This topic is contained in the PDXpert help file: select Contents from the application's Help menu.
General tab
The General tab provides the basic information about the part: its name, its identifier number, who created it and when, the product families that use it, and its lifecycle phase.
- Part
- The item class icon indicates the current part revision status:
Pending (unreleased)
Released
Canceled- You can drag the icon and drop it onto a destination, such as another item's markup list or a change form's affected list.
- Owner
- This is the organization that is responsible for the design and construction of the part, and controls its technical content. Typically, your own organization is responsible for parts that are fabricated according to your designs, processes, and procedures. Partner organizations can own parts, which your organization then can use in your products or for supporting your production process.
- Type
- The part type classifies the part's purpose, attributes and behaviors. Fabricated proprietary parts have different attributes than purchased components. Your administrator has defined your organization's part types and their attributes, so selecting a particular part type determines what you can do with it.
- Lifecycle phase
- Independent of data revisions, a part can be assigned a level of "maturity." For instance, you may have relatively little confidence in a prototype part: you may need to build it in small quantities to verify its fit or performance. As your confidence in the part's accuracy and relevance develops, your willingness to commit additional resources becomes somewhat greater. Later, as the part's value proves itself, you release it for unrestricted use, and the part's audience is given the green light to use it without restriction.
- Lifecycle selections are defined in the Item lifecycle phases collection.
- Number
- The part number uniquely identifies a physical item located in a particular inventory location.
- Your administrator may have specified that all company-owned parts be automatically assigned a number when they're created. If this is the case, then the Number field, as well as the AutoNumber (123) button on the right-most end of the textbox, is locked and the part number is already present. On the other hand, most parts issued by other organizations (for example, a hardware manufacturer's identifier for a particular size machine screw) will have numbers assigned by those organizations; therefore, the Number field will be editable and the AutoNumber button disabled. Finally, in cases where your administrator gives you the option of having a new number assigned or entering your own number - such as when you want the part number to be related to the number of the document that describes it -, both the Number textbox and the AutoNumber button will be enabled.
- The assigned auto-number format and value is defined in a Sequences: Identifier collection member, which is then used by the current part type.
- A part number uniquely identifies the item and represents a distinct inventory location. You should assume that parts with the same number but different part types or revisions will be freely mixed in the same inventory bin.
- Data revision
- A part revision distinguishes earlier iterations of the part metadata record from later ones.
- Normally, a part iteration that results in significantly altered ("non-interchangeable") physical item is assigned a new part number. Modifications that simply add to the data record's content in minor ways, clarify technical information, or correct clerical errors will likely retain the same part number, but require a new record revision identifier.
- PDXpert will automatically assign the most recent released part record revision to a parent assembly. If you do not want the current revision to be assigned to previously released parent assemblies, you must create a new part number for the item and explicitly assign it to a new revision of the parent, and then release these on a change form.
- By convention, a physical part itself has no revision identifier. The PDXpert part Data revision field refers to a specific database metadata record, which may be revised without affecting part interchangeability. Parts with the same number but different metadata record revisions can be freely mixed with earlier parts in the same inventory bin. If a part iteration is not interchangeable with preceding iterations of that part, then the new iteration requires a separate inventory location, and therefore a new PDXpert part record. Although the revision identifier should never be considered relevant for inventory management, production or servicing, some organizations may mark a metadata revision on the part.
- Version
- A version is any number of characters that you assign to distinguish parts with the same part number. The Version field may be displayed or hidden, depending on whether your administrator permits the selected part type to have versions.
- A part version distinguishes earlier iterations of a part from later ones. Unlike a record revision, which is managed by PDXpert, the version is created by an outside entity - a person or another computer application, such as a software compiler - and manually entered here. If both revisions and versions are used for a part, creating a new version will also change the part record revision.
- Part name
- The part name (or description) provides a unique summary of the part's purpose and application.
- Trustee
- This is the person with overall responsibility for the current part record's contents, and is typically the person who created the part record. The trustee can edit various fields, build the part's structure, attach the part to a change form's Affected tab, and designate a new trustee. The current trustee, as well an analyst, can re-assign the part to another user, who becomes the new trustee.
- Revision area
- If a part has been affected in a particular location (for example, "main valve", "power switch") or database attribute ("Default unit of measure") you can highlight that information here.
- Language
- The part may have labels or other nomenclature in this language, which need not be the same language as that used by PDXpert. When a new part is created, the owning organization's default language will be copied to this field, but the value can be overridden.
- Product families
- Product families (a) allow you to define groups of related items for convenient searching, and (b) restrict who can work with the items based on permissions granted within a product family's collection member. If you do not specify a product family, then any user role with general part permissions can view the part.
- Release description
- This can be used to state why the current part release has been created. You can also provide keywords that will help users to locate this part record revision in later searches.
- Released
- This checkbox indicates whether the part record revision has been released for use. The accompanying field displays which change form released the current revision. Double-clicking on the change identifier will open it.
- Release date
- This date indicates when the part record revision was released on the implementing change form.
- Canceled
- This checkbox indicates that the part revision record has been replaced by another revision or withdrawn from use. The accompanying field displays which change form canceled the current revision. Double-clicking on the change identifier will open it.
- Cancel date
- This date indicates when the released part record revision was canceled.
- Effectivity
- This value indicates when the items on the assembly structure are used to produce the current assembly revision. You can set the Effectivity value to allow for production lead times between the time that the assembly is released on a change form, and when the parts can be used on the assembly.
- The Effectivity value is displayed only for assemblies (that is, where the Structure tab's Markup list will accept other parts), since an individual component is always effective on its Release date.
- Snapshot from
- If you've created the part by copying it from another item (), then that source will be displayed in this textbox. Double-clicking on the displayed item will open it.
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Help topics describe the most current PDXpert PLM software release, and may differ from earlier releases.
