Intelligent Part Numbering in 3DEXPERIENCE Using EIN

March 9, 2026 3DEXPERIENCE Like: 0

ByMarc Young, xLM Solutions

xLM’s Marc Young explores 3DEXPERIENCE's Enterprise Identification Number (EIN) mechanism and how you can enable intelligent part numbering with a clear, standards-driven structure. You’ll see how controlled user input and prefix-based sequencing help teams stay consistent without adding friction to the engineering workflow.

Part numbering is one of those foundational topics within the PLM industry. It is a key aspect of managing data and effecting how all parties in an organization interact with parts and how they are designed, purchased, manufactured, supported within and outside the company. In practice, the part number is one of the most-used reference points in an engineering organisation. People rely on it to confirm they’re looking at the right item, to communicate across teams, and to keep work moving without constant translation. When numbering is inconsistent, overly manual, or too easy to bend, it becomes a quiet source of friction that shows up everywhere: searching, reuse, revisions and handoffs. There is always the debate whether there should be an intelligent part numbering system in place or a dumb simple incremental number. This blog is not to debate what is best, and I feel there are pros and cons to both options. Though if intelligent part numbering is the way to go this blog will discuss how you can set up per out of the box functionality intelligent part numbering system in 3DEXPERIENCE. In a recent video walkthrough, I showed a straightforward way to create intelligent part numbering in 3DEXPERIENCE using the platform’s Enterprise Identification Number (EIN) mechanism. The goal isn’t to make numbering complicated. It’s to make it deliberate — structured enough to guide behaviour, but practical enough that teams will actually use it. The focus here is on a platform-native approach using EIN. For teams that need more complicated part numbering, we recommend an EKL-based tool with added controls like dash numbering and duplicate checks, see our 3DEXPERIENCE Smart Part Numbering Using EKL overview and demo.

Why “intelligent” matters here

When I say “intelligent,” I’m not talking about buzzwords. I’m talking about a number that’s built from rules instead of habit. In the demo, the part number follows a clear pattern:

a prefix the user selects
a user-entered segment limited to six characters
a counter that increments based on the prefix selected

That structure matters because it does two things at once: it gives the organisation a standard, and it gives users a repeatable way to apply it without improvising.

The real lever is control at the moment of creation

One detail I call out in the video is the use of a regular expression to control the user-entered segment. This is the practical difference between a part numbering “guideline” and a part numbering “system.” In the walkthrough, the user-entered portion is limited to six characters, but the point is broader: regular expressions can be used to control format: length, alpha or numeric, uppercase or lowercase and more. That means you can enforce what matters at the time the number is generated, instead of relying on cleanup later.

Category-based counters keep numbering from turning into noise

Another important detail is how the counter works. In the demo, the incremental counter value is based on the prefix selected. In other words, different prefixes follow different sequences. That’s a simple idea, but it’s an important one: it lets numbering scale by category instead of forcing everything into a single long counter that becomes harder to interpret over time.

Not limited to one CAD tool or individual parts

In the video, I demonstrate this from the SOLIDWORKS client, but I also note that this works with all CAD integrations to 3DEXPERIENCE. I also show it being applied to an assembly, not just an individual part. Watch the demo for the full workflow If you’re evaluating whether EIN can support intelligent numbering standards in your 3DEXPERIENCE environment, the demo shows the end-to-end flow: how the structure is defined, how controlled input is enforced, and how the resulting enterprise item number is generated and applied. If you’d like more information, or you want to talk through how this approach maps to your numbering standards, please get in touch. I also encourage you to explore our custom tools to discover additional techniques and solutions that can help streamline your processes.