PLM - General
Below is a group of How-to's that are related to the topic of 'Admin & Access' in the PLM - General 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 - General 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 - General subcategory. Click on their links to find more information on these topics.
- What are the meanings of the CATIA & PLM Icons?
- What are the PLM Acronyms?
- How to delete an object from PLM Platform?
- What is the "History" command used for?
- How to make the definition visible in CATIA tree when working with files not stored in PLM?
- How is metadata managed between the PLM and CATIA?
- How to search for documents with a space in the name?
- How to identify and search for ‘Standard’ and ‘Catalog’ components?
- 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 save customised CATIA & PWB settings?
- How to retrieve and unclaim all my Parts/Documents in one operation?
Before working in the PLM please follow the available training material depending on your usage and requirements. The trainings can be found here.
Below is a list of acronyms that are used in relation to the PLM.
- BOM – Bill of Materials
- CDR – CERN Drawing Reference → Replaces CDD Number
- DC – Design Code
- Doc – Document
- DT – Digital Twin
- LC – Lifecycle
- PC – Profile Card
- PWB – PDM Workbench (PLM-CATIA connector)
- QAC – Quality Assurance and Control
- RFC – Ready for Check
- RFC in PLM – Ready for Check in PLM
- RPG – Responsible Project Group
- TBE – Titleblock Editor
- TOC – Table of Contents
- WF – Workflow
See the list of CATIA Acronyms here.
See the list of SmarTeam Acronyms here.
During the transition period to the PLM, access to CATIA through the PLM is not freely available to all users. You must be granted access to the PLM-CATIA connector.
If you do not have the connector installed, or it is an out of date version, you will receive the following message when attempting to launch CATIA through the button on the PLM dashboard. This will remind you which applications must be installed and a link to CMF. There is also a link to documentation explaining the prerequisites required before running this application.
If CATIA is not installed the launch button will be greyed out.
To request access to the connector please contact plm-support@cern.ch and also state your PC name. Prior to granting you access, we would ask for you to complete the SmarTeam to PLM training, please see the link here.
However, if you need immediate access to prevent a project from becoming blocked, please sign up to the next available training and contact us explaining your situation. If deemed necessary and suitable we will grant early access to allow work to be continued.
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.
CATIA customised settings, such as shortcuts, can be saved in the PLM dashboard to be used when CATIA is reopened. This is also true for PWB setting changed in the options toolbar.
To save new customised settings, close the CATIA session in which the changes were made. Press the cog icon on the CATIA launcher to open the CATIA configurations window.
Enter a name for the new settings configuration. It will be saved and stored under one of the three main configurations that the CATIA session was originally opened under, and the settings were changed in.
Note the setting name may only contain alphanumeric characters and spaces, and be a maximum length of 64 characters. Configuration settings can also be deleted from this window by pressing the bin button next to them.
More: 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.
Icons are used throughout the PLM and in the CATIA specification tree to quickly convey information. See the documentation below to find the explanation of each icon.
More: FAQ
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.
When documents are migrated to the PLM, either by setting them to preliminary in SmarTeam or using the RFC in PLM command*, they are in a frozen state in SmT. Therefore, if people need to edit a document in SmT they must create a new version.
Although this new document will not be visible in the PLM until its migrated itself, the previous version available in the PLM will be flagged as ‘non-current’.
This property can be viewed on the PLM search grid and the structure tab on a CAD Document profile card.
*Documents already released in SmT need to be migrated manually, contact plm-support@cern.ch for help.
Documents that are created in SmarTeam can be migrated to the PLM. They can also have their 'ownership' transferred over so they can be edited in the PLM.
Note: Only one software at a time is permitted to edit documents, to prevent continuity issues.
From SmartTeam you can identify if a document has been migrated over and ownership changed by looking at the lifecycle state. Documents of this nature will be set to the ‘Externalised’ state.
From the PLM you can identify it through the ‘Owned by SmarTeam’ property. If the property is;
- Enabled, it means the document is still owned by SmT and must be edited there
- Disabled, owned by the PLM and must be edited there.
This property is displayed in the search grid from the dashboard and in the relationship grid on the profile card of a CAD document.
For info:
Documents starting with ST2 are native to the PLM so will be editable (subject to lifecycle status and access rights).
Documents starting with ST1 or ST0 were created in SmarTeam or Euclid. These will have to undergo the migration and ownership transferal process before they can be edited in the PLM.
The official CAD tool at CERN for 3D design is CATIA V5. However, the PLM can be used with AutoCAD, BricsCAD, Inventor and REVIT by installing the relevant connector.
Please note there is no support at CERN for the use of these applications, only the installation and usage of the connectors.
Installation steps:
1) Install the 'CERN - PLM Desktop' via CMF.
2) Install the desired CAD package via CMF. If this is not available please contact the service desk with your PC name.
3) Once the CAD package is installed the relevant connector package should be available in CMF. This should be installed. When the CAD package is opened for the first time with the connector you might need to accept the plugin activation.
For more information on the installation steps, and the versions of the CAD software that are supported by the connector, please read the following documentation.
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:
To log-out from PLM Desktop you need to click on the button that represents your account (step 1) and use the "Logout" (2).
Then you need to wait for confirmation window that appears and validate.
You need to go to the Design Code Profile Card and click on the tab "Team Members". From there you will find Identities (which are group of users) or users with their "Role".
If you want to see the "Role" in the Team, you can search in PLM Desktop for a Part or CAD Document with its Design Code, open it with this Design Code and click on the button to open the Team with all Identities inside and its roles.
- Go to Tools ➞ Option ➞ Infrastructure ➞ Product Structure ➞ Nodes Customization.
- Tick the "Customized display" (if not already ticked) and open the "Configure customized display" window using the "Configure...".
- In the new window add "Definition" ("#DF") to your product.
- Close. The CAD Definition should be changed in your CATIA tree.
Note 1: if in the same CATIA session, you visualize another product structure from the PLM, the Definition will appear twice.
Note 2: if you want to keep this setting by default for your future CATIA sessions, you need to save your settings.
The "History" command shows you an object's modification history, across all its versions.
The history window displays the dates when actions were taken in relation to the object, as well as other information.
The fields can be customized using the "Refine" and "Display" / "Save Layout" buttons.
The Teams are based on the "e-group". These can be updated independently by users without the use of CAD support is required. This requires using the e-groups application.
To learn more how to add and remove people from a Team, please consult the following document.