1. Windchill Customization
By Ravindra Wagh

2. How to customize Windchill?
Windchill is a three-tier JAVA Runtime Architecture that can be customized in many ways to meet your customization requirements in addition to the existing Out Of The Box (OOTB) functionality. There are basically two ways to customize Windchill based on the level of complexity of your customization.
Lightweight Customization
Heavyweight Customization
By Ravindra Wagh

3. Windchill Lightweight Customization
Adding Windchill Soft Types.
Adding Soft Attributes.
Changing the look and feel of the existing user interface.
Text tailoring by altering resource bundle files (i.e. list of selectable values)
Modifying or automating business logic in workflows.
As Out-Of-The-Box (OOTB) features in Windchill there are existing tools that support Windchill lightweight customization.
By Ravindra Wagh

4. Lightweight Customization Tools
Name
Purpose
Initialization Rules Administrator
Change rules that affect newly created objects.
Resource Bundle Files
Custom text displayed in drop-down lists.
Attribute Definition Manager
Instance-based attributes.
Type Manager
Soft type extension
Workflow Editor
Custom workflow creation or existing workflow editing.
If these tools can not meet customization requirements, you may need to use Windchill heavyweight customization.
By Ravindra Wagh

5. Windchill Heavyweight Customization
Heavyweight customization applies when lightweight customization cannot meet your requirements. Some examples,
To create a new user interface.
To add object extensions to the existing data model
To add new Windchill services.
To create a new object in the data model.
Complex workflow may involve advanced functionality that requires heavyweight customization such as calling Info*Engine tasks from the workflow to perform data manipulation logic on Windchill objects.
By Ravindra Wagh

6. Comments
While most of the Lightweight customization can be done by using the OOTB mentioned above, heavyweight customization involves use of client and server technologies, require extensive Windchill API knowledge, and solid software development skills for a person to effectively perform the customization.
Lightweight customization are supported by the OOTB utilities, supported by PTC Technical Support, and thus are typically carried over during MOR(i.e. maintenance only release or “patch”) installs or point release upgrades. Heavyweight customizations are not supported by PTC Technical Support, and may or may not carry over during MOR installs or point release upgrades.
By Ravindra Wagh