Equipment & Systems

What You Will Learn With This Use Case

This use case is intended to show you how to define a computed property for an exposed (knowledgeware) type in Distributive System document. 

A Computed property (attribute) is an exposed knowledgeware attribute whose value is computed based on values of other attributes (static attributes that are Feature Dictionary defined, internal or other computed attributes) or by use of specific application interface methods. This use case will allow users to define their own computed attributes so that they can be used in such tools as "Edit + Search", "Report generator" command and other knowledgeware tools.

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The CAAPspDefineUserProperties Use Case

CAAPspDefineUserProperties is a use case of the CAAPlantShipInterfaces.edu framework that illustrates CATPlantShipInterfaces framework capabilities.

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What Does CAAPspDefineUserProperties Do

The goal of  CAAPspDefineUserProperties is to show you how to define a computed property for an exposed (knowledgeware) type in Distributive System document. This use case defines an attribute "TotalWallThickness" for  "PipingPart" exposed type in  "PipingLayout" package.

Additionally this use case defines attributes that compute their value from Enovia based attributes.  These additional computed attributes demonstrate the usefulness of using computed attributes to obtain information from the Enovia data base that can be listed in reports or searches.  To successfully use this part of the use case, you must be running within an Enovia environment, enable Attribute Mapping for interoperability, and know the exact attribute names of the Enovia attributes you wish to retrieve.

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How to Use CAAPspDefineUserProperties 

To use CAAPspDefineUserProperties, you will need to set up the build time environment, then compile CAAPspDefineUserProperties along with its prerequisites, set up the run time environment. In addition you may want to

1. Customize your implementation in  CAAPspDefineUserAttributes.cpp to define additional computed properties for Piping exposed types. 
2. Remove the conditional blocks of code that  checking for environment variable "RunSample".

           if (CATGetEnvValue("RunSample",0) ...

1. Compile the source code. See the compiler documentation for more information.
2. Copy the shared library CAAPspDefineUserPropert.dll or libCAAPspDefineUserProperties depending on the operating system to your run time bin directory.
3. Copy the CAAPlantShipInterfaces.edu.dico to your run time dictionary directory.
4. Do the following to test your implementation:
   • Start CNext and select Piping Design workbench.
   • Click Edit->Search
   • Select "Piping Design" workbench
   • Check attributes of "Piping Part". You should see "Total Wall Thickness" attribute as shown below.

         

       And/Or

   • Run sample CAAPspUserProperties to see attribute values of the defined user computed attributes.

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Where to Find the CAAPspDefineUserProperties Code

CAAPspDefineUserProperties code is located in the CAAPspDefineUserProperties .m use case module of the CAAPlantShipInterfaces.edu framework:

where InstallRootDirectory is the root directory of your CAA V5 installation. It is made of a unique source file named CAAPspDefineUserProperties.cpp.

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Step-by-Step

There are five logical steps in CAADefineUserPspProperties :

1. Prolog
2. Declaring implementation of CATIPspKweUserAttr
3. Define a computed attribute
4. Define computation method
5. Update dictionary 

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Prolog

To define computed attributes this use case provides an  implementation for CATIPspKweUserAttr. The implementation derives from adaptor class  CATPspKweUserAttrAdapter. 

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Declaring Implementation of CATIPspKweUserAttr

CAAPspDefineUserAttributes is an  implementation on late type "PipingLayout"  to implement interface CATIPspKweUserAttr.  It should always derive from base adaptor class CATPspKweUserAttrAdapter.

...

class CAAPspDefineUserAttributes: public CATPspKweUserAttrAdapter
{

...

CATIPspKweUserAttr can also be implemented on following Latetypes  (corresponding to Knowledgeware exposed Package names) to define computed attributes on types exposed by them.

CATImplementClass(CAAPspDefineUserAttributes,
                   DataExtension,
                   CATBaseUnknown,
                   PipingLayout);

                  

#include "TIE_CATIPspKweUserAttr.h"
TIEchain_CATIPspKweUserAttr(CAAPspDefineUserAttributes);

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Define a Computed Attribute

CAAPspDefineUserAttributes::DefineKweUserAttr is used to define computed attribute. It takes in two parameters. First parameter   isTypeName is the name of exposed type while other olAttrInfos is the output list of attributes ( collection of  CATAttributeInfos).

HESULT CAAPspDefineUserAttributes::DefineKweUserAttr(const CATString &isTypeName, 
                                  CATListValCATAttributeInfos &olAttrInfos) 
{
   ...

First get Type dictionary returned by CATGlobalFunctions::GetTypeDictionary and a dictionary of types returned by calling CATCkeGlobalFunctions::GetParmDictionary.

    ...

     cout<<"Entering DefineKweUserAttr!!!!"<<endl;
    CATITypeDictionary_var spDico = CATGlobalFunctions::GetTypeDictionary();

    // Get Dictionary of types
    CATIParmDictionary_var spParmDictionary = CATCkeGlobalFunctions::GetParmDictionary();
  

    ...

Use spParmDictionary to get type of an real type spCkeReal.  

Then for the exposed type "PipingPart",  create an attribute ( object  infoAttr of class CATAttributeInfos  with computed attribute name  "TotalWallThickness" and of  real type spCkeReal) . Append infoAttr  to the output collection parameter olAttrInfos. 

  
    ...
  
    if(!!spDico && !!spParmDictionary)
    {
      if( isTypeName == "PipingPart" )
      {   
        cout<<"Defining computed attribute for PipingPart "<< endl;
        //
        // Define Real type computed attribute TotalWallThickness
        //
        CATUnicodeString uAttrInternalName("TotalWallThickness");
        CATUnicodeString uAttrNLSName("Total Wall Thickness");

        CATICkeType_var spCkeReal = spParmDictionary->GetRealType();
        CATIType_var spTypeReal(spCkeReal);         

        CATAttributeInfos infoAttr(spTypeReal, uAttrInternalName, uAttrNLSName);
        olAttrInfos.Append(infoAttr);       
      }

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Defining Computation Method

CAAPspDefineUserAttributes::GetValue method is used to define calculation method for user computed attribute. Its function signature takes in two parameters; ipiObject is the CATIInstance pointer to an exposed object, iKey is the name of the attribute for which calculation method is to be defined. It returns pointer to CATIValue interface that manages the value of the computed attribute.

CATIValue* CAAPspDefineUserAttributes::GetValue (CATIInstance*  ipiObject, 
                       const CATUnicodeString& iKey) 
{
   ...

Get a volatile factory of values spVolFactory  using the function CATCkeGlobalFunctions::GetVolatileFactory(). A Length parameter  spResultParm (of  handler to interface CATICkeParm) is created for "TotalWallThickness" computed attribute by using the function CreateLength of  spVolFactory.

    ...

    CATUnicodeString uAttrInternalName("TotalWallThickness");
    if (iKey == uAttrInternalName)
    {
      CATICkeParm_var spResultParm;

      // Get volatile factory of values
      CATICkeParmFactory_var spVolFactory = CATCkeGlobalFunctions::GetVolatileFactory();
      
      if (!!spVolFactory)
        spResultParm = spVolFactory->CreateLength(iKey, 0.0);

    ...

Then it computes the grand total  of the values for the computed attributes "WallThickness",  "WallThickness2", "WallThickness3" and "WallThickness4" and stores the value in dTotWallThickness.

       double dTotWallThickness = 0.0;      

      // Get values for the other exposed attributes that
      // will be used in calculating total of WallThickness* attributes
      CATListOfCATUnicodeString LWallThicknessAttr;
      LWallThicknessAttr.Append("WallThickness");
      LWallThicknessAttr.Append("WallThickness2");
      LWallThicknessAttr.Append("WallThickness3");
      LWallThicknessAttr.Append("WallThickness4");

      for( int idx =1; idx< LWallThicknessAttr.Size(); idx++ )
      {
        piVal = ipiObject->GetValue (LWallThicknessAttr[idx]);
        if( NULL != piVal )
        {
          double dVal;
          HRESULT rc1 = piVal->AsReal(dVal);
          if( SUCCEEDED(rc1) )
          {
            dTotWallThickness = dTotWallThickness + dVal;
          }
        }

spResultParm  is valuated with grand total  ( dTotWallThickness) of various  Wall thickness attributes by using the function Valuate(). Then get  CATIValue interface pointer (piResultValue) to spResultParm.  Use piResultValue to return from CATIPspKweUserAttr::GetValue implementation method.

      if (!! spResultParm)
      {
        spResultParm->Valuate(dTotWallThickness);
	spResultParm->QueryInterface(IID_CATIValue, (void **)&piResultValue);
      } 

      ...

 if (piResultValue)
  {
    cout << "Returning value for TotalWallThickness:" << (piResultValue->Show()).ConvertToChar();    
  }
  
  cout<<"Exit CAAPspDefineUserAttributes::GetValue!!!!"<<endl;

  return piResultValue;

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Update dictionary

Declare implementation of CATIPspKweUserAttr in the CAAPlantShipInterfaces.edu.dico file as shown below:

#======================================================================
#CAAPlantShipInterfaces.edu
#======================================================================

PipingLayout        CATIPspKweUserAttr      libCAAPspDefineUserProperties

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Optional Steps

Optional steps can be performed in order to understand how to access Enovia attributes using the knowlegeware interface for computed attribues.

1. Define attribute mapping file
2. Define computed attributes for mapped Enovia attributes
3. Define computation methods for mapped Enovia attributes

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Define Attribute Mapping File

If you are running in an Enovia enviroment, you may wish to experiment with retrieving attributes from the Enovia data base for a given object.  To do this, you must first define an attribute mapping file.  A sample mapping file is located within comments at the end of the file CAAPspDefineUserProperties.cpp.

See the VPM Navigator guide, chapter on Interoperability, for details of the format of this file. 

You will need to set the proper tools option to point to this file:

This extract shows the mapping of Enovia attributes V_status and V_user to the CATIA attributes Life Cycle Status and User In Enovia.

<!-- Attributes for Part Domain -->
<AttributesMapping EntityType="Part" DomainName="PRODUCT">

   <!-- Part Attribute 2 -->
   <Attribute Name="Status" Type="STRING">
       <CATIAInfo Name="Life Cycle Status" Editable="No" Visible="Yes" />
       <DBInfo Name="V_status" LCASubEntity="PV" Editable="Yes" Visible="Yes" />
   </Attribute>

   <!-- Part Attribute 3 -->
   <Attribute Name="DBUser" Type="STRING">
       <CATIAInfo Name="User In Enovia" Editable="No" Visible="Yes" />
       <DBInfo Name="V_user" LCASubEntity="PM" Editable="Yes" Visible="Yes" />
   </Attribute>

The properties dialog will show the values of these mapped attributes as added properties.

This extract shows the mapping of Enovia attributes V_version and V_status to the CATIA attributes with internal names ENOVIA5.DocumentRevision and ENOVIA5.DocumentStatus. 

<!-- Attributes for Document Domain -->
<AttributesMapping EntityType="Document" DomainName="DOCDIR">

   <!-- Document Attribute 1 -->
   <Attribute Name="DocumentRevision" Type="STRING">
       <CATIAInfo Name="ENOVIA5.DocumentRevision" Editable="No" Visible="Yes" />
       <DBInfo Name="V_version" LCASubEntity="DV" Editable="Yes" Visible="Yes" />
   </Attribute>

   <!-- Document Attribute 2 -->
   <Attribute Name="Status" Type="STRING">
      <CATIAInfo Name="ENOVIA5.DocumentStatus" Editable="No" Visible="Yes" />
      <DBInfo Name="V_status" LCASubEntity="DV" Editable="Yes" Visible="Yes" />
   </Attribute>
</AttributesMapping>

The user names displayed in the PLM tab of the properties dialog will be "DocumentRevision" and "DocumentStatus".

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Define Computed Attributes for Mapped Enovia Attributes

Computed attributes are defined the same way as for "TotalWallThickness" in the standard steps.  To use the optional code within the use case, locate the line listed below and change the '0' to '1', recompile and link the module. 

                #define CAA_PSP_OPTIONAL 0

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Define Computation Methods for Mapped Enovia Attributes

There are two types of mapped Enovia attributes in this use case.  Both types return string information.  However, the method of finding and retrieving the value is different. 

For mapped attributes found on the Product tab of the properties dialog, the method GetUserStringValue is used.  It uses the CATIPrdProperties interface to find the desired attribute.  For mapped attributes found on the PLM Document attributes tab of the properties dialog, the method GetPLMStringValue is used. This method retrieves the mapped attribute value from the document using the CATOmbDocPropertyServices utility.

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In Short

This use case has demonstrated how to Define a computed property  "TotalWallThickness" for  "PipingPart" exposed type in  "PipingLayout" package.  It has also shown how to define and compute values for mapped attributes.  It has illustrated:

• How to implement CATIPspKweUserAttr  interface methods.

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References

History

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