Teamcenter Integrated Material Management

User Guide
Integrated Material Management
Siemens PLM Software

On behalf of thinkstep AG and its subsidiaries
Document written by [IMM Core Team]
Date Mai 2018
IMM version 11.4.02
IMM User Guide v11.4.02 2 of 67

Table of Contents
Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................ 3

List of Acronyms .................................................................................................................................. 6
Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 7
1. IMM user interface ................................................................................................................... 8
1.1. Access IMM application in Teamcenter RAC ...................................................................... 8
1.2. Hide the IMM application in Teamcenter RAC .................................................................... 9
1.3. Access IMM Views ............................................................................................................ 10
1.4. Set user roles .................................................................................................................... 10
2. Searching Materials in IMM ................................................................................................... 11

2.1. Material Search Overview ................................................................................................. 11
2.2. Main Search Criteria .......................................................................................................... 12
2.3. Customized Search Attributes ........................................................................................... 13
2.4. Search by Material Class .................................................................................................. 13
2.5. Search by Property ............................................................................................................ 14
2.6. Search by Substance ........................................................................................................ 14
2.7. Saved Search .................................................................................................................... 15
2.8. Search Results view details .............................................................................................. 16
3. Material Catalogs................................................................................................................... 18
3.1. Material Catalog definition ................................................................................................. 18
3.2. Create a material Catalog ................................................................................................. 18
4. Property Descriptors .............................................................................................................. 19

4.1. Property Descriptor definition ............................................................................................ 19
4.2. Create single Property Descriptor ..................................................................................... 20
4.3. Create Table Descriptor .................................................................................................... 20
5. Managing Materials in Teamcenter ....................................................................................... 21

5.1. Create a Material ............................................................................................................... 21
5.2. Save As a Material ............................................................................................................ 22
5.3. Revise a Material ............................................................................................................... 22
5.4. Define an Alternate Material for a Material ........................................................................ 23
5.5. Copy a Material to another Catalog................................................................................... 23
5.6. Assign Materials to a Part in Teamcenter ......................................................................... 24

5.7. Compare Materials ............................................................................................................ 25
5.7.1. Compare material revision Teamcenter attributes .................................................... 25

5.7.2. Compare material revision properties ....................................................................... 25
6. Material Properties ................................................................................................................ 27
6.1. Create and add Properties to a Material ........................................................................... 27
6.2. Add reference properties to a material property................................................................ 28
6.3. Remove reference properties from a material property .................................................... 29
6.4. Create and add Smart Table Properties to a Material....................................................... 29
6.5. Add a Curve to a Smart Table Property ............................................................................ 30
6.5.1. Create an empty curve .............................................................................................. 31

6.5.2. Create a curve based on a Formula .......................................................................... 31
6.5.3. Create a curve based on a CSV input ....................................................................... 32
6.5.4. Add reference properties to a Curve ......................................................................... 32
6.5.5. Remove reference properties from a Curve .............................................................. 32
6.5.6. Remove a Curve from a Smart Table........................................................................ 33
6.6. Remove a property from a Material ................................................................................... 33
7. Substances ............................................................................................................................ 34
7.1. Create a Substance ........................................................................................................... 34
7.2. Add Substances to a Material ........................................................................................... 34
7.3. Remove a Substance from a Material ............................................................................... 36
8. Material Class ........................................................................................................................ 37

8.1. Create a Material Class under a Catalog .......................................................................... 37
8.2. Create a global Material Class .......................................................................................... 38
8.3. Assign a Material Class to a Material ................................................................................ 38
8.4. Import Classes................................................................................................................... 39
9. Material Inheritance ............................................................................................................... 40

9.1. Derive from a Material ....................................................................................................... 40
9.2. Override inherited properties or substance relations ........................................................ 41
9.3. Remove the derived Material ............................................................................................ 41
10. Unit Management .................................................................................................................. 42

10.1. Create a Unit Category ...................................................................................................... 42
10.2. Create a Base Unit ............................................................................................................ 42
10.3. Create a Derived Unit ........................................................................................................ 42
10.4. Create a Unit Alternate Name ........................................................................................... 43
10.5. Create Session Units object .............................................................................................. 43

10.6. Change a display unit for one material property ............................................................... 44
10.7. Change all display units for the Teamcenter Session ....................................................... 44
10.7.1. Configure the display units ........................................................................................ 44

10.7.2. Use one predefined Session Units ............................................................................ 45
10.8. Import Units ....................................................................................................................... 46
11. Import Catalog of Materials ................................................................................................... 48

11.1. Data formats ...................................................................................................................... 48
11.1.1. MATML ...................................................................................................................... 48

11.1.2. VDA ........................................................................................................................... 48
11.1.3. Legacy CSV ............................................................................................................... 48
11.1.4. Excel .......................................................................................................................... 49
11.2. Import process ................................................................................................................... 50
11.3. Import process flow diagram ............................................................................................. 51
11.4. Example of real import use cases ..................................................................................... 52
12. Export Materials ..................................................................................................................... 55

12.1. Export pre-requisites ......................................................................................................... 55
12.2. Export materials to a target file format .............................................................................. 55
13. Managing Materials in NX ..................................................................................................... 56

13.1. Access IMM from NX ......................................................................................................... 56
13.2. Switching between new IMM NX Open UI and legacy UI ................................................. 56
13.2.1. Legacy IMM UI .......................................................................................................... 57

13.2.2. IMM UI with NX Look and Feel (NX Open UI) ........................................................... 57
13.3. Search and display materials in NX .................................................................................. 58
13.4. Assign a Material to a Part in NX ...................................................................................... 59
13.5. Important pre-requisites for successful material assignment ............................................ 60
13.6. Material Assignment sequence diagram ........................................................................... 61
14. WIAM Materials ..................................................................................................................... 62

14.1. Search Materials in WIAM ................................................................................................. 62
14.2. Import Materials from WIAM .............................................................................................. 63
15. Appendix ................................................................................................................................ 64

15.1. IMM MatML Sample format ............................................................................................... 64
15.2. Multi curve tables in MatML ............................................................................................... 66

List of Acronyms
CAD Computer-aided Design (for instance NX)

DB Database
GUI Graphical User Interface
IMM Integrated Material Management
LOV List of Values
PDM Product Data Management (for instance Teamcenter)
TC Teamcenter
UI User Interface

Introduction
The Integrated Material Management (IMM) is a fully integrated framework that provides interactive
and user-friendly interfaces as well as a bunch of functionalities that allows handling and managing
the materials information and relation context both from Teamcenter and NX.
This solution is a backbone for all Material Information. IMM can manage materials, properties,
substances with a single point of access. IMM allows Teamcenter and CAD objects integration. It also
designs products for compliance and sustainability.
IMM has a specific Unit Management system that can be well adapted to each client specification.
IMM is very flexible with his import/export facilities.
This user guide document will go through the different features and capabilities of IMM.

1. IMM user interface
1.1. Access IMM application in Teamcenter RAC
To Start the IMM application in Teamcenter, select Integrated Material Management:

 Either from the Navigation bar:
 Or from the dialog Open Perspective that pops up by selecting the menu item
WindowOpen PerspectiveOther:
 Or select any material or material revision then Double click it or press right mouse
button then select Send ToIntegrated Material Management
If the IMM application is not available in the Navigation bar it can be added via the menu item
Navigation Pane Options...

From the Navigation Pane Options dialog, select Integrated Material Management and add it to
the right application list. It can then be moved up or down in position by using the arrows on the
right-hand side.
1.2. Hide the IMM application in Teamcenter RAC
The IMM application in Teamcenter RAC could be hidden for some groups or roles, by adding the
value IntegratedMaterialManagement to the preference HiddenPerspectives.

1.3. Access IMM Views
The IMM application has different views that help managing materials. If one of these views is
closed, it can be made visible again through the menu WindowShow ViewOther…, by
selecting the needed view from the Integrated Material Management section.
Note: IMM Views can also be displayed in the other Teamcenter perspective like My Teamcenter.
1.4. Set user roles
Changing roles for IMM is performed through from the IMM application, the same way as in My
Teamcenter application through the menu EditUser Settings.
The roles that are allowed to create, import and manage materials in IMM are listed by the
administrator in the Teamcenter preference MATERIALMGMT_material_creator_roles.
One of the basic roles is Material Analyst, this role is needed to create/import new materials,
manage and release them.
Notes:
 If extra Teamcenter Display Rules or Access Control Lists (ACL) are defined for IMM
objects, they apply even if the role is set to the preference.
 Only the administrator (for instance Material Analyst) should configure the site session unit
objects.

2. Searching Materials in IMM
2.1. Material Search Overview
IMM provides a complete interactive search functionality that allows to filter and narrow down the
search for materials based on a variety of search criteria:
The Search View provides 2 vertical panels where it is possible to drag any criteria object, from
the left panel and drop it to the right one. For instance, Catalog, Material Class, Substance or
Material Parameter.
Dragging any object from the left and dropping it to the right panel will create a specific section.
All section trees in the left side panel has a filter by name capability.
The right panel of the Search view has some default search attributes (TC properties which are
persistent on the material revision) like Name, Description and Status put in one default section
called General section.
Note: To differentiate between a material property & TC property refer to Material Properties chapter
To search based on more material revision persistent TC properties, the search view provides
also an extra dynamic section called Customized search attributes.
If the WIAM feature is activated (refer to WIAM Materials section for more details) the first general
search option in the right side panel will be a checkbox to distinguish between the Search in
Teamcenter Database or in WIAM server data source

2.2. Main Search Criteria
If the WIAM checkbox is checked refer to WIAM Materials section.

If the WIAM checkbox is unchecked the Search will be executed exclusively in TC database.
If the Name is empty or has less than 3 characters, without considering the wildcards “*”, then
the Catalog is mandatory as search criteria. In this case one Catalog must be dragged prior to
any other additional search criteria.
Selecting a catalog in the left panel will automatically update the Catalog Classes tree as well
as the Properties tree/section with the objects related to that Catalog.
To search for materials based on a catalog, drag the selected catalog, for example NX_Catalog,
from the left panel and drop it on the right search parameter area.
Trying to drag and drop a different Catalog will clear all the search criteria and reset it to the new
dropped Catalog, a message dialog will pop up for confirmation.
The Status will shrink the search, according to the release status of the materials revisions,
multiple release statuses could be selected at a time by keeping the Keyboard Ctrl key pressed
while selecting.
If the list is enabled, in order to search based either on Material item, Material Revision, Latest
Material Revision or Last Material Revision with Status level, select the level needed from the
combo box Object Type.
If the list is disabled, the search will be based only on Last Material Revision with Status.
Note: The enablement of the search level is dependent on the group full name, whether it is
available in the preference IMM_MATERIAL_SEARCH_ALL_TYPES_GROUPS or not.
To execute the search, press the magnifying glass button.
To clear all search criteria including the added sections, press the eraser button.

2.3. Customized Search Attributes
In addition to the default General section, IMM gives the ability to search based on Material revision
persistent Teamcenter attributes (No runtime properties) of type Date, String, Integer, Double or
Boolean. The attribute could be also attached to a classic LOV of those types or any tag objects.
The customized search attributes are maintained through the Teamcenter preference
IMM_SEARCH_MATREV_CUSTOM_ATTR which has user protection scope. For site and group
scopes only, the administrator can edit this preference. For more details on how to handle the custom
search preference refer to the IMM_Admin_Guide in Teamcenter Preference chapter.
If the preference is modified for any scope, no Teamcenter restart is needed, instead press the reload
button on top-right of the section to update the list of customized search attributes.
2.4. Search by Material Class

To search for materials based on Catalog Classes, drag first the owning Catalog then the
Material class to the right panel.
To search for materials based on Global Classes, which are catalog independent, select and
drag a global material class to the right panel (see screenshot below).
Multiple material classes could be selected for search.
Note: To see the difference between Catalog Class and Global Class refer to Material Class section.

2.5. Search by Property
To search for materials based on specific property descriptor, drag first the owning Catalog then
the desired property descriptors, for example Mass density, to the right side search panel.
If the property is of type string the section will have only one Text entry (see previous screenshot).
If the property is of type double/float the corresponding Section will be created with 2 entries
Min/Max as well as the corresponding Units (see previous screenshot).
Multiple property descriptors could be selected for search, but No search based on Smart Table
properties is possible.
The IMM search engine will find out all Materials revisions that have properties which property
descriptors are selected as search criteria and with the required values (see previous
screenshot).
2.6. Search by Substance
To search for materials based on specific Substances, go to Substances section in left panel of
the Search View.
Search for the desired substances by Name or CAS number. The * wildcard is allowed.
If the substances are found, drag the needed substance and drop it to the right panel.
Each draged and dropped substance will have a search section where to decide about the kind
of search, composition value or composition range. Each section has a toogle button that could
be used like follow:
 By default the toogle button is green this allows to search for all materials that has
this substance with the given values.
 If the toogle button is pressed, its icon turns to red sign and all section fields are
disabled. This allows to search for all materials that have substances but or except
this substance.

If the toggle button is not pressed the section fields are enabled. This gives the ability to
search:
 Based only on Composition value with equal, greater or smaller than operators.
 Based on the range Composition and Max Compostion range, for that the checkbox
highlighted by nb 5 in the screenshot above should be selected to activate the Max
Composition field.
Notes:
 For performance reason IMM does not fetch the substances at IMM startup.
 Multiple substances could be selected for search, an AND operation is applied.
 The Substances are not dependent from any Catalog.
 Searching for materials based on substances will neglect/ignore the materials that have no
substance attached during search operation.
2.7. Saved Search
In order to save time of configuration and facilitate the search feature, IMM gives the ability to save
the search criteria of the right panel of the search view like follow:
After configuring the search criteria by drag and drop of the required objects and entering the
search values, press the Save button on IMM Search View toolbar
A dialog will pop up to enter a name for the set of search criteria. Pressing OK will persist the
new saved search in a preference for future calls.
To call the saved search criteria again select the drop down menu on the IMM Search View
toolbar all site and user saved searches will be displayed, each in as menu item.
If both site and user saved searches exist, the site items will be displayed first then the user
ones. The drop down menu will be splitted by a separator between the site and user items.
Notes:
 Every saved search will be added in one row to the string array user preference
IMM_SAVED_SEARCH_LIST. If the current user has role DBA or group dba then
the saved search will be added to the site preference with the same name.
 Re-calling a saved search will set the search panel with same saved criteria
(sections, values and units).
 The admin can configure the saved searches also by modifying manually the site
preference IMM_SAVED_SEARCH_LIST.

2.8. Search Results view details
The results of any performed search will be displayed in Search Results view. Below are
some details:
The number next to the catalog name is the number of materials or material revisions found
under the Catalog according to the search criteria.
To perform the same search again (last executed search) from the same view press the
magnifying glass. It is useful, for example, after a new import process into the same catalog.
To force refresh the objects after any data manipulation press the Refresh button.
To reorder the columns, drag the column to the required position.
To sort the rows in ascendant/descendant way, press on the desired column header.
The displayed columns in the Search Results view are not fixed, they can be configured same
way like for Teamcenter Home view. This can be performed like depicted in the picture below by
following these steps:
 Select a material or material revision depending of the needs.
 Press the drop-down menu on the top-right corner of Details view and select menu item
Column….

 From the Properties list on the left side of the Colum Management dialog, select and
move the required properties to the left side Displayed Columns list.
 Finally press apply and refresh the Search Result view.

3. Material Catalogs
3.1. Material Catalog definition
A Catalog is a collection of Materials organized, for instance, according to:

 Material family type (Metals, Plastics, Ceramic or Composites…)
 List of Materials used by a Plant or Business Unit
 Material providers or organization…
A Catalog has also a list of unique Property Descriptors called also Meta Parameters those later
are needed to create Material Properties.
A Catalog could also contain a specific list of Material classes.
A Material has a back-pointer to the Catalogs to which it belongs.
To create a Material, a Smart Table Descriptor or a Property Descriptor, select a Catalog first.
3.2. Create a material Catalog
To create a material catalog:

From IMM perspective select FileNewMaterial Catalog
If the New Material Catalog first wizard page appears, select Material Catalog and press Next
In the New Material Catalog second wizard page, fill the required fields and press finish.
The newly created Catalog should be listed in IMM Home View. If not refresh the view.

4. Property Descriptors
4.1. Property Descriptor definition
A Property Descriptor called also Meta Parameter is the definition object of a Material Property
which carries the Value.
For example, one Material Property called “Mass Density” has a value 0,002794 and refers to the
Property Descriptor “Mass Density” that has unit kg/m³ and description “Mass Density (RHO)”.
A Property Descriptor is unique inside one Catalog.
One Property Descriptor is referenced by multiple Material Properties of Material revisions
belonging to the same Catalog.
There are single property descriptors, for String or double values, as well as table descriptors,
for table values.

4.2. Create single Property Descriptor
To create a Property Descriptor for string or double values:

Select one Material Catalog in IMM application
Select menu item FileNewProperty Descriptor
Define the Property Descriptor via the Create new Property Descriptor dialog box.
Notes:
• The Name is the display name of the property descriptor that could be localized
whereas the Real Name is the fixed name used for mapping the descriptor with the
names supported by CAD systems for instance NX.
• On selecting a Dimension, the corresponding base Unit is selected automatically.
Press OK, the newly created property descriptor will be visible under the selected Catalog.
4.3. Create Table Descriptor
The Table Descriptor is called also Smart Table Descriptor, the table values created based on such
descriptors have more capabilities and features than simple table values. Smart Tables could contain
more than one Curve.
To create a Table Property Descriptor for a table property:
Select one Material Catalog in IMM application.
Select menu item FileNewSmart Table Descriptor.
Define the Table Property Descriptor via the Create new Table Property Descriptor dialog.
Note:
• The Name of the Table is composed from Y and X axes names, it is the display name
of the table descriptor whereas the Real Name for a table is a fixed name for the Y
axis used for mapping the descriptor with the names supported by CAD systems.
• On selecting a Dimension for X and Y axes, the corresponding base Units are
selected automatically.

5. Managing Materials in Teamcenter
A material is a composition of one or many substances that constitute any raw component or
manufactured product. The material is also defined by a set of properties/characteristics such as
Dimensions, Density, Dynamic viscosity, Thermal conductivity, Material Type or even its unit price…
Materials could be classified into different catalogs and classes…
This Chapter describes how to handle materials in Teamcenter. To know how to handle materials in
NX refer to Managing Materials in NX chapter.
5.1. Create a Material
Materials can be created manually or imported and in both cases from the IMM File menu.
For importing Materials refer to Import chapter.
To create a material:
Select one Material Catalog
Go to FileNew Material.
In New Material first wizard page select the required material type and press Next.
In the next page of the New Material create wizard, fill the required attributes and press Finish
Note: This page displays the create input attributes, the main ones to consider in IMM are:
 The object Name and Description
 The External Identifier which is the unique identity of the material in its original data
source for instance, WIAM, GRANTA, IMDS…. This attribute of the material in
Teamcenter is a key information that insures the unicity of the material and prevents the
same material item to be duplicated in Teamcenter.
Note: if the External Identifier is not specified IMM will not be able to prevent the
creation of the same material more than once.
 To see the definition of the remaining attributes, refer to the GTAC Material Management
documentation.
The newly created material is displayed in the Recently Created materials folder in Home view.

5.2. Save As a Material
Search for the required material to copy

Select the material or material revision and go to File  Save As
 If the Material Revision is selected, in the Save Material Revision As first wizard page,
enter a name and click Next to define the Attached Objects or directly press Finish, the
other attributes and pages are optional.
Note: The External Identifier will be empty.

 If the Material item is selected, the Save Material As wizard is different from the
previous one. In the first page, enter the required information and press Finish.
Note: The name is mandatory, but the other attributes and pages are optional. The
External Identifier could not be same as the original Material.
The newly created material revision has a copy of the original material revision parameters.
5.3. Revise a Material
Search for the required material revision to revise

Select the revision and go to File  Revise
In the Revise wizard page, check the auto-filled information from the original revision, change
the description if required and press Finish enter a name and click Finish.

Same as Save As the new revision has a copy of the original material revision parameters.
Notes: each material has its own parameter list; the parameters are unique for each material
revision. The parameters are referencing the revision. The list of parameters is not persistent
on the revision.
5.4. Define an Alternate Material for a Material
If a material could not be used for some reason, for instance it is not available or is made prohibited
by law in a country, alternate materials should be defined and be used instead.
To define an Alternate material for an original material:
Search the material revision that could replace or be used instead of the original material.
Select the material revision and copy it with menu item EditCopy or click right-mouse-button
and from the pop-up menu select Copy.
Go to the target original material and expand it.
Select the Alternate Material pseudo-folder and paste the copied material revision with menu
item EditPaste or click right-mouse-button and from the pop-up menu select Paste.
Note: if the Alternate Material pseudo folder is not displayed, add it using the menu
EditOptions then GeneralItem Revision tree item.
The pasted alternate material is assigned to the original one, based on the relation Alternate
Material.
5.5. Copy a Material to another Catalog
The material is unique in TC database and has one main catalog to which the access is restricted,
the same Material could be copy to a second catalog called reference catalog. For example, a
company could have a central Material Catalog and some Business Unit (BU) Catalogs a Material
could be referenced by both central and BU catalogs.
To have the same material in different catalogs:
Search for the required Material or Material Revision from the source Catalog.
Select and copy it with menu item EditCopy or click right-mouse-button and from the pop-up
menu select Copy.
Select the target Catalog and paste the copied Material or Material Revision with menu item
EditPaste or click right-mouse-button and from the pop-up menu select Paste.
The material revision refers to both catalogs it could be searched in both of them.
Note: The properties/parameters of the material revision could refer to property descriptors
which are not existing in the target Catalog, those later will be created automatically under the
target Catalog.

5.6. Assign Materials to a Part in Teamcenter
Materials could be assigned to a specific part either from CAD system for instance NX or Teamcenter.
To assign a material to a part in Teamcenter:
Search for the required Material Revision.
Select the Material Revision and copy it with menu item EditCopy or click right-mouse-button
and from the pop-up menu select Copy.
Navigate to the target part and expand it.
Select the Materials pseudo-folder under the part or item revision and paste the copied Material
Revision with menu item EditPaste or click right-mouse-button and from the pop-up menu
select Paste.
Note: if the Materials pseudo folder is not displayed, add it using the menu EditOptions
then GeneralItem Revision tree item.
In the Properties on Relation dialog that pops up, enter the Mass value according to the selected
Unit of Measures and fill the remaining attributes if needed. Then press Finish.
The pasted Material Revision will be related to the part or item revision with the relation called
Materials.

5.7. Compare Materials
5.7.1. Compare material revision Teamcenter attributes

Select 2 material revisions or more.
Press the right mouse button and select the pop-up menu item View Properties
All selected material revision will be displayed each in a different row like follow:
5.7.2. Compare material revision properties

To compare material properties:
Select 2 material revisions or more.
Press the right mouse button and select the pop-up menu Compare Materials Parameter…
The Compare Material Revision dialog will display all common properties and substances.

From Compare Material Revision dialog select the required properties and substances to
compare and press OK. The Compare view will be brought to top and display the differences
and variations like follow.
To compare the Smart table curves, press the toolbar button on the top right of the Compare
view. Select the required curve, click right mouse button and press Show Charts.

6. Material Properties
Material properties, called also material parameters, are the objects that define the material, they
are the measurements or metrics that help material engineers, assess a material and compare it to
other materials in order to choose the one that fits the best their needs. For instance, Mass density,
Dynamic viscosity, Thermal conductivity, Material Type
Note: Be careful, do not get confused between Material properties and TC properties. In IMM
documentation a property is an object and is meant to be the material parameter object. To refer to
classic Teamcenter attributes or runtime properties, TC property or attribute terms are used instead.
A Material Property could be a single constant value (string, double), a range value or a table of
values which is a function of one or more independent variables, for instance the Temperature.
Each Material Property is defined by one Property Descriptor (already presented in Chapter 4)
from which it inherits the name, the type, the description and the unit, or units in case of Smart Table
Material Property. To be able to create a Material Property, the corresponding Property
Descriptor must be already created.
A Material Property could have one or more reference properties called also reference parameters.
6.1. Create and add Properties to a Material
To create and add properties to a material:

Select the target material revision.
In Material View, press the action button Add properties to a material .

The Select Properties dialog box will display all the Property Descriptors (including Property
Table Descriptors) of the catalog to which the material belongs to.
From the Select Properties dialog box, Select one or more Property Descriptors. User can
filter the property descriptors by there category from the Category drop down list

By pressing OK, the Materials Properties, defined by the selected descriptors, will be created
and added to the material revision.
The new properties are display in the Material View and under the pseudo-folder Properties of
the material revision.
To change or edit the values of type string or double, click on the cell, of the material property
row and column Value, and edit the value, for example enter 7829 for a constant or enter 7800
to 7900 for a range value.
Press Enter keyboard button, the value will be set to the property.
Notes:
 To edit table values, go to chapter Create and add a Smart Table Properties below.
 Before adding a property in the Material View check that the update input is enabled so
that the active material revision for that view is indeed the selected one.
 The propeties are referencing back the material revision. The list of properties is not
persistent on the material revision.
6.2. Add reference properties to a material property
To add one or more reference properties to another material property:
In Material View select the target property row.
From the toolbar, press the action button.

From the Select Properties dialog box select one or more property descriptors and press OK.
From the Add reference property dialog enter the values for each reference property and press
OK.

For each selected reference property, a new material property will be created and set as a
reference value to the target property.
6.3. Remove reference properties from a material property
To delete one or more reference properties from a material property:
In Material View select the target single-property (double or string) row.
From the toolbar, press the action button.

From the Select Reference Properties dialog box select one or more reference property to
delete and press OK. All selected reference properties will be removed from the property.
6.4. Create and add Smart Table Properties to a Material
Smart Table properties are complex types of tables, instead of one simple X/Y table a Smart Table
property could have one or multiple X/Y table that are called Curves. Each Curve is table of values
and could have a reference property.
The name and the units, for X and Y axes, are inherited from the Smart Table Descriptor described
in Chapter 4, Paragraph 4.3.
To create and add Smart Table Properties to a material:
Repeat the steps from 1 to 6 of previous paragraph, with a one detail in step 4 where to select a
Smart Table Descriptor instead of simple single-property descriptor.
To display or edit a Smart Table property, in Material View select the Smart Table row and press
the action button either from the view toolbar or from the pop-up menu.

The selected Smart Table property will be displayed in the Smart Table view.
6.5. Add a Curve to a Smart Table Property
Multiple curves could be created and added to one Smart Table. The name of each curve should be
unique in one Smart Table.
To create and add a new curve to a smart table:
In Smart Table view toolbar, press the action button New Curve .
The Create new curve dialog box, provides 3 ways to create a curve.

 Create an empty curve, to be edited manually through the corresponding tab viewer.
 Create a curve based on a Formula or Math Equation.
 Create a curve based on a CSV input.
6.5.1. Create an empty curve

In Create new curve dialog box, give a unique name to the curve.
Select the Empty curve radio button and press OK.
A new curve is created and added to the Smart Table list of curves.
In the bottom part of the Smart Table view will be created and display a new tab folder containing
an empty 2 columns viewer.
To enter the table values, click on the viewer cells and edit row by row.
6.5.2. Create a curve based on a Formula

Select the Equation Input group radio button.
Enter the Formula string, for example sin(x), 3x^2+1, 1/x…
If needed, change the values with the desired X axis range and Step then press OK.
the values of the parsed mathematical equation.
In the top part of the Smart Table view will be displayed the curve chart.
The curve chart could be zoomed in and out using the mouse.
Note: in this current IMM version the formula is parsed at creation time and all values are stored
on the curve, for performance reasons please consider the chosen range and step, if the range is
kept reasonably small and the step is kept big so the number of table values will be smaller.

6.5.3. Create a curve based on a CSV input
Select the CSV Input group radio button.
With Select file button, browser to the CSV file path and press OK.
the values of the parsed CSV file.
In the top part of the Smart Table view will be displayed the curve chart.
The curve chart could be zoomed in and out using the mouse.
Note: The CSV file format for table values should contain in each line X and Y double values
separated by a semi column “;”. For example:
6.5.4. Add reference properties to a Curve

A Smart Table property may contain different cures which values are affected by one or more
independent variables which are called and created as reference properties.
To add one or more reference properties to a curve:
In the bottom part of the Smart Table view, select the target Curve tab folder.
Repeat same steps 2, 3 and 4 of section 6.2-Add reference properties
For each selected reference property, a new material property will be created and set as a
reference value to the target curve.
As shown in section 6.4, the curves of Shearstress vs Shear rate Smart Table have each a reference
property called Temperature with respective values 280°C, 290°C and 300°C.
6.5.5. Remove reference properties from a Curve

To delete one or more reference properties from one smart table curve:
From the toolbar, press the action button if enabled.

From the Select Reference Properties dialog box select one or more reference property to
delete and press OK. All selected reference properties will be removed from the curve.

6.5.6. Remove a Curve from a Smart Table
To delete a curve from a smart table:
From the toolbar of Smart Table view, press the action button .
6.6. Remove a property from a Material
To remove any property (string, double property or a smart table property) from a material:
Select a material revision
From the Material view, select the row corresponding to the property and press the Remove
Property action button if enabled.
Notes:
 In 11.4 onwards, the permission to delete, any IMM property or inherited property, is
driven by the Access Delegations (see admin guide for more details).

7. Substances
7.1. Create a Substance
The Substance are Catalog independent.

To create a new substance:
Go to menu item File  NewSubstance.
Select Substance from the first New Substance wizard page.
In the second page of New Substance wizard page, fill the required fields and press Finish.
7.2. Add Substances to a Material
From the Material View toolbar, press the action button Add substances to a material.
In Select Substance dialog enter a name or CAS number then press enter or click the search
button on the top-left of the dialog.

Select the required substances and press the OK button.
A wizard form will be displayed to enter the composition for the first selected substance. If
more than one substance is selected, the Next button will be enabled to go to the next substance
form.
If composition is filled for all selected substances, the Finish button will be enabled.
Notes: The Composition and Max Composition value limits are controlled by two preferences:
 MATERIALMGMT_substance_composition_tolerance_lower: default value is 0.0%.
 MATERIALMGMT_substance_composition_tolerance_upper: default value is 0.0000001%.
Those preferences define the value of the percentage deviation in which the substance composition
of a material can be less or greater than full (100%). For example:
 If lower is set to 10% that means that the composition could not be less than 90%.
 If upper is set to 20% that means that the composition could not exceed 120%.
Those values will also be used to determine the actual composition deficit for a material.

Press Finish, a relation will be created between the material revision and each of the selected
substances. A substance entry will be displayed in the Material View for each selected substance
with the proper composition value.
To modify the composition values again, click on the cell of the substance row and column values
and edit the value. For instance, type 25 for 25% or type 8 to 15 for a range values in percent.
7.3. Remove a Substance from a Material
To remove a substance from a material:

From the Material View, select the row corresponding to the substance and press the Remove
Property action button if enabled.

8. Material Class
A Material Class is a light weight classification of materials, for advanced filtering and sorting of
materials. For example, inside a Catalog specific for Metals we can classify Materials into sub-groups
or classes of the same catalog. For instance: Iron, Steel, Aluminum and Copper…
8.1. Create a Material Class under a Catalog
A Material Class can be created manually or imported and in both cases from the IMM File menu.
For importing classes go to Import chapter.
To create a material class under a Catalog:
First, select one Catalog.
Go to menu File  NewMaterial Class.
In the Create new Material Class dialog, if the new class is a sub-class, select from the combo
box a Parent Class, if not leave it empty.
Enter a name for the new Material Class.
The newly created class will be displayed in the Search view if the catalog is selected.

8.2. Create a global Material Class
A global Material Class is a unique and catalog independent class. To create a global material class,
skip the step number 1 above and repeat the steps number 2 to 4 without any Catalog selection.
8.3. Assign a Material Class to a Material
To assign a class to a material:

Select a material Revision and go to the Summary Page.
Check-Out the revision, this could be done from pop-menu or bottom bar of summary page.
In material revision summary page, if the write access is allowed, the buttons , in front of
Material Classes attribute, will be enabled, click on the button.
From Material Classes dialog choose one catalog or global class and confirm with OK.
The selected class will be added to the attribute list and is displayed under Material Classes
pseudo folder as well.
To remove a class, in material revision summary page, select the class and press .

8.4. Import Classes
The Material Class import capability simplifies the creation of a whole structure of material classes.
The Material manager could prepare a simple spreadsheet, with the needed material class structure
and then export it to a CSV file, pay attention to the separator used “;” or “,”.
The format of the spreadsheet is depicted in the following table:
Classes German English

C1 Klass1 Class1
C1|C1.1 Klass1.1 Class1.1
C1|C1.1|C1.1.1 Klass1.1.1 Class1.1.1
C1|C1.1|C1.1.1|C1.1.1.1 Klass1.1.1.1 Class1.1.1.1
C1|C1.1|C1.1.1|C1.1.1.2 Klass1.1.1.2 Class1.1.1.2
C1|C1.1|C1.1.2 Klass1.1.2 Class1.1.2
C1|C1.1|C1.1.3 Klass1.1.3 Class1.1.3
 This spreadsheet should be composed of 3 columns with respective headers: Classes,
German and English.
 In each row, a different Material Class should be listed.
 The first column should have the internal name of the class, if it has a parent put the
name of the parent before and add a pipe “|” between the 2 names.
 In the second and third columns give the display name of the class in German and
English for localization purposes, if one language is not needed put the same name in
both columns but do not remove the column for parsing purposes.
Note: till it is enhanced in future IMM releases, the class CSV file should be exactly like depicted
above, if no German class names are available, as a workaround, use the same English names in
the second column too.
To Import Material Classes:
Go to menu item FileImportMaterial Classes.
Press the Open button to browse to the class csv file path to import
Check the separator used in csv “;” or “,”, default is “;”.
If the Classes are aimed to be Catalog Classes, select one Catalog from the combo box.
If the Classes are aimed to be Global Classes, skip the previous step. Do not select any catalog.
Press the Import button, the import process will start.
If the classes are imported successfully a confirmation dialog will be displayed.
If the Classes are imported as Catalog Classes they will be displayed in the Material Classes
section of the Search view when the corresponding Catalog is selected.
If the Classes are imported as Global Classes they will be displayed in Home view under
Classes root tree as well as in Material Classes section of the Search view.

9. Material Inheritance
To handle different completion levels of materials, IMM gives the ability to make a Material extend or
derive from another Material and manage the own material properties as well as the inherited
properties.
9.1. Derive from a Material
The material inheritance is handled on the Material Revision level and only one material revision could
be derived at a time.
To derive from a Material, copy the material revision and choose one of the 3 ways below:
 Select the target material revision, click right-mouse-button and in popup menu press
Material extends from.
 Check-out the target material revision, in Material Revision Summary view, select paste from
the drop-down menu next to the Extends Material attribute in the Material Inheritance
section.
 Select the pseudo-folder Extends Material under the target material revision and do paste.
Extending or inheriting from a Material revision will automatically create, through a post action
handler, the corresponding inherited property objects for the new Material revision based on the
original properties of the inherited Material revision as well as the corresponding inherited substance
relation that will grab the composition values from the original substance relation.
The screenshot below shows an example of a new material that inherits from the ABS-GF material
and the inherited properties are created.
Notes:
 The values of an inherited property are not modifiable and point to the same values of
the original Material properties.
 An inherited property should and could manually neither deleted nor added/created.

9.2. Override inherited properties or substance relations
If the new material should have different values for one property, the inherited property should be
overridden, that means that the inherited property will be removed and replaced by a standard
material property object where to enter the new values. To override an inherited property:
From the Material View, select the row corresponding to the inherited property or substance
to override and press the Overwrite inherited properties or substances action button like
shown in the screenshot above.
The overwritten inherited property should be deleted and replaced by a material property that
will receive the new values like shown below
Notes:
 In some sites there are some access rules based on object types, even if the user has
access right on the material it could be that the access rules in place do not allow the
deletion of Inherited Property objects then the selected property will not be deleted.
 The admin should configure the access rules to allow deletion of Inherited Properties
 In 11.4 onwards, the permission to delete, any IMM property or inherited property, is
driven by the Access Delegations.
9.3. Remove the derived Material
To remove a derived material:

Select a Material revision.
Check-out the target material revision, in Material Revision Summary view, select Clear like
shown below.
The derived Material revision will be removed as well as all the inherited properties.

10. Unit Management
To be able to convert and display material properties values in different units, IMM provides the unit
management. The conversion of values to different units is required for instance for display reasons
or for mapping between PDM and CAD Systems such as NX and Teamcenter.
Only the Material Manager role, such as Material Analyst, should be allowed to create, import and
populate units as well as configure session-unit objects.
Switching between units does not affect the original real unit saved on the property descriptor.
The unit objects could be created manually or imported in IMM and provides a flexibility for the
Material Engineer to define a specific system of units.
10.1. Create a Unit Category
Unit Categories are the unit dimensions such as Area, Length, Temperature and Volume…
To create a Unit Category:
Click the menu item FileNewUnit Category
In Unit Category create dialog enter a Dimension name and press OK.
The new Unit Category will be displayed under the Units tree root in Home view.
10.2. Create a Base Unit
For each unit category/dimension, the most representative unit for the dimension should be the base
unit. For example for dimension Length the SI units is meter with symbol m.
The Base Unit can be the most used worldwide, called SI Units, or the unit mostly used in the country
or the company.
For each Unit Category should be created one unique Base Unit.
To create a Base Unit:

Select one Unit Category.
Click the menu item FileNewBase Unit.
In Base Unit create dialog enter the mandatory attributes, name and symbol, then press OK.
The new Base Unit will be displayed under its Unit Category.
10.3. Create a Derived Unit
For each Base Unit, numerous Derived Units of the same dimension could be created. For example,
the dimension “Length” with base unit “meter”, the derived units could be “kilometer”, “millimeter”,
“feet”, “inch” …
The Derived Unit has the key mandatory values Offset and Factor used to convert values between
2 units of the same dimension with regard to the base unit.

For example:
 The factor of the derived unit kilometer according to the base unit meter is 1/1000.
 The offset of Temperature derived unit Celsius according to the base unit Kelvin is -273.15.
To create a Derived Unit:
Select one Base Unit.
Click the menu item FileNewDerived Unit.
In Derived Unit create dialog enter the name, symbol, Offset and Factor, then press OK.
The new Derived Unit will be displayed under its Base Unit.
10.4. Create a Unit Alternate Name
The Unit Alternate name is the alias or symbol with which the unit is represented. For example the
dimension Temperature could have different aliases for different derived units, for instance: K for
Kelvin, C for Celsius or F for Fahrenheit but also under the same derived unit C, °C or degC for
Celsius…
To create a Unit Alternate Name:
Select one Derived Unit.
Click the menu item FileNewUnit Alternate Name.
In Unit Alternate Name create dialog enter the alias name and press OK.
The new Unit Alternate Name will be displayed under its Derived unit.
Note: To be able to convert values between units of same dimension, each Base Unit has to have a
Derived Unit with the same Name and under this later should exist one Unit Alternate Name with
same Symbol of the Base Unit.
10.5. Create Session Units object
A “Session Units” object contains a list of Session Unit Category objects.

A Session Unit Category object is a set of <Dimension, UnitAlternateName>.
To create a “Session Units” object:
Click the menu item FileNewSession Units.
In Session Units object creation dialog, configure the Session Units, to each dimension set the
required unit alias name.
Give a unique Name to the Session Units and Press OK.
The newly created Session Units object will be displayed under its Session Units root tree.
The corresponding list of Session Unit Category objects are also automatically created and
are displayed under their Session Units.

10.6. Change a display unit for one material property
To display the value in a different unit for one Material property, do the following:
In Material View select a property or inherited property.
Click right-mouse-button, in popup menu go to sub menu Change Display Unit and select the
target unit alias name.
10.7. Change all display units for the Teamcenter Session
To set new display units for all material properties for a whole Teamcenter session, there are 2 ways:
10.7.1. Configure the display units

To set complete user customized display units for any user Teamcenter session:
Go to menu item Session UnitsConfigure user display units
In TC Session Display Units Configuration dialog select for each Unit Category the required
unit alias name from the column SymbolToUse.
Press OK, all display units in Material View and Smart Table view will be updated to the user
defined units. The values will be converted properly to the new units.

If the units are not set instantly, refresh the Material view with the top right action button
.
10.7.2. Use one predefined Session Units

To display properties values in different units based on Session Units objects
Go to IMM Home view
Select the required Session Units
Click right-mouse-button and in popup menu press Set selected user session units.
All display units in Material View and Smart Table view will be updated. The values will be
converted properly to the new units. If the units are not set instantly, refresh the Material view
with the top right action button .

10.8. Import Units
In the install package, IMM provides hundreds of units to import, 3 different folders are available:
 Metric units: For system international base units.
 Imperial units: For base units used in USA.
 Units with no special characters: For databases which character set does not support any
special characters like power 2 ‘²’ and power 3 ‘³’.
Under each folder, 3 files are available:
 units.csv: this is the csv, semi-column “;” separated, file to import.
 Unitalias.csv: this csv file has all possible unit alias names, which are unique and case
sensitive, this file should exist in the same folder as the previous one, but it is not to be
selected for import.
 units.xlsx: this Excel file has 2 spreadsheets and is provided to allow the Material Manager
to add, remove or customize units. To add any new alias name, go to the unitalias sheet, in
the first column put the target/derived unit name, in the second the unit alternate name.
After any units.xlsx content modification, both spreadsheets should be re-exported/saved,
accordingly to units.csv and unitalias.csv files described above, as “csv utf-8”.
Notes:
o Whilst great care has been taken in the compilation and preparation of the provided
units, use of the data is entirely at the risk of the user. IMM cannot accept
responsibility or liability for loss or damage occasioned by any person or property
acting or refraining from action as a result of any material in this data.
o IMM provides accurate unit factors and offsets for value conversion between units.
But, to avoid any risk of wrong data, it is highly recommended to double check the
unit factors and offsets before import. The conversion calculation is described below.
o The separator used to export the csv files should be the same during import.
o After exporting the csv files as CSV UTF8 format, check that the file format is UTF-8
and not any other format. Otherwise convert the format to UTF-8 like depicted below:

o The format of this Excel file is like follow:
o IMM calculates the conversion from one unit to another unit, from the same
dimension, is based on the formulas below (the directions highlighted above by 1 and
2 is taken as an example):
 F1: To convert the value X from a derived unit (e.g. Temperature °Ra) back
to a base unit (e.g. Temperature K): the formula used is:
T(K) = [T(°Ra) - Offset] / Factor
 F2: To convert the value X from a base unit (e.g. Temperature K) to a
derived unit (e.g. Temperature °F): the formula used is:
T(°F) = [T(K) * Factor] + Offset
 So, to convert the value X from one derived unit (e.g. Temperature °Ra) to
another derived unit (e.g. Temperature °F): IMM applies: F1 then F2 above.
o The unit alias names should be unique in the database but not case sensitive we
can for example have two unit-alias-names called “Kg” and “kg” but not “Kg” and
“Kg” otherwise an error is thrown by IMM.
To import the IMM units:

Start Teamcenter and open the IMM perspective
Select the menu item FileImportUnits
In Units Import dialog, browse using the Open button to the provided file units.csv, (Note: the
unitalias.csv should exist along with the units.csv, but it is not to be selected for import).
Check the separator to be used for import. By default, a semi-column “;” is used. If the provided
unit files are re-customized and new csv files are generated the separator could change.
Press Import button.
The unit tree will be created or updated.
If not already existing, a default Session Units tree will be created with base units.
If the units are imported successfully a confirmation dialog is displayed.

11. Import Catalog of Materials
One of the core capabilities of IMM is the import of Catalogs of Materials in different formats and from
various sources. Every data input for import is considered as a collection of materials therefore we
call it a Catalog of materials. A Catalog could contain one or multiple materials.
An import wizard is provided to guide through all the steps of material import process.
11.1. Data formats
The main supported material data formats are MATML, VDA, legacy CSV and Excel.
11.1.1. MATML
The MatML format or the Material XML supported by IMM is based mostly on the standard MatML,
with some customization for substances and persistent material attributes. In the Appendix chapter
MatML Sample format is an extract of a MatML file that could be imported by IMM.
Note: that there is one common Metadata section for all Materials.
11.1.2. VDA
VDA is the abbreviation for “Verband Deutsche Automobilindustrie”, a German organization which
could be translated to "Automotive industry association”. It set up a VDA standard which is a CAD
data exchange format for the transfer of surface models from one CAD system to another.
The VDA format is a special XML dedicated for material. The main provider for those material could
be found here http://www.ima-dresden.de.
The VDA XML format files could be retrieved after connecting, searching and importing materials
from WIAM server. Searching/importing from WIAM is based on the same parser.
11.1.3. Legacy CSV

In IMM 11.4 the Excel format is introduced but the legacy CSV format is still supported. To import
materials based on csv format, two related spreadsheets are required for example:
 Sample.csv.
 Sample-props.csv
The initial document is an excel file with 2 spreadsheets. After preparing the excel file it needs to be
converted in two csv files. Note that the name of the csv file with properties should end with –props.
Sample.csv: This spreadsheet has as many columns as it has properties and substances. A
minimum of three rows are required. The first column will always be the material object name
and the second the material class, the third column has the material description.
Starting from the fourth column, the material properties and their values are listed like follow:
Material Material Material Property Property Property Property Substance

name class description 4 5 6&5 5|7 8
Material 1 Metal Desc 1 Steels 873.6 to 1250 0.04&50 1;3;4|20;30;40 10
Material 2 Liquid|Water Desc 2 Fluid 150 to 600 0.01&120 1;4;7|10;30;50 20

Notes:
 In the 2nd column, when we have an extended material class (class and subclasses),
we need to give the full path of the subclass separate by “|”. For instance,
ClassParentName | ClassName.
 If the value is a range of doubles it should look like valueMin to valueMax
 If the property has reference property we use the & character like highlighted above
 If a property is a Curve/table of values we should specify the X and Y property
descriptors row numbers separated by “|”, for example: Property 5|7. The X and Y
values should be like follow X1;X2;X3|Y1;Y2;Y3.
Samples-props.csv: This spreadsheet has 4 mandatory columns and a 5th optional column that
could be added for CAS numbers of eventual substance entries. If the substance rows exist but
has no CAS number then a Substance object will be created with wildcard string “-”. Each row is
a different Property Descriptor or a Substance like described in the table below:
Row CAS Number

Name of Property Type Category Unit
number (only for substances)
… … … … …
4 Property 4 Text Other UNITLESS
5 Property 5 Number Thermal °C
6 Property 6 Number Mechanical MPa
7 Substance 1 Number Substance % 12345-67-8
8 Substance 2 Number Substance % 23456-78-9
Sample Property Descriptor/Substance spreadsheet
11.1.4. Excel
To import materials via Excel, the user should follow a predefined Excel format as described below:
 The first two columns are fixed:
o The first column is just a legendary one, it is used for user guidance and describes
what the row value could be. It could remain empty.
o The second column contains in the:
 1st row: optional display name for the TC property object_name
 2st row: the mandatory TC property real name object_name
 3ndrow: the expression tc_item_attr which is the IMM key for TC item attribute
 4rd, 5th and 6th rows: are not relevant for TC attributes at any column
 Starting from the 7th row: the names of the materials to be imported
Display name Name …
Attribute name object_name
Type tc_item_attr …
Category NA …
Unit NA …
Description NA
Material 1 …
Material 2 …
 The first 6 rows are dedicated for the Material data like follow:
o 1st row: starting from 3rd column it could be:
 Any IMM Property Descriptor display name if empty the real name in second
row will be used as a display name also
 Any Material or Material revision TC persistent property display name, could
be left empty.
o 2nd row: starting from 3rd column it could be:
 Any Material or Material revision TC persistent property real name, for
instance “object_desc”.
 Any IMM Property Descriptor name for instance “Density”

o 3rd row: the IMM key defining the type of the property. The key could be like depicted
in the table below:
ATTRIBUTE TYPE DESCRIPTION

tc_item_attr Represents a TC persistent attribute real name on Material Item
tc_Item_rev_attr Represents a TC persistent attribute real name on Material Revision
double_prop Material double Property descriptor/parameter
string_prop Material String Property descriptor/parameter
table_prop Material Table Property descriptor/parameter
substance Substance to be attached to the material
…
o 4th row: defines the category name of the IMM properties, for instance mechanical,
Thermal… for substances the value should be Substance, for any TC attributes this
row is not relevant.
o 5th row: defines the unit of the IMM property value… for substances the unit should
be %, for any TC attributes this row is not relevant.
o 6th row: defines the description of the IMM property descriptor… for substances and
any TC attributes this row is not relevant.
o Starting from 7th row: each row contains the values of the properties, Teamcenter
attributes and substance composition accordingly.
Note: For more details about the Excel format, check the comments in the IMMSampleMaterials.xlsx
excel file provided in the IMM install package\Teamcenter\data to import\Catalog.
11.2. Import process
To import a Catalog of Materials with any specific data format:

Select the function FileImportMaterial Catalog
In Catalog Import first wizard page, select from Input Type combo box the target format of the
file to import CSV, MATML or VDA.
Press the Open button to browse to the file absolute path to import
If the materials should be imported to an already existing Catalog select one catalog from the
Existing Catalog Name/Id combo box.
To create a complete new Catalog, skip step 4, do not select any existing catalog.
If Next button is activated, press it to continue.
From the second wizard page, select the material and substance types and if the CSV format is
selected check also the csv separator, then press next.
Note: The admin could add or remove, material or substance types from the preferences:
IMM_IMPORT_WIZARD_OBJECT_TYPES and IMM_IMPORT_WIZARD_SUBSTANCE_TYPES.
At this point, the file starts to get parsed to retrieve materials.

In the third wizard page, if not parsing issues thrown, a viewer will display all the materials
candidates for import.
Select the materials required and press Finish to start the import of materials into Teamcenter.
At the end of the import process a message dialog will be displayed with the result.
Note: The next 2 chapters will give more details and examples about the import process.

11.3. Import process flow diagram

11.4. Example of real import use cases
To import for example a CSV file that has 3 materials:

Select CSV
Select an existing catalog and a csv file and press Next

If a new catalog is needed, simply give a catalog, without selecting an existing one, then press
Next.
Select an available material type, check the csv separator and press Next.

In case of first time import, all materials will not be found and will be newly imported.
In case of second time import of same material file the column “Item found?” will display the
materials already found in Teamcenter, based on the external identifier.
Notes: When importing materials which are already existing in Teamcenter, like depicted before in
the import Process flow diagram, different use cases are possible: For instance:
 The material revision has a Version in Source attribute value is equal to the material
version being imported: The material will be ignored.
 Else the material revision has a Release Status, in this case the material will be revised
and the import will take place into the new revision.
 Else the material revision is in Working State and the logical preference called
IMM_IMPORT_OVERWRITE_WORKING_MATREV is set to true, then the import will take
place and the existing material properties will be updated.
 Else the material revision is in Working State and the logical preference called
IMM_IMPORT_OVERWRITE_WORKING_MATREV is false, the material is ignored.

12. Export Materials
12.1. Export pre-requisites
IMM allows to export materials from Teamcenter to multiple file formats based on the following pre-
requisites:
Transformation XSLT stylesheet files, that transforms the IMM MatML to any target format.
Datasets that will contain the XSLT files as named reference. For each .xslt file a dataset is
required. Each dataset should include only one .xslt file.
IMM_EXPORT_FILTERS preference should be defined and set by the material manager.
For more details regarding export feature pre-requisites and preference refer to the admin guide.
12.2. Export materials to a target file format
To Export materials to one of the available target formats:

Select at least one material or a material revision.
Press Export selected materials button from IMM toolbar, or go to menu item
FileExportSelected materials, to display the Export Filters dialog.
By default, the radio button Apply transformation is checked. In case of export with
transformation is required, select one export filter from the drop down list and press OK.
If an export to a full matml, with not transformation, is needed. Select the second radio button
from the bottom (the export filters list will be disabled) and press OK.
From the Save to file dialog select the file path, name and extension then press Save.
A file with the selected type will be generated in the given path.
Note: To Export a material to an ANSYS MatML file. IMM has a deprecated Export to ANSYS MatML
feature called when pressing the toolbar button , this will be removed in feature releases. This
export is based on a special hardcoded naming of the Material properties, hence it is recommended
to use the new material Export, based on mapping, depicted above.

13. Managing Materials in NX
The Integrated Material Management provides a module, for NX CAD system, to allow searching and
assigning materials to an NX Part more specifically a material to each solid body of an NX Part.
13.1. Access IMM from NX
The display of IMM UI from NX could be done either:

From NXIMM ribbon, press the ribbon item Integrated Material Management.
Or From NXTools ribbon, press the toolbar item Integrated Material Management. If it is not
found customize the toolbar and add it.
Or through menu ToolsMaterialsIntegrated Material Management.
13.2. Switching between new IMM NX Open UI and legacy UI
Depending on the configuration of the files, with the following extensions .rtb .tbr .men, under the
startup folder of IMM extension, two different IMM UIs could be displayed and used like below:
 The legacy IMM UI, by modifying the startup library entry to “MDS.NX.UI.dll”.
 The NX Open IMM UI that has the NX look and feel, by keeping the default entry
“IMM.NX.UI.dll”.

13.2.1. Legacy IMM UI
13.2.2. IMM UI with NX Look and Feel (NX Open UI)

13.3. Search and display materials in NX
To filter and narrow down the search material result, configure the search criteria, in the left part
of Integrated Material Management NX legacy UI and in the upper part of the new NX Open UI,
like depicted in the screenshots above.
Note: It is possible to search for materials based on classes or other criteria with no catalog
selected. However, for performance reason, there is a minimum number of characters,
required for the name, controlled by IMM_SEARCH_BY_NAME_MIN_NB_OF_CHARS
preference for both TC and NX. If this limitation is not required, set this preference value to 0.
Select the required classes in the Material Classes tab to filter based on the selected global or
catalog classes. If the Catalog Material Class group is hidden from the NX Open UI, press the
arrow button highlighted in the screenshot of section 11.3.2.
To search based on parameter data, click once on the values columns, in front of the required
parameter in the Parameters tab, to enter a value then select the corresponding parameter.
Press the Search button. For NX Open IMM UI, it is the magnifier glass button .
The material revisions found will be displayed on the left part of IMM legacy UI and in the Search
Result section in the IMM NX Open UI.
To display the material revision details such as properties, substances, alternate materials…
 For the legacy IMM UI, select one material revision from the search result list then press the
Details button. The details will be displayed on the bottom right panel.
 For the NX Open IMM UI, select one material revision then press the Inspect material button
or the material Information button for a flat text presentation of the material properties.
To add extra columns to Search Result panel to display other material revision attributes check
the preference IMM_CAD_MATERIAL_VIEW_COLUMN_CONFIG.
To search based on extra material revision attributes. Up to five extra string properties could be
added to Search Criteria panel via the preference IMM_SEARCH_MATREV_CUSTOM_ATTR

Notes:
 The display of values and units will be in the Unit system defined by the Material Manager
as a mapping between Teamcenter and NX. Refer to the pre-requisites section below.
 The release status list is managed through the preference IMM_NX_Display_Statuses. This
preference has protection scope Group. The administrator could add or remove statuses.
13.4. Assign a Material to a Part in NX
To assign a material to a part in NX:

Select the required material revision from the search result on the top right of IMM window.
Select the target solid bodies.
For the legacy IMM UI, press the Assign button. If the Part has more than one solid body and
none is already selected, a message box will pop-op to ask to select any. Select the target solid
bodies and press OK.
For the NX Open IMM UI, press OK button if it is enable. If no solid body is selected the OK
button will be disabled.
If the material is assigned successfully a confirmation dialog will be displayed. A MatML file is
generated and attached to the Part. To check this, go to NX ribbon IMM or to the menu
ToolsMaterials and select Manage Materials.
In NX Manage Materials dialog, go to Local Materials, the xml corresponding to the assigned
material revision should exist.

To check its content, select the file and press the button.
To effectively create a relation in Teamcenter between the assigned material revision and the
part, press the Save button from the toolbar.

If the relation creation is enabled and the Save action was successful, the material revision will
be displayed in Teamcenter under the pseudo-folder Materials of the part.
If the materials attached to the part revision are modified in Teamcenter, user could update the
materials for the part in NX by pressing Update Materials from TC from the IMM legacy UI and
the button from the IMM NX Open UI.
13.5. Important pre-requisites for successful material assignment
For successful material assignment, the following notes and pre-requisites are to be considered:
 It is important that the property name mapping, between Teamcenter and NX, has been
already defined by the material manager. It is based on the XSLT mapping file.
 The Teamcenter preference IMM_EXPORT_FILTERS should have an entry that starts with
NXMATML;NXMATML and points to the dataset name containing the XSLT mapping file.
 It is important that the unit mapping, between Teamcenter and NX, has been already
defined by the material manager. The unit mapping is based on two site preferences,
IMM_NX_SESSION_UNIT_ALIASNAMES and IMM_NX_SESSION_UNIT_CATEGORIES
 Only materials, assigned to solid bodies which belong to the NX Reference Sets defined
by the preference IMM_NX_GEOMETRY_REFERENCESET, will be related to the part in
Teamcenter. The default Reference Set is MODEL. From IMM 10.1.7 and 11.2.3 onwards,
multiple Reference Sets are possible, the preference can remain a single comma
separated String or an array String with multiple Reference Sets name.
 The relation name is defined by a mandatory preference IMM_NX_PrimaryMaterialRelation.
 To enable the relation creation in Teamcenter the following preference should be set to
true: IMM_CREATE_REL_WITH_MATERIAL_ON_NXSAVE

13.6. Material Assignment sequence diagram
To assign a material to a part in NX, here is sequence diagram to follow:

14. WIAM Materials
As mentioned before, IMM provides by default, the capability to search and import materials from an
external material source called WIAM. This feature could be activated or deactivated through the
logical preference IMM_WIAM_USED.
The communication between Teamcenter Server Process and WIAM Server Instance is based on the
HTTP Protocol.
To access data from the WIAM Instance no login is needed. The returned material data is in standard
VDA 231-200 XML schema format.
All related information about the path to the WIAM Server Instance and search options are configured
by the Material Manager in the mandatory preferences which names are starting with IMM_WIAM*.
14.1. Search Materials in WIAM
To Search in WIAM server:

In Search view tick the WIAM remote server checkbox, the Search will be re-wired to the WIAM
server data source.
Enter the name in the search criteria then press the button.
If no WIAM Catalog is available, a message dialog will ask whether to import the Property
Descriptors from WIAM Server. If OK is pressed a CSV file will be transferred from WIAM server
and parsed by IMM to create the Catalog and its descriptors
If the connection is established and no issue with the path to the server, the WIAM Search process
will start.
Notes:
Avoid having a short search criterion, this may take some time. The longer and more precise the
name is, the shorter time the search will take.
If the WIAM_Properties catalog exists, property descriptors could be dragged and dropped also to
the right panel of the Search view as described in the main IMM search chapter.

When the search process is finished the Wiam Meta Search result dialog will be displayed with
the found materials.
At this stage the properties are not transferred by WIAM and no material could be selected for
import like shown below.
14.2. Import Materials from WIAM
To import the found materials from WIAM:
Press the button to Load the properties for each required material separately. This will fetch
the corresponding material properties again from the WIAM server.
If loaded successfully, the button will be disabled and the properties will be display in the bottom
left part of the dialog and the corresponding material checkbox will be enabled.
Select the material to import but ticking the corresponding checkbox.
Select an existing Catalog or give a name to a new catalog then press OK.
This will import and create the materials in Teamcenter under the specified Catalog.

15. Appendix
15.1. IMM MatML Sample format
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<MatML_Doc>

<Material>
<BulkDetails>
<Name>Water_vapour_Gas</Name>
<Notes>description of the material1</Notes>
<Class><Name>Gas</Name> </Class>
<Source source="SourceName"/>
<TCItemAttribute name="mat1external_identifier">
<Data>the unique external identifier for the material</Data>
</TCItemAttribute>
<TCItemAttribute name="persistent_material_attribute">
<Data>persistent_material_attribute value</Data>
</TCItemAttribute>
<TCItemRevAttribute name="persistent_mat_rev_attribute">
<Data>persistent_mat_rev_attribute value</Data>
</TCItemRevAttribute>
<PropertyData property="Material Type_1">
<Data format="string">FluidMaterial</Data>
</PropertyData>
<PropertyData property="MolarMass_11">
<Data format="exponential">1.802000e-002</Data>
</PropertyData>
<SubstanceData property="5001">
<Data format="exponential">40</Data>
</SubstanceData>
<PropertyData property="MassDensity_7">
<Data format="exponential">
1.070000e+002, 1.270000e+002, 1.770000e+002, 2.270000e+002, 2.770000e+002, 3.270000e+002
</Data>
<Qualifier>temperature</Qualifier>
<ParameterValue format="exponential" parameter="MassDensity_7_Y">
<Data format="exponential">
5.863000e-010, 5.542000e-010, 4.942000e-010, 4.405000e-010, 4.005000e-010, 3.652000e-010
</Data>
</ParameterValue>
</PropertyData>
</BulkDetails>
</Material>


<Material>
…
</Material>


<Metadata>
<ParameterDetails id="MassDensity_7_Y">
<Name>Mass Density (RHO)</Name>
<Units name="kg/mm^3" description="kilograms per millimeter cubed">
<Unit><Name>kg/mm^3</Name></Unit>
</Units>
</ParameterDetails>
<PropertyDetails id="MassDensity_7">
<Name>MassDensity</Name>
<Units name="C" description="Celsius">
<Unit><Name>C</Name></Unit>
</Units>
</PropertyDetails>
<PropertyDetails id="MolarMass_11">
<Name>MolarMass</Name>
<Units name="kg" description="kilograms">
<Unit><Name>kg</Name></Unit>
</Units>
</PropertyDetails>
<PropertyDetails id="Material Type_1">
<Name>Material Type</Name>
<Units>
<Unitless/>
</Units>
</PropertyDetails>
<SubstanceDetails id="5001">
<Name>Alkanes, C10-13, chloro</Name>
<CasNumber>85535-84-8</CasNumber>
<Units description="" name="%">
<Unit><Name>%</Name></Unit>
</Units>
</SubstanceDetails>
</Metadata>
</MatML_Doc>
Note:
 The nodes highlighted in red are IMM specific nodes used for import and
export purposes and are not default Matml schema.
 In case of a table with multiple curves refer to the detailed format below.

15.2. Multi curve tables in MatML
1. To be able to import tables with multiple curves from a MatML file the table should be like follow:

2. Once the MatML is imported with IMM the corresponding table will be like follow:

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User Guide

Integrated Material Management

Siemens PLM Software

Document written by [IMM Core Team]

Date Mai 2018

IMM version 11.4.02

IMM User Guide v11.4.02 2 of 67

Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................ 3

1.2. Hide the IMM application in Teamcenter RAC .................................................................... 9

1.3. Access IMM Views ............................................................................................................ 10

1.4. Set user roles .................................................................................................................... 10

2. Searching Materials in IMM ................................................................................................... 11

2.2. Main Search Criteria .......................................................................................................... 12

2.3. Customized Search Attributes ........................................................................................... 13

2.4. Search by Material Class .................................................................................................. 13

2.5. Search by Property ............................................................................................................ 14

2.6. Search by Substance ........................................................................................................ 14

2.7. Saved Search .................................................................................................................... 15

2.8. Search Results view details .............................................................................................. 16

3.2. Create a material Catalog ................................................................................................. 18

4. Property Descriptors .............................................................................................................. 19

4.2. Create single Property Descriptor ..................................................................................... 20

4.3. Create Table Descriptor .................................................................................................... 20

5. Managing Materials in Teamcenter ....................................................................................... 21

5.2. Save As a Material ............................................................................................................ 22

5.3. Revise a Material ............................................................................................................... 22

5.4. Define an Alternate Material for a Material ........................................................................ 23

5.5. Copy a Material to another Catalog................................................................................... 23

5.6. Assign Materials to a Part in Teamcenter ......................................................................... 24

IMM User Guide v11.4.02 3 of 67

5.7.1. Compare material revision Teamcenter attributes .................................................... 25

6.2. Add reference properties to a material property................................................................ 28

6.3. Remove reference properties from a material property .................................................... 29

6.4. Create and add Smart Table Properties to a Material....................................................... 29

6.5. Add a Curve to a Smart Table Property ............................................................................ 30

6.5.1. Create an empty curve .............................................................................................. 31

7.2. Add Substances to a Material ........................................................................................... 34

7.3. Remove a Substance from a Material ............................................................................... 36

8. Material Class ........................................................................................................................ 37

8.2. Create a global Material Class .......................................................................................... 38

8.3. Assign a Material Class to a Material ................................................................................ 38

8.4. Import Classes................................................................................................................... 39

9. Material Inheritance ............................................................................................................... 40

9.2. Override inherited properties or substance relations ........................................................ 41

9.3. Remove the derived Material ............................................................................................ 41

10. Unit Management .................................................................................................................. 42

10.2. Create a Base Unit ............................................................................................................ 42

10.3. Create a Derived Unit ........................................................................................................ 42

10.4. Create a Unit Alternate Name ........................................................................................... 43

10.5. Create Session Units object .............................................................................................. 43

IMM User Guide v11.4.02 4 of 67

10.7.1. Configure the display units ........................................................................................ 44

11. Import Catalog of Materials ................................................................................................... 48

11.1.1. MATML ...................................................................................................................... 48

11.3. Import process flow diagram ............................................................................................. 51

11.4. Example of real import use cases ..................................................................................... 52

12. Export Materials ..................................................................................................................... 55

12.2. Export materials to a target file format .............................................................................. 55

13. Managing Materials in NX ..................................................................................................... 56