3D PLM Enterprise Architecture

User Interface - Frame

Contextual Help for an Add-on

How to create a documentation file tree
Use Case

Abstract

This article shows how to create a documentation file tree for an Add-On of the CATIA Application.


What You Will Learn With This Use Case

This use case is intended to show you the structure and the contents of a documentation file tree [1] for an Add-On on the CATIA Application. 

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The CAADoc Use Case

CAADoc is a use case of the CAAApplicationFrame.edu framework that illustrates ApplicationFrame framework capabilities.

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What Does CAADoc Do

The CAAGeometry is a sample document that contains a set of commands in a workshop and in two workbenches: CAA V5: Geometrical Creation and CAA V5: Geometrical Analysis. For some commands there is a contextual help. To do that, we have created a documentation file tree which respects a structure to enable the visualization of HTML pages when the end user clicks F1 on a command. 

Launch CATIA , when the application is ready:

  • In the Start menu click Infrastructure and select CAA V5: Geometrical Creation
  • In the File New  Dialog box select CAAGeometry and click OK
  • On the Tools menu click Options
  • Launch the Point command
  • Click F1

    The following HTML page is displayed:

    Fig.1: The Point Command Page

    The top of the page contains a link towards the home page of the Add-On [Fig.4] (Home icon). The Point command is a command created in the CAAGeometry workshop so at the right of the page, you have the icon representing this workshop.

    To display this page, the V5 application creates automatically a frame set which contains five HTML pages:

  • Launch the Cuboid command 
  • Click F1 The following HTML page is displayed:

    Fig.2: The Cuboid Command Page

    The top of the page contains a link towards the home page of the Add-On [Fig.4]. The Cuboid command is a command created in the CAAV5 Geometrical Creation workbench so at the right of the page, you have the icon representing this workbench.

    To display this page, the V5 application creates automatically a frame set which contains five HTML pages:

  • in the Start menu click Infrastructure and select CAA V5: Geometrical Analysis
  • Launch the Bounding Elements command 
  • Click F1
  •   The following HTML page is displayed:

    Fig.3: The Bounding Elements Command Page

    The top of the page contains a link towards the home page of the Add-On [Fig.4]. The Bounding Elements command is a command created in the CAAV5 Geometrical Analysis workbench so at the right of the page, you have the icon representing this workbench.

    To display this page, the V5 application creates automatically a frame set which contains five HTML pages:

  • Click the icon 
  • The following HTML page is displayed:

    Fig.4: The Home Page

    This is the home page of the Add-On. You retrieve the icon of the workshop and an icon for each workbench. In clicking them you will reach an information page about these entities. 

  • Click the icon 
  • The following HTML page is displayed:

    Fig.5: The CAA V5 Geometrical Analysis workbench Home Page

    To display this page, we use a frame set contained in the directory associated with the Geometrical Analysis workbench. This frame is also divided in three parts:

  • Click Back in the browser
  • Click the icon
  • The following HTML page is displayed:

    Fig.6: The CAA V5 Geometrical Creation workbench Home Page

    To display this page, we use a frame set contained in the directory associated with the Geometrical Creation workbench. 

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    How to Launch CAADoc

    To launch CAADoc , you will need to set up the build time environment, then compile all the modules of the following frameworks:

    Next set up the run time environment, and then execute the use case [2].

    Then, in the window where you run the mkrun command, do not type the module name on the command line, but type CNEXT instead. When the application is ready make the scenario given in the above section.

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    Where to Find the CAADoc Files

    The CAADoc use case is made of several files located in the CAADoc module of the CAAApplicationFrame.edu framework:

    Windows InstallRootDirectory\CAAApplicationFrame.edu\CAADoc\
    Unix InstallRootDirectory/CAAApplicationFrame.edu/CAADoc/

    where InstallRootDirectory is the directory where the CAA CD-ROM is installed.

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    Step-by-Step

    There are two logical steps in CAADoc:

    1. Creating the Documentation File Tree Structure and Contents
    2. Inserting the French Version

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    Creating the Documentation File Tree Structure

    At first create two sub-directories: the online and the resources directories.

    Contents of the online directory

    The online directory contains the HomePage.htm file [Fig.4] and a set of directories:

    The CATIAfr_C2 directory contains the following files:

    The CATIA banner page: CATIAbnr.htm file

    The Analysis workbench banner page: AnaWbCATIAbnr.htm file

    The Creation workbench banner page: CreWbCATIAbnr.htm file

    The Geometry workshop banner page: GeoWbCATIAbnr.htm file

    The AnaWb, CreWb and GeoWs are directories associated with the CAA V5 Geometrical Analysis workbench, the CAA V5 Geometrical Creation workbench and the CAAGeometry workshop respectively. 

    Detail of the AnaWb directory contents:

    Detail of the CreWb directory contents:

    The CreWb directory contains:

    Note that the AnaWb and CreWb suffixes, the name of the directories, are mandatory before the command pages and before the product line toc file. 

    The images directory contains all the images used through the HTML pages of the AnaWb, CreWb and GeoWs directories.

    The icons_C2 directory contains the no_navigation.htm file

    Contents of the resources directory

    This directory contains only the msgcatalog directory. 

    This msgcatalog directory contains the CommonId2url.CATNls file. 

    CAAAfrGeometryWksHeader.CAAAfrPointHdr = "GeoWs/GeoWspoint.htm" ;
    CAAAfrGeometryWksHeader.CAAAfrPlaneHdr = "GeoWs/GeoWsplane.htm" ;
    CAAAfrGeometryWksHeader.CAAAfrExploreHdr = "GeoWs/GeoWsexplore.htm" ;
    CAAAfrDumpCommandHeader.CAAAfrDumpHdr = "GeoWs/GeoWsdump.htm" ;
    CAAAfrGeoAnalysisWkbHeader.CAAAfrBoundingEltHdr = "AnaWb/AnaWbboundingelement.htm" ;
    CAAAfrGeoCreationWkbHeader.CAAAfrCuboidHdr = "CreWb/CreWbcuboid.htm" ;
    CAAAfrGeoCreationWkbHeader.CAAAfrCylinder1Hdr = "CreWb/CreWbcylinder1.htm" ;
    CAAAfrGeoCreationWkbHeader.CAAAfrCylinder2Hdr = "CreWb/CreWbcylinder2.htm" ;
    CAAAfrGeoChartWindowAdnHeader.CAAAfrHistogramChartWindowHdr = "GeoWs/GeoWsChartWindow.htm" ;

    In the CAAAfrGeometryWksHeader.CATRsc the resources file associated with the CAAAfrGeometryWksHeader class you find:

    CAAAfrGeometryWksHeader.CAAAfrPointHdr.LongHelpId      = "CAAAfrGeometryWksHeader.CAAAfrPointHdr" ;
    CAAAfrGeometryWksHeader.CAAAfrPlaneHdr.LongHelpId      = "CAAAfrGeometryWksHeader.CAAAfrPlaneHdr" ;
    CAAAfrGeometryWksHeader.CAAAfrExploreHdr.LongHelpId     = "CAAAfrGeometryWksHeader.CAAAfrExploreHdr" ;

    Inserting the French Version

    The French Documentation

    The French version is created at the first level of the CAADoc documentation file tree. 

    The French directory contains two sub-directories: the online and the resources directories:

    Contents of the online directory 

    The online directory contains the French directory

    The French directory contains the HomePage.htm file [Fig.4] and a set of directories such as the English version:

    The resources directory  

    The CommonId2url.CATNls file is inserted in the resources directory of the documentation file tree inside the French directory of the msgcatalog directory. This file contains the same thing as the English version.

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    In Short

    This article explains the structure and the contents of a documentation file tree for the contextual help.

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    References

    [1] Contextual Help
    [2] Building and Launching a CAA V5 Use Case
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    History

    Version: 1 [Dec 2002] Document created
    Version: 2 [Dec 2003] Navigation icon introduction
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    Copyright © 2001, Dassault Systèmes. All rights reserved.