Creating a Part Family

Part families allow engineers to define part naming conventions for the part auto-generation capability. The part family has attributes that describe how the part number will be generated such as prefix, suffix and the numbering sequence to use when dynamically generating a part.

When a new part is created from a part family associated with a feature, the type and policy of the newly created part are determined from the default part type and default part policy attributes of the part family. This allows part types to be created at any level.

Before you begin: Access the GBOM or GBOM part table for an object. For details, see Viewing GBOMs or Viewing a GBOM Part Table.
Related Topics
Working with Design Variants
Working with Common Groups
Working with Inactive Parts and Variants

  1. From the page Actions menu or page toolbar, click Create Part Family . Only users with Create access for part families will see this link.



  2. Add attributes, as necessary.

    Name. Type a descriptive name for the part family, for example, "Type A wheel assemblies."

    Type. Click to select the type or subtype of part family.

    Description. Type details that describe the part family.

    Pattern Separator. Character that is used between the prefix and the part name; also between the part name and the sequence pattern.

    Default Part Policy. From the drop-down list, select the policy to be used as the default when creating a part from this part family.

    Name Generator. If the name generator on value is set to On, all parts added to the family will be automatically named

    Prefix Pattern. Pattern of letters and/or numbers at the beginning of every part name that identifies the part family. For example, if the part family is Screws, the prefix pattern could be SCR.

    Sequence Pattern. Sequence pattern to use following the name of every part included in the part family. The format should mimic the policy sequence, and must end with three periods, for example: 001,002,003...

    Title. Type a title for the part family.

    Default Part Type. Click to select the type or subtype to be used as the default when creating a part from this part family.

    Suffix Pattern. Pattern of letters and/or numbers at the end of every part name that identifies the part family, for example, -0001. All parts with the same suffix are members of the same part family.

    Base Number. Starting number for the part name.

    Vault. If you want to use a vault other than the default, click to specify where the object will be stored in the database. This field is displayed only if more than one vault is available to you. For details, see Selecting a Vault.

  3. Click Done.