In today’s global product development environment, it’s not an uncommon requirement for design teams to visualize and collaborate with CAD models authored in a variety of CAD packages. Windchill enables users to do this directly from their desktop, utilizing the integrated Windchill ProductView tools. This accelerates the flow of critical design data to the team, significantly boosting productivity and maximizing the product development process.

To visualize heterogeneous CAD data, the Windchill Visualization Collection capability must be enabled. To verify or change your Visualization Collection preferences, select the Preferences link in Windchill Home > Utilities. In the Edit User Preferences Window, select the Visualization tab and then Visualization Collection. Ensure that the Visualization Collection is available for use.

If your MCAD modeling practices define the creation of geometry and parts in a single global coordinate system, Windchill ProductView Lite Edition can be used. If not, the Windchill ProductView Standard Edition, which provides the mating capability, must be used.

To switch your preference for Windchill ProductView, Standard or Lite, select the Preferences link in Windchill Home > Utilities. In the Edit User Preferences Window, select the Visualization tab and then Select Viewing Tool. You can now select your Windchill ProductView viewing tool preference.

Once you have selected your viewing preferences, you can add your heterogeneous CAD data to a Visualization Collection.

To add a model to the visualization collection, go to its Details page and select the “Add to visualization collection” icon just below the part’s thumbnail.

Repeat this process for any additional heterogeneous CAD data models you would like to view. Once your collection is complete, select View All from the Visualization Collection.

(Note: You can always access your Visualization Collection from the top of any Windchill page.)

Now you can select your collection and visualize your heterogeneous CAD components. If a global coordinate system was not used, you may need to mate your components.

Mating components. Use this option to mate the selected component with another component at a specified location and alignment. You must specify the points to mate to and from, along with offset values. There are two parts involved in mating: the movable part (indicated by a blue marker) and the fixed part (indicated by green marker).

To mate two components, follow these steps:

1. Select the movable part(s).
2. Choose Reposition > Mate Point to Point. The Mate dialog box appears. The list of movable parts is shown in the Component box. You can add to this list by dragging other components from the Product Structure tree.
3. Specify a pick target menu option (View > Pick target). The option you specify will affect where the parts are mated. You can choose, for example, surface, curve, or point.
4. Next, specify the features you want to mate. These are specified in order - moveable part, fixed part, moveable, fixed, and so on. Click on a feature on the moveable part. A marker with a blue arrow is displayed. This is the primary mating point. Note: If you click on an existing marker (which will highlight it) and click the Tab key, the arrow direction will be reversed.
5. Click a point on the part to join the first part to - this will display a marker with a green arrow. The two arrows indicate the direction of alignment of the two mating points.
6. You can optionally specify X, Y, and Z offsets for the mating origin. The Distance offset can also be changed by dragging either of the colored arrows.
7. Click the Apply button on the Mate dialog box to join the components at the selected to and from points. You can also use the offset values in the Mate dialog box to specify values for the mating.
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