In today's collaborative working environment, it is rare that an entire product is designed in only one CAD system. The term multi-CAD describes the ability for Solid Edge assemblies to include models in Teamcenter that were not created or owned by Solid Edge. Using the multi-CAD capability, you can manage content from multiple CAD sources and then create an integrated single design using content from more than one CAD authoring system without a translation. Assembly structures are resolved through Bill of Materials (BOM) or BOM View Revisions in Teamcenter. Geometry is communicated through DirectModel or JT and is updated automatically providing up to date assembly structures and models.
An example of working in a multi-CAD environment is designing a vehicle in Solid Edge using an engine designed in another CAD application where the structure is defined and managed in Teamcenter, the components are defined by JT, and Solid Edge Draft documents the product. The engine is placed in the vehicle in Solid Edge and assembled into position. The foreign authoring system owns the content placed in the native Solid Edge design. The Teamcenter preference, SEEC_Foreign_Datasets is used to define the foreign data source.
This workflow introduces the concept of a driven reference where a document's geometry is defined by a non-Solid Edge source. The driven reference is read-only whether opened or in-place activated. The Save As command is available if you want to create a new item and then edit that content with Solid Edge.
Driven references go through an out-of-date check. If the foreign source changes, the change is synchronized the next time the file is opened. Driven references are uniquely identified in Assembly PathFinder by 
.
Product structure is obtained from Teamcenter BOM View and configured per Revision Rule. The configured structure is evaluated where the BOM lines provide position data and each unique item revision is queried for geometric information (Dataset). When the Teamcenter preference for multi-CAD is enabled, Solid Edge considers geometric content in the following order:
Native Solid Edge content
Driven references (foreign data containing a geometric representation)
Non-modeled content (no geometric representation exists)
Use Solid Edge Assembly commands to position the content. Use the Open command to search for the Solid Edge assembly and open the document, synchronize structure changes and check out the assemblies. Use the Assemble command or the Move command to position the foreign assembly in the context of its parent. Then you can save the Solid Edge assembly to Teamcenter and create a drawing saving the drawing to the same item revision with the Solid Edge assembly or saving the drawing to a new item.
Since foreign data is expected to change, an ability to track if it is out-of-date and synchronize product design is required. The Solid Edge option to save Solid Edge content back to Teamcenter is Add Solid Edge Datasets. The option is available in Solid Edge Options→Manage when a document is open in Solid Edge. The option is enabled on a per user basis. Using this option, when an assembly is saved to Teamcenter, Solid Edge creates a Solid Edge Dataset under the source Item Revision and then uploads the Solid Edge document into Teamcenter as a driven reference. This option also saves a Solid Edge part file as a driven reference when the JT file is opened.
There are two things to keep in mind:
Solid Edge Embedded Client requires the structure to configure only one item revision. There is no support for multiple revisions from the same Item.
Solid Edge Embedded Client does not support foreign CAD assembly features.
Teamcenter captures JT content in a dataset called DirectModel. The relation that connects a DirectModel Dataset to an Item Revision is IMAN_Rendering. The JT file is connected with a named reference JTPART.
There are two preferences that need to be enabled in order to use foreign CAD data in Solid Edge:
SEEC_Foreign_Datasets
SEEC_BOM_Synchronization
The Teamcenter site preference SEEC_Foreign_Datasets determines what datasets to consider when a Solid Edge 3D dataset is not saved to the item revision. The preference is included with SEEC Administrator and is False (0) by default. Currently, Solid Edge supports DirectModel (JT) only.
Teamcenter provides the product structure or BOM view for documents created outside the Solid Edge environment. BOM synchronization is controlled by the Teamcenter preference SEEC_BOM_Synchronization. Enabling this preference allows Solid Edge to compare the BOM in Teamcenter with its own BOM and add or remove based on changes seen in Teamcenter. SEEC Administrator delivers this preference with BOM Synchronization off. To enable BOM synchronization, set the SEEC_BOM_Synchronization preference to true.
The Teamcenter preference SEEC_BOM_Synchronization supports the following search order:
Search for Solid Edge 3D managed content.
If the item revision does not include Solid Edge 3D content, then search for an alternate 3D representation, DirectModel (JT).
If there is no DirectModel, then consider the item a non-modeled occurrence.
Preference syntax details are available in the Solid Edge Embedded Client Administrator's Guide.
Tip:
If your environment has the preference, SEEC_Synchronize_ItemNumbers set to true, it is recommended that you create the preference PS_new_seqno_mode and set it to existing. By default, Teamcenter assigns a new Find Number for each item added to the BOM View Revision. When the same item is added to Structure Manager multiple times, this preference will cause all entries to be packed or have the same Find Number. Not setting this preference will cause a conflict with item numbers in Solid Edge resulting in a warning message.