Save Files to PLM

The Save to PLM process saves your Autodesk Inventor file in the PLM database. The document is saved with the status Draft. Each consecutive save updates the latest changes performed on the Draft revision of the document in PLM.

You can only save a file if its related PLM document has a "Draft Status". If the document has the "UNDER CHANGE Status" or "RELEASED Status", the file cannot be saved to PLM.

To save your changes on the server (not only locally), perform Save to PLM. However, to save system performance, do not save to PLM too often.

Saving an existing file to PLM also saves the file in Autodesk Inventor. If you save the file only to Autodesk Inventor, the file is saved only locally and the associated documents and/or items in PLM are not saved.

The assignment of the file ID is determined by the parameters set up by the administrator as well as by the selected preference settings. The IDs for documents and items can be assigned manually or automatically by PLM, this is also set up in the preferences.

If you are working with business processes, you may need to acquire ownership of the item from the previous owner. For more information, refer to Saving and unlocking a file.

Saving a file to PLM

Before you can save a file to PLM, you must save it in Autodesk Inventor with a unique name. If the file is not saved in your local disk, the Save As dialog box prompts you to save the file, with specific save as type, such as *.ipt, *.iam, or *. idw.

Note: Do not use & < > ' “ symbols in the file names that you save to PLM, this will cause errors to occur.
  • Select Save to PLM from the PLM menu.

Clicking Save to PLM in the in one of the following:

  • If all the IDs are generated automatically by PLM, which you can specify in the preferences, the file is saved.
  • If you select either Specify Manual ID for Documents or Specify Manual ID for Items preferences, to override the system-generated IDs for documents and items, the CAD Integration - Save to PLM dialog box is displayed.
  • In the CAD Integration - Save to PLM dialog box, you can insert IDs for the documents and/or items that are generated when saving the Autodesk Inventor file to PLM Server.

CAD Integration - Save to PLM - Commands

  • Save

Saves the meta data details that are displayed in the local system. By default the files are saved in the Edit Location defined in the integration parameters.

Whenever you click Save, PLM creates separate .txt files for: Item, Document and File metadata. The file names are in the following format:

  • ITEM_<RootFilename.extn_ MetaData_<date>_<time>.txt
  • DOC_<RootFilename.extn_ MetaData_<date>_<time>.txt
  • FILE_<RootFilename.extn_ MetaData_<date>_<time>.txt

Saving an assembly to PLM

During the Save to PLM process, the Integration considers the Item type and the Quantity values defined for each component in the BOM table of an Assembly, in the Inventor application. Otherwise, the behavior is normal. The functionality is explained in the following sections.

Phantom Item

When a part/assembly is marked as Phantom or Reference, that part/assembly is not included in the BOM structure (Item structure) in PLM. The Document and Item are created for the part/assembly. If the part/assembly is marked as Phantom, the corresponding Item’s "attribute" Phantom is set to Yes, in PLM.

Consider the assembly with three parts.

In the BOM table, one of the parts is set to Phantom, second to Reference and the third to Normal. Documents are created for all the components.

Items are created for Phantom/Reference components also, but they are not included in the BOM structure (Item structure).

The component set to Phantom has the Item "attribute" Phantom set to Yes. Quantity

Quantity of an item is retrieved from the BOM table of the Inventor Assembly and stored in PLM. The quantity for each component can be specified in the BOM table.

In the Item structure for the above assembly, the quantity is set appropriately.