Open

Open

Proprietary notice:
Information in this publication is subject to change without notice. The software described in this publication is furnished under license agreement or non-disclosure agreement. The software may be used only in accordance with the terms of those agreements. No part of this publication may be distributed to third parties, copied, duplicated, in any form, whole or in part, without the prior written permission of Jotne EPM Technology AS, Grenseveien 107, N-0607 Oslo, Norway.

Express Data Manager™, EDMserver™, EDMapplicationServer™ and EDMtruePLM ™ are registered trademarks of Jotne EPM Technology in Norway. Please contact helpdesk@jotne.com for details.

Note to the reader of this document

The reader of this document should be accustomed to engineering projects and to the use of web-browsers for engineering applications. Good understanding of the principles of product data management (PDM), product lifecycle management (PLM) and document management is recommended. Working knowledge of CAD, CAE (FEA, CFD), Logistics, and ERP solutions is an advantage, but not a necessity to benefit from using EDMtruePLM with the help of this user manual. This document uses artificial test data that represent a bike product model.

Figure 1. A bike example is used throughout this User Manual

Table of Contents

Figures

Tables

Introduction

Purpose of this document

The purpose of this document is to describe what you can do with EDMtruePLM™ and how to do it.

This user manual covers the needs of the general end-user and of administrators of the application and of projects.

Scope of EDMtruePLM

The EDMtruePLM solution is a product model server for integrating, storing, and accessing data for types of products and for individual products over their lifetime in a standards compliant fashion. The solution scope covers product structure data and product properties, streamed sensor data, and documents / data files and their properties, such as, CAD files, manuals and structured documents. EDMtruePLM is intended for product lifecycle management. Data and documents may be collected and categorized from early design to operation and disposal. Product data may be collected into technical data packages, which can be exported and imported in different formats. Technical data package functionality eases communications with customers and within the supply chain. All data except of document files are stored in the format of ISO 10303-239, Product Lifecycle Support (PLCS). 

EDMtruePLM has been designed for the concurrent engineering requirements of the space sector. However, care has been taken to enable adaptation to other engineering domains. This has been achieved by so called 'reference data'. For each project, a project manager may define specific names for properties, roles, lifecycle phases, types of products, breakdown elements and documents etc. Thus, project managers may define properties to attach additional information to products, breakdown elements (also called nodes) and documents. 

EDMtruePLM supports integration with IoT frameworks to collect live data from sensor devices.

Note: EDMtruePLM uses a web-client and is accessible through a web-browser; suggested browser is Google Chrome.

Contents of this document

After the details in chapter 2 of logging into an EDMtruePLM server, Chapter 3 addresses the needs of an ordinary user who wants to manage product and project data. Chapter 4 lists the functions needed to administrate the application. Chapter 5 describes a special import/export file format.

Installation Guide and Release Notes are available here in separate documents.

Login to the EDMtruePLM

The EDMtruePLM client is started through a web-browser, such as, Google Chrome (recommended) or Firefox.

The user selects an EDMtruePLM server by pasting the server specific URL into the URL-field of the web-browser. The URL-string is defined by the team who installed the server. If you installed the server on the same machine that you are starting the client on, you use the following URL:

You have used a valid URL when you see the login pop-up of Figure 2.

The login page allows the users to login to the EDMtruePLM using a given credentials.

You may change the language of the client from the Language selector as shown on the upper right of the screenshot below. You may select between English and Norwegian.

For login you need a username and a password. Such user details are provided by the EDMtruePLM system administrator see 3.1.

Figure 2. Login Window

EDMtruePLM Product Management GUI

The Product Management GUI is the client view for the ordinary user, that is, for users without system administrator access rights.

Overall Client View

Below is the overall view of the web client with its different sections after successful login and after the user has opened a project; see 3.2 for opening existing projects and for creating local projects.

Figure 3. Navigation Page

The above figure shows the EDMtruePLM project page. Below is a short description of the numbered items of Figure 3:

1. System menu button: Includes project selection, project administration, system info etc.

2. Offline help document: a PDF version of the online document for the given version

3. User info: It shows user details such as user, role, name, email and organization

4. Project menu: Functionalities that will be available to the current active project

5. Breadcrumb address bar: The path to the selected element within the breakdown structure

6. Breakdown parent node name: The name of the parent element and some other information about the element

7. Breakdown structure: Representation of the product elements and their data files, shows the child element

8. Context menu of current node: Includes all functionality for the current node

9. Context menu of child node: Includes functions for child nodes, such as copy, move etc.

10. Breakdown properties: System defined meta data of the selected breakdown element

11. Document properties: System defined meta data of the selected document

12. Product properties: System defined meta data of the selected product

13. User defined properties: Properties of the current node that were defined by the user (see “Reference data”).

Closing tabs

Additional tabs that appear, for example, after a search, are closed by a right-click on the tab and selecting the "Close tab" option.

Figure 4. Closing tabs

Administration menu

Ordinary users without specific system administration rights have access to a limited set of project management functions; see Figure 5 for an overview of those. General project management is done by the system administrator; see chapter 4.

Figure 5. Administration menu – ordinary user

Projects

Shows all active projects that the user has access to. By clicking on a project, the project will be opened (see Figure 6).

Figure 6. Active Project

Breakdown templates

Shows all the breakdown templates that the user is assigned to. By clicking on the template, the template will open.

Figure 7. Breakdown template

Project templates

Shows all the project templates that the user is responsible for. By clicking on the template, the template will open.

Figure 8. Project template

Administration

Allows the user to create a project folder (see 3.2.4.1) or to change login password (see 3.2.4.7). A project that is created here instead of in the system administration area, cannot be assigned other users.

Figure 9. Administration tab

Create project folder

One can create project folder to store all the related project under one branch. This allows to group a project based on user preferences.

Figure 10. Project Folder

Create project

Click on the Create project item (see Figure 11).

Figure 11. Create new project with active user login

The create project form takes the following information (see 4.5 for project name restrictions):

1. The name of the project (Mandatory)

2. The description of the project (Mandatory)

3. A project template that will be loaded as initial population of the project (OPTIONAL). 

After project creation the application shows the project root of the breakdown and automatically selects it. The context menu shown in Figure 110 is then available with the functions described in chapter 3.7 .

Create project from PDM file

Provide the name, description and the PDM STEP file (ISO 10303-21 format and with PDM data according to ISO 10303-242 or its predecessors).

Figure 12. Project from PDM file

Create project from text

Provide the name, description, and the zipped file (see Figure 13). The text file syntax is described in 4.5 .

Figure 13. Project from text file

Create project from baseline

Provide the name, description, and the zipped baseline file. The baseline file must have been exported from EDMtruePLM.

Figure 14. Project from zipped baseline

Create project from ASD DEX1

Provide the name, description and the DEX1 file (see Figure 15). The ASD DEX1 file must be compliant to the DEX1 “Product breakdown for support” subset of the ISO 10303-239 data model.

Figure 15. Project from DEX

Change user password

This form allows the logged in user to change password.

Figure 16. Change user password

Download file by Hash

This feature is used to access the documents with the help of blockchain values. Select the block from blockchain window and paste in the below form. This will download the related document in the browser.

Figure 17. Download file by Hash

About

Shows the details of the current project and user profile, that is:

• project name, phase and its description;

• username and role;

• support email address and

• version of the current EDMtruePLM server.

Figure 18. About current user and project details

Log Out

Logs out the current user.

Breadcrumb menu

The breadcrumb menu shows the path to the current breakdown element within the breakdown structure (see Figure 19). It is, thus, a navigation help. The individual constituents of the breadcrumb are hyperlinked. By clicking on a breadcrumb link the selected breakdown element is made current and is displayed in the structure pane on the left side. The left-most constituent of the breadcrumb path represents the breakdown root node.

Figure 19. Breadcrumb menu

Breakdown Structure

The client shows one breakdown element, also called node, at a time in the breakdown structure view of the left pane; the name of the current breakdown element is the blue text on the top of the pane (see Figure 20). The view below that blue name displays the set of children breakdown elements and the documents that belong to the current breakdown element, as described below.

Figure 20. Breakdown Structure

The above picture shows a breakdown structure for a bike. The breakdown structure consists of three main sections (see red numbers 1, 2 and 3 on Figure 20):

1. Parent node name and information: Contains the name of the parent node, the version of the parent node and additional icons such as the subdomain icon.

2. Parent node context menu: Through this menu the user can access different breakdown element and document functionality.

3. Children nodes: All children nodes, that is, breakdown elements and data files, are located in this section. Depending on the type of node the user will have access to breakdown element or data file functionality through the child node context menu to the right of the child name or data file name.

The breakdown element shows the details of the child elements, documents and subdomain when hover the mouse on it as shown in the below figure.

Figure 21. Breakdown Element with details

Notification of changes by other clients

In case other users than the current one has changed the breakdown structure, breakdown elements or documents, the system will provide the notification shown in Figure 22 in the client of the current user. You may select to receive the updates done by others to what you currently see on your screen (“Update”), or you may want to continue with your view undisturbed (“Ignore”). In case of the latter, be aware that your view does not any more reflect the status in the database.

Figure 22. Change notification

Breakdown element functionality

The functionality for managing breakdown elements is distributed over two context menus depending on the role that a breakdown element is playing. For a parent breakdown element, that is, for the root of a breakdown branch, a wider range of functions is available than when a breakdown element plays the role of a child node.

Breakdown versioning

Each change within the breakdown structure results in a new version of this structure, except for updates to documents. For each new version the breakdown version number is incremented by one and is assigned to the root of the breakdown structure; see Figure 23, below.

Figure 23. Breakdown structure versions

Any version may be set current by selecting it from the drop-down list. This version of the past may then be browsed with all its breakdown elements, documents, and property values. This may be repeated for any version from version 1 to the latest version. However, only the latest version may be changed; all other versions have read-only access. The read-only access is marked by the yellow lock sign to the right of all parent breakdown names that is also used for baselines, as described in Table 1.

When breakdown elements are created, the version number of the breakdown that their creation resulted in is added in parentheses to the end of the breakdown element name; see, for example, in Figure 29.

Child node functionalities

The child node context menu can be accessed by clicking on the 

 icon to the right of the child nodes; see Figure 24. The individual functions are explained below.

Figure 24. Child node context menu

Rename element

Allows the user to rename the child node (see Figure 25).

Figure 25. Rename element

Rename by attribute

This function replaces – temporarily – the name of the breakdown element where this function was invoked and its children by the value of a specified property. If the current breakdown element or some of its children do not have that property, that is, if a user-defined property is specified and this does not exist in all the involved breakdown element types, their names do not change.

The name of the attribute / property needs to be spelled exactly as listed in the breakdown properties panes; it is case sensitive. You may copy it from there and paste it into the input field; see Figure 26.

This change occurs only in the current client; it will be undone by an update of the client with server data, for example, by reloading the client webpage.

Figure 26. Rename by attribute

Edit element

Allows the user to change the description or the element type of the node (see Figure 27).

Figure 27. Edit element

Delete element

Allows the user to delete a breakdown element (see Figure 28). 

Note: Remember that this function creates a new version of the breakdown structure in which the selected element has been removed. The removed element is still available, but only for reading, in the previous version of the breakdown.

Figure 28. Delete element

Cut element

This function together with “Paste” can be used to move a breakdown element to a different location.

Copy element

This function works together with different Paste-functions within the parent node menu; see chapter 3.4.2.3 . Use this command to copy and paste the selected element with all its child elements and documents, that is, a complete branch, to another location. 

Note: A branch can be pasted into the same parent breakdown element. In this case you will get two breakdown elements with the same names, but with a sequence number to distinguish them in parentheses (see Figure 29).

Figure 29. Two copies in the same parent

Parent node functionalities

The name of the current breakdown element, also called “Parent node” is listed below the breadcrumb. In the example in Figure 30 it is “BIKE SYSTEM”. When a breakdown element is initially selected, its properties are displayed in the pane named “BREAKDOWN PROPERTIES”. When one of the child elements of the current breakdown element are selected by single click, the “BREAKDOWN PROPERTIES” pane displays the properties of this child breakdown element. A second click on the same child name will make this child the current breakdown element.

Functions for the current breakdown element are available from the context menu right underneath its name (see Figure 30).

Figure 30. Parent node context

When the three-dot icon has been selected, the following menu in Figure 31 appears.

Figure 31. Parent node context menu

Create element

To add a breakdown element to the breakdown structure, right-click on the main breakdown node and choose "Create element" from the context menu. The input form in Figure 32 appears.

Figure 32. Create element

• Name: The name of the node.

• Description: Description of the node.

• Type: The type of the node. The values in the dropdown list are defined as breakdown element types in the reference data section.

• Template: A breakdown template that may be selected from a list of available templates to copy it to become the new breakdown element; children elements and documents of the template will also be copied.

Note: Breakdown elements have a system property called “Phase”. The value of Phase is set by the project root menu item “Current project phase” (see chapter 3.7.1.9).

To create a requirement, use the Create element function with “Requirement” as type. The description of the element is used as requirement text (Figure 33). Any resources that are associated to this requirement can later be added to the element.

Figure 33. Requirement element

The parent node functionality of a requirement node is different than other breakdown elements (see Figure 34).

Figure 34. Requirement node menu

When using "Create requirement" only breakdown elements of type requirement or its subtypes will be available (refer Figure 35).

Figure 35. Requirement types

Paste element

This function is used after a Copy element or Cut element function; see “Child node functionalities” in chapter 3.4.2.1 . It copies or moves the element as child into the current breakdown element.

Paste element as relating

This function relates the pasted element as “relating” to the current breakdown element. The current breakdown element is then considered to be “related” to the pasted element. The difference between “related” and “relating” is that if one element of the relationship is dependent upon the other, it is the “related” element; see definition in ISO 10303-41. The matter of dependency is given by the semantics of the “Role” attribute.

Select “Copy element” from a child node context menu. Go to another element and click on “Paste as a relating” and fill the form. The selection of “Role” values is defined in the reference data section. The attribute “Remark” may be left empty.

The new relationship is viewed by clicking on the hyperlink of the “Links” breakdown element system property, as shown below. “Relating” relationships are always marked as “direct” links; “related” relationships are marked as “backward” links.

Figure 36. Establishing a backward/related relationship

Paste element as related

This function relates the pasted element as “related” to the current breakdown element. The current breakdown element is then considered to be “relating” to the pasted element. The difference between “related” and “relating” is that if one element of the relationship is dependent upon the other, it is the “related” element; see definition in ISO 10303-41. The matter of dependency is given by the semantics of the “Role” attribute.

Select “Copy element” from a child node context menu. Go to another element and click on “Paste as a related” and fill the form. The selection of “Role” values is defined in the reference data section. The attribute “Remark” may be left empty.

The new relationship is viewed by clicking on the hyperlink of the “Links” breakdown element system property, as shown below. This “related” relationship is marked as “backward” link in the copied and pasted element; the corresponding “relating” relationship is marked as “direct” in the target element.

Figure 37. Establishing a direct/relating relationship

Add Organisation

Organizations that were created using the Catalogues icon can be added to the current breakdown element by this menu item. The role that the organization plays in this breakdown element is specified by selecting from the drop-down list of the input form; see Figure 38, below. The contents of the drop-down list are defined in the reference data section.

Figure 38. Add organization to a breakdown element

None, one or several organisations may be added. Details may be reviewed by the hyperlink to the right of the “Organisations” system property; see Figure 39. The second screenshot of the figure shows the pop-up window with details of the organisations.

Figure 39. Organisation system property with details

Put Product

EDMtruePLM distinguishes products and breakdowns. Types of products are defined in the Catalogue area and may be linked to breakdown elements.

Products that were created using the Catalogues icon can be added to the current breakdown element by this menu item.

Figure 40. Product details

The product is pasted into the breakdown pane as shown on the left side in Figure 40. The product properties appear in a pane by itself, aside breakdown and document properties.

Generate document

This functionality is used to generate a document based on a template in Excel format. The following requirements apply for creating a template:

The first sheet is just the data representation page. The sheet may have any name.

The second sheet will be filled with the property values of the current node. The sheet may have any name.

The third and other sheets will be filled with data from the direct children nodes of the current node; there is no recursion below the second level. The name of each sheet must be the children node type; this type name will be used for filtering the children nodes.

Add data file

Data files / documents can be added to all nodes within the breakdown structure except for the root node. Documents are listed together with child breakdown elements. To add a data file, open the parent node menu and click on the Add data file item (see Figure 41).

Figure 41. Add data file

To add a data file either use the browser button or just drop the file in the pop-up form. The following is a brief description of each input field.

File tab

• Title: The name of the document. This name will appear as document name in the breakdown structure. This field is filled automatically by the name of the selected file but can be changed.

• Description: A short description of the document. The field is mandatory.

Props tab

The user may select the below information from drop-down lists. The contents of these lists are defined in the reference data section.

• Source: where does the file come from; for example, is it an internal resource or has an external origin. 

• Content type: type of information in a document, e.g., CAD, Design, Requirement specification ... .

• Discipline: type of engineering, e.g., Electrical, Instrumentation, Mechanical ... .

• Project phase: project phase that the document applies to; the default value is changed by the project root menu item “Current project phase” (see chapter 3.7.1.9).

• Status: the level of progression of a document in its lifecycle workflow, e.g., Draft, Approved, Completed, Ready to review, Sent for approval ... .

Users tab

The user may select the below information from drop-down lists that show the users available for the current project.

• Editor: The person who has edited the file.

• Responsible: The person who is responsible for the file.

• Reviewer: The person who is assigned to review the data file.

• Approver: The person who is assigned to approve the release of the data file.

• Release manager: The person who is responsible for the release process of the data file.

Note: The default "Responsible" user is selected based on the availability of a subdomain. If the user is adding a data file to an element that is not part of a subdomain, the default "Responsible" user is the user adding the data file. However, if the data file is added to a subdomain the "Responsible" user is the subdomain leader. In both cases, the user can use the "Responsible" dropdown control to select another user as the data file "Responsible" user. 

Paste data file

This function pastes the latest data file that was subject to “Copy file” or “Cut file” into the current breakdown element. After “Cut file” the data file is moved into this new location and removed from its old location. After “Copy file” a link to the original data file location is added to the current breakdown element.

Thus, a single document is visible in multiple locations. Any modifications to the data file from any of the locations in the breakdown structure will be visible in all other locations.

Show element in context

This function displays the position of the current breakdown element with all its parents and with its direct children; that is, possibly many levels up, but only one level down (Figure 42).

Figure 42. Show element in context

Show BOM

This function displays the branch of the current breakdown element (Figure 43). The root of the branch is the selected parent node. Its direct children are presented; further levels of child breakdown elements may be opened interactively.

Figure 43. Show BOM

View Change log

User changes to the properties of a breakdown element are recorded. This function displays a list of such changes to the current breakdown element; see Figure 44 for an example.

Figure 44. Breakdown element change log

Create baseline

A baseline is a version of the breakdown structure with a user-given name. To create a baseline, fill in the input form shown in Figure 45.

Figure 45. Create baseline

Subdomain info

This menu item is only visible if the current breakdown element is defined to be a subdomain. If so, details about the subdomain are displayed as shown below in Figure 46.

Figure 46. Subdomain info

Subdomain management

A subdomain is a part of a breakdown structure; it may be a branch or just an element. To create a subdomain the project manager or project administrator must select the breakdown element and click on the "Create subdomain" sub-menu to this menu item.

Notes:

• To create a subdomain the project must have a user with Subdomain leader as its user type. While the project manager and the project admin have higher privileges within the project, only a subdomain leader can be responsible for a subdomain.

• Project members have only access to the project's subdomains. Without a subdomain the project is only accessible to the project manager and project admin.

• The root of the breakdown structure cannot be a subdomain root.

Before a subdomain is created, the Subdomain management menu item has only the Create subdomain item (see Figure 47).

Figure 47. Subdomain management

After the subdomain is created the menu item will show three other items as shown below in Figure 48.

Figure 48. Subdomain options

Create subdomain

Click on the Create subdomain to create a subdomain (see Figure 49).

Figure 49. Create subdomain

1. Subdomain leader: the user responsible for the new subdomain. The user must have the type Subdomain leader associated with it.

2. Limit to project phase: the phase of the project that the subdomain is valid for.

Note: After the subdomain is created the corresponding breakdown element is assigned

icon to the right of its name; for an example, see Figure 30.

Delete subdomain

Will delete the subdomain (see Figure 50). Project members and subdomain leader will no longer have access to the breakdown structure if they are not part of any other subdomain.

Figure 50. Delete subdomain

Subdomain roles

Allows roles to be assigned to the subdomain and permissions to be attached to these roles.

Note: Roles are not permissions; a role can be assigned multiple permissions, one or none. If a role does not have any permissions assigned to it, the users that are assigned to that role will not have access to the subdomain.

As subdomain leader, select a role, defined in the reference data section, and assign permissions to the role (Figure 51).

Figure 51. Subdomain roles

Each subdomain role can be given the following access rights:

• Read

• Write

• Delete

By giving the Delete access right the system will also give write and read accesses to the role. These access rights are only for documents and their properties within the subdomain. Subdomain roles can be granted different access rights within different subdomains.

Subdomain members

Allows to add, remove, and configure the users within the subdomain (see Figure 52). Before adding users, you must have added subdomain roles to the reference data through the reference data section. To assign the defined roles to the subdomain use the Subdomain roles menu item.

Figure 52. Subdomain members

Use the ADD button to add project members to the subdomain. Select the user and assign a role to the user as shown in Figure 53 below.

Figure 53. Add subdomain members

Description of the icons in the above form

1. Accept the values 

2. Clear the values

3. Delete the user as member of this subdomain.

Multiple users can be assigned to the subdomain with different roles; see Figure 54, below.

Figure 54. Subdomain members details

Import from STEP PDM file

The user can extend the breakdown structure by importing a PDM file (compliant to ISO 10303-242 MIM P21 or predecessors) (refer Figure 55). The system will use the data from the PDM-file to create a breakdown structure below the parent node.

Figure 55. Import from STEP PDM

Import from AP242 BO model

This menu item allows to import an AP242 BO model in XML format (ISO 10303-3001, .stpx file type) to the breakdown structure (see Figure 56 and Figure 57).

Figure 56. Import from AP242 BO model

Figure 57. Import AP242 BO model example

Import from Req-IF file

This menu item allows to import a requirement file of type Req-IF (see Figure 58). Req-IF (Requirements Interchange Format) is an XML file format controlled by the Object Management Group (OMG) that can be used to exchange requirements, along with its associated metadata, between software tools from different vendors.

Figure 58. Import from Req-IF

Export to zipped folder

This command exports the current breakdown element with its child nodes and documents to a zip-file that can be unpacked into a MS Windows folder structure. The folder structure within the zip file will mirror the breakdown structure underneath the selected node.

Data file functionalities

EDMtruePLM is a product data management system, which collects product data into a breakdown structure that consists of breakdown elements. Each breakdown element may include sub-elements and documents. Documents are stored under each element. This allows the system to keep track of all files and their relevance for breakdown elements.

See Figure 59, below, for the menu with document / data file related functions.

Figure 59. Data file menu

Checkout file

EDMtruePLM supports exclusive document editing that only allows one user to edit a document at a single time. To have exclusive rights to edit a specified document the user needs to check out the document, which is done through the data file context menu "Checkout file" command. To store the updated content of the document to the server use the "Checkin" command in the document's context menu. After checkout, the lock icon will be placed in front of the data file as shown below in Figure 60.

Figure 60. Checkout of a file

To unlock the file, use the Undo checkout command or check in the file.

Undo checkout

This feature enables the user to undo a checkout, if mistakenly the data file was checkout. Only the owner is allowed to do undo.

Checkin file

To save your updates on a previously checked out file you must check in the file (see Figure 61). During checkin the following process happens:

1. The file is copied to the database.

2. The version of the file is updated.

3. The lock on the file is removed.

Figure 61. Checkin of a file

Status: change the status tag to one of the items in the drop-down list; status values are defined in the reference data section.

Create new revision: to track document changes, EDMtruePLM distinguishes revisions (major changes) and versions of a document. The version tag will increase automatically after each checkin. The revision tag increases when the user ticks off the box in Figure 61.

Set file read only / Clear file read only

This command changes access rights to the selected file to read only. The file name changes colour from black to grey; see Figure 62, below. The file cannot be changed until the menu item “Clear file read only” is selected. Only project manager, admin or subdomain leader are allowed to set or clear ready only.

Figure 62. Read only file

Download

Downloads the current file to the client machine without any further user interaction.

Open

Opens the data file using the open file command of the web-browser. Depending on the type of web-browser the contents will become visible in a new browser tab (Firefox), or the file is downloaded (Chrome).

VCollab Visualisation

This is used for visualization that allows to view the uploaded CAD structure or geometry in the VCollab web interface. One can add the a .wcax file for the related CAD structure and click open to visualize in the VCollab as shown below.

Figure 63. VCollab Web

View history

Shows all the versions of the selected document in a pop-up window; see Figure 64, below.

Figure 64. View History

The user can download a specific version of the document by clicking on the Save icon; there is no further user interaction involved.

Delete

Creates a new version of the breakdown and deletes the selected file from that new version. The document is still available in the previous version of the breakdown and is there still assigned to the current breakdown element.

Copy file

Copies the file identifier into memory for later use by different paste commands. This function does not create an actual copy of the file but creates a link to the file.

Warning: If a file is copied from one subdomain to another, security issues must be taken into account. To avoid that different user in different subdomains have access to and potentially edit the same document, the document needs to be added individually to the different subdomains; that is, the “Add data file” menu item needs to be applied with the same file for each subdomain in question.

Cut file

The selected file is marked for removal. It will be first removed when the “Paste data file” menu item of the parent node context menu is applied.

Paste file as affected

This function attaches a copied file to another, current file as an affected data file. This means that the pasted file is dependent on the current file. After a change to an affecting file, the affected file is marked by a red flag; see chapter 3.4.3.14 Dependencies, below.

The function does not require any other user input. The result of the paste-operation can be reviewed by the “Dependencies” menu item.

Paste file as affecting

This function attaches the copied file to another, current file as an affecting data file. This means that the current file is dependent on the pasted file. After a change to an affecting file, the affected file is marked by a red flag; see chapter 3.4.3.14 Dependencies, below.

The function does not require any other user input. The result of the paste-operation can be reviewed by the “Dependencies” menu item.

Sticky notes

Sticky notes are reminder notes for documents. The input form in Figure 65 will pop up to allow the attachment of notes to data files.

Figure 65. Sticky Notes

Use the “New”-button and then the “Submit”-button to add a note (see Figure 66).

Figure 66. Create new note

All notes of the data file are collected in a single sticky note form. A yellow line icon with a number identifies documents that already have sticky notes (see Figure 67).

Figure 67. Sticky note form

Dependencies

“Dependencies” is a type of relationship between two files as shown below in Figure 68. An “affecting” file is the master file, an “affected” one a dependent file. When an affecting file has been edited, the user will be reminded by red flags to check all affected files whether they need to be updated, too.

Figure 68. Dependencies

By clicking on the menu item, the dependency form will appear and will allow the user to view the dependencies of the file or to remove them.

• Paste file as affected: Attaches the latest copied file as an affected data file. This means that the pasted file is dependent on the current document.

• Paste file as affecting: Attaches the latest copied file as an affecting data file. This means that the current file is dependent on the pasted file.

• Red Flags: Red flags are notifications to the user to check a file that may be impacted by a change done to an affecting file. When a file that is affecting other files is checked in, the dependent files are assigned red flags (see Figure 69). Subsequent changes to the affecting file will result for each affected file in one red flag per version or release that was checked in.

Figure 69. Red Flag

Removing red flags: To remove the red flag, open the Dependency form of the affected file; see below, Figure 70.

Figure 70. Removed red flags

Click on an affecting file with a red flag; this will open the red flag drop list as shown in Figure 71.

Figure 71. Dependencies tab menu

To remove a red flag, click on the tick mark of the red flag item in the drop list.

Icons used for breakdown elements and data files

The overview in Table 1, below, summarizes the meaning of icons used with breakdown elements and data files in the breakdown structure pane.

Table 1. Icons for breakdown elements and data files

Navigation

There are three methods for navigating within the breakdown structure:

1. Browsing by clicking on breakdown element nodes.

2. Searching for node or data files.

3. Following hyperlinks of the breadcrumb path.

Warning: You cannot use the browser navigation buttons to move within the breakdown structure. EDMtruePLM is a single page application and using the browser navigation buttons will take you out of the application.

Property window

The three types of property windows show metadata associated with breakdown elements, data files and products (see Figure 72 below).

Figure 72. Property window

The top section shows system properties, the lower section shows user-defined properties. System properties are predefined by the system. User-defined properties are defined in the reference data page by the user. Right after installation of EDMtruePLM the user-defined property sections are empty.

Note: The property windows always show the properties of the last selected node, data file or product.

Icon’s definition

•  Allows the user to edit the property value; properties that do not have this icon are not editable. This feature does not allow you to leave the property value field empty, that is, without a value. Use the following function

  to unset a property value.

•  Will clear a property value.

Note: Deleting a property can only be done from the reference data page.

System properties of breakdown elements

Breakdown elements have the following set of predefined properties (Table 6).

Table 2. Breakdown element system properties

User defined properties will also appear within this window.

System properties of data files

Breakdown elements have the following set of predefined properties (Table 3).

Table 3. Data file system properties

User defined properties will also appear within this window.

Product properties

The data file has a set of predefined properties.

Table 4. Product properties

User defined properties will also appear within this window.

Project menu

The project menu is located at the top right-hand side of the screen.

Figure 73. Project Menu

Blockchain

The blockchain menu allows to download the block of hash values created for the uploaded document. To use this feature, click on the below highlighted tab which opens Blockchain Tab in the separate window as shown below. One can download set of blockchain by selecting download option and copy the hash values by selecting copy icon next to hash value as shown below. The metadata properties such as Title, Version, User etc. can be viewed by clicking on the individual block.

Figure 74. Blockchain

Make comparison

To compare breakdown versions and baselines click on the compare icon 

 in the project menu. The opened form will allow a user to choose two versions or two baselines from the dropdown list; note that in order to compare baselines both baselines must have the same root.

Figure 75. Version and baseline comparison tab

Select the values and click on the OK button. The Result of the comparison is displayed in a separate "Diff" window as shown below in Figure 76. This window is divided into four main sections:

• Two Product breakdown windows: Show the two baselines or versions that are compared. The breakdown identifications are placed on top of each window.

• List of differences: This summarizes the differences between the two breakdowns.

• Details: The detailed description of a selected row in the list of differences.

Note: Baselines with only a subset of the complete project breakdown can only be compared against other baselines of the same branch – one cannot compare them with the entire structure.

Figure 76. Version comparison window

Baselines

Baselines are a method of versioning the breakdown structure. A baseline is a tagged version of the entire breakdown or of a branch of the breakdown. To manage previously created baselines, click on the baseline icon 

in the project menu. The baselines form lists baselines and allows the user

• - to display and browse a baseline in the breakdown structure pane,

• - to export a baseline as an EDMtruePLM specific ISO 10303-239 P21 file including all files and a separate reference data P21 file (for details of the contents of the resulting zip-file, see chapter 4.1.5 “Download STEP pack”) and

• - to delete baselines.

Figure 77. Baseline tab

Search

Three search

 methods are available for finding breakdown elements / nodes and documents in the breakdown structure. There is a “Quick search” for nodes and more detailed search specifications for nodes and for documents. A search will be executed on the selected product breakdown version. So, if you need to search within a specific version of the breakdown, you must select the version first. Start search by the search icon in the project menu at the top right corner, as shown below. The system allows ‘wildcard’ search for all three types of searches.

Figure 78. Search tab

Breakdown element

“Quick search” finds breakdown elements / nodes based on the following filters. As its name indicates it is quicker than “Node search”, but not as sophisticated.

Figure 79. Quick Search

“Node search” offers additional filters (see Figure 80). For large data sets it is time-consuming.

Figure 80. Node search

The different “Node search” tabs are explained in the following bullet points.

General tab:

All filter items in this tab are system properties of breakdown elements.

• Name: Enter breakdown element name. The following wildcards may be used in the text field.

  • @ - Matches any letter

  • ^ - Matches any upper-case letter

  • ? - Matches any character

  • & - Matches reminder of string

  • # - Matches any digit

  • $ - Matches a substring terminated by a space character or end-of-string

  • - Matches any number of characters

  • \ - Begins a pattern escape sequence

  • ! - Negation character (used with the other characters).

• Description: a string within the node property “Description”.

• Type: one of an enumerated list of element type values can be selected. If no type is specified, all types of elements will be returned.

• Project phase: one of an enumerated list of phase values.

Date tab:

All filter items in this tab are system properties of breakdown elements.

• Created after: Search for nodes created after the given date.

• Created before: Search for nodes created before the given date. 

• Edited after: Search for nodes modified after the given date.

• Edited before: Search for nodes modified before the given date.

User tab:

All filter items in this tab are system properties of breakdown elements.

• Created by: Search for nodes that were created by the selected user.

• Edited by: Search for nodes that were last modified by the selected user.

Metadata tab:

The filter items in this tab are user-defined properties of breakdown elements. Several properties may be included in the same filter pattern.

• Property name: The name of a user-defined property.

• Property value: The value of the given property; for string type properties wildcards may be used.

• Add: Apply the given property name and value pair to the search. After the first property name and value pair others may be added; all such filter pairs are joined by a logical “AND”.

Data files

Use the document search form shown in the two figures below (Figure 81 and Figure 82), to find documents in the breakdown structure. The form consists of five tabs, which are explained in the following sub-sections.

Searches are done on the selected product breakdown version. So, if you need to search within a specific version of the breakdown, select that version first.

Figure 81. Document search 1

Figure 82. Document search 2

General tab:

All filter items in this tab are system properties of documents.

• Title: Document title. The following wildcards may be used in this text field.

  • @ - Matches any letter

  • ^ - Matches any upper-case letter

  • ? - Matches any character

  • & - Matches reminder of string

  • # - Matches any digit

  • $ - Matches a substring terminated by a space character or end-of-string

  • - Matches any number of characters

  • \ - Begins a pattern escape sequence

  • ! - Negation character (used with the other characters).

• Description: a string within the document property “Description”.

• Content type: one of an enumerated list of document “Type” values can be selected. If no value is specified, all types of documents will be returned.

• Discipline: one of an enumerated list of document “Discipline” values can be selected. If no value is specified, documents of all disciplines will be returned.

• Status of the document: one of an enumerated list of document “Status” values can be selected. If no value is specified, documents with all status values will be returned.

• Format: specify a file extension.

Options tab:

All filter items in this tab are system properties of documents.

• Project phase: one of an enumerated list of project phases (defined as reference data).

• External version: the version of the document given by an external system.

• Rid number: the identifier of a Review Item Discrepancy (issues follow-up)

• Source: one of an enumerated list of origins of a document (defined as reference data).

• Have red flags: search for documents that have red flags.

• Have sticky notes: search for documents that have sticky notes.

• Have been checked out: search for documents that have been checked out

Date tab:

• Created after: search for documents created after the given date.

• Created before: search for documents created before the given date. 

• Edited after: search for documents modified after the given date.

• Edited before: search for documents modified before the given date.

• Submitted after: search for documents submitted after the given date.

• Submitted before: search for documents submitted before the given date.

User tab:

• Created by: search for documents that were created by the selected user.

• Edited by: search for documents that were last modified by the selected user.

• Check out by: search for documents that are checked out by the selected user.

• Editor: search for documents that have the selected user as their Editor.

• Responsible: search for documents that the selected user is responsible for.

• Reviewer: search for documents that the selected user is the reviewer of.

• Approver: search for documents that the selected user is the approver of.

• Release manager: search for data files that the selected user is the release manager for.

Metadata tab:

• Property name: The name of the user-defined property.

• Property value: The value of the given property; for string type properties wildcards may be used.

• Add: Apply the given property name and value pair to the search. After the first property name and value pair others may be added; all such filter pairs are joined by a logical “AND”.

Search result tabs

There is one tab that lists results of node searches and one for document search results.

Document search result tab

Figure 83. Document search result

The following functions are available for each document within the search result tab:

1. Download: downloads the document.

2. Open: opens the document.

3. Go to: opens the position of the document within the breakdown structure.

In addition, by clicking on the search result, the properties of that document are loaded into the document properties window.

Node search result tab

Figure 84. Node search result

By clicking on the search result menu, you can go to the position of the node within the breakdown structure. In addition, by clicking on a search result item the properties of the selected node are displayed within the breakdown properties window.

Sorting the search results

Search results can be sorted alphabetically by right-clicking on the search result tab and selecting the “Sort”-option.

Figure 85. Sorting search result

Catalogues

Notification, Products and Organizations are managed in the Catalogues

menu item. Products and Organizations are considered reference data. The notification tasks are managed using Actions and Triggers tabs (Figure 86).

Figure 86. Catalogues

Notification

Notification feature allows to notify an associated user about any changes in the breakdown elements. This is an important feature if there is a dependency among various elements and inform about a change for consideration. Follow below steps to create notification:

Step 1. First link a user with a valid e-mail address to the project using admin login.

Step 2. Reference data - go to the ‘breakdown element property that requires a notification (e.g., HWitem - FinancialState).

Figure 87. Notification

Step 3. Click on the bell icon to open the input form to add a notification.

Figure 88. Notification Menu

1. The form contains a trigger-tab and an action-tab.

2. If there are no suitable actions that may be reused, fill first the action-tab with all details such as user, subject and notification text. The text may include the following DB parameters, which need to be prefixed by the character “#”:

   1. Timestamp (in milliseconds), Date (creation date), Actor, Revision, Type, Node_path, Name, Description, Updated_property, Property_value_before, Property_value_after.

   2. Example notification text:

The valid parameters are listed in the reference data section, as shown below:

Figure 89. Reference Data for Notification

Fill in the Trigger-tab: To include the newly defined action from the Action-tab choose 'New action' from the Action dropdown list. Else select any previously defined action.

Step 4. A change of value in the Inventory HWItem property “Financial state” (from e.g., “Transferred” to “Proposed for Disposal”) will now trigger a notification to the assigned users.

Product

This version of EDMtruePLM offers support for representing products and their relations to breakdown elements. Types of products may be created and may then be pasted into one or several breakdown elements.

Before creating products, confirm that reference data have been defined for “Product element type”, “Product stages” and “Product domains” in the reference data GUI. To add a product, click on the +-sign as shown in Figure 90.

Figure 90. Product menu

Property values cannot be changed after product creation; delete and re-create instead.

For relating products to breakdown elements, see in chapter 3.4.2.3.6 Put Product.

Organisation

To create an organisation, select “Organisation” from the Catalogue menu, click on the +-sign and fill in the form.

The form consists of information such as Organisation name, Unique id (Uid) and Address as shown below in Figure 91. Property values may be changed after creation.

Figure 91- Organisation menu

For relating organizations to breakdown elements, see in chapter 3.4.2.3.5 Add Organisation.

Reference data definitions

The "Reference data" page allows authorized users to manage the metadata of the project. See column “RDL manipulation” in Table 8 for authorized types of users.

Opening the RDL page

To manage project reference data, click on the reference data icon

in the project menu.

Reference data GUI

The "Reference data" page allows the user to manage project metadata. These metadata are a powerful method to configure the system for different uses and processes.

Figure 92. Reference data

The system allows the user to define values for the following metadata types (refer Figure 91):

• Project phase: stage in an activity, e.g., project lifecycle stages  

• Project discipline: type of engineering, e.g., Electrical, Instrumentation, Mechanical ... .

• Source of Information: origin of a document, for example, external and internal

• Document content type: type of information in a document, e.g., CAD, Design, Requirement specification ...

• Document status: the level of progression of a document in its lifecycle workflow, e.g., Draft, Approved, Completed, Ready to review, Sent for approval ...

• Subdomain roles: level of access of a project member to information in a subdomain

• Breakdown relationship roles: types of usages of one breakdown element by another breakdown element, such as, Supplied part, Requirement and Subordinate

• Organisation roles: types of usages of organisations by breakdown elements, e.g., Contractor, Security classifier, Creator, Operator…

• Breakdown element types: classes of nodes in a tree structure, e.g., subsystem, system, unit, module, product definition, requirement ... 

• Breakdown properties: user-defined attributes of a breakdown element and its subtypes, e.g., length, breadth and height

• Requirement types: classes of breakdown elements of type requirement. The system only allows child elements of type requirement to be added to a requirement type of breakdown element. 

• Requirement properties: attributes that are added to breakdown elements of type requirement

• Document properties: attributes that are added to documents 

• Product element type: category of a product, e.g., aircraft, car, ship and pump

• Product properties: attributes that are added to products

• Product domains: engineering discipline; a product may combine several disciplines, such as, electrical and mechanical

• Product stages: lifecycle phase of a product, e.g., design, analysis and manufacturing

• Aggregate struct: a type of structure that is an array of sensor values

• Aggregate struct elements: the members of an “Aggregate struct” and their metadata.

Adding reference data

To change or add metadata to the system, use the 

 icon in a selected reference data type menu. All metadata except for Breakdown properties, Document properties, Product properties, Requirement properties and Aggregate struct elements define new metadata by adding a new value to the form below.

Figure 93. Add reference data

As an example, the project manager can define as "Source of information" different types of source categories, e.g., internal data, customer data, public data etc. .

Deleting reference data

The system will allow metadata to be removed only if it is not used in a project. Metadata that can be removed have an 

 icon in front of them. The remove icon can be used to remove the metadata (see Figure 94).

Figure 94. Delete reference data

Note: The system will not allow a metadata to be deleted if it is in use, this will guarantee that the data will not become corrupted by removing the used metadata.

Adding document property

This item allows the user to extend the EDMtruePLM system by creating additional properties (metadata) for documents. To add a new document property, click on the 

 icon and fill in the form; this is similar as for breakdown properties, see Figure 95 below.

Figure 95. Add document property

Document properties may be of different data types, such as text and numbers. The input forms vary depending on the requested data type; see Figure 95, above.

The property types are explained in Table 5, below.

The “read only access” option allows a user to create properties the values of which can only be changed by the project manager.

Table 5. Document property types

Adding breakdown element type

Breakdown element types may be defined as a class hierarchy where subtypes inherit the properties of their parents. The process starts with the interaction in Figure 96. Selecting the upper-most +-sign will trigger the user interaction in Figure 97 to add a new top level breakdown element type. The smaller +-signs enable the definition of subtypes of existing element types.

Figure 96. Add breakdown element subtype

Figure 97. Add breakdown element type

Adding breakdown element property

Breakdown properties are defined per type of breakdown element; subtypes inherit from their parents. 

Figure 98. Add property for specific breakdown element type

After selecting the breakdown element type that the property shall become a part of click on the 

 icon to create a breakdown property; see Figure 99, below.

Figure 99. Breakdown property input form

Breakdown properties may be of different data types, such as text and numbers, similar to the document properties described above. The input forms vary depending on the requested data type; see Figure 100, below.

The property types are explained in Table 6, below.

The “read only access” option allows a user to create properties the values of which can only be changed by the project manager.

Figure 100. Create new breakdown element property

Table 6. Breakdown element property types

Adding derived property

A derived property calculates its value from other properties.

The icon 

 is for the creation of the derived property and is located in the breakdown element and document property creation area; see Figure 99, above.

Figure 101. Create derived property

Select the property data type from the drop-down list and give a name to the new derived property (see Figure 101). To create the derived property value pattern, add the properties from the Property drop-down list and click on the Add button. The drop-down list contains all local properties, that is, only the properties of the current document or breakdown element type.

Figure 102. Derived property example

Each selected property will be shown as an argument to the ATTR () method. To add static text or a delimiter between the values, place the text between single quotes, see Figure 102 above. To create the derived property, click the OK button.

Adding an aggregate structure

An aggregate structure is an array of value sets of the same type. It is intended to store streamed sensor values.

To add an aggregate structure, first create an aggregate structure type and afterwards add types of elements to it. To create a new structure type, click on the "Aggregate struct" in the reference data menu and create a new structure type by clicking on the 

 icon. After having created the structure, go to "Aggregate struct elements" from the reference menu and select the new structure type from the drop-down list.

Figure 103. Aggregate structure

Use the

icon to add new elements to the structure.

Figure 104. Create new aggregate property type

 You can add the following types of elements to the structure:

Table 7. Aggregate property types

Adding a filter key to aggregate data

To be able to filter the aggregate data, EDMtruePLM provide the functionality to assign an element in the aggregate structure as primary key. To assign an element as the key to an aggregate type, click on the