Update Associated Assembly of a part automatically

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When we update a part, for instance we change models, we want the same part in all the associated assemblies to be updated automatically.

Current process
• Look up part to be updated 
•  Click on Views and select where used (this is the list of assemblies the part currently exists in)
• Update any details impacted by the change (AML, AVL, and Goals), new part and price
• After save, we must go into each assembly and review where used
• Update by locking, saving and unlocking, then into each assembly here.

We have to follow this process to update each assembly it touches until we get to the Building assembly as that is our very top.

Instead of going to each assembly and updating the part, we want this to happen automatically.

  • Hi Barnali,

    This should be possible by configuring the RelationshipType behavior which you can find more details about in the Just Ask Innovator help menu inside the client.

    It sounds like you'd want to make sure all of these relationships to your Part are configured to be Float relationships, so that they always point to the most recent version. However, this should be the default behavior set on most of these standard relationships. I ran a quick test in my environment by creating a very simple assembly called Parent with a single part in the BOM called Child, and I can confirm that they changes I made to Child were automatically visible when I went back to look at the Parent.

    Chris


    Christopher Gillis

    Aras Labs Software Engineer

  • Hi Christopher,

    I checked and the relationship types are configured to float. Is this related to  part lifecycle map, workflows or Item types?

    Thanks,

    Barnali

  • Hi Barnali,

    I wouldn't think that this is related to the Life Cycle or Workflow.

    Would you be able to provide some steps to repeat this issue? I'm curious what specific piece(s) of information are needing to be manually changed after the part is updated.

    Chris

  • Hi Chris,

    I update (change model no) a part Say Part A, the state changes from released to preliminary. Then Click on Views --> Where Used, go to the assemblies where this part A is used. It shows the part A as released in the assembly. Unlock, update and lock the part A in the assembly so that the state changes to preliminary. After updating all assemblies, I change the Part A from preliminary to released.

    I would want this process to be automated so that I need not go to each assembly and update the part and change its state to preliminary. Ideally, when I change Part A, the changes and the state of Part A should reflect automatically in all the assemblies where it is used.

    Thanks,

    Barnali

  • Hi Barnali,

    Ah. I see what the problem is now. You were correct. This is indeed related to the Life Cycle Map. :) 

    Each state in Life Cycle also has a behavior associated with it. I believe what you were seeing was that the parent assembly was in the Released state which gave it the Fixed behavior. Because of this, when you updated the child part, the parent remained pointing to the last released version of that part.

    In order to achieve what you're looking for, you'll need to edit each state in the Part's Life Cycle Map to have the Float behavior instead.

    Chris

  • Hi Chris,

    Thanks ! This worked but with this change I ran into another problem. 

    I changed all states in Life Cycle to Float and repeated the same steps as mentioned above. This is what happened:

    Opened a Part Say Part A to edit. Clicked on Views --> Where Used. It shows 10 assemblies where it is used. I update (change model no) the part, the state changes from released to preliminary. Clicked on Views --> Where Used. Now it shows just 2 assemblies instead of 10. In these 2 assemblies, the part's state is preliminary though.

    Thanks,

    Barnali

  • This might be caused by changing the Life Cycle State for already existing items. I think once those assemblies are versioned and have their life cycles restarted, the changes should catch up to them.

    I'm curious as to why it's just for those two assemblies though. Is there anything about those two assemblies that are different from the other 8? Perhaps they're in a different state?

    Chris

  • What I see now is in the other 8 assemblies, this part's state is still released and only the assemblies where the part's state is preliminary shows up under View-->where used. 

    Is there anything which I am missing due to which the part in only some assemblies is changing states?

  • I misread your last comment. :) I think the logic still holds though. The item behavior is likely set when the Part enters a state. Because the parts in your system were already in the state when it was still Fixed, they still have the Fixed behavior set on them. Once these Parts move to a new state or are versioned and have their life cycles reset, the new Float behavior should catch up to them. 

    I'll do a quick test in my environment to see if it's possible to do a one-time update for these existing Parts, so you don't have to wait for them to be versioned.

  • Hi Chris,

    Another input which might help here:

    I see in the 8 assemblies, the part's version is the previous version say A. while the part's current version is B.

    Thanks,

    Barnali