About Alternate Products

An alternate a product is a product that is a suitable replacement for another product in which the other product product occurs in a product structure. They serve the identical function and fit of the product that they replace.

You choose the usage in which the alternate product replaces the product. For example, Gasket B is an alternate product for Gasket A only if a manufacturer can use Gasket B instead of Gasket A across instances of Gasket A that appear in a product. (You cannot assume that Gasket A is also an alternate product for Gasket B.) Gasket B serves the same form, fit, and function as Gasket A.

You can specify that any existing product is an alternate product for the primary product. If the alternate product does not yet exist, you must first create it and then select one or more primary products for which you to define the alternate product.

This page discusses:

Terminology

Primary
The product that an alternate product replaces in a product structure.
Alternate product
The product that replaces the primary product in all cases throughout the product.
Alternate Product for Reference
The product that replaces the primary product in all cases that appear under a direct parent for the product. You can use alternate products only for primary engineering parts under the direct parent that you select.
Alternate Product for Instance
The product that replaces one or more specifically selected instances of the primary in the product. The alternate product can be used only for instances (of the primary product) that you select.

Revisions of the Primary

When you revise a primary product, its alternate products are not carried forward to the new revision unless your Administrator has configured Engineering Release to do so. If so, statuses of the alternate products for subsequent revisions remain the same as from the previous revision.

Note: Regardless of the configuration settings, alternate products do not carry forward when you create a duplicate or branch of the primary product.

Alternate Products for a Released Parent

If the parent of the primary product is released, you can still assign alternate products to the primary product. However, your Administrator might configure Engineering Release to prevent you from doing so. If you assigned the alternate product to the primary product before releasing the parent, you can promote the parent to Released and qualify the alternate product regardless of the Administrator configuration. For more information, see Qualifying Alternate Products.