PLM - CAD Document
Below is a group of How-to's that are related to the topic of 'Opening' in the PLM - CAD Document subcategory. Click on their links to find more information on these topics.
Below is a group of How-to's that are related to the topic of 'Batch import' in the PLM - CAD Document subcategory. Click on their links to find more information on these topics.
- What is the concept of Batch Import?
- How to use a Batch Import?
- How to enter metadata with drag and drop (batch import)?
- How to retrieve / find an existing job in Batch Import?
- How to add new files to a pending job or modify the metadata in Batch Import?
- How to delete a file or document from a pending job in Batch Import?
- How to create a new version of a CAD document using the batch import?
Below are the remaining How-to's that are not present in other subgroups in the PLM - CAD Document subcategory. Click on their links to find more information on these topics.
- How to save a new CAD document in the PLM from CATIA?
- How to update a BOM in the PLM?
- How to project a BOM on a drawing?
- How to reorder a BOM?
- How to create a Design Collection in the PLM?
- What is the difference between the regular Titleblock stamp and the Mini stamp?
- How is the position of the mini stamp defined?
- How to delete an object from PLM Platform?
- How is metadata managed between the PLM and CATIA?
- How-to identify if SmarTeam documents have been migrated and switched ownership to the PLM?
- How to identify if documents migrated to the PLM have since been edited in Smarteam?
- How to grant a user access to a specific document? (Shared edit rights)
Edit rights to a document is controlled via its Design Code and Responsible Project Group (RPG), which is set on its Parent Part. If a colleague requires edit rights to all the documents with one of these attributes, they should request access to these groups via the appropriate e-group. (Note you only need to belong to one of these groups to edit the documents, but you must belong to the Design Code contributor group to be able to edit the documents and initiate a validation process [Design Verification Workflow]).
However, if your colleague only needs to edit one particular document you can use the ‘Shared edit rights’ feature. A person with access to the document can use this feature to grant edit rights to another user on select documents, rather than all documents in a project.
On the profile card of the document navigate to the ‘Shared edit rights’ tab. From here use the add relation button to add the user that requires access. This person will be given contributor rights to this document only.
On the profile card of the document, in the ‘Shared edit rights’ tab, use the add relation button to grant your colleague edit right to this document only.
This feature is also available from a Part profile card. This will provide edit rights to the Part, but not to any of the CAD documents under it.
There are two ways of retrieving all the objects that you have claimed.
- Method one is to use the dashboard. From either one of the specific tabs (e.g CAD documents) or the All tab, click on the 'claimed by me' filter at the top. This will filter the results of the tab to show only objects that you currently have claimed.
- Method two is from a regular PLM search window. From the table of contents navigate to one of the objects, such as Part, and from here you can open a search window for this object type. Use the column 'claimed by' to filter documents claimed by you. The flag column confirms that these objects are claimed by you, through the presence of a green flag. (Note the column order is customisable to user preferences through drag and drop, so yours may differ from the screenshot below)
To unclaim all the objects in one go, use method 2 and highlight the results. (Press and hold the Ctrl key to select individual results. Alternatively, select a result then hold down the shift button and select another result, this will highlight all the documents in between.)
Once the required documents are highlighted right click to bring up the contextual menu. Click 'unclaim', to unclaim all the highlighted documents.
The CERN Drawing reference (CDR) on a drawing is usually generated from the Design Code applied to its parent Part.
However, on non-master drawings only, it is possible to apply a CDR that is not based on the parent Part.
This is to allow a drawing to be created with additional information that is not necessarily related to the main project, without affecting the access rights to the document. The access rights are still inherited from the parent's Part Design Code, and are unaffected by the differing CDR prefix.
To assign a CDR on a drawing from the title block editor press 'get new'. This will open the window shown below, where the design code used to generate the CDR needs to be confirmed. By default the design code used on the Parent part will be shown, but another can be chosen using the drop down button. Please note, only design codes where you are have the Contributor, Design Reviewer, Equipment Owner or Senior Integrator role will be shown.
For master drawings the design code selection is greyed out. To change the design code, and resultant CDR, on these drawings the design code must be changed on the parent Part first.
To open a 3D CAD document in Spinfire Ultimate there is an icon available on each Profile Card. It is located on the thumbnail (the lower one, whilst the upper icon is used to display the web viewer): Open in Desktop Viewer.
The first time you click on this icon, a new SpinFire Ultimate instance (window) will be launched, and your CAD file will be open there.
If you later open a second CAD document in the viewer through the 'Open in desktop viewer icon', a pop up menu with appear:
"--> Open in a new window" will launch a new SpinFire instance:
"--> Open in a new tab in the first window" will open the selected CAD Document in a new tab of the FIRST instance of SpinFire that was launched.
"--> import to the active tab of the first window" will merge the selected CAD Document in the active tab of the FIRST instance of SpinFire that was launched:
With this last option, it is possible to merge multiple CAD documents that were made with different CAD authoring tools (ex: REVIT & CATIA V5).
The origin axis systems of all CAD Documents will all be coincident. But it is possible to move some components using the Transform dialog box.
Note: PLM desktop must be running, even if you are browsing the PLM using your web browser.
More about how to use SpinFire Ultimate: FAQ
Some objects are classified as either Catalog or/and Standard components. All standard components are Catalog Components, but not all Catalog Components are Standard.
Both types are components that can be bought from a supplier catalog, as apposed to specifically designed for a CERN project. However, Standard components are compliant with standards such as ISO or DIN. They can be bought from any supplier so typically do not contain supplier information on their profile cards (some exceptions exist).
Both types of documents can easily be identified in the PLM by checking the two distinct properties; ‘Catalog component’ and ‘Standard’. These properties are attributed to both the CAD document and the Part. They are searchable in the PLM Dashboard and PLM search windows as shown below.
This said, some standard components are not flagged as such, for historical reasons. If you want to make an exhaustive search, we strongly recommend you to use the "Catalog Component" property only.
Additionally, the properties are shown in the PWB connector query window.
The properties are shown in the profile card header of both the CAD Document and Part.
For information of how to search for catalogue components that have a space in the document number, read the following how to :
How to search for documents with a space in the name?
Short answer:
When searching in the global search box on the dashboard, you must put document numbers containing a space in quotation marks.
Long answer:
CAD Documents can be searched for either in the Dashboard or the dedicated CAD Document search window. In both windows there are different columns where filters can be applied to narrow down a search. For example you can specify a document number as shown below (simply enter the document number, no need for special characters).
On the Dashboard there is the additional option of using the global search box at the top, which will check in the following properties: Definition, Document Number, CERN Drawing Reference and External Reference. However, note that the settings of this search box are different to those of the the filter boxes. In this search box a white space ( ) is seen as an "AND" operator.
Therefore, for components which contain a space in the middle of the document number, in order to retrieve results you must place the 'number' inside double quotation marks (""), as seen in the first image.
A CAD document is made up of data, metadata. Some of this comes from CATIA such as the geometry, mass and material. Some of it comes from the PLM, Design code and RPG.
Two pieces of metadata can be changed in both the PLM and CATIA, the CAD definition and description. These two properties are mapped in both directions so can be modified in either platform and the data will be updated in the other. However, its important to understand when this information is transferred, so as not to loose any data.
- Data is pushed from the PLM to CATIA when a document is first opened.
- Data is pushed from CATIA to the PLM when a document is saved.
Why this is important?
If you have a document open in CATIA and change either the CAD definition or description in the PLM platform, these updates will not be pushed to the already open document in CATIA. The CATIA data will not be updated. Therefore, if the CAD document is subsequently saved in CATIA, the 'outdated' CATIA data will be pushed to the PLM overwriting the previous change.
Therefore, please do not change a documents metadata in the PLM if the document is already open in CATIA. Please do the changes in CATIA.
Note: If a document is modified in the PLM whilst it is open in CAD, when the CATIA tree is refreshed the definition will be updated because this displays data directly from the PLM connector. However, the CATIA data is not updated. This can be verified by viewing the data via right click > properties.
The batch import tool (drag and drop) can also be used to create new versions of CAD Documents already saved in the PLM.
To create a new version, in the 'Version a CAD document' column enter an existing document/Part number, or a CERN drawing reference number. Alternatively, by double clicking on the cell a search box will appear. From here you can search and filter to find the existing document you would like to version.
If a valid document is found, the version column will be populated with the document number, latest version and definition. In addition, some of the other columns will be automatically filled out with the metadata from the previous version, for example the sheet size and orientation. However, these can be modified if required.
Please note this feature can only be used with manually managed documents.
Once the import is launched, a new version of the document will be created and attached to the existing Part. The type of version (major or minor) is dependent on the lifecyle state of the previous version. Documents in a frozen state will have a major update, otherwise a new minor version will be created.
The order of the BOM is determined by the CATIA tree. The BOM is built based on the positions and quantities in the CATIA tree, using a top-down approach.
Please note:
- Only CAD Documents identified as 'Master' 'Representation type' are automatically included in the BOM. See the full FAQ to understand how to manually add documents of alternative 'representation types'.
- The first instance of a reference found in the tree structure is what determines its position in the BOM.
There are manual ways to override the CATIA positions & quantities, for further information on this see the FAQ below. However, you can also simply reorder the CATIA tree to order parts in the BOM as you desire. Use the 'Graph tree Reordering' function in CATIA to easily move the parts around.
The third button in the window can be used to move the part quickly next to any other, by selecting one in the list. Note when moving a part down from its current position, it will be placed under the document you select. When moving up, it will be placed above.
A BOM can be projected onto a drawing using the Title Block Editor (TBE).
When you click on the Title Block Editor icon in CATIA V5, 
it will open in a new window. The BOM can be found in the second tab, called “Bill of Materials”.
Check the “Bill of Materials” box to add the BOM to the title block of the drawing. Then click on “Generate & Save” to add the BOM and the title block to the drawing.
More: Title Block Editor FAQ
Further: BOM management in CATIA / PLM
The position of the mini stamp is defined via the “Design Office” property, that sets a specific position for the mini stamp for each drawing format (A0, A1…).
As a result, this property becomes mandatory and must be filled for any Drawing that is not Connector managed or for which there is a viewable file uploaded.
To see the position that will be applied, from the CAD Document profile go to the Detailed information tab and locate the Design Office property in the Titleblock info & 2D information block.
Click on the link to open the Design Office Profile Card, then check the positions in the relationship grid at the bottom.
The origins are the bottom left corner of the drawing and the bottom left corner of the mini stamp. The units are millimetres.
For instance, in the picture below, we can see that the position of the bottom left corner of the mini stamp for a A4 drawing that is using the EN-EL Design Office property, will be at 30mm of the left edge of the sheet, and at 252mm of the bottom edge.
The first part of this FAQ will show you a quick method of saving a CAD document without dependencies, like a CATPart. The second, more detailed, section will describe how to save a structure where the files are linked to each other and will explore the different options available to you from the connector. The final part will explain you how to duplicate a CAD structure.
More: FAQ
The PLM uses an automatic engineering BOM (EBOM). This means every time you save an assembly the BOM will be created/updated on each 'claimed' or 'new' assembly node.
The BOM uses the positions and quantities of the instances in the CATIA tree, using a top-down approach.
Please note:
- Only CAD Documents identified as 'Master' 'Representation type' are automatically included in the BOM. See the full FAQ to understand how to manually add documents of alternative 'representation types'.
- The first instance of a reference found in the tree structure is what determines its position in the BOM.
- There are manual ways to override the CATIA positions & quantities, see the FAQ below.
You can also trigger a forced manual BOM synchronisation at any time from the “More” menu of the CAD Document profile card in the PLM platform.
In order to be able to delete an object from the PLM platform (whether it is a Part, a CAD document, a non-CAD document or a Folder), there are a number of requirements that must be met.
All these requirements and the necessary steps are explained in the FAQ below:
If the Batch Import has not yet been launched and the job is still "In Preparation", it can be edited (by clicking on the "Edit" button at the top of the Profile Card). Go to the relationship grid at the bottom of the Profile Card, select the row that corresponds to the document (1) to be deleted and choose the "Delete link Document Batch Import" on the right side (2).
For more information, please check the document below:
If the Batch Import has not yet been launched and the job is still "In Preparation", it can be edited (by clicking on the "Edit" button at the top of the Profile Card). Then the new files can be dragged and dropped into the dedicated area. When the import is ready to launch, close the "Edit" mode and click on the "Launch Import" button.
To find more information, please follow the link below:
Every time a file or a batch of files is dragged and dropped into a Part or a Folder in edit mode, the system automatically created an import job. Each job corresponds to a specific object, i.e. a Batch Import, that is created for that purpose in the PLM Platform. That object has its own Profile Card, properties and lifecycle.
To find the specific Batch Import it is possible by going in the Content and then finding "Design and Documents" and next "Batch Import", then retrieve it by the name, the creation date or the Parent.
When dropping a file into one of the two areas, a table appears.
When importing CAD files, the table contains more fields to be completed. As many fields of the table as possible are prefilled but the proposed default values can be changed and the blank fields filled in.
If you require a new document to be created, leave the 'version a CAD document' column blank. To create a new version of an existing CAD document see the dedicated How-to here.
To enter a value or to change an existing value, double-click in the cell in question. To delete a value select the cell and press the "delete" key on the keyboard or copy a value from one cell to another when you have more files by holding the cell on the corner and moving it to the cell below. The metadata can also be copied and pasted from an excel sheet.
Once the metadata has been entered and the upload is complete, the import can be launched by clicking on the blue "Launch import" button.
The Batch Import can be performed from a Folder or a Part. In both cases, the object must be in edit mode. Once the Folder or the Part is in edit mode, two areas will appear in its Profile Card under “Children” tab.
The files can be dragged and dropped in the desired area.
Dropping files into the area on the left will create or version CAD Documents, which will be linked to the Folder or the Part from where the drag-and-drop operation was launched.
Dropping files into the area on the right will create Documents, which will be linked to the Folder or the Part from where the drag-and-drop operation was launched.
Batch importing involves uploading several files at once to the PLM platform from a File Explorer (Windows, Linux or Mac). To do so, the target folder or part in the PLM must be in edit mode, then the files can be dragged and dropped from the File Explorer into the PLM.
For more information, please follow the link below:
The Design Collection replaces the EDMS Drawing Folder functionality and serves to support the data exchange process between the Design Office and the Workshop for the production of a given equipment.
Please find more information in this FAQ:
In CATIA, from the connector toolbar, clicking on the Query icon, you will be able to access the PDM Query dialog and to search for any CAD document previously uploaded to the PLM platform. Once the searched CAD Document has been found and selected, a double-click will open it in CATIA.
Note that the double-click corresponds to an Open as Saved.
See the 'Opening' subgroup for related information
See more: Open CAD Document in CATIA
Any CATIA document saved in the PLM platform can be opened from there directly in CATIA.
- From the CAD Document Profile Card.
- From a search result grid, using the contextual menu.
See the 'Opening' subgroup for related information
See more: Open CAD Document in CATIA