Features

Features are the vehicle for capturing and managing engineering attributes of the model version. To represent certain features of a model version with enough details to define them for development, they require feature-specific attributes. These attributes describe the requirements of the feature. Some features, in addition to having special attributes, may have special behavior, such as access control or release process.

This page discusses:

See Also
Product Configuration
Bill of Materials Generation

Types of Features

Feature classifications represent the conceptual elements of a model version.

Features can be broadly classified as either variability features or logical structures. Variability features are combinations of variants and variant values, or option groups and options. Variants are always single-select. Option groups are always multi-select.

Many complex model versions include other model versions that can be selected as options or used to describe the model version-to-model version dependency structure. For example, a model version such as a car may have an optional keyless entry system but in reality, that system is a model version purchased from an outside manufacturer. So for this type of scenario, existing model versions can also be added as features or sub-features of a model version.

Variability Features

Variability features include:

  • Variants or option groups that represent higher-level marketing features.
  • Variant values or options that represent the actual choices defined under the associated variant or option group. These are leaf-level choices and cannot be further broken down.

Variability features can have relationships to the following types of objects within the context of a model version:

  • Candidate variants or option groups
  • Other variants or option groups, including mandatory variants and "varies by" option groups
  • Variant values or options
  • Inactive "varies by" option groups
  • Committed variants or option groups

Logical Structures

Logical features are part of the logical model version structure in a model version hierarchy. Each logical feature can belong to the logical structure of a model version.

Logical structures include logical features that include software features. Logical features define the framework used to generate the Engineering bill of materials (EBOM) for a product configuration. Logical features further define the feature structure and can have one or more parts associated with them. The associated parts represent configurability. Logical features can also have sub-features that have options in them.