Presentation Files

Presentation files provide a multi-dimensional view of an assembly. You can use the presentation files to develop exploded view, animations, and other stylized views of an assembly to help "document" your design; where as a drawing, provides only a static view of the assembly. Presentation views are saved in a separate file called a presentation file (.ipn). Each presentation file can contain as many presentation views as needed for a specified assembly. When changes are made to an assembly, the presentation views are updated automatically. A presentation can contain only a single assembly.

Presentation files can be saved into PLM, in the following ways:

  • Presentation file as neutral file to the drawing
  • Presentation file as separate document

Presentation file as neutral file to the drawing:

Table 2: Legend

Blue color Drawing
Pink color Presentation file
Brown color Assembly file

For example, in the above figure, 37801_presentation.idw is a drawing, 37801_presentation.ipn is a presentation and 37801_assey.iam is the assembly linked to the presentation.

The assembly in the *.ipn will be linked as the child of the drawing which holds the ipn file. The .ipn file is saved as a neutral file to the drawing.

Document object for the presentation files

To create a document object for the presentation file, the Create Document Object for Presentation file preference must be enabled. When the preference is enabled and the presentation file is saved to PLM, a separate document is created for this file in PLM. Items are not created for the presentation files in PLM. Presentation document is saved as a parent to the assembly document in the PLM structure. If this presentation is used in a drawing, in the PLM structure Presentation document is saved as child to the drawing document.