Creating a Product Configuration

Product Managers and Design Engineers can create product configurations either stand-alone or in the context of a product. A design variant or configuration feature must be associated with the product before a product configuration can be created.

When a product configuration is created in the context of a product revision or independent of any product, the entire subfeature structure is included as possible options that can be selected for the product configuration. When a product configuration is created in the context of a product version or variant, only the specific subfeatures selected for that version or variant are included, allowing for a streamlined product configuration process.

When creating a product configuration, different selection methods are provided for selecting options for features. These methods include radio buttons, drop-down lists, new windows, or opening a search page. Regardless of the method used, the options are restricted according to rules on the feature. The threshold for when each selection method is used can be configured. For example, by default, when the number of choices is 4 to 19, a drop-down list is used. See Configuring the Properties File.

Note: Product configurations are created in the context of a product while assembly configurations are created in the context of a logical feature.

Before you begin: Access the Product Configurations page. For details, see Viewing Product Configurations.
Related Topics
Running a Search
About Product Configurations
Creating an Assembly Configuration

  1. To create a product configuration, do one of the following:

    • From the Product Configurations page Actions menu, select Create.
    • If ENOVIA Engineering Central is installed together with ENOVIA Variant Configuration Central from the Categories menu for a part, select BOM Powerview > Reports > Create Product Configuration.

      Note: Product configurations created in this way do not have the View Product Configuration command in their page Actions menu.



    Note: The frame on the left always displays the name of the "based-on" product, the marketing text of the product, and the image of the product, if one is specified.

  2. Enter details about the product configuration, including the following:

    Name
    Type a name for the product configuration or check Autoname to have the system assign a name automatically.
    Based On
    Click to select the product or feature on which this product configuration is based. The Search page opens. If you are in the context of a logical feature, the product configuration is based on the logical feature and this field is read-only.
    Derived From
    Click to select the product configuration from which this product configuration is derived. The Search page opens.
    Top Level Part
    Click and select Top Level Part to select the part that is to be the top level part for the product configuration. The top level part is the context for the product configuration and can be any part. The Search page opens.

    Note: In the Product context, a part family can be created under the GBOM category. This part family is used to auto-generate the top level part if one is not already assigned to the product configuration. If you do not assign a top level part, a new part can be created from the context part family and assigned as the top level part.

    If you do not assign a top level part while creating a product configuration, one is automatically created and assigned to the product configuration when the EBOM is generated from the Preview BOM page. The prerequisite for this to occur is that in the context in which the product configuration is present, a part family must also be present in that context's GBOM. For example, if a product configuration is present in the Hardware Product context, then in the Hardware Product's GBOM a part family should also be present.

    You can manually assign an existing part as the top level part through Search for Top Level Part during creation or editing of the product configuration. The criteria governing the search are the same as those applied to creating a top level part:

    • The part policy should be Development Part and it should not be in the Obsolete state.
    • The part should not be connected to other parts with an EBOM relationship.
    • The part should not be connected to other product configurations as a top level part.

    Description
    Type details that describe the product configuration.
    Owner
    Click to assign an owner. By default, the owner is set as the person who is creating the product configuration.
    Sales Intent

    Select one:

    • Standard Configuration (default)—A product configuration that can be sold in the market and appears in the product catalog.
    • Custom Configuration—A product configuration sold to one customer that is not available in the product catalog.

    Purpose

    Select one:

    • Evaluation (default)—For internal engineering purposes, for example, to test configuration rules.

      Note: It is possible to create an invalid configuration for evaluation purposes, and to generate a BOM from an invalid configuration for prototyping. If it is preferred that this be blocked, you can configure the command action to be hidden when the configuration is invalid.

    • Order—For sale to customers
    • Accessory—The default for product configurations based on configuration features. If you are creating a product configuration in the context of a logical feature, the purpose is Accessory and is read only.

    Policy
    Shows the policy that governs the product configuration.
    Vault
    Click to specify where the object will be stored in the database if you want to use a vault other than the default. This field is displayed only if more than one vault is available to you. See Selecting a Vault.

  3. Click Next. This shows all features and default options of this product configuration in a single table.



    The toolbar contains the Validate Configuration command. The left frame contains the name of the new product configuration, marketing text, and image of the product (if specified). Click the image to open the Images page, where you can view all images for the object. For details on working with the images, see Working with Images.

    At the top of the table is the base price for the product configuration. By default, if a product configuration is selected for the Derived From column, the table consists of the available options for this product configuration.

  4. Enter further details about the product configuration. The following can be updated using in-cell editing:

    Features and Options. Select the options for each of the features.

    Help. Click to view contextual help for the feature.

    Quantity. Type the base quantity for the selected feature or option. The default is 1.0. This will update the external. price for the feature and total price of the new configuration.

    Note: The Ea. Price and Ext. Price fields are not editable.

  5. From the page Actions menu or page toolbar, click Validate Configuration. If the product configuration is invalid, an error icon appears before the option that caused the validation to fail. On mouse over, the Option Conflict tool tip opens and shows the error description. Below the current error there is a list of past errors. You can edit only the current error for the feature option.


    • All selections made for the feature are valid.
    • A change has been made to a feature option. The change icon is shown if you make a selection and it is changed to an automatic selection or if a default selection is changed to an automatic selection. An automatic selection is made for a feature according to rules for that feature.
    • An invalid selection has been made for the feature. The error icon is shown if a rule for the feature has been violated due to selections made for other features in the product configuration. If a change has been made to a feature option and that feature option is also an invalid selection, only the error icon is shown.

  6. Click the error icon to view a description of the error.

  7. Click Done.

    The product configuration is created and connected to both your company and the product's model using either the Standard Configuration relationship or the Custom Configuration relationship, based on which option was selected for the Sales Intent.