Equipment & Systems

What You Will Learn With This Use Case

This use case is intended to help you understand how to create the "base features", or StartUps, of a typical schematic application. They are the base objects of schematic feature extensions used in sample programs to illustrate the implementations of schematic platform interfaces in this Framework.

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The CAASchAppCreateCATfct Use Case

CAASchAppCreateCATfct is a use case of the CAASchPlatformModeler.edu framework that illustrates the procedures to define "base feature" classes and their attributes.

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What Does CAASchAppCreateCATfct Do

The sample takes an input ".CATfct" file that contains the basic classes ASMPRODUCT, CONNECTOR, and CONNECTION. It then adds new sample schematic application classes (which are derived from the basic classes and shown in light blue in the diagram below) and attributes to the file and saves all the modification to a directory specified by the user.

Fig.1: Class hierarchy defined in the output CAASCHEDUApp.CATfct

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How to Launch CAASchAppCreateCATfct

To launch CAASchAppCreateCATfct, you will need to set up the build time environment, then compile CAASchAppCreateCATfct along with its prerequisites, set up the run time environment, and then execute the sample. This is fully described in the referenced article [1]. When launching the use case, you must pass the following arguments:

• CAASCHEDUAppIn.CATfct - the entire pathname, name and extension (.CATfct) of the input file. Normally, it should be stored in the CNext/resources/graphic file directory.
• CAASCHEDUApp.CATfct - the entire pathname, name and extension (.CATfct) of the file to be generated by CAASchAppCreateCATfct.

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Where to Find the CAASchAppCreateCATfct Code

CAASchAppCreateCATfct code is located in the CAASchAppCreateCATfct.m use case module of the CAASchPlatformModeler.edu framework:

where InstallRootDirectory is the root directory of your CAA V5 installation. The name of the source file is CAASchAppCreateCATfctMain.cpp.

Additional prerequisite code is located in the CAASchAppUtilities.m  module of the same framework.

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Step-by-Step

There are 3 logical steps in CAASchAppCreateCATfct:

1. Prolog
2. Add new classes and attributes 
3. Epilog

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Prolog

In this use case, we open an input "CATfct" that contains the basic classes that our sample classes are to be derived from. Initializing the environment involves the following:

• Creating a session, namely "CAASchCreateCATfctMain_Session". This is fully described in the referenced article [2].
• Deleting any existing output file from previous execution of this sample.
• Declaring the user client ID and using that in opening the "CATfct" document using the method ::UpgradeCatalog, which allows the catalog to be upgraded. This method returns a CATICatalog pointer to the opened StartUp document.

CATUnicodeString uClientId (SCHEDUAppClientID);
rc = ::UpgradeCatalog(&uCATFctToLoad, &piCatalog, &uClientId);
  

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Adding new classes and attributes

Method CAACreateBaseFeatureSU is the main method that creates new classes and attributes for the sample application. The code can be divided into the following steps:

• Initializing a StartUp list

  CATListPtrCATBaseUnknown *pCAASUList = new CATListPtrCATBaseUnknown();

  This list will contain a pointer to CATBaseUnknown for each created StartUp.

• Initializing StartUp class, super class, and name lists

  ...
  CATListValCATUnicodeString CAALUClass;
  CATListValCATUnicodeString CAALUSuperClass;
  CATListValCATUnicodeString CAALUName;
  //               class                              SuperClass 
  CAALUClass.Append(SCHEDUClass_Part);      CAALUSuperClass.Append(SCHEDUClass_ASMPRODUCT);
  ...
  CAALUName.Append(SCHEDUName_Part);
  ...
    

  Three CATUnicodeString lists are created: the first for the StartUp class names, the second for the StartUp superclass names, and the third for the StartUp names. The indices of a given StartUp is the same in these three lists. The CATUnicodeString classes are initiliazed in CAASchAppClassNames.h, located in the PrivateInterfaces folder of CAASchPlatformModeler.edu framework.

• Creating the StartUps

  ...
  CATBaseUnknown *pBU = NULL;
  for (int iClass=1; iClass<=NbSizeClass; iClass++)
  { 
    rc = E_FAIL;
    pBU = NULL;
    CATUnicodeString uName       (CAALUName[iClass]);
    CATUnicodeString uClass      (CAALUClass[iClass]);
    CATUnicodeString uSuperClass (CAALUSuperClass[iClass]);
    if (uSuperClass.GetLengthInChar())
    {
      rc = iCatalog->CreateSUInCatalog (&pBU,               // Pointer to the created StartUp
                                        &uName,             // StartUp name
                                        &uClass,            // StartUp class name
                                        "CATISpecObject",   // Required CATISpecObject type
                                        &uSuperClass);      // StartUp super class name
    } 
    else
    {
      rc = iCatalog->CreateSUInCatalog (&pBU,
                                        &uName,
                                        &uClass,
                                        "CATISpecObject");
    }  
    if (SUCCEEDED(rc) && (NULL != pBU))
    { 
      pCAASUList->Append (pBU);
      ...
    

  For each StartUp, the CATICatalog::CreateSUInCatalog method is called from the CATICatalog pointer to the StartUp catalog. If the StartUp has no super class, CreateSUInCatalog signature with four arguments is used. When the StartUp is successfully created, the retrieved pointer to that StartUp is stored in the list for later use, such as adding attributes.

• Adding Attributes to one of the StartUps

  ...
  int BUOfConnectorIndex = 7;
  CATISpecObject *piSpecCntrSU = (CATISpecObject *) ((*pCAASUList)[BUOfConnectorIndex]);
  CATISpecAttribute *piSpecAttr = NULL;
  if (NULL != piSpecCntrSU)
  {
    piSpecAttr = piSpecCntrSU->AddAttribute (SCHEDUATTR_Connector_FlowCapacity, // Attribute name
                                             tk_integer);                       // Attribute type
  ...
    

  A CATISpecObject pointer is retrieved to the seventh created StartUp, and the CATISpectObject::AddArttribute method is called to add a tk_integer attribute. The attribute name is initialized in CAASchAppClassNames.h, located in the PrivateInterfaces folder of CAASchPlatformModeler.edu framework.

• Cleaning-up

  The pointers in the StartUp list are released and set to NULL, and the list itself is deleted.

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Epilog

The following steps conclude the use case:

• Saving the modified/upgraded StartUp catalog "CATfct" by calling the SaveCatalog global function.

  rc = ::SaveCatalog (&piCatalog,&uCATFctToOutput);

• Deleting the created session "CAASchCreateCATfctMain_Session". This is described in the referenced article [2].

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In Short

This use case has demonstrated how to define new classes and attributes for a typical schematic application.

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References

History

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