Copying by Merge and Replace

The Merge and Replace command reduces feature proliferation by allowing you to easily replace a logical feature in multiple products. During a merge and replace, the active parts under similar logical features are combined into one GBOM part table/logical feature. The new logical feature then replaces all instances of the two logical features involved in the merge. This command is available for features prior to the Release state.

Design variants are not programmatically rolled down for children that are added under a leaf-level logical feature. In such cases, design variants are considered to be user-defined conditions and are, therefore, not altered in the merge and replace process.

Note: If you attempt to perform Merge and Replace on a product that has been added as a logical feature, and that logical feature has a design variant attached, the Merge and Replace operation will fail silently (without an error message).

Merge and Replace copies a context-specific Common Group to all products involved in the operation. For example, if a logical feature had a design variant with a Global Common Group value of NO and a context-specific Common Group, Merge and Replace would copy the context-specific Common Group to all product revisions involved in the Merge and Replace operation. This differs from the behavior of Add Existing, which would not add the context-specific Common Group to the other product revisions.

Note: If you manually add a configuration feature to a product or product variant and then add it as a design variant to a logical feature, that configuration feature will be retained in the product or product variant context even if the design variant is removed.

Before you begin: Access the Logical Features page for a product. For details, see Logical Features Page.
Related Topics
Running a Search
Copying by Split and Replace
Working with Logical Features

  1. Select a context logical feature for the merge and replace.

    This feature cannot be in the Release state or any state after.

  2. Click Merge and Replace from the page Actions menu or toolbar or right-click the logical feature and click Merge and Replace from the Actions menu.

    The Search page opens, where you can search for the features that you want to combine with the context feature.

  3. From the list, select one or more features and click Submit. The Edit GBOM Part Table opens.



    The table contains the following columns:

    Part Number. The part number of the part related to the feature.

    Group Number. The group number for the duplicate part. If the part is not a duplicate part, this column is blank.

    Originating Feature. The name of the feature to which the part is related.

    Part Type. The type is part.

    Part State. The current state of the part in its lifecycle.

    Rule Type. The type of rule: Inclusion or Exclusion.

    Master Design Variants columns. Multiple columns are included in the table, one for each of the design variants of the context feature. The design conditions of the parts are displayed in the cells. The design conditions are an inclusion rule of the part.

    New Design Variants columns. Multiple columns are included in the table, one for each of the design variants for the features selected in the search to be combined with the context feature.

  4. Click Remove Parts to remove checked parts from the table. The parts are added as inactive parts for the new feature and are moved to the Inactive Parts table. It does not delete the parts from the database.

  5. Click View Duplicate Parts to check for parts that are duplicates due to editing in the GBOM part table. To remove a duplicate part conflict for the BOM generation process, the Display Duplicates page opens. Select the duplicate part to remove and click Remove Parts from the Actions menu.

  6. Click the Mode button in the page toolbar to perform in-cell editing of any design conditions for a part. For details, see Viewing a GBOM Part Table.

  7. Click Done.