Learning more about 4GD objects

A collaborative design is the container for all the design data in a product or program.

For example, in the design of this house, the house and all of its contents.

A partition scheme contains attributes that specify the characteristics of a collection of partitions, for example, the type of child partitions or the number of top-level partitions the scheme may contain.

Partition schemes can be functional, spatial, or physical. Partitions are created within partition schemes.

For example, in the design of this house, different types of partitions can be used to organize the design components.

• Functional

  A functional partition scheme may contain partitions containing the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), electrical, and the plumbing systems.

  

• Spatial

  A spatial partition scheme may contain partitions for each floor.

  By default, spatial partitions are defined by a recipe so that new design components are automatically added to the partition.

  

• Physical

  A physical partition scheme may contain partitions organizing each individual physical room.

  

A partition is used to logically organize sets of design components into a hierarchy that permits all users to easily find their necessary data. Partitions can be organized in multiple ways, for example, by function, by spatial location, or by physical description.

Unlike traditional subassemblies, partitions do not control the position of a design component. A design component can be placed in multiple partitions. For example, in a collaborative design of a house, a section of pipe might be part of a plumbing functional partition and part of the kitchen physical partition.

Partitions can be static, where designers must manually add design components to them, or dynamic, where the contents of the partition are defined by search criteria.

A partition template is a stable, reusable, blueprint of partition breakdowns and partitions that you could potentially reuse in multiple collaborative designs. You create a partition template using knowledge of existing partition breakdowns in a similar collaborative design. A typical partition template may contain one or more partition schemes and a suggested partition breakdown structure.

A design component is a design representation of a component of a product.  Design components typically maintain geometric data and are authored in CAD systems. They are independently managed and do not depend on a parent occurrence or model.  They are configured, positioned, and released independently of any other design components.

For example, in a house design, the ventilation ducts, support columns, pipes, and structural members could all be modeled as design components. Different types of design components are provided to allow for parts and assemblies with different properties or characteristics.

A design feature represents an element or characteristic in the collaborative design such as weld points and seams. They can be managed separately from the design components with which they are associated.

For example, in a house design, two ducts may need to be welded together to ensure they remain in the correct place. You may create the weld as a design feature independently of the two ducts because the same ducts may be used elsewhere in the house but do not require welding there.

A subset definition maintains a search recipe and configuration.

A subset definition can be used as a template for multiple subsets. Once you realize a subset from the subset definition template,you can edit the subset without affecting the subset definition. If you want different content in a subset, it may not be necessary to create a new subset definition. Instead,you can use the existing subset definition template as a starting point for the new subset. In a typical enterprise,different organizations may create different sub set definitions in the same way they create workflow templates.

A subset contains a set of design components you want to use. A subset is created by the realization of a subset definition. A subset definition contains design components that are the result of searching using specific recipe terms.

In the example of the house design, you may need to check the fit between the HVAC, electrical, and plumbing systems, and the support post in the location of the basement.

You could define a subset with a subset recipe that finds all HVAC, electrical, and plumbing design components that are 1 meter in distance from the specific support post.

A Subset recipe controls which objects from the referenced collaborative design are added to the subset.

For example, a recipe could define a subset using the members of a partition, proximity to an object, a certain volume of the product assembly, or using object attributes.

For example, in the house design, you may need to check the fit between the HVAC, electrical, and plumbing systems, and the support post in the location of the basement. You could define a subset with a subset recipe that finds all HVAC, electrical, and plumbing design components that are 1 meter in distance from the specific support post.