences for default rules as described in Setting preferences for default rules in Product Configurator on Rich Client ─ Usage.

Procedure

1. Create a Car_2024 configurator context with a positive or negative bias.
2. Create a model family and product models as follows:
3. Create a group, family, and features as follows:
4. Verify the value of the Cfg0DefaultRuleSortSequence site preference. The default value of this preference is cfg0Sequence:ASC. This means that only sequence numbers are considered for default rules and the lower sequence takes priority. Override this preference by setting the value as Cfg0DefaultRule:object_name:ASC.
5. Create availability rules as follows in the Grid Editor. Availability rules are required only if you create a configurator context with a negative bias.
6. Create default rules as follows in the Grid Editor.
7. Click Settings > Arrange. In Available columns, search for object_name, select the Name column, and move it to Displayed Columns. Ensure that this is next to the Sequence Number. Click Save and Arrange.object_name is the internal name for the Name column.
8. Edit the default rules to specify the V4 gasoline engine and V6 gasoline engine names as V4_gasoline and V6_gasoline, respectively.
9. Open the Variants tab and click Variant Configuration. It shows a valid and complete configuration.
10. Navigate to the Engine group.

The R3 diesel engine is a system selection because of an availability rule. The V4 gasoline engine is the default selection. This is because the default rule name was V4_gasoline for V4 gasoline engine and V6_gasoline for V6 gasoline engine. The alphabetical order of the default rule name takes priority for the default rules since you have overridden the Cfg0DefaultRuleSortSequence site preference and set the value to Cfg0DefaultRule:object_name:ASC. 11. Edit the names of the default rules to specify y_gasoline and x_gasoline for V4 gasoline engine and V6 gasoline engine, respectively. 12. In the Variant Configuration view, navigate to the Engine group.

The V6 gasoline engine is the default selection now. This is because the default rule name was y_gasoline for V4 gasoline engine and x_gasoline for V6 gasoline engine. The alphabetical order of the default rule name takes priority for the default rules since you have overridden the Cfg0DefaultRuleSortSequence site preference and set the value to Cfg0DefaultRule:object_name:ASC. 13. Override the Cfg0DefaultRuleSortSequence site preference and set the value as follows:Cfg0DefaultRule:object_name:ASCCfg0DefaultRule:cfg0Sequence:ASC 14. Edit the names of both the default rules and specify gasoline as the value. 15. Edit the Sequence Number property of the default rule and specify 10 as the value for V6 gasoline engine. The sequence number of V4 gasoline engine remains unchanged as 0. 16. Save your changes. 17. In the Variant Configuration view, navigate to the Engine group.

The V4 gasoline engine is selected. This is because the names (gasoline) are the same for both the default rules. However, the sequence number was 0 for V4 gasoline engine and 10 for V6 gasoline engine. The system, based on the preference value, first considers the names of the default rules and since they are the same, it considers the sequence number next to prioritize the rules. In this case, the lower sequence number is prioritized.