Mechanical Modeler

Retrieving Mechanical Import Information using ClientID

Using CATIMmiMechanicalImportApplicative with Startup Catalog Id as authentication
Use Case

Abstract

The Use Case illustrates retrieving the link information of an Applicative Mechanical Import, a copy with link across two Part documents using the ClientId authentication.

The article "Managing Applicative Mechanical Imports" [1] is a further reference on that subject.

What You Will Learn With This Use Case

User primarily learns the capabilities of the CATIMmiMechanicalImportApplicative APIs particularly to:

The Use Case also demonstrates the irrelevance of the calls to  IsPointedElementLoaded and LoadPointedElement on an Applicative Mechanical Import, using the ClientId authentication.

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The CAAMmrImportWithClientId Use Case

CAAMmrImportWithClientId is a use case of the CAAMechanicalModeler.edu framework that illustrates MecModInterfaces framework capabilities.

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What Does CAAMmrImportWithClientId Do

The use case operates on an Input model as depicted in Fig.1 below

Fig. 1 Input Model

The Root Product CAAMmrImportWithClientId_Root has  beneath it :

CAAMmrImportWithClientId_Child1  has an Instance of the product CAAMmrImportWithClientId_Org aggregated beneath it. This Product is a Part containing  CombinedCurve.1 and Point.1 features .

The CombinedCurve.1 is an instance of a CombinedCurve StartUp, contained within a catalog whose Client Id is "SAMPLES". The "Instantiating Combined Curves" [2] Use Case details the steps involved in this instantiation.

CAAMmrImportWithClientId_Child2 has an Instance of the product CAAMmrImportWithClientId_Copies aggregated beneath it. This Product is a Part containing three external features. These are:

The use case mainly illustrates the following scenarios:

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How to Launch CAAMmrImportWithClientId

To launch CAAMmrImportWithClientId, you will need to set up the build time environment, then compile CAAMmrImportWithClientId along with its prerequisites, set up the run time environment, and then execute the use case [3]. 

To launch the use case execute the command:

mkrun -c "CAAMmrImportWithClientId inputpath"

where inputpath is :

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Where to Find the CAAMmrImportWithClientId Code

The CAAMmrImportWithClientId use case is defined at the location:

InstallRootDirectory\CAAMechanicalModeler.edu\CAAMmrImportWithClientId.m\

The use case has calls to:

Global routines CAAMmrGetGeometry and CAAMmrGetPartFromProduct, to navigate a loaded model. These routines are defined at the location:

InstallRootDirectory\CAAMechanicalModeler.edu\CAAMmrUtilities.m\

where InstallRootDirectory [3] is the directory where the CAA CD-ROM is installed.

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Step-by-Step

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Prolog 

CAAMmrImportWithClientId begins by creating a session, and opening the CAAMmrImportWithClientId_Copies Part document. Next it retrieves the root container of this Part as a pointer to CATIPrtContainer, pIPrtContOnDocument . This is the usual sequence for loading a Part document.

Thanks to  the GetPart method on the root container we retrieve the Mechanical Part. This part is handled by the smart pointer spSpecObjectOnMechPart. This pointer will be useful to search specifications in the document. 

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Failure to do a ClientID Authentication when Pointed Element is not loaded

We proceed to retrieve the Copy_CombinedCurve.1 feature under the MechanicalPart feature.

...
    CATBaseUnknown * pCopyCombCurve1= NULL ;    
    rc = ::CAAMmrGetGeometry(spSpecObjectOnMechPart,"Copy_CombinedCurve.1",
					&pCopyCombCurve1);
...

A call to CAAMmrGetGeometry enables us retrieve a feature pCopyCombCurve1 by its name Copy_CombinedCurve.1 from the MechanicalPart feature spSpecObjectOnMechPart.

The next step is to seek information from the copied feature Copy_CombinedCurve.1. It begins with an authentication process, referred to as ClientID authentication, in the steps ahead.

...
    CATIMmiMechanicalImportApplicative *pIMecImportApplicativeOnResultCopy = NULL ; 
    rc = pCopyCombCurve1->QueryInterface
				  (IID_CATIMmiMechanicalImportApplicative,
                                  (void**)&pIMecImportApplicativeOnResultCopy); 
...

We seek the CATIMmiMechanicalImportApplicative* type on the copied feature pCopyCombCurve1.

The CATIMmiMechanicalImportApplicative Interface exposes services which enable us do a ClientID authentication on the Mechanical Import Copy_CombinedCurve.1.

...
    CATUnicodeString ClientId = "SAMPLES";
    rc = pIMecImportApplicativeOnResultCopy->SetPointedElementClientId(ClientId);
    if (SUCCEEDED(rc))
        return 1;
...

The CATIMmiMechanicalImportApplicative::SetPointedElementClientId call on the Mechanical Import Copy_CombinedCurve.1, takes the ClientId, a CATUnicodeString as an argument, which in this case has been valuated to "SAMPLES".

The significance of this argument is that it should necessarily be the same as the Client Id of the StartUp Catalog defining the source feature of the Import. Here, Copy_CombinedCurve.1 and Copy_CombinedCurve.2 are copies of CombinedCurve.1, a feature whose StartUp definition exists in a Catalog whose Client Id is "SAMPLES", defined in the Use Case "Creating a Combined Curve's Catalog" [4]

That being the case, an essential pre-requisite for the authentication process is that the Part containing the pointed element should necessarily be loaded in the current session. Since CAAMmrImportClientId_RepRef_org is not loaded in the current session, the authentication process is bound to fail here.

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Illustrating the Irrelevance of LoadPointedElement API call

In the earlier step, the ClientID authentication failed since the pointed element was not loaded in the current session. We now attempt to load it by a call to CATIMmiMechanicalImportApplicative::LoadPointedElement.

...
    rc = pIMecImportApplicativeOnResultCopy->LoadPointedElement();
    if (SUCCEEDED(rc))
        return 1;
    rc = pIMecImportApplicativeOnResultCopy->IsPointedElementLoaded();
    if (SUCCEEDED(rc))
    	return 1;
...

It is important to note that the pointed element cannot be loaded with a call to LoadPointedElement since it always returns FAILURE.

Reason being, that any call on the copied feature requires an authentication. And the ClientID way of authentication succeeds only after the pointed element is loaded in the current session. That being the case, calls to LoadPointedElement and IsPointedElementLoaded are obviously irrelevant in the ClientID context, and hence always return FAILURE, as the code above indicates.

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Success in ClientID Authentication when Pointed Element is loaded

We proceed to do a ClientID authentication on Copy_CombinedCurve.1, having loaded the Part containing the pointed element CAAMmrClientId_RepRef_Org. We load CAAMmrClienId_RepRef_Org by loading its Root CAAMmrImportClientId_Root. Loading the root product, load all its sub-product, and its Part documents.

...
CATBaseUnknown_var spPointedElement1;
CATBaseUnknown_var spSourceProductInstance1;

rc = pIMecImportApplicativeOnResultCopy->SetPointedElementClientId(ClientId);
...

pIMecImportApplicativeOnResultCopy is the CATIMmiMechanicalImportApplicative interface pointer on the copied feature, Copy_CombinedCurve.1. We have retrieved it in the previous section. The call to SetPointedElementClientId is expected to return a SUCCESS at this stage since

Retrieve relevant information from Copy_CombinedCurve.1

We can now retrieve all relevant information from Copy_CombinedCurve.1, a feature copied out of Assy Context.

...
    CATBaseUnknown_var spPointedElement1;
    rc = pIMecImportApplicativeOnResultCopy->GetPointedElement(spPointedElement1);
   ...
    CATBaseUnknown_var spSourceProductInstance1;
    rc = pIMecImportApplicativeOnResultCopy->GetSourceProduct
							(spSourceProductInstance1); 
...

The call to GetPointedElement returns the source feature of Copy_CombinedCurve.1

The call to GetSourceProduct fails, as expected since Copy_CombinedCurve.1, is a feature copied, out of Assy Context.

Illustrate Irrelevance of call to IsPointedElementLoaded

Though the calls to the above APIs succeeded, the call to IsPointedElementLoaded still fails, since as explained earlier [#], this API is irrelevant in the ClientID context.

...
    rc = pIMecImportApplicativeOnResultCopy->IsPointedElementLoaded
				                (LoadedPointedReference);    
    if (SUCCEEDED(rc))
        return 1;
...

Retrieve relevant information from Copy_CombinedCurve.2

The next step is to seek all relevant information from Copy_CombinedCurve.2, a feature copied in Assy Context, within the Part document CAAMmrClienId_RepRef_Copies. In an earlier step [#] we had retrieved the MechanicalPart feature contained within this Part.

We begin by seeking the Copy_CombinedCurve.2 feature from this MechanicalPart feature as seen below.

...
    CATBaseUnknown *pCopiedFeatureInAssyContext= NULL ;
    CATUnicodeString NameFeatureToCopy = "Copy_CombinedCurve.2";
    rc = ::CAAMmrGetGeometry(spSpecObjectOnMechPart, 
                             NameFeatureToCopy ,&pCopiedFeatureInAssyContext);	
    rc = pCopiedFeatureInAssyContext->QueryInterface
				       (IID_CATIMmiMechanicalImportApplicative,
                                  (void**)&pIMecImportApplicativeOnResultCopy);
...

The CAAMmrGetGeomtry call returns the feature pCopiedFeatureInAssyContext, a CATBaseUnknown* type, identified by its name Copy_CombinedCurve.2, given a MechanicalPart feature, as an input. The MechanicalPart feature is available as spSpecObjectOnMechPart, CATISpecObject_var type from an earlier step [#]

We then proceed to seek a CATIMmiMechanicalImportApplicative* type on Copy_CombinedCurve.2. The Interface CATIMmiMechanicalImportApplicative has services for retrieving information from a copied feature.

As mentioned before, authentication on the copied feature is an essential pre-requisite before seeking any information from it. A call to SetPointedElementClientId with the ClientId, a CATUnicodeString set to "SAMPLES" earlier [#] does this authentication.

...
    rc = pIMecImportApplicativeOnResultCopy->SetPointedElementClientId(ClientId);
...

The call to SetPointedElementClientId is expected to return a SUCCESS here since

It is now possible to seek all relevant information from Copy_CombinedCurve.2, as the code below depicts.

...
    CATBaseUnknown_var spPointedElement2;
    rc = pIMecImportApplicativeOnResultCopy->GetPointedElement(spPointedElement2);
    CATBaseUnknown_var spSourceProductInstance2;
    rc = pIMecImportApplicativeOnResultCopy->GetSourceProduct
				                       (spSourceProductInstance2);
...

The call to GetPointedElement returns the pointed element, spPointedElement2, a CATBaseUnknown_var type.

The call to GetSourceProduct  returns the Product Instance CAAMmrImportClientId_Child1.1 which aggregates the Product CAAMmrImportClientId_RepRef_Org, associated with the Part of the source feature CombinedCurve.1. It is returned as a CATBaseUnknown_var type, spSourceProductInstance2.  It succeeds since Copy_CombinedCurve.2, is a feature copied in Assy Context.

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Failure to do a ClientId Authentication on Copy_Point.1

Lastly, we illustrate the failure to do a ClientID authentication on Copy_Point.1, a point copied in Root Context, within the Part associated with CAAMmrClienId_RepRef_Copies.

We begin by retrieving Copy_Point.1 feature.

...
    CATBaseUnknown* pCopiedFeature_Point= NULL;
    NameFeatureToCopy = "Copy_Point.1";
    rc = ::CAAMmrGetGeometry(spSpecObjectOnMechPart, 
                             NameFeatureToCopy ,&pCopiedFeature_Point);
  
    rc = pCopiedFeature_Point->QueryInterface(IID_CATIMmiMechanicalImportApplicative,
                                        (void**)&pIMecImportApplicativeOnResultCopy); 
...

The CAAMmrGetGeomtry call returns the feature pCopiedFeature_Point, a CATBaseUnknown* type, identified by its name Copy_Point.1, given a MechanicalPart feature, as an input. The MechanicalPart feature is available as spSpecObjectOnMechPart, CATISpecObject_var type [#]

We then proceed to seek a CATIMmiMechanicalImportApplicative* type on Copy_Point.1. The Interface CATIMmiMechanicalImportApplicative has services for retrieving information from a copied feature.

A call to SetPointedElementClientId with the ClientId, a CATUnicodeString set to "SAMPLES" earlier [#] attempts to do an authentication on Copy_Point.1, an essential pre-requisite prior to proceeding further.

...
    rc = pIMecImportApplicativeOnResultCopy->SetPointedElementClientId(ClientId);
    if (SUCCEEDED(rc))
        return 1;
...

This authentication fails, for the simple reason that the ClientId input is that of the CombinedCurve StartUp Catalog, which does not define the  Copy_Point.1 source.

To retrieve any link information from a standard DS feature, eg. Point,  it should necessarily be an Applicative Import, meaning a feature copied "as result with Link" across Part documents and tagged by a "GUID" [5] The ClientId authentication could not be valid in this context.

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Epilog

The CAAMmrImportWithClientId use case ends by simply closing the PLM session.

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In Short

The Use Case illustrates retrieving the link information of an Applicative Mechanical Import, a CombinedCurve [8] using the StartUp Catalog authentication on the copied feature. The ClientId input at the time of authentication should necessarily be the same as the ClientId of the StartUp Catalog defining the source feature of the Import.

The authentication thus necessitates that the Part containing the pointed element should necessarily be loaded in the current session. That explains why calls to IsPointedElementLoaded and LoadPointedElement of the CATIMmiMechanicalImportApplicative are irrelevant in the ClientId context.

The article "Managing Applicative Mechanical Imports" [3] is a further reference on that subject.

To retrieve any link information from a copy of a standard DS feature, eg. Point, the copy should necessarily be an Applicative Import meaning, a feature copied "as result with link" across Part, and tagged by a "GUID" [5]. The ClientId authentication is irrelevant in this context.

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References

[1] Managing Applicative Mechanical Imports
[2] Instantiating Combined Curves
[3] Building and Launching a CAA V5 Use Case
[4] Creating Combined Curve's Catalog
[5] Retrieving Mechanical Import Information using GUID Mechanism

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History

Version: 1 [July 2007] Document created
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Copyright © 2007, Dassault Systèmes. All rights reserved.