Customizing the compass

Conceptual Model

The Compass conceptual model is based on the identification of five topics which structure the whole PLM world and allow the user to orient himself and look for information in a structured way. The Compass is the visual representation of these five topics, divided into four quadrants, and a center.

The four quadrants are named according to the four cardinal directions:

• North Quadrant - People
• South Quadrant - Structure
• East Quadrant - Relations / Links
• West Quadrant - Representation / Shape
• Play - Life

This documentation concerns the four quadrants of the Compass, but not the Play button.

Capability Summary

This article describes the capability to customize the Compass.

This capability will be available only in the 3DLive Navigation window.

For each quadrant of the compass it will be possible to register a set of customizations.

Each customization will manage:

• The caption display in order to explain what is the nature and meaning of the information that is shown.
• The PLM Shading (color in the 3D view) of the compass and the background color of texts displayed in the spec tree.
  • RGB color and transparency coefficient, homogenous for both items: 3D representation and background color of texts.
• Le labels of the compass.
  • Icons and texts of each row of the labels.

Each customization will rely on properties stored locally on each node of the 3DLive tree. A mechanism of rule scripts is proposed for evaluating properties.

Therefore when a customer extends the PLM Data model, and adds new PLM attributes to objects, it will be possible to enhance the compass to have it taking into account the "customer specific" information.

External View/Behavior

For information, the compass presented to the end-user will be the one delivered by Dassault Syst笥s, It is our STANDARD.

This Standard will be activated each time a user launches a new session.

• When selecting one quadrant of the compass a drop down list shows the list of available customizations plus the standard compass behavior. The user selects one item to see the associated rendering. By default the active item is the standard one provided by DS if no other default is defined.
• If no customization is associated to a quadrant no drop down list is displayed.
• If the customization files are modified during the Session, these modifications will only be taken into account in the next Session.
• When one quadrant of the compass is in use, The shading color is consistent between the tree (text background color) and the 3D representations.
• Whenever a customization is selected, a set of rules are executed to provide information about:
  • The color codes and associated legends of the caption area.
  • Texts and icons which are show in the labels.
  • The color code to be applied for each node and associated 3D representation.
• If the tree is already customized, the compass customization will overloads his customization during its use.

User Interface

The standard user interface of the compass made of the four quadrants of the compass is not modified.

In addition, a new list of choices is available to choose one customization among a list for each quadrant of the compass. The list also contains the default behaviors supplied by Dassault-Syst笥s.

Customization Principle

The default behavior - reminder:

The four compass quadrants compute and display information about PLM Objects STATE relying on predefined PLM Attributes. These attributes belong to the basic PLM types.

For example: the north quadrant displays for each object a STATE related with the "people" topic relying on the V_LockOwner and V_Owner attributes.

These attributes are available on any Reference object (Part, Representation from any customization).

The customized behavior:

Let's suppose a customer deploy a customization of the PLM model this way:

Hence there will be a need for displaying two new STATES of PLM objects relying on Reviewer and Quality_Resp attributes (added by customization). This will lead to two customizations of the NORTH quadrant: "Review" and "Quality".

Parts created in the customer database will be either of type PartRef_Custo1 or PartRef_Custo2. In one 3DLive window a mix of these objects might be displayed at the same time.

So any quadrant customization has to declare the way an object STATE is computed on a per type basis. This means a customization is made of a set of script rules; each rule is associated to one type. When executing a quadrant customization, for each PLM object of the current window a rule is searched based on the object type. If one is found it is executed, otherwise a rule is searched based on the object father type. The searching process stops when reaching the PLMCore type level.

As a summary:

• A quadrant customization is linked to one of the four quadrants.
• A quadrant customization is made of one or several rules; each of them is linked to a specific type.

Without any Customization

The shading today defined by using the compass will be applied to:

• The 3D representations as usual

Customization definition

Resource file and referenced script files:

To define the customization we need a description for:

• The list of PLM attributes that the user wants to use for its customizations.
  • All these PLM Attributes must exist in the CATPLMMaskTree
    • compass Custo Name
    • Custo
    • modeler
    • type
    • list of PLM Attributes
• The colors and associated legend of the compass for each quadrant for each customization.
  • For the 3D representations and background color of the tree's texts
    • compass Custo Name
    • Quadrant
    • color #1 description:
      • Text of the legend
      • Name of the script use to get the color characteristics.
      • The RGB, alpha description of the color.
• The description of the labels for each quadrant of each customization.
  • compass Custo Name
  • Quadrant
  • For each Row of the label:
    • Icon name
    • Customized text (in front of the value of the attribute).
    • Attribute name to do the query or the name of the script to get the attribute value, depending of what technology will be used to get the PLM information.

All this information will be stored in a unique .CATRsc file named : CATPLMCompassCustomizationOfQuadrants.CATRsc

The script files contain the rule to get RGB, alpha (for transparency) value for a given Compass custo (for a unique defined type based on these three characteristics: customization , modeler, PLMCoretype) . The rule in the script computes RGB, alpha value getting the value of the PLM Attributes. This rule has been coded by the user.

Principles:

The files defined in the previous paragraph are used to set up the customization.

Here are the main steps of the process (shading and background color of the text of the specs tree):

• The list of available customizations is built from the resources files.
• The user click down one quadrant of the compass
• The information for the current customization of the selected quadrant of the compass is get from the resources files.
  • Definition of the color, text, name of script files
  • Definition for the labels.
  • All required PLM Attributes used by the customization.
• Set the caption area information
• For all objects involved by the customization (which have a 3D representation or a 2D representation (in the specs tree) do a query for all PLM Attributes.
  • => One query for all PLM Objects / all PLM attributes.
• Set the value of theses attributes in the local buffer of the application (VPM Nav) for each object of the tree.
• For each object call to the script in order to have the RGB, alpha value
  • The scripts now get the information from the local buffer of the window.
• Set the PLM Shading on the 3D representations by using the RGB, alpha value.
• Set the background color of the text of the 2D representations (specs tree) with the same information.

Here are the main steps of the process (labels of the compass):

• The user click down one quadrant of the compass and objects are selected or one quadrant of the compass is in use and the user selects some objects in the 3D view or in the tree of specs.
• The information for the current customization of the selected quadrant of the compass is get from the resources files.
  • Definition of the color, text, name of script files.
  • Definition for the labels.
  • All required PLM Attributes used by the customization.
• For all objects involved by the customization (which are selected) do a query for all PLM Attributes.
  • => One query for all PLM Objects / all PLM attributes.
• Set the value of theses attributes in the local buffer of the application (VPM Nav) for each selected object of the tree.
• For each object call to the script in order to have the information displayed in the labels.
  • The scripts get now the information from the local buffer of the window.
• Creates the labels of the compass.

Note: The modification of script files in Session is not taken into account immediately. For that, the user has to launch another Session.

Sample of customization

File CATPLMCompassCustomizationOfQuadrants.CATRsc

Quadrant.West.NumberOfCustomizations = "1";
Quadrant.West.Cust1.NameOfCustomization = "Description Attr. Test";
Quadrant.West.Cust1.NumberOfColors = "2";
Quadrant.West.Cust1.Color.Rule.PLMProductDS = "Description_rule";
Quadrant.West.Cust1.Color.Rule.PLMRepresentationDS = "Description_rule";
Quadrant.West.Cust1.Label.Rule.PLMProductDS = "N1ScriptForPLMProductDS_Label";
Quadrant.West.Cust1.Col1.Legend = "HELLO";
Quadrant.West.Cust1.Col1.Red = "204";
Quadrant.West.Cust1.Col1.Green = "51";
Quadrant.West.Cust1.Col1.Blue = "255";
Quadrant.West.Cust1.Col1.Transparency = "0";
Quadrant.West.Cust1.Col2.Legend = "Nothing written";
Quadrant.West.Cust1.Col2.Red = "102";
Quadrant.West.Cust1.Col2.Green = "51";
Quadrant.West.Cust1.Col2.Blue = "51";
Quadrant.West.Cust1.Col2.Transparency = "0";

File Description_rule.CATRule in <os>\resources\knowledge\scripts directory.

if (ThisObject.V_description=="HELLO")
  Parameters->SetAttributeString("MyColorForcompass","204|51|255|0")
else
  Parameters->SetAttributeString("MyColorForcompass","102|51|51|0")

File Attributes_For_Rules.CATRsc in <os>\resources\msgcatalog directory.

Attributes.PLMProductDS = "PLM_ExternalID|V_organization|V_maturity|V_user|LOCKUSER|V_description";
Attributes.PLMRepresentationDS = "V_organization|V_maturity|V_user|LOCKUSER|V_description";

File N1ScriptForPLMProductDS_Label.CATRule in <os>\resources\knowledge\scripts folder.

let Value1(String)
let Value2(String)
let Value3(String)
let Property1(String)
let Property2(String)
let Property3(String)
let LabelDescription(String)
Value1 = ThisObject.PLM_ExternalID
Value2 = ThisObject.V_description
Value3 = ThisObject.LOCKUSER
Property1 = "Property1|"+"THE NAME IS : "+Value1+"|I_Purple"
Property2 = "|Property2|"+"THE DESCRIPTION IS : "+Value2+"|I_Red"
Property3 = "|Property3|"+"THE LOCK USER IS : "+Value3+"|I_Yellow"
LabelDescription=Property1+Property2+Property3
Parameters->SetAttributeString("MyLabelForPLMCompass",LabelDescription)

Capability to define rules based on instances is also provided. Here is a sample script for customizing a shading:

To work with instance: let ThisInstanceObject(VPMInstance)

To check if the is an instance: Parameters->HasAttribute("InstanceObject")

To get the instance: Parameters->GetAttributeObject("InstanceObject")

Note: If you try to access an InstanceObject which is not defined on the objet, the whole rule will fail. So, we strongly advice to check its availability with: if ( bAllowComputingRuleWithInstanceObject == TRUE )

let ThisInstanceObject(VPMInstance)
let bAllowComputingRuleWithInstanceObject(boolean)

bAllowComputingRuleWithInstanceObject = Parameters->HasAttribute("InstanceObject")

if ( bAllowComputingRuleWithInstanceObject == TRUE )
{
  set ThisInstanceObject = Parameters->GetAttributeObject("InstanceObject")

  if (ThisInstanceObject.PLM_ExternalID =="ZDXRoue.1")
    Parameters->SetAttributeString("MyColorForPLMCompass","255|0|0|80")
  else
    Parameters->SetAttributeString("MyColorForPLMCompass","0|0|255|80")
  }
else
{
  Parameters->SetAttributeString("MyColorForPLMCompass","0|255|0|80")
}

Limitation #1:
The customization of the compass works only in VPM Navigator, Search and Physical Editor workshop

Limitation #2:
If no customization of the compass is defined, in its default working behavior, the background color of the tree won't change.

Limitation #3: 
The customization of the compass is based on attributes of the tree mask defined in the rules, or on the attributes defined in the 
Attributes_For_Rules.CATRsc file.

Limitation #4:
Update of information in the case of labels.
The displayed information in the label for selected objects are always refreshed from DataBase.
These information (as in the default behavior of the compass today defined) may be "fresher" 
than the information relative to the 3D shading  and the Tree  Background color.

Limitation #5:
In the resource File CATPLMCompassCustomizationOfQuadrants.CATRsc, 
for the lines about display of customization names and legends only English language is taken into account.
Other characters (French, Japanese) aren't managed.

Quadrant.North.Cust1.NameOfCustomization = "Sales data";
Quadrant.North.Cust1.Col1.Legend = "Specific Parts ";

Limitation #6:
It is  not possible , in a CATRule to compare a character string with a space inside It or with special characters (as # ! etc...)
    example which doesn't work: 
        if (ThisObject.LOCKUSER=="MY NAME") 
        Parameters->SetAttributeString("MyColor","0|255|0")

Limitation #7:
The character comparison is Case Sensitive, so it is required to take into account the case.

Limitation #8:
The compass Checker Tool won't check the content of Attributes_For_Rules.CATRsc.

Limitation #9:
There is a limitation due to the transparency algorithm implementation.
As far as the polygons are concerned, the results might not be as expected,
when the triangles are blended with the rest of the scene.
As it is too costly and may adversely affect performance, polygons are not drawn using a Z order(ie: depth order).
Therefore it is not possible to be sure that when transparent polygon is blended, all the scene is drawn behind.
Transparent polygons are drawn at the end of the draw phase by they are not depth-stored,

Suggestion:
Paint objects without transparency or paint objects with a strong transparency.

Limitation #10:
Only PLM attributes and objects are taken in account (not features).

Two CATRsc file to write:

CATPLMCompassCustomizationOfQuadrants.CATRsc and Attributes_For_Rules.CATRsc.

All CATRule file described in CATPLMCompassCustomizationOfQuadrants.CATRsc to write.