SAP 3D Visual Instance Planner is a solution from SAP PLM that can enrich product structure with variants and geometric instances using the geometric data from the CAD 3D model. Designer is able to do a digital mock-up of the different configurations in PSM after the Geometric Instances are maintained within the Product Item variant. Additionally,the visual enriched Product structure can be used to create manufacturing BOM from Visual Enterprise Manufacturing Planner. Here, I will explain how the PSM enrichment with visuals can be achieved using services with minimal configuration activity. The function module /PLMI/COPY_INST_BOD2_PSM allows you to transfer the geometric position data or the instance data from CAD to the PSM variants. The function is also capable of creating variants for product items based on defined mapping rules.
Creating variants and instances in PSM
Variants can be created automatically using the service /PLMI/COPY_INST_BOD2_PSM if the appropriate identifiers are maintained in Product Items and document structure. The identifiers to be respected for creation, update or deletion of variants and instances is maintained in the following customizing. Logistics-General->Product Lifecycle Management->PLM Web User Interface->Objects in PLM Web UI->Product Structure and Assembly Management->Settings to Transfer Instances from Document Structure to Product Structure.
There are various possibilities offered, to define identifiers in PSM and document structure like for ex. using:
i. Classification values
ii. Attributes of PSM or document like Name, description, material
iii. Custom attributes where the customer implements a BADI /PLMI/PPE_VIP to populate the identifier values in PSM and document structure.
It is up to the user to choose the appropriate identifier setting based on how the data is set up in the system.
In the next few minutes you will discover how the service works with two separate set of indentifiers.
i. Classification as identifiers in PSM and document structure.
ii. Attributes like Description, Material as identifier in PSM and document structure.
I will illustrate using an example of Bike.
1.1 Creating variants and instances in PSM using classification
The Bike product family contains Product Items like Brake, Wheel, Cable, Front Wheel, Rear Wheel etc. In Product Items in PSM, we have assigned an Identifier class called PSM_PI_ID to each of the product Items.
The class definition in CL03 is like below. This class contains a characteristic called ‘ID’ which will uniquely identify variants from source structure. The characteristic can take multiple values.
The characteristic values that is to uniquely identify each variant from the source document structure is maintained at each product item.
The document structure has similar classification data maintained at each document. The class 'CAD_BIKE' contains two characteristics:
i.Characteristic which will uniquely identify the product item in PSM in which the variant and instance has to be created. The characteristic can accept multiple values.
ii. Characteristic which will uniquely identify the variant for which the geometric instances needs to be updated. This identifier is only required in case of update of Geometric Instances and not for creation of GI.
In CL03, the class definition is like below:
&The characteristic values should uniquely identify the PI and variant in PSM.
Customizing is maintained in SPRO Logistics-General->Product Lifecycle Management->PLM Web User Interface->Objects in PLM Web UI->Product Structure and Assembly Management->Settings to Transfer Instances from Document Structure to Product Structure like below.
Execute function module /PLMI/COPY_INST_BOD2_PSM in SE37.
The function creates variants and geometric instances wherever it finds matching product items comparing the identifier values between source document structure and target product structure. The message logs indicates details about the GI created.
The user can verify the results in two ways:
i. Loading the PSM in Visual Instance Planner
ii. Digital mock up in PSM The results will indicate any incorrect GI assignment.
1.2 Creating variants and instances in PSM using attributes
In the previous scenario we used classification to identify the instances that needs to be mapped under the product Item. In this scenario, we would make use of attributes like description of document, material number assigned to document for identification.
Pre requisite here would be that we have documents with description matching the product item description and the documents have material numbers assigned.
Customizing is maintained in SPRO Logistics-General->Product Lifecycle Management->PLM Web User Interface->Objects in PLM Web UI->Product Structure and Assembly Management->Settings to Transfer Instances from Document Structure to Product Structure like below.
Execute function module /PLMI/COPY_INST_BOD2_PSM in SE37.
The function creates variants and geometric instances when it finds matching product items comparing the identifier values between source document structure and target product structure. The message logs indicates provides details about the GI created. The user can verify the results in two ways: i. Loading the PSM in VIP ii. Digital mock up in PSM The results will indicate any incorrect GI assignment.
In the above scenarios, we have covered the creation of variants and GI using different identifiers. The scenario which I havent explicitly covered is creation of GI when variants are already present in the product structure, but must be obvious to the reader by now how that would work. Like creation, the services also manage instance updates. The key to using the services would be to have the right identifiers maintained between the source document and target product structure. The services provides flexibility to user to do instance assignment in various ways. If the standard attributes are not good enough for identification, there is always the flexibility to define custom attributes for identification by BADI implementation. Hope you found this useful. Cheers !!
- SAP Managed Tags:
1 Comment
