Configuring structures by using Product Configurator variants

Configure with custom variant configuration (manual validation)

Manual configuration mode is primarily used to perform a study or an overlay analysis in the application that manages product content. Manual configuration is also used by configuration analysts to study the system response based on variety of selection paths. Using this mode, you can build and save valid configurations or study configurations.

If your system is configured with the global constant that points to Name as a primary business property, the Variant Configuration view displays Name instead of ID in the corresponding areas.

Procedure

Search for the structure in My Teamcenter, and click Open. Select it, right-click and select Send To→Multi-BOM Manager.
To open the Variant Configuration view, in the View Menu on the view toolbar, select Configure Variants.
Set a revision rule, effectivity, and rule date by clicking the corresponding hyperlink.

If an unconfigured feature exists in a configuration, such as after applying a saved variant rule, the system displays a question mark symbol next to the selected feature.

Select manual validation mode by clicking Guided configuration mode off. (The configuration mode always defaults to manual when you open a new session.)

By default, Teamcenter displays the Variant Configuration view in the Overlay configuration mode with all the available variant features including standalone features, feature packages, feature summaries, and summary models. You can select more than one feature from the single select family in the Overlay mode. To switch to the Order configuration mode, click Overlay Configuration Mode . When you switch between the Overlay and Order modes, Teamcenter resets the system selections that were derived based on rules prior to switching the mode. If you hover the cursor over the button in the order mode, the tooltip displays Order Configuration Mode. Your administrator can change the default configuration mode using the Cfg0DefaultValidationMode preference. By default, it is set to Order mode.

Observe that the header of the view displays the completeness check indicators. The icons appear active or inactive based on the results of the validation.

Valid and complete product configuration .

Valid and complete means that the BOM is targeting a complete structure,
 that is, a 100% BOM. When a configuration is valid and
  complete, you could take this configuration input and perform a cost or a weight rollup,
  compute the center of gravity, or perform a digital analysis of that product.

On the contrary, if you do
 not see this completeness icon, you should not typically perform any of the above actions.
 It means that you have less content or more content.
When a configuration is valid and complete, it assigns a value to every
 family. This is irrespective of whether the family is mandatory or discretionary. 
When you click Validate
 , the system only validates your
 input.

 
  
   indicates that your
   input expands into a valid and complete configuration if you click  Expand, such as it is a prediction of what would happen if
   you choose to expand your configuration.
 

When you click Expand
 , it means that the expanded
 configuration in the current configurator context is complete.

 
  
   indicates that your
   input was valid and was successfully expanded into a valid and complete configuration. If
   the icon was not active prior to clicking Expand
   , the Variant Configuration view was changed during the Expand operation. 
 



Valid and incomplete product configuration .
When you click Validate
 , it means that the input criteria is
 valid during the validation. 
When you click Expand
 , it means that the expanded expression
 is incomplete. For example, mandatory families may need to be selected to complete this
 configuration. You can also view a tooltip with a violation message with a list of
 incomplete families if you hover the cursor over the  result. The tooltip displays a list of incomplete mandatory
 families.


Invalid product configuration .
It means that the input criteria is invalid based on the configurator
 rules set in the current configurator context.

Note Contact your system administrator if the system returns a validation failure without showing a list of information, warnings, or errors. It may be an access control issue.

A red asterisk next to the family indicates that a variant feature selection is required. Once you make a selection that completes a required configuration, the red asterisk disappears.

Warning Do not create configurator rules, variant conditions, or saved variant rules by combining a product model with a summary model or a product line.

Click the cell to select the variant condition you want to use to define the configuration:
```
Click one time to display a green check mark  to include the variant condition when defining the
 configuration.


Click two times to display a red circle backslash  to exclude the variant condition when defining the
 configuration.


Click three times to display a blank cell to indicate the variant
 condition is not used when defining the configuration.
```
If the cell is positively selected with a green check mark , it means ANY. If it is negatively selected with a red circle backslash , it means NONE.

Multiple variant conditions are connected using a logical AND operation in the variant expression that defines the configuration.
If you want to override the system-assigned default feature, click the system default feature once to deselect, and then click another feature from the same family.
If the feature is a free-form text, perform the following steps:

Click to the right of the cell under the corresponding feature to display the edit pencil symbol.

Click to type the values.

In the Free-form Value Input dialog box, type the values to set the variant condition.

Click OK.
```
If the entered value contains any validation or formatting issues, the
 free-form
 feature is displayed in red in the feature text field and flagged with an
 error message.
```
Use the above procedure to specify values for free-form non-string, numerical, or date type families.

Click below the last cell with enumerated values to display a new line and the edit pencil symbol.

You can use operators only for the enumerated values for numeric families.
If a family is defined as free-form string, perform the following steps:

Click to the right of the corresponding cell under the free-form string family.

Enter values directly in the cell.
If a family is defined as date, perform the following steps:

Click to the right of the cell to display the date symbol.

Click to define dates.

In the Date Range Control dialog box, click today's date to open the calendar to set the required date or type the values and ranges.

The calendar initially displays the current day, month, and year.

For a non-free-form data type, predefined features are not listed in the drop-down list when choosing a range. For example, if an integer family Horse Power has features of 200, 400, and 500, then the dialog box displays 200, 400, and 500 in the drop-down list. If a family Release has features of 01-01-2018 and 01-01-2019, then the dialog box does not display a drop-down list with these features. If you want to use a range by using these features, select the precise date using date control in the Date Range Control dialog box.

Click OK to set the date.
If a family is defined as a dynamic family, when you select a standalone feature in the manual mode, it is valid across all the selections in the dynamic families where this feature resides.

Your administrator can enable the creation of dynamic families and standalone features using the Cfg0EnableDynamicFamilySupport preference. Note The standalone features and the dynamic family concept are in an incubation phase. They should only be used with the approval from Siemens product management. They require authoring in Active Workspace and consumption of configurator data.
If you want to apply constraints, select Apply constraints. By default, this option is toggled off.

If selected, constraints are applied while applying the variant rule expression on the content.

If deselected, only user selections are applied.

You can toggle on this button by setting the Cfg0SetApplyConstraintsToggle user preference to true. By default, it is set to false.
If you do not want validation rules to participate during criteria expansion, deselect Allow validation rules to expand. By default, this option is toggled on.

If selected, allows validation rules to participate during criteria expansion.

If deselected, only violations, if present, are reported. The system selections based on validation rules does not occur in the expanded criteria.

You can toggle off this button by setting the Cfg0SetAllowValidationRuleExpandToggle user preference to false. By default, it is set to true.
To remove all variant expressions, click View menu and choose Clear Expression.

The system re-evaluates the configuration and displays features that were hidden based on the previous selections.
To load an existing configuration for viewing or editing, perform the following steps:

Click Load Variant Rule(s) .

Teamcenter displays the Load Variant Rule(s) dialog box. You can search and filter variant rules or variant criteria using your defined criteria in this dialog box.

Type a name or description as your search criteria to find variant rules or variant criteria.
```
 For variant criteria only, you can also search using the revision ID or
  ID. Additionally, you can specify the revision rule and the rule date in the Load Variant Rule(s) dialog box to locate the required
  revision of your variant criteria. 
```
Press Enter or click Search.

Your administrator controls which queries and search criteria display in the Load Variant Rule(s) dialog box using the PCA_VariantRuleSearch_SavedQueries preference. This preference sets the default value as Variant Rules which is a generic saved query used to perform a search for variant rules. You can define your own saved query for variant rules and add its name to the PCA_VariantRuleSearch_SavedQueries preference. If your administrator adds configurator context to the search criteria, the system locates only variant rules that are shared with the current and active configurator context in the Variant Rule(s) view. Your administrator controls if you create variant rules or variant criteria using the Cfg0CreateVariantRuleType preference. The preference can be set to either VariantRule or Cfg0VariantCriteria which allows you to create either variant rules or variant criteria, respectively. By default, it is set to Cfg0VariantCriteria. If the value is not set, you see an error message notifying you that no valid variant rule is found in the system.

All variant rules that match your search criteria are listed in a table at the bottom of the dialog box. Additionally, it displays the number of variant rules found in your search.

If needed, you can filter the results by typing your criteria in the filter box.

Check one or more boxes to select product configurations you want to load and click OK to replace the existing selections. By default, Load expanded expression only and skip revision, effectivity and violation level information is selected.

Note The default state of the check box is controlled by the Cfg0LoadExpressionInfoForVR user preference. By default, it is set to false and the variant rule is loaded without session information.

The system loads expressions of the selected variant rules or variant criteria in the Variant Configuration view. If not selected, the configuration session information with expressions is loaded for the selected variant rule. A variant rule session information consists of severity, validation mode, revision rule, effectivity, and a rule date saved along with an expression. When you load the rule without the session information, the system displays it as Custom configuration. If you modify and save it, the system saves it as a new rule. If you load the entire rule including all of the expressions and the session information, the system displays the name of the variant rule or the ID, revision, and the name of the variant criteria. If you make any changes to that rule, the system overrides the information and saves the changes in the same rule. Validation information is not saved along with the rule. It is recommended to validate the rule after you reload it.

When you make changes to variant rules or variant criteria, such as make a new selection, change a revision rule or effectivity, the system resets the validation flags.

Alternatively, you can select Append only expressions to the existing configuration in the view and Teamcenter loads each in a separate column, preserving the existing selections. Teamcenter loads only saved expressions. The system applies the configuration to the current content and logically overlays multiple columns, resulting in a 120% BOM configuration or an imprecise configuration.

When using the Load Variant Rule(s) dialog box to append new saved variant rules to your configuration using Append only expressions to the existing configuration in the view, you can only view the already loaded SVRs but you cannot deselect them. You can choose to load other available saved variant rules.

When you overlay configurations, the system displays each configuration in a separate column during authoring and validation. Configurations are also expanded column by column. Number of columns in the input and output configurations are maintained by the system. If you select variant rules to load with Append only expressions to the existing configuration in the view not selected, then the system does not append the columns for the selected rules. If you search and load variant rules or variant criteria multiple times, then the system constructs results only for the newly selected objects and does not include the already loaded ones. Note
```
If you make imprecise selections, you cannot switch to the guided
 (active) mode. The system generates an error message stating that the active validation
 mode only supports the precise configuration.
```
(Optional) Click View menu and choose Clear Variant Rule to unload the variant rule or variant criteria from the view and reset the session information, including severity, validation mode, revision rule, effectivity, and the rule date, to the default state.
(Optional) Click View menu and choose Clear Un-configured Feature to remove unconfigured features.

The expression on the unconfigured feature in the view is removed. Also, the row holding the unconfigured feature is removed.
Click Validate . The system validates your input and considers all system rules to validate and report the verdict. It does not change the input expression. It does not consider rules below the selected severity level, such as default rules.

You can specify operators for numerical or date family when validating your configuration.

Teamcenter provides feedback after performing a set of functions as follows:

Validates the selected criteria against the system rules with the severity equal or greater than the input severity. Reports violations based your selections.If prior to validation, all families have precise selections, the system displays the Valid and complete product configuration status. Otherwise, the system displays the Valid and incomplete product configuration status and provides additional information indicating the reason for the invalid status. Reports violation on the free from families where value specified is outside their minimum or maximum range. If you hover over the violation, the tooltip displays object details that caused this violation, such as specific features or configurator rules. If needed, you can select and copy the violation message.The validation verdict remains consistent for a given user selection, severity input, and the constraints within the configurator context.When the system determines that the validation verdict is invalid, it provides one possible reason for the validity error. Even if there are multiple reasons, the system presents only one. This reason is accurate but not consistent, meaning users can understand why their selections are invalid and identify the responsible constraints. The system chooses which violation to return when multiple violations are possible, and this choice is not consistent for performance reasons.If your configuration contains an inconsistent or conflicting rule set, then the violation occurs irrespective of any selection in the Variant Configuration view or for any other validation. In such cases, the violation may not be displayed on your selection. For example, if no features from mandatory families are available, then during the validation, the violation occurs. The violation is displayed on features of mandatory families even if they are not a part of the input configuration to validate.Configurator constraint rules, such as inclusion or exclusion rules, specify a severity level. When you are validating your configuration, the system reports the constraint rule violations with the specified severity level.
You can perform the following actions to modify the interaction for validations during the manual configuration:

Click Set Info level violations to be fetched while applying validations to switch between displaying and enforcing or hiding and dropping of all informational messages.

Click the Set Warning level violations to be fetched while applying validations to switch between displaying and enforcing or hiding and dropping of all warning messages.

Error level violations are always displayed.

During the validation process, if you have multiple rules with conflicting severity levels, the systems validates and enforces the rules based on the following severity ranking:

Error (highest severity) Warning Information Package Default Default System Enforced Defaults (lowest severity)
Click Expand . The system considers all system rules to validate your input and assigns features or precise values to the feature families using system knowledge.

If Allow Validation Rules to Expand button is deselected during expansion, only violations are reported, if present. The system selection based on validation rules does not occur in the expanded criteria. By default, Teamcenter displays the Variant Configuration view with this button as selected.

In the Overlay mode, the system assigns values based on the valid input criteria. The system appends your input in the Variant Configuration view with the values that the system identified as the only possible solution in the selected families. The system considers all configurator rules with the severity equal or greater than the input severity. Note The families with multiple possible solutions are left unassigned. The system informs you if the expanded criteria is complete or incomplete.

In the Order mode, the system assigns values based on the valid input criteria, similar to the Overlay mode. Moreover, it provides additional values to help you create 100% configuration or order configuration. These additional values are provided for all families. The system suggests the empty value as the default if there are multiple solutions or for an optional family. This means the resulting configuration is not choosing any values for the optional family. All of the nonconflicting low severity rules, including default rules, are considered.
Click to save the custom rule.

If you started from a blank view, Teamcenter displays the Save Product Configuration dialog box; otherwise it saves the changes to the existing product configuration. If you exit the Variant Configuration view without saving, you are prompted to save the changes.
To save a new configuration, in the Save Product Configuration dialog box, type a name and description, and click OK.

Teamcenter creates a custom configuration with the specified name and variant configuration. The system adds the name of the saved variant rule to the title bar.
To clear a previously loaded custom configuration, click View menu and choose Clear Variant Rule.

The system removes the name of the saved configuration from the title bar and then resets user and system selections to the initial state.

Source: https://docs.sw.siemens.com/en-US/doc/282219420/PL20251212545240207.xid1364469/xid490490 · retrieved 2026-07-11