About Flexible Product Structures

When you define engineering connections between components of a product, the connections are aggregated under the root product in the tree. When you create a mechanism representation, all of the engineering connections under the root product are available to use as joints in the mechanism.

If a product's component is a subproduct with its own engineering connections, the engineering connections of the subproduct are ignored by default. Instead, the base configuration of the subproduct is instanced into the main product, and the subproduct remains rigid for all subsequent assembly and kinematics applications.

In this figure, the engineering connections associated with the subproduct (illustrated in red in the figure) are not included in the list of engineering connections from the main product (illustrated in green in the figure).

However, if the subproduct is defined as a PMR, its engineering connections are propagated to the root product during an update. Because the original connections from the subproduct are now active in the main product, the subproduct retains its original flexibility for subsequent assembly and kinematics applications.

In this figure, the engineering connections associated with the subproduct (illustrated in red in the figure) are included in the list of engineering connections from the main product (illustrated in green in the figure).

To define a product as a PMR, you must modify the product properties. To do so, in the product Properties dialog box, click the Mechanical Behavior tab and select the Flexible at instantiation check box. Since you can only define PMRs on root products, define the PMR before instantiating the subproduct into the main product. You can also determine which components of the PMR can move in the final product.