The life cycle drop-down list is automatically generated based on the object type being created and the class attribute value that is assigned in a life cycle template. A life cycle template contains an attribute that specifies for which class the life cycle is valid. The class attribute can be set to a value of an abstract class, a parent class, or a leaf node class.

Based on the object type being created, all enabled life cycle templates that have a class attribute value matching the selected object type being created, or a parent type, or an abstract class, will be included in the drop-down list.

Depending on the object type being created, the user may be able to search for any enabled life cycle template to which the user has access, independent of the life cycle templates class attribute value.

Manual Selection of Life Cycle and Team Templates

The action to manually select the life cycle and the team template during the creation of a part and a document is available to users that have administrative privileges set on the object. For more information, see the access control section of the PTC Windchill Specialized Administration Guide.

Reassigning Life Cycles and Resetting Team

Templates

The action to reassign life cycle templates and reset team templates on existing parts and documents is only available in Windchill PDMLink. Users must have administrative privileges set on the object for either of these actions to be available. For more information, see the access control section of the PTC Windchill Specialized Administration Guide.

Additionally, resetting the team template is only available for objects with advanced life cycles.

Defining Additional Life Cycle States

Windchill includes many predefined life cycle states and roles in the out-of-the- box life cycle templates. You can define additional states and roles by customizing the StateRB.rbInfo and RoleRB.rbInfo resource files as described in the PTC Windchill Customization Guide. These resource files are located in subdirectories under the <Windchill>/src directory. Newly defined states and roles are added to the existing states and roles when you recompile the resource files and deploy the class files to your production environment. For more information, see the enumerated types information in the PTC Windchill Customization Guide.