How to Use ProductView Lite

ProductView Lite is seamlessly integrated into Windchill, and makes visual collaboration easy for everyone. It is a powerful tool for viewing, annotating, and interrogating 2D drawings and 3D models. ProductView Lite allows all stakeholders to review data and provide feedback without access to the application that created it. Viewing CAD models - the most common function of ProductView Lite - is easily done using your mouse in conjunction with the shift and ctrl keys. (Figure 1)

Creating markups

The ability to create markups on 3D models gives users the flexibility to suggest changes and save those suggestions back to the server without having to print a drawing or create a separate file. To save a markup to the server:

• Select the Save or Save As icon on the lower left side of the ProductView screen.
• All markups for a specific version and iteration of a model show up as a thumbnail image on the Annotation Sets tab of ProductView Lite. (Figure 2)

Exploding components

You can explode parts in an assembly to create a particular exploded state:

• Click the arrow icon on the upper left of the screen to activate selection.
• Next, select one component by clicking on it, or multiple components by ctrl+click.
• The selected components in red can now be dragged by selecting inside the drag box for freehand movement, or by dragging on the coordinate vector for directional movement. (Figure 3)

Measuring

In ProductView Lite, you can measure any dimension you choose. The distance measuring tool supports measurement between any two points, edges, or surfaces. Both measuring features use a multi-step process - cycling from component to surface to edge to point - for selecting what you want to measure. You can single click to go to the next level and double click to stop at a level. We'll go through an example to demonstrate how this works:

Example: Distance between two edges

• Select the Distance Measuring tool
• Then single click the component you want to measure from
• Next, single click the surface the edge lies
• Double click the edge on the surface that you'd like to measure from (Figure 4)
• Repeat the process for the second edge (Figure 5)

The measurement now appears on the 3D model. After selecting the arrow symbol, you can drag the dimension and the dimension value. The measurement can be saved as a markup by selecting the Save or Save As icon on the lower left of the screen. (Figure 6)