COMPDM Documentation

Volume 03: Basic Administration

BA PLM

Version 2020.2
Last revised 2020-06
Status released
Author Jens Kübler

Protection category: public

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PU Digital, BA PLM
Hahnstr. 43D, Frankfurt
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COMPDM- CPDMBA-2016 COMPDM Basic Administra-
2020R2_03_BasicAdm tion
inistration.docx
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Jens Kübler Martin Frenzel Martin Frenzel
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Contacts Telephone / fax E-Mail

Jens Kübler +49 711 999 7562 [email protected]

Brief details
Instructions on how to administer COMPDM

Copyright © 2020 by T-Systems International GmbH

All rights reserved, including those relating to partial reprinting, photomechanical reproduction (including micro copy) and analysis using databases or other equip-
ment.
Table of Contents
1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 8
2 Client basics – additional elements................................................................... 11
2.1 Start and login .................................................................................................. 11
2.2 Client Main Window .......................................................................................... 11
2.2.1 Process table ................................................................................................... 12
2.2.2 Client Main Window buttons ............................................................................. 12
2.3 Users & Settings Editor .................................................................................... 13
2.3.1 General elements ............................................................................................. 13
2.3.2 Expert mode ..................................................................................................... 16
2.3.3 Adding your own settings ................................................................................. 18
2.3.4 Manage Servers Dialog .................................................................................... 19
2.3.5 Test Connection ............................................................................................... 22
2.4 Process Monitor Window .................................................................................. 23
2.5 Data Import ...................................................................................................... 24
2.6 Data Export ...................................................................................................... 24
2.7 Console Window .............................................................................................. 25
2.8 Monitoring Support ........................................................................................... 25
2.8.1 Activity Monitor Window ................................................................................... 25
2.8.2 Client Debug Console Window ......................................................................... 28
2.9 Command line arguments ................................................................................ 30
2.9.1 Client command line arguments and batch invocation ...................................... 30
2.9.2 Server command line arguments ...................................................................... 32
3 Modules, Representations and Objects ............................................................ 33
3.1 Overview .......................................................................................................... 33
3.2 Representation Editor Window ......................................................................... 36
3.3 Object Editor Window ....................................................................................... 37
3.3.1 Attribute table ................................................................................................... 38
3.3.2 Managing attributes .......................................................................................... 40
3.3.3 Managing extensions........................................................................................ 41
3.3.4 VIRTUAL Extensions ........................................................................................ 44
3.3.5 Code buttons (left side) .................................................................................... 45
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3.4 Module specifics ............................................................................................... 46
3.4.1 Aras module ..................................................................................................... 46
3.4.2 Teamcenter module ......................................................................................... 50
3.4.3 VPM V4 module ............................................................................................... 57
3.4.4 EnoviaV6 module ............................................................................................. 59
3.4.5 Windchill module .............................................................................................. 62
3.4.6 STEP module ................................................................................................... 65
3.4.7 File module....................................................................................................... 67
3.4.8 CATIA V5 module............................................................................................. 70
3.4.9 NX module ....................................................................................................... 74
3.4.10 Cache Module .................................................................................................. 77
3.5 Template Manager Window .............................................................................. 81
4 Data Exchange Methods and Mappings ........................................................... 84
4.1 Method Editor Window ..................................................................................... 84
4.1.1 Creating new Data Exchange Methods ............................................................ 86
4.1.2 Customize Process Monitor Views (Tabs) ........................................................ 87
4.1.3 Restrict Availability of Method to certain Settings Profile .................................. 88
4.1.4 Customize PLM Export Button Labels and Root Types .................................... 88
4.1.5 Using a Fixed Source Profile ............................................................................ 89
4.1.6 Send exported Data using TFE ........................................................................ 90
4.1.7 Interactive Setup .............................................................................................. 90
4.1.8 Serialized Processing ....................................................................................... 91
4.1.9 Custom JAVA Method ...................................................................................... 91
4.2 Mapping Editor Window.................................................................................... 92
4.2.1 Object correlation and attribute mapping definition ........................................... 93
4.2.2 Composing a Template Based Attribute Value ................................................. 98
4.2.3 Interactive Mappings ...................................................................................... 100
4.2.4 Auto-completion (Mapping Wizard)................................................................. 100
4.2.5 Using Value Mapping Tables and Scale Factors ............................................ 101
4.2.6 Using Extensions in Data Exchange Methods ................................................ 103
4.3 TRUfusion Enterprise file handling configuration ............................................ 106
4.4 PDM Workbench compatibility (Aras) ............................................................. 107
5 Maintenance Dialog ........................................................................................ 108
Change History / Release Notes ..................................................................................... 111

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List of Figures
Figure 1: Scope of COMPDM ........................................................................................... 8
Figure 2: Client Main Window ..........................................................................................11
Figure 3: General Functions in Settings Editor .................................................................13
Figure 4: Example of adding Custom Settings .................................................................18
Figure 5: Custom Setting Options in Settings Editor ........................................................18
Figure 6: Button for Configuration of PLM System Servers ..............................................19
Figure 7: Manage Servers Dialog ....................................................................................19
Figure 8: Define Server Downtimes Dialog ......................................................................21
Figure 9: Server Selection Alternatives ............................................................................21
Figure 10: Connection Test Error Example ......................................................................22
Figure 11: Process Monitor Details Mode ........................................................................23
Figure 12: Checking Availability of Data Exchange Methods ...........................................24
Figure 13: Additional "Monitor" and “Client console” Buttons in Console ..........................25
Figure 14: Activity Monitor Window ..................................................................................25
Figure 15: Selection of Activity Graph from cascading Popup Menu ................................26
Figure 16: Client Debug Console - Teamcenter Tab ........................................................28
Figure 17: Client Debug Console - EnoviaV6 Tab ............................................................29
Figure 18: Core Internal Data Model ................................................................................34
Figure 19: Representation Editor Window ........................................................................36
Figure 20: Object Editor Window .....................................................................................37
Figure 21: Example of adding Extension for a Part Object ...............................................41
Figure 22: Extended Object in Object List: "Part" .............................................................42
Figure 23: Managing Extension Attributes in the Object Editor.........................................42
Figure 24: Elements for controlling Extension Cardinality ................................................42
Figure 25: Delete Extension Example ..............................................................................43
Figure 26: Creating a new Aras Representation ..............................................................46
Figure 27: Creating a new Teamcenter Representation ...................................................50
Figure 28: Property Selection for Item/Revision Teamcenter Objects ..............................51
Figure 29: Teamcenter Part Attributes made unique with a Suffiix ...................................53
Figure 30: Creating a new EnoviaV6 Representation .......................................................59
Figure 31: EnoviaV6 Structure Import Options .................................................................60
Figure 32: New Windchill Representation Alternatives .....................................................62
Figure 33: Creating a new STEP Representation.............................................................65
Figure 34: "File" Representation Alternatives ...................................................................67
Figure 35: Example of a CSV File ....................................................................................67
Figure 36: "Record" Part ..................................................................................................68
Figure 37: Creating a new CATIA Representation ...........................................................70
Figure 38: Reference Data Analysis Result Example .......................................................70
Figure 39: Standard CATIA V5 Properties .......................................................................71
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Figure 40: Creating a new NX Representation .................................................................74
Figure 41: Standard NX Properties ..................................................................................74
Figure 42: Enable NX Module to handle mixed NX/JT Assemblies as used in Daimler
Context .....................................................................................................................75
Figure 43: Creating a new Cache Representation............................................................78
Figure 44: Cache related Processes in separate Tab of Main Window ............................79
Figure 45: Cache Subscription Status Display in Client....................................................80
Figure 46: Template Manager Window ............................................................................81
Figure 47: Method Editor Window ....................................................................................84
Figure 48: Define Identifier, Source and Target Representation for Method .....................86
Figure 49: Method Visualization Control ..........................................................................87
Figure 50: Export Method – Root Type Exclusion, Label, and Distinct Button ..................88
Figure 51: Fixed Source Profile and Settings Selection ...................................................89
Figure 52: Configuring Interactive Process Setup ............................................................90
Figure 53: A Process Waits For Setup .............................................................................91
Figure 54: Mapping Editor Window ..................................................................................92
Figure 55: Mapping Target Object Selection ....................................................................93
Figure 56: Select Mapping Target Object using Decision Table .......................................94
Figure 57: Disabling Source/Target Mapping Pair ............................................................95
Figure 58: Attribute Mapping Alternatives ........................................................................96
Figure 59: Specify Attribute Mapping to be "as" a different Object's .................................97
Figure 60: Target Value Mapped From Template Element...............................................97
Figure 61: "Sources" Mapping Dialog ..............................................................................98
Figure 62: Compose Template Based Value....................................................................99
Figure 63: Example of Value Mapping Table .................................................................101
Figure 64: Delete Value using Value Mapping Table .....................................................102
Figure 65: Target Extension Attributes in Implicit Mapping .............................................103
Figure 66: Source Extension Attributes in Implicit Mapping ............................................104
Figure 67: Mapping to TRUfusion Enterprise .................................................................106
Figure 68: Server Maintenance Dialog ...........................................................................108
Figure 69: Console Window to check Configuration Contents ........................................110

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List of Tables
Table 1: Overview of COMPDM Documentation ............................................................... 9
Table 2: Client Main Window Buttons ..............................................................................12
Table 3: Buttons in Settings Editor ...................................................................................15
Table 4: Components of Internal Data Model ...................................................................33
Table 5: COMPDM Object Correspondence to Aras Items ..............................................47
Table 6: COMPDM Object Correspondence to Teamcenter Objects................................51
Table 7: COMPDM Object Correspondence to VPM Tables ............................................57
Table 8: COMPDM Object Correspondence to EnoviaV6 Objects ...................................59
Table 9: COMPDM Object Correspondence to Windchill Objects for Standard Mapping .63
Table 10: COMPDM Object Correspondence to Windchill Objects for “Document as Part”
Mapping....................................................................................................................63

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1 Introduction

The application COMPDM is designed to connect three worlds: product lifecycle man-
agement systems (PLM), computer aided design systems (CAD), and the international
standard ISO 10303 (STEP) for product data representation, exchange and long-term
archiving.

Figure 1: Scope of COMPDM

COMPDM clients allow for an easy definition and maintenance of data exchange pro-
cesses between any of these worlds. A very simple and straightforward user interface
allows the end user to start and monitor preconfigured exchange processes.
The COMPDM server manages and executes data exchange processes in a highly effi-
cient manner, including import to and extraction from PLM systems and conversions of
CAD files according to your requirements.
The present document is part of the COMPDM documentation, which is organized in sev-
eral volumes. The following table lists the available volumes and provides guidance about
the recommended readings for both data exchange administrators and data exchange
users.

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No. Title User Administrator

01 Installation ✓
02-A User’s Manual (App Client)
✓ ✓
02-B User’s Manual (Browser Client)

03 Basic Administration ✓
04 Advanced Customization
(✓)
05 Extended Customization with JAVA
(✓)

Table 1: Overview of COMPDM Documentation

COMPDM has two different access modes:

• End user: To execute data exchange tasks such as data imports or exports and
use all necessary supporting functionalities such as monitoring processes, con-
firming imports to the PLM system, checking the results.
• Administrator (admin): Configuration of COMPDM, creation and modification of da-
ta representations and data mappings, creation of pre-configured settings profiles,
adding end user accounts, server maintenance. The administrator can also per-
form the same tasks as the end user (i.e. run data exchange processes etc.)

The present document describes the additional functionalities available to the administra-
tor for all maintenance and troubleshooting tasks, including the configuration of simple,
straightforward data exchange methods for the core elements of product structures.
These administrative functionalities are available in COMPDM’s “Client App”.

For reasons of clarity, more complex and/or rarely needed configuration features and ob-
jects, such as the exchange of product variant information, the definition of mapping pat-
terns for non-linear mappings, the configuration of automatically repeated processes, and
others, have been moved to a separate document (“Advanced Customization”). It is highly
recommended for COMPDM administrators to get familiar with these advanced features.
Nevertheless, for many scenarios, the basic configuration features as described in this
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document should provide sufficient flexibility to implement highly productive data ex-
changes.
The use of extended customization methods that make use of JAVA code to implement
complicated business rules and processes is described in the “Extended Customization
with JAVA” document. These features require advanced knowledge of COMPDM internals
and JAVA programming.
It is assumed that the reader is familiar with volume 02-A: “User’s Manual (App Client)”
and this document will not repeat the explanation of the client app elements described
therein.

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2 Client basics – additional elements
COMPDM administration requires using the COMPDM client app. The browser-based
client does not support administrative functionalities.
The COMPDM client app’s basic functionalities are described in volume 02-A of
the documentation (“User’s Manual”). With “admin” access, some additional func-
tions are available for these basics, which are described in this chapter. The sub-
chapters follow the structure of the user’s manual (02-A).
If a sub-chapter from volume 02-A is not included in here, the described functional-
ity is the same for the administrator as for the end user.

2.1 Start and login

• Select the “admin” user for login
• The administrator password has to be provided1.

2.2 Client Main Window

When logging into the COMPDM server with admin credentials, the client window will
show some additional buttons.

Figure 2: Client Main Window

1 i.e. there is no configuration possible which would disable admin password checking, as opposed
to end user password checking
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2.2.1 Process table
In contrast to the end user, the administrator can always see all processes assigned to all
users. The administrator has full control over all processes (restart, abort, download re-
sults, view logs, view traces, view product structure) as long as the information is available
at all.

2.2.2 Client Main Window buttons

These are some additional buttons available to the administrator:

Opens the “Maintenance” dialog which allows to shut

down and optionally restart the COMPDM server in an
orderly manner (see 5)2

Open the Settings Editor Window, which offers additional

functionalities and also allows to administer user accounts
and settings profiles (see 2.3)

Access the Representation Editor and the Object Editor

which are used to customize the scope of the product data
to exchange (see 3)

Access the Method Editor and the Mapping Editor which

are used to define data exchange processes and the data
mappings to use (see 4)

Access the Scheduled Task Manager for configuring pro-

cesses to be executed at regular intervals (see “Advanced
Customization” manual, section 4)

Table 2: Client Main Window Buttons

2 This button is labeled “Shutdown...” if the COMPDM server is running as a stand-alone applica-
tion, and “Restart…” if it is installed as a Windows service. Refer to volume 01: “Installation” for
details
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2.3 Users & Settings Editor

2.3.1 General elements

In administration mode, normally many more tabs and settings are visible than in user
mode. Moreover, some additional buttons are available:

Figure 3: General Functions in Settings Editor

Notice that the tab headers to the left have a dark grey background whereas those to the
right have a light background. The difference between the two colors is their scope:

• Settings on grey tabs are of a global nature. The defined value will be used for all
settings profiles. These options are only visible for, and editable by, the administra-
tor

• Settings on white tabs can take individual values for each settings profile, and for
each user.

In the administrator’s “Expert mode” (see below), it is possible to change the nature of a
setting from “individual” to “global” or, in some cases, vice versa (in which case it can be
made accessible to the end users).
It is recommended to use the edit mode (see below) to make such changes and also to
change the number and names of tab groups, before starting to define settings profiles.3

3 This is a recommendation only: these changes can be made any time, however as soon as pro-
files are defined, a change to an option value might have to be repeated for many profiles
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When using the right mouse button on a setting’s value, a context menu appears that al-
lows changing the settings’s accessibility:

You can control whether the setting is only available in “Expert mode”, or also in “Stand-
ard mode”, or whether it is also available to the end user. For settings on grey tabs (glob-
al) in general, but also for some settings on white tabs (individual), built-in rules inhibit
making them available to the end user, and the corresponding alternatives will not be
shown in the context menu.

The following settings are available in the context of user and profile management, but
only if LDAP authentication is not used (see section 2.5.2 of the “Installation Manual”):

• “User passwords” - controls whether end users always have to provide a pass-
word, or never have to provide a password, or only have to provide a password
when the COMPDM user account name is different from the Windows user name
(“Foreign”)4

• “Register user on the fly” – if enabled, end users can simply log in with a new user
name and a new user account will be created on the fly; in this case,

• “On the fly user template” defines a user from whom to copy initial settings

• “Default profile” lets you define which profile is shown as the default when logging
into the client

Note that unless LDAP support is activated (see section 2.5.2 of the “Installation Manual”),
it is possible to log into a COMPDM client as any user by providing the administrator’s
password instead of the user’s password.

4 “Foreign” mode is only supported by the client app, i.e., when the browser client is used, pass-
words are either always required, or never required, and the setting “Foreign” has the same effect
as “Always”.
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 Adds a new settings profile (a unique name has to be entered).
You may also control the COMPDM servers which shall support
this profile in a multi-server configuration (refer to section 4.2 of the
“Advanced Customization” manual (COMPDM documentation, vol-
ume 04) for details).
All individual setting values (white tabs) are initialized with the val-
ues from the profile that is currently selected in the Settings Editor.

Allows to change the domain (server assignment) of a profile, with

the exception of the “default” profile, which always available on all
servers (therefore its scope cannot be edited)

Delete a profile

Add a new user, optionally, select another user from whom to copy
the initial option values.

Delete a user

Toggle between “Expert mode” and “Standard mode” (see next

section)

Table 3: Buttons in Settings Editor

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2.3.2 Expert mode

COMPDM features literally hundreds of different settings, and for many of these there are
only rare cases where it’s necessary to change their built-in default values.
For this reason, many settings are classified as “Expert” and are not shown initially when
the Settings Editor window is opened. Rather, it will only show settings which are classi-
fied as “Standard” (i.e. major, important, frequently used) settings, or which are accessible
to the end user. When selecting the “Expert” button, the remaining settings become visi-
ble. This means that typically more tabs will appear and most tabs will also show more
settings than before.
As described in the previous section, you can re-classify any setting as “Standard” or “Ex-
pert” by selecting “Admin only (Standard)” or “Admin only (Expert)” from the setting’s val-
ue’s context menu, in order to control whether it should be visible immediately when open-
ing the Settings Editor window or not.
In addition to accessing all settings, the administrator can use the Expert mode to custom-
ize the appearance of the Settings Editor. It allows to
• re-order the settings within a tab by using drag & drop on the option name
• re-arrange the tab groups (by dragging the tab headers).5
• move a setting to a different tab by dragging the label of the setting to the target
tab header. In case this move implies a change of the global/individual status
(grey/white), it has to be confirmed, and in certain cases, internal restrictions pre-
vent the change.6
• change the name of a tab group by double-clicking on its header
• remove tab groups by simply moving all contained settings to other tabs. On next
invocation of the Settings Editor window, the tab will have disappeared
• Create a new tab group by drag-dropping the label of a setting to the rightmost tab
labeled . Depending on the origin of the dropped setting,
the tab will receive the grey or white background.

5 Whatever the arrangement is, the editor will always show grey tabs left and white tabs right when
closed and reopened
6 When a setting changes from global (grey tab) to individual (white tab) or vice versa, its current
value gets lost. Therefore, we recommend to perform this kind of re-scoping of the settings before
starting to change their values from their built-in defaults.
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Note that if a setting is on a white tab (individual) and has “Admin only” or “User can see”
access, it means that the user cannot edit the setting. In this case, any value that is en-
tered in admin mode will automatically be propagated to all users for the profile being ed-
ited. If you need to have different values for different users, follow this procedure:
• Temporarily change the accessibility to “User can edit” (via context menu)
• Open a client session with the user whose settings are to be set individually (re-
member that the admin password is valid for any user account7)
• Change the setting
• In the administrator client, change the accessibility back to “Admin only”.

7 In case LDAP authentication is enabled, this is only the case for “template users”, see “Installation
Manual”, section 2.5.2. For other users, the actual password of the user needs to be provided
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2.3.3 Adding your own settings
You may add settings to the COMPDM configuration, assign values to them and make
your data exchange processes take their values into account.
Adding a custom setting is as simple as creating a file in the COMPDM vault directory
(see COMPDM documentation volume 01: “Installation”) with a name like
option.<Option label>[.<type>]
where <type> is the setting type, it may be “string”, “integer”, “boolean”, or any abbrevia-
tion of these (default is “string”).

Example files in COMPDM vault:

Figure 4: Example of adding Custom Settings

The files may be empty. In the case of a string type setting, they may also contain several
lines of text which define valid alternatives to choose from, instead of allowing entering an
arbitrary string value.
Result after server reboot (required):

Figure 5: Custom Setting Options in Settings Editor

Initially, such custom settings are found in a (white) tab labeled “Individual” and are ac-
cessible by the administrator only but are classified as “Standard” settings. They can be
moved from the “Individual” tab just like the built-in settings.

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2.3.4 Manage Servers Dialog
In the tabs related to configuring access to a PLM system, a “Manage servers…” button is
shown next to the setting which selects the PLM server to use. It allows opening the
“Manage Servers dialog” where the available PLM system servers can be configured.

Figure 6: Button for Configuration of PLM System Servers

Selecting this button opens the Manage Servers dialog:

Figure 7: Manage Servers Dialog

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You can see a table of currently configured servers for the PLM system. The table col-
umns are:
• Name: Identification of the server in the user interface. It is initially derived from
the URL, but can be changed as long as it remains unique
• URL: the server URL.
- for Aras, the URL typically ends with „/Server/InnovatorServer.aspx“
- for Teamcenter, the URL typically ends with „/tc“
• Downtime: Allows to specify times of unavailability for the PLM system. Double-
click into the column to open the Define Server Downtimes dialog (see below)
• Sessions (optional): Server configuration for multithreaded access. If more than
one session is configured, import or export processes that deal with large amounts
of data may use additional server connections in parallel to speed up the data
transfer to or from the PLM system. The number of sessions is restricted to the
specified value.
Note that the total number of concurrent sessions on a server can exceed the
specified value because newly started processes will be granted at least one ses-
sion, even if a huge import or export is currently making use of the specified num-
ber of “extra” connections.
For Teamcenter and EnoviaV6, this column is not present as multithreaded access
is currently unsupported.
• Used in profiles: Lists the settings profiles (and users) where the server is cur-
rently configured as the server to use.
• Release (only for EnoviaV6): Select the EnoviaV6 version of the server by select-
ing among the available releases8
Use „Add“ to define a new server. In this case, the server’s URL needs to be provided.
Use “Delete” to remove a server.

8 In case your EnoviaV6 server version is not available, some additional files have to be added to
your COMPDM installation. Please contact T-Systems for support.
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Define Server Downtimes Dialog

If a PLM system is unavailable during certain periods of the day, e.g. for database backup
creation or the like, the Define Server Downtimes dialog permits to specify these times. It
is possible to specify the times of unavailability for each weekday individually, or to specify
it independent of the weekday. Downtimes can be defined with a resolution of 30 minutes
by clicking into the scheduling grid, or moving the mouse over it while pressing the left
mouse button:

Figure 8: Define Server Downtimes Dialog

When a data import or export process wants to access a PLM system for which a defined
downtime begins within the next minute, the process automatically halts and waits until all
downtimes of all required PLM systems have ended. If all PLM systems have overlapping
times of unavailability for the whole week, the process aborts.

Finalizing Server Selection

Once you exit from the Manage Servers dialog, the choice of configured servers is updat-
ed for the PLM system, and if you entered a new host, you can now select it from the list:

Figure 9: Server Selection Alternatives

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2.3.5 Test Connection
Next to the “Manage servers…” button, the “Test connection” button can be used to check
whether the current credentials and server URL settings allow to connect and to log into
the PLM system. The connection test takes all current entries in the relevant settings into
account, regardless of whether they are already saved. In case of a failure, a message
may provide additional information about the reason of the failure.

Figure 10: Connection Test Error Example

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2.4 Process Monitor Window
The client app’s Process Monitor window features a “Details” mode, symbolized by a
magnifying glass icon.

Figure 11: Process Monitor Details Mode

Its purpose is to simplify analysis of data exchanges that do not behave as expected.
When activated, any views in the mapping method that are hidden (suppressed) to the
end user become visible (see section 4 for details). Furthermore, the first column of the
structure view is used to indicate the object type in brackets (normally this type is shown
with a “mouse over message”. The mouse over message shows the internal #-number
(object ID) of the object, which is used in the process trace file when referring to the in-
stance.

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2.5 Data Import

How to check why import or export buttons are unavailable (dimmed):

Open the Method Editor (see 4) and you most likely will find that involved data model rep-
resentations are shown in red9, or mappings (arrows in between) show a warning symbol:

Figure 12: Checking Availability of Data Exchange Methods

A tooltip (mouse over message) will provide information about the nature of the problem.
Check the Console’s traces (see 2.7) for further information.

2.6 Data Export

For troubleshooting data export problems, see remark in previous section 2.5
Please note that the “Export scope” setting controls whether the part selected via the “Part
Search dialog” is exported with all subcomponents (default), or only with its direct compo-
nents, or without any components. This setting can take different values per setting profile
and/or user.

9 When troubleshooting such problems to support an end user who reports unavailability of meth-
ods, make sure you’re using the same parameters for PLM and CAD modules as the user reporting
problems, i.e. same settings profile etc.
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2.7 Console Window

When logged in as administrator, the Console Window includes two additional but-
tons to launch the Activity Monitor window and the Client Console window.

Figure 13: Additional "Monitor" and “Client console” Buttons in Console

Please refer to the next section for details.

2.8 Monitoring Support

2.8.1 Activity Monitor Window

The Monitor Window shows a graphical representation of PLM server activities. It may
contain several graphs:

Figure 14: Activity Monitor Window

• Select the “Monitor” button to open the Activity Monitor window. It will contain the
activity graphs that were configured last (see below)
• To close the Activity Monitor window, use its close control, i.e.

COMPDM keeps a record on two kinds of activities for every PLM system server that is
configured:
• Number of concurrent sessions, i.e. how many threads (processes, sessions) are
using the server in parallel at a given point in time
• Requests per second, i.e. how many invocations of the PLM system server are
performed by the COMPDM server in one second10

10 Be aware of the fact that only the activities controlled by the currently used COMPDM server are
counted, not activities by other users of the PLM system or other COMPDM servers
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These activities vary over time, and a graphical representation shows the activities for the
past week, plus the current day. To be able to show recent activities with some detail
while still giving an impression of the change of activities during a whole week, the time
resolution of the graph is variable:
• In the rightmost section, the latest activities are shown as detailed as one value
per second (covering the 5-6 last minutes)
• In the middle section, the activities of the last 4-5 hours are shown with their aver-
age over one minute
• In the left section, the activities for the past week are shown. Here, the values
show the average over 30 minutes
• Times when the COMPDM server was not running are shown in light red

The “Monitor” button’s right part allows accessing a popup menu structure that can be
used to select or deselect the graphs to include in the Monitor window:

Figure 15: Selection of Activity Graph from cascading Popup Menu

As can be seen in the figure above, the popup menu can include up to three levels:

• Topmost level lets you choose either “Number of sessions” or “Number of requests
per second” as the activity to monitor. This level is always present.
• Next level lets you choose the PLM system. This level is only shown if more than
one PLM system module is licensed in your COMPDM11
• Next level lets you choose the server for the PLM system. This level is only shown
if more than one server is defined in your configuration, all of which were used dur-
ing the past 7 days

In case your configuration actually results in several popup menu levels as shown above,
you may either select an item from a rightmost entry to monitor one particular PLM server.
You may, however, also select one of the higher-level menu entries, in which case activi-
ties of all sub elements are summarized in a graph. In the example above:

11 In addition, only PLM servers and PLM systems will be available where an activity was recorded
during the past 7 days
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 • If you selected “scplm044 TC9”, you would get an activity graph for the number of
concurrent sessions on the Teamcenter server “scplm044 TC9” during the past
week
• If you selected “Teamcenter”, you would get an activity graph that shows the total
number of concurrent sessions on the two Teamcenter servers “scplm044 TC9”
and “scplm044 TC11”, i.e. all Teamcenter related activities
• If you selected “Session”, you would get an activity graph that shows the total
number of concurrent sessions on all PLM systems, in the example here, all Aras
and Teamcenter related sessions on all configured Teamcenter and Aras servers

When you make a selection as described, an additional activity graph is added at the bot-
tom of the Activity Monitor window. When you make such a selection for an activity graph
that is already contained in the Activity Monitor window, it will be removed from the Activity
Monitor window.
Note that for Multi-Server COMPDM installations, the Activity Window also shows a table
that summarizes activities on all running servers. Refer to the “Advanced Customization
Manual”, section 4.3.2, for details.

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2.8.2 Client Debug Console Window

The Client Debug Console window provides additional tracing information for COMPDM’s
client app. It may contain the three tabs “Communication”, “STDERR”, “STDOUT” which
log client-server communication, or any error or console output produced by the client.
This information can be useful for COMPDM developers to analyze client malfunctions.
Teamcenter Tab
If the Teamcenter module is licensed, the Client Debug Console offers an additional
“Teamcenter” tab which allows to investigate the Teamcenter database using low-level
operations, which can be very useful when developing Teamcenter-based data exchange
methods.

Figure 16: Client Debug Console - Teamcenter Tab

All information is retrieved from the current profile’s Teamcenter connection. Enter com-
mands to get detailed information about a certain object type (including available proper-
ties with labels, internal names, and types), about all available “Saved Queries” with their
underlying SQL statements, to print type and properties for a certain Teamcenter UID, or
to print differences between two Teamcenter objects or a Teamcenter object before and
after a certain operation. You can also run queries or use the “Find Service”; be aware
that any “Part” properties must be specified in the form “<property>@<type>” with
<type> either the item or the revision type name.
Example:
search Item item_id@Item=Test123
Enter the command “help” to get a list of all supported commands.

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EnoviaV6 Tab

If the EnoviaV6 module is licensed, the Client Debug Console offers an additional “Eno-
viaV6” tab which allows to run MQL statements against the active connection, for explora-
tion of the database or direct manipulation.

Figure 17: Client Debug Console - EnoviaV6 Tab

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2.9 Command line arguments

2.9.1 Client command line arguments and batch invocation

The client can be invoked with additional command line arguments for the following pur-
poses:
• avoid the necessity to have the COMPDM server URL stored in the Windows reg-
istry (by providing the URL via the command line instead), or
• connect to a different COMPDM server than the one that is used by default;
• avoid the standard login dialog by providing the necessary user, profile, and pass-
word information – the client starts directly with its Main window
• start processes directly without opening a Client Main Window

You can either provide the command line arguments by making a copy of the client
startup script, client.bat12, and editing it (add the arguments at the end of the last
line).
Or, you create a symbolic link to the client.bat startup script then change the link’s
properties (target) and add the parameters.
The following parameters are supported:
• --server=<URL>:<PORT>
to specify the COMPDM server to connect to (overrides default stored in Windows registry)
• --user=<username>
specifies the COMPDM account to connect to (may also be admin)
• --password=<value>
specify the user’s password in plain text
• --crypt_password=<value>
specify the user’s password in an encrypted form; use
• --crypt=<value>
to make the client print the encryption of a plain text password and terminate, the output
can then be used in conjunction with –-crypt_password
• --profile=<value>
select the settings profile to use
• --import=<Method>&<Root file path and name>
Provided that --user, --password/--crypt_password, --profile are
provided as needed, will create a new process with the specified (import) method, load the
specified product structure root file and accompanying files, and run the process. The cli-
ent will wait for completion and return with exit code 0 if the import finished with no er-
rors.

12 This script is located in the installation directory of the client, refer to COMPDM documentation
volume 01: Installation
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 • --export=<Method>&<Root part id>[&<address>]
In case that --user, --password/--crypt_password, --profile are
provided as needed, will create a new process with the specified (export) method and run
the process. The client will wait for completion and return with exit code 0 if the export fin-
ished with no errors.
The “root part id” is a unique, PLM system specific identifier for the root of the product
structure to export. The optional “address” denotes the receiver for the data in case the
TRUfusion Enterprise integration is used, i.e. the exported data will be handed over to the
TFE server for further processing.
To obtain the necessary parameter values for an export, it is recommended to start the
export interactively using the Search Part Dialog, see section 2.6 of the User’s manual. Af-
ter having started the export, you may well abort the process. In the process’s trace files,
you will find the necessary information at the very beginning, example:
13:55:41.472 >LOG:> Info: process created (internal id: 20161120135541-6)
13:55:41.474 for a batch execution of process: use
--export="My Export&CAD:6BFB972CA973493C9E95D71C5A300D76&TFE1X1X75S46T306S1T10"

• --export=<Method>&<Export definition file>[&<address>]

Instead of providing a single root part identified by its unique PLM object ID as in the
above form, you may also provide the name, including path, of a “COMPDM Export defini-
tion file” (*.cef file). It allows to specify complex filter criteria for selecting the objects to
export, and also advanced structure expansion strategies. The Scheduled Task Manager’s
Configure Automatic Execution dialog allows to create or edit such export definition files in
a comfortable manner (refer to the “Advanced Customization Manual”, section 5)13.
In COMPDM’s installation directory (see “Installation Manual”, in the subdirectory
tools\xsd\, a schema definition file for the export definition file format can be found

• --nowait in addition to --import or --export, the client terminates immedi-

ately, and the process runs asynchronously on the server.
• --nointeraction in addition to –-import or –-export, runs the process
without any user interaction:
- If the process is configured for interactive setup, uses default settings.
- If the process uses interactive mapping, uses the default values.
- If the process is configured to “Wait for confirmation”, continues without confirmation
• --export_to=<directory> in addition to –import or –export, downloads
the processing results (exported data etc.) to the specified directory on the client.

Example for a batch invocation (from a Windows command window) for an import:
client.bat --user=admin --password=123456 --profile=default
-–import=”My Import&C:\tmp\data01\asm.CATProduct”

13 Filter definitions may include JAVA code based filter criteria, but these are ignored by default
when a saved filter (*.cef file) is used as an export definition file.
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Miscellaneous other command line arguments are:

• --help: Prints all command line arguments and major return codes for
–-import/--export
• --editor=<Path>: Path to a text editor binary, if a valid (executable) program is
provided, it will be used for the corresponding button in the Console window (see 2.7) to
directly load the window’s text content into the editor
• --uninstall: remove Windows Registry entry for client
• --reference=[<process id>:]value: Sets the value of the process reference column
in the Client Main window.
When used in combination with --import/--export, sets it for the created pro-
cess.
If a process id is prefixed to the value using “:” as the separator, sets the reference value
for the given process.14
• --balance: select server with lowest workload in Multi-Server configurations (refer to
the “Advanced Customization” manual, section 4.3.1, for details

2.9.2 Server command line arguments

The COMPDM server supports the following command line arguments, which have to be
provided to the server.bat15 script:
• --vault=<Path>: Use specified directory for the COMPDM vault, instead of the value found
in the Windows registry.
This option is useful in case you want to run more than one COMPDM server on the same
computer, or if you need to avoid having the vault address stored in the Windows Registry
• --uninstall: Attempt to remove Windows Registry entry for server (vault path)

14 This parameter is currently used in conjunction with the TRUfusion Enterprise integration, to
relate TFE job numbers with COMPDM process ids
15 server-2nd.bat in case of a secondary COMPDM server
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3 Modules, Representations and Objects

3.1 Overview

Product structures handled by COMPDM are made up of objects that carry attributes
(properties). COMPDM does not handle generic, arbitrary objects. Because the applica-
tion domain of COMPDM is primarily the exchange of CAD product structures, all objects
handled rather have to fall in one of the following categories, or kinds:

Kind Symbol Description

Part Part (can be a monolithic part or an assembly)
Assembly-component relationship (bill of material). Example:
Assembly
Relationship between “chassis” and “wheel”
Instance Part instance (Digital mockup). Example: “Rear left wheel”
Document that belongs to a part. For example, some CAD
Document
model
Extension Extended information for a part or document
Process Meta information about a data exchange process (see vol-
Tag ume 04: “Advanced Customization”, section 2.1)
Product variant configuration categories and options (see
Dictionary
volume 04: “Advanced Customization”, section 2.2)

Table 4: Components of Internal Data Model

The first five object categories form the core representation of product structures, whereas
the remaining two categories are only used under certain conditions. For the latter ones,
refer to volume 04: “Advanced Customization”, section 2, for details.

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There is a fixed model for the relationships between the first five object categories:

S
S

S S
S
trafo
fileName

Figure 18: Core Internal Data Model

• Parts can possess any number (S) of Documents (possibly none)

• Documents always refer to some file (fileName)
• Parts can relate any number (S) of Assemblies (links to component parts)
• An Assembly refers to another part, which is the component part
• An Assembly has any number (S) of Instances16
• An Instance has information about the positioning (transformation matrix) of the
component in relation to the parent part
• Extension objects represent optional additional information which might be present
more than once for the same part or document instance. For example, the material
of a part (when in some cases a part consists of several materials), or information
about the life cycle state history of a part.

This fairly simple data model is well suited for representing CAD product structures.
COMPDM is designed to handle this model very efficiently and the user interface allows
managing data represented this way very easily.

The components of COMPDM that deal with the specifics of a PLM system (Aras,
Teamcenter, VPM, EnoviaV6, Windchill) or a file format (CATIA V5, NX, STEP) are called
“Modules”. These modules are responsible for mapping their “native” data to and from
this internal data model. In some cases, the module will have to deal with external data
that is more complex than this model17, in other cases the externally used data represen-
tation is even simpler18. This makes the module’s task more or less complicated. In sec-
tion 3.4 we will explain the module specific assumptions and restrictions.

16 The case that it has no instances is used by some modules for generic part relationships without
the instance semantics, i.e. no positioning is involved etc.
17 Example: Teamcenter has an Item and an ItemRevision object which together represent our
„Part“
18 Example: In CATIA there is no distinction between „Part“ and „Document“, both roles are played
by the „CATPart“
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If we want, for example, to import CATIA data into Aras, we obviously will need the CATIA
module and the Aras module to accomplish this. Then, we need a definition how the CAT-
IA data should be stored in Aras: Which CATIA files should go where, which Aras items
and properties should be filled with which values etc.

In COMPDM, we create such a definition in two steps. First, we create “Representations”

for the data in each of the modules involved. This representation defines which native
objects and attributes (properties) are accessed.
Depending on the module, the available objects may be fixed for a representation, or can
be chosen from a larger data model. Take as examples the case of an NX module (what-
ever you have, it is a “prt” file), or Aras, where you can select freely from all customized
item types in the system.
Next, the attributes that are relevant for the exchange have to be chosen for every object.
In the case of a PLM system, the attributes are defined in the system’s customization, but
there are typically a lot of “technical” attributes often not relevant for data exchange (e.g.:
who created the object, when was it created etc.). In the case of file formats such as
STEP, NX, CATIA, some pre-defined properties exist and others can be freely added.

We use the Representation Editor (see 3.2) to create representations and choose the ob-
jects they contain, and the Object Editor (see 3.3) to choose the attributes that are in
scope of the COMPDM process.

The next step is then to define a new import method that has (in our example) the CATIA
representation as its starting point and the Aras representation as the target for the data.
This is done using the Method Editor, which is described in chapter 4.
After having defined a sequence of representations, we need to define how the objects
and attributes have to be mapped from their source representation (CATIA based) to the
target representation (Aras based). This is done using the Mapping Editor (see section 4).
Once a sufficient level of completeness is reached for the mapping definition, the method
becomes “executable”. This means in our case that the “Import…” button will become se-
lectable and we can start a COMPDM process that uses the method to import actual CAT-
IA data to Aras.

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3.2 Representation Editor Window

The Representation Editor is used to add, rename or delete representations and to man-
age the objects contained in them. It is organized into two sides:

Figure 19: Representation Editor Window

The left side has a list of all currently defined representations and contains buttons to re-
name, delete, clone (make a copy) and create new representations. There is one “New
repr” button for every module that is licensed. The picture above shows a configuration
where all supported modules are available; typically, in your installation, you will have
fewer buttons. Refer to 3.4 for details about creating representations for the different
modules
The right side shows the objects contained in the currently selected representation. The
right-hand buttons are used to edit the currently selected object, and to add or remove
objects to the current representation. Whether or not it is possible to add a certain class of
objects to the current representation depends on the module and the objects that are al-
ready contained in the representation.

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Use the Edit… button to launch the Object Editor window for the current object (see next
sub-section).
At the lower right-hand side, the “Template…” button allows to access the Template Man-
ager Window, which is described in section 3.5.

3.3 Object Editor Window

The Object Editor window is used to edit the attributes of an object. A lot of the processing
logic will later depend on the properties defined for these attributes.

Figure 20: Object Editor Window

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3.3.1 Attribute table
The attributes are shown in tabular form. The order of the rows will be the order of col-
umns for the Process Monitor window/view and Part Search dialog (see User’s Manuals).
Use drag & drop on the rows to reorder the attributes at your convenience. Click into table
cells to modify the properties of an attribute when applicable.

Attributes are characterized by a number of properties described further below. The de-
gree of freedom to set these properties differs from case to case. If the attribute belongs
to an object that is taken from a PLM system customization, many properties are directly
derived from the PLM system and cannot be changed. In other cases, attributes are com-
pletely user defined (e.g. additional CATIA properties) and properties can be freely modi-
fied.

The following properties make up an object attribute:

• Name: name of the attribute which has to be unique for the object.

• Name (Label), Name (internal): In the case of an object from a

Teamcenter or Aras based representation, attributes have a technical, in-
ternal name and a more user friendly, verbose name that is used in the PLM sys-
tem client GUI. COMPDM either shows the “user friendly” Label for the attribute
and shows the internal name in a mouse over information if it is different, or uses
the internal, technical name while showing the GUI label in a mouse over when it
is different. You can toggle between these two representations by clicking the “ex-
change” symbol in the column header. Note that in all other client GUI elements,
e.g. Process Monitor window/view, Mapping Editor window, Search Part dialog,
COMPDM will always use the label to refer to the attribute, whereas for custom
JAVA code, the internal name is relevant (see volume 05: “Extended Customiza-
tion using JAVA”).

• Key: Indicates if the attribute is a key attribute or a version attribute. Key attributes
are critical for reconciliation19 (i.e. how to find a matching object in the PLM system
when importing external data), version attributes are important to find out whether
an object has to be revised (versioned) or its import is denied because a newer
version already exists in the PLM system.

• Type: The type of the attribute. COMPDM supports the following types represent-
ed in the table by the corresponding symbols: String, Integer, Double (= floating
point number), Boolean (= yes or no decision), Timestamp, Position (transfor-
mation matrix), and Effectivity (condition under which the object is to be included in
a product variant)

19 In particular it is recommended to have a key (or uniqueness) attribute defined for Instance type
objects. If this is not the case, all existing product structures will be rebuilt during an import, as
COMPDM has no criterion to determine whether the position of an instance has changed. Having a
key or uniqueness attribute defined on the Instance can thus considerably speed up the update of
existing product structures
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 • Length: Only for string type attributes, an optional restriction of the length of the
value. Longer values will be truncated automatically with a warning

• Case: Only for string type attributes, the string can be defined to be mixed case
(=empty), upper case, lower case, or to have one of the defined template formats.

Refer to section 3.5 for details about templates.

For upper/lower case attributes, values will be converted accordingly, and value
comparisons behave accordingly

• Trim: Only for string type attributes, you may specify that leading and/or trailing
whitespace characters are removed automatically from values that get mapped to
the attribute. A whitespace character is any character with an ASCII code equal to
or lower than 32, which includes space, tab, and line wraps20.

• Auto: Indicates that the value of the attribute may be (Teamcenter) or will be
(Aras) generated automatically by the PLM system when an object instance is cre-
ated. In the case of Teamcenter, this is used for a part’s “item_id” attribute or a
dataset’s “_conversion_service” pseudo attribute (see 3.4.2). In the case of
Aras, it is used for any attribute that is defined on the basis of a “sequence”

• Unique: You may define local (L) or global (G) uniqueness constraints on values,
which will be checked during processing. Local uniqueness is in respect to the
owning part object (e.g. for some document attributes that have to be unique
among all documents belonging to the same part)

• Must: If set, a value for the property is required

• Built-In: Indicates a built-in attribute (as opposed to user defined)

• Editable: Indicates whether the type of the property can be changed

• Visibility: You can set an attribute to invisible, which will remove it from the Pro-
cess Monitor Window and Part Search Dialog. Nevertheless, it will be processed
and mapped just like any other attribute.

20 In the case of Teamcenter, the system automatically removes spaces at the end from all string
type attribute values. This is reflected in that a trim at the end is pre-configured. In this case, you
can only choose to remove leading spaces as well, or not.
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 • ReadOnly: Indicates that the property cannot be written to. This should not be
used in combination with the Must or Key/Version flags for target representations

• Project: This is used in conjunction with the TRUfusion Enterprise integration for
scenarios where the PLM system stores information about the TFE processing en-
vironment for some data. Exactly one attribute for an object can have the Project
flag set. It will then drive the selection of TFE processes in the Search Part Dialog
(for data exports), based on the value found in the selected root part

• Additional information: Currently used for reference data analysis, see

3.4.5/3.4.6, and classification of user defined STEP properties (see 3.4.4 and vol-
ume 04: “Advanced Customization”, section 5)

3.3.2 Managing attributes

The following buttons are available to add and remove attributes

This button is only selectable for representations where properties can

be added to the objects, i.e. not for PLM module-based representa-
tions. Allows adding a new user defined attribute.

Import attributes from the module, e.g. from the PLM system customiza-
tion or from the built-in list of supported STEP properties. Not available
for all modules. The attribute properties are set accordingly.

Select object of same kind (e.g. Part = Part etc.), then select attributes
defined at other part object for copying over. If the local representation
does not permit free definition of new attributes, copies only those
where the name matches an attribute from the customization21.

Opens a dialog where you can choose one or several attributes to be

removed from the object definition.

21 This feature facilitates the definition of exchange processes e.g. where you want to export CAD
data and include some PLM system properties as CAD user defined properties so that the receiver
can work with the information. Another use case is when you want to use several objects of the
same kind for some PLM system, which have very similar attributes, e.g. due to inheritance mech-
anisms in the system.
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3.3.3 Managing extensions

An extension represents additional information for some object, in particular for a part or a
document. This kind of object is used for data which is not always present (otherwise the
extension’s attributes could be stored with the object itself), or which may even be present
multiple times for the same part.
Extensions are supported in PLM system based representations and in STEP based
representations. Details are laid out in section 3.4.
If an extension is available for a part or document, the “Add extension…” button becomes
selectable. When clicking on it, you may pick one or more extension object types.

Figure 21: Example of adding Extension for a Part Object

Notice the “VIRTUAL Extension” choice above. It is explained in the next sub-section,
3.3.4.
The Object Editor Window will be closed after adding one or more extensions.
In the Representation Editor’s object list, the part or document will then be shown with an
additional extension symbol to indicate that an extension is used with the object:

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 Figure 22: Extended Object in Object List: "Part"

When an object with extension is opened in the Object Editor window, separate tabs will
be shown which allow to administer either the object’s attributes, or the extension’s
attributes, in the usual manner.

Figure 23: Managing Extension Attributes in the Object Editor

In the tabs for extensions, you will notice some additional elements near the bottom which
play a role in data mapping:

Figure 24: Elements for controlling Extension Cardinality

If the cardinality is set to “0 or 1” it means that at most one instance of the extension ob-
ject can be present with its parent object. This simplifies any data mapping operation con-
siderably as the extension’s attributes can be treated like optional attributes of the parent
object (see section 4). This is the default for Teamcenter based representations.
If the cardinality is set to “Any”, it means that for an extension type, any number of in-
stances can be present at the parent type.
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When several instances of the extension are present, the mapping method will either pre-
serve this condition by creating e.g. the same number of extensions at the target object or
converting the extension to some kind of link to another object, or it will concatenate the
values using the “Separator” character (right-hand) and store them in a string type target
attribute. This is a simple approach to e.g. map multiple extensions to CATIA or NX repre-
sentations (which do not support extension objects). Refer to section 4 for more details.

To get rid of an extension, select the parent object in the Representation Editor and use
the “Delete object” button. A dialog appears which allows selecting either the parent object
with all extensions (provided that the parent object may be deleted), or only one specific
extension object.

Figure 25: Delete Extension Example

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3.3.4 VIRTUAL Extensions

For PLM system based part or document types, you may add a virtual extension. It allows
to administer additional information for an object outside the PLM system. Instead, data
is stored persistently in COMPDM’s built-in “Cache module”. This allows to keep
information that is purely data exchange related outside the PLM system. On import,
virtual extensions are created just like normal extensions, only that the data is not
persistent in the PLM system. On export, any information in virtual extensions for an
exported object is added.
Once added, the “New attribute” or “Copy attribute” buttons may be used to add attributes
to the virtual extension. You may use the “Cardinality” of the virtual extension as usual. If
cardinality “Any” is used, at least one key attribute should be defined for the virtual
extension to allow COMPDM to cleanup obsolete records.
For virtual extensions, the following applies:
• If attributes of the virtual extension are modified (add, delete, change of type,
change of key property, string length or string case), all entries for PLM system ob-
jects are discarded (the administrator will be prompted for this).

• Persisted information is only available for mapping methods using this representa-
tion. If another representation for the same PLM system makes use of the same
PLM system object, and a virtual extension is defined for it, the information there is
managed independently.

• If a part’s virtual extension has a key attribute, the virtual extension is used in part
reconciliation (i.e. to find out whether an incoming part already exists in the PLM
system): If the part’s key attributes do not match in the PLM system, it gets
checked whether a virtual extension record matches where the corresponding ob-
ject in the PLM system still exists. If yes, the object is used and its key attributes
overwrite the incoming object’s. This feature can e.g. be used to map between ex-
ternal and internal part numbers: The virtual extension stores the external (cus-
tomer) part number as a key attribute, the incoming part number is e.g. mapped to
“Auto” (Teamcenter feature: generate a new part number) ➔ as a result, if a part
was never imported before, a new part number will be generated, if it was previ-
ously imported, the number generated last time will be re-used.

• Direct access to the information stored in virtual extensions (query etc.) is not pos-
sible. The data can only be accessed indirectly by exporting the relating parts or
documents from the PLM system, or by using custom JAVA code.

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3.3.5 Code buttons (left side)

The buttons labelled “Edit prepare”, “Edit checks”, “Edit retrieval”, “Edit match”, “Edit
revise”, “Edit written”, and “Edit compare” are used to define JAVA based, custom
methods to fetch additional information for an object instance, to check consistency of it,
to reconciliate it, to update it from a matching instance in the PLM system, to calculate the
next revision of it, to perform actions after the object was written to the PLM system, and
to compare it with another instance. These are used to override the built-in default
behaviour of COMPDM for advanced business logic. These functionalities are described
in volume 05 of the COMPDM documentation: “Extended Customization with JAVA”.

A code button just showing the JAVA icon signifies that no custom code
is currently associated with the corresponding functionality.

The code button will show a green check mark if custom JAVA code is
associated with the corresponding functionality.

The code button will show a warning sign if there is custom JAVA code
associated which has compile errors (rendering the representation
unusable)

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3.4 Module specifics

3.4.1 Aras module

COMPDM offers several options for creating a new Aras representation22:

Figure 26: Creating a new Aras Representation

• Empty: Create a representation from scratch. Initially no items are contained.

• Part structure: Create a representation containing the items

typically used when Aras is storing CAD data using “part
structures”. Of course, this initial choice can be freely modi-
fied

• CAD structure: Create a representation containing the

items typically used when Aras is storing CAD data using
“CAD Structures”. Whether the “CAD Instance” item type
is used depends on the Aras version and customization
(in the example to the right, it is not present).

• From PDM Workbench configuration: This option is only available if COMPDM

detects an installation of the T-Systems Aras-CAD integration “PDM Workbench”.
When choosing this option, COMPDM will create a representation that matches
the Aras items and properties configured in the PDM workbench.

22 In case you are using COMPDM with several differently customized Aras systems, make sure to
be connected to the one your data exchange method shall be used with, when starting to create a
new Aras representation, so that the proper Aras item types and properties are available
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Representation objects of COMPDM as described in 3.1 can be chosen from the following
Aras items:

Kind Symbol Description

Part Nearly any item type which is not a relationship type
Any relationship where both source and related items are
Assembly selected as “Part”. This also includes properties that directly
reference an item type that is included as a “Part”23
Any null relationship24 where source item type is selected as
Instance
“Assembly”
Any item that can reference a File directly (as a property) or
via a relationship, and where a relationship to one of the se-
Document
lected “Part” objects is present (where the part is the source
item)
Any null relationship where source item type is selected as
Extension
“Part” or “Document”

Table 5: COMPDM Object Correspondence to Aras Items

When adding objects to the representation, first the parts should be added using the “Add
part” button. COMPDM will offer you (nearly) all (non-relationship) item types and you can
choose one or several items which you want to play the role of the part in the exchange.

You can see part of the choice dialog in the figure to the
right; typically, there are many items to choose from.

Notice that some item names are printed in bold face.

These are items that possess at least one property of type
“File”, i.e. they can directly reference a file (example: CAD).
If you choose such an item as a part, COMPDM will auto-
matically also add a Document object with the name “(dual
instance)”. See examples on the previous page. It is needed
in case you wish to load or store the referenced file, as in

23 For example, if you include “Part” and “User” as part types, you
can create an Assembly relationship named “Part~~created_by_id”
The advantage is that the “User” object (who created an exported
part) is automatically included in the export – with all its properties
24 Aras uses different terms for relationship types, which have a parent object, but no child item
associated. “Null relationships” and “non-related RelationshipTypes” are used. In this and other
COMPDM documents the first term is commonly used.
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COMPDM’s world, only Documents can carry files. In case you’re not interested in the File
property, you can simply delete the “(dual instance)”-Document object.

After having chosen the parts, add the Assembly objects. COMPDM will let you choose
among all relationship types in your Aras customization where both the source and the
related item is one of the selected part items.

Building on top of this, the instance objects can be chosen. This time only “null relation-
ships” relating to any of the chosen Assembly relationship types can be selected25.

Finally, when using “Add document…”, COMPDM will offer all item types that can be
linked with a relationship to one of the selected part item types and can reference a File
object either directly (property) or via a relationship type.

When you edit any of the objects created, you will find only Aras “key” attributes to be in-
cluded initially (in addition, “major_rev” for parts). Use the Object Editor’s “Use attribute…”
button to add more properties from the customization. Since you are bound to the Aras
customization, it is not possible to use the “New attribute” button here.

Attributes that are defined on the basis of a sequence in Aras will receive the “Auto” prop-
erty (see 3.3.1).
Special considerations:

• If you want to control the life cycle of an item, e.g. have a data import promote an
item to a specific state, include the “state” standard property
• If you want to control the locked/unlocked status of an item after import, add the
“locked_by_id” property. Your mapping should then either set it to “null” if you want
the item to be unlocked after the import or to the name of the Aras user if you want
to have it locked. A clever way to do the latter is to use a mapping that sets the
“locked_by_id” to the value of the “Aras user name” setting (refer to chapter 4). If
you don’t control the lock state, the result will depend on the actions that were ac-
tually performed and may not always be the same.
• Make sure that “Instance” objects have a transformation property included. The
name of the attribute depends on the CAD integration used.

25 In case there is no null relation type referring a selected Assembly relation type, it is assumed
that the Assembly relation type plays the role of the Instance as well, i.e. if a component is used
twice there have to be two instances of the Assembly relation type that link parent and component.
An example is an Aras system using „CAD Structure“, but having no „CAD Instance“. In such cas-
es, an extra Instance with the label „(dual instance)“ is created for the Assembly. See previous
page, „CAD Structure“ screenshot
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 • When editing document objects, in the object editor’s “Use attribute…” dialog
some property names might be shown in bold face. These are properties of type
“File”, i.e. which induce a direct relationship to a file. If you include one of them, the
file belonging to the Document will be stored in this property (or retrieved from this
property, respectively). In this case, the included attribute itself does not need to
receive a value in an import mapping. If you include none of them, a relationship
type which relates to a “File” is used. Do not include more than one of them as this
would lead to arbitrary results.
• For import of several files via direct property reference for one item in a single im-
port step, for example “native_file” and “viewable_file” for a CAD, include all the
properties and map the corresponding file names to them. In this case you need to
ensure that the files are actually present before import.
• For multi-vault Aras installations, you can include the pseudo attribute “_vault” for
document objects and specify the name of the target vault for imports.
• Preview images of CATIA or NX files can be imported as thumbnails by including
the corresponding “thumbnail” attribute for the part or document object. In the case
of a part object, the thumbnail is only imported if exactly one of the part’s docu-
ments carries a file containing a preview image.
• The pseudo attribute “_lifecycle” can be used to set the lifecycle state of a part or
document on import. COMPDM will perform the necessary promote/demote steps
from the object’s current / initial state to the given state. On export, the _lifecycle
attribute acts just as a synonym for the standard Aras property “state”.

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3.4.2 Teamcenter module

COMPDM offers two options for creating a new Teamcenter representation26:

Figure 27: Creating a new Teamcenter Representation

• Empty: Create a representation from scratch. Initially, only the “BOMLine” (Assembly)
and “PSOccurrence” (Instance) object types are contained.

• Typical: In addition to the “BOMLine” and “PSOccurrence” type, will add the “Item” as
a part object, and the major dataset types used for CATIA and/or NX handling, de-
pending on which CAD system(s) are used in the current COMPDM configuration.

Representation objects of COMPDM as described in 3.1 can be chosen from the following
Teamcenter objects:

26 All object and property definitions are directly fetched from the Teamcenter server. In case you
are using COMPDM with several differently customized Teamcenter systems, make sure to be
connected to the one your data exchange method shall be used with, when starting to create a new
Teamcenter representation, so that the proper Teamcenter item and dataset types with their prop-
erties are available
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Kind Symbol Description
Part Item+ItemRevision or any subtype of these
Assembly BOMLine, you can add other relation types
Fixed, PSOccurrence (other relation types selectable
Instance
for Assembly relation have no instances)
Document Any Dataset type
Extension Forms or Alternate Identifiers

Table 6: COMPDM Object Correspondence to Teamcenter Objects

Any Item and Revision subclass pair (including “Item” and “ItemRevision” themselves) that
is customized in the connected Teamcenter server can be selected to play the role of a
“Part” in COMPDM27. The Teamcenter module will combine the properties of the two ob-
jects into a single object in the user interface. The COMPDM part object will have the
name of the “Item” object selected.

Figure 28: Property Selection for Item/Revision Teamcenter Objects

27 In fact, this applies only to Item types which can be directly created from the Teamcenter client
GUI. Be aware that the credentials used for login may have an influence on the visibility/availability
of Item types
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When selecting a part’s attributes from the Teamcenter customization using the “Use at-
tribute…” button, some specific elements are present in the dialog:
• Properties from the Item itself and from the Revision are shown in different “Tabs”
of the “Select Attribute” dialog

• Many properties are available whose value can be exported, but not overwritten on
import. These are shown in italic writing. When used, they will automatically re-
ceive the “ReadOnly” flag and it cannot be changed in the Object Editor.

• The “Auto” property is available for the Item’s ID (item_id) attribute. It is possible
to specify an explicit value for this attribute in a mapping and thus override the au-
tomatic generation of a new item ID.

• Properties which are based on “List of Values” (i.e. an enumeration of valid values)
have the additional entry “values restricted” in their “Additional description” column.
If you activate COMPDM’s “Check attribute values against LOV” setting
(Teamcenter tab), COMPDM will automatically check values against the list before
an import to Teamcenter is attempted, and issue appropriate error messages in
case of invalid values.

• Properties which are internally references to other Teamcenter objects may be in-
cluded. Their type is shown as “String”, and in the “Additional description” column,
you’ll find the entry “object reference”.
To write such properties in an import there are two alternatives.

(1) if the Teamcenter setting “Check attribute values against LOV” is set, and
the property is based upon a “List of Values” in Teamcenter, COMPDM will
create a reference to the object specified by the value (like in the Teamcenter
client).

(2) Otherwise, the value can be provided in the form

“#<Business Object Type Name>{#<property=value>}[#<object_name>”].
COMPDM will perform a search for the specified object and create the reference
upon success

(3) You may also directly provide the Teamcenter UID of the target object, pre-
pended by two hash signs “##”

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In some cases, attributes of the item and the item revision type have the same name. In
case you select both of them for the COMPDM part, the “source Teamcenter object” will
be appended with an at-sign (@) to the property name, see the examples below where
both “Description”s have been picked:

Figure 29: Teamcenter Part Attributes made unique with a Suffiix

Note that internally, the “@”+object type name is used regardless of whether the property
name is ambiguous or not. This will be visible in some situations, e.g. trace output, source
value mapping, and has to be taken into consideration when writing custom JAVA code,
as described in the “Extended Customization” manual.
You can pick any of the customized dataset types for a COMPDM document.
Both Revision objects and Dataset object types have a pseudo property named
_release_status which can be used to read and write the (latest) ReleaseStatus of the
object.
You may set the standard properties owning_project, owning_group and/or own-
ing_user for imported objects. Note that the owning_group will only be set if the own-
ing_user is set likewise.
Item and Revision object have a pseudo property named _workflow which, when as-
signed a value during import, will cause COMPDM to start the named workflow with the
imported object.
For Dataset object types (Document), COMPDM will automatically determine a suitable
Teamcenter relation type to assign the object to its item revision. However, you can ex-
plicitly control the relation type by adding the pseudo attribute _item_rev_relation
and setting it (in a mapping definition) to the name of the relation to be created.
Specifically, for the dataset (document) object types UGPART, UGMASTER, CATPart,
CATProduct, and CATDrawing, the pseudo attribute _preview can be included. If pre-
sent, COMPDM will check incoming NX or CATIA files for embedded preview images, and
will import them as preview images to Teamcenter (additional “named references” of the
target datasets).
Furthermore, you may make COMPDM trigger conversion services for imported files by
incorporating the pseudo attribute _conversion_service into the document object
definition. This attribute has to receive all necessary parameters for the conversion ser-
vice in a string of the form
PROVIDER:SERVICE:TYPE:PRIORITY[:FILE]{:KEY=VALUE}

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You can find the necessary values for PROVIDER, SERVICE, TYPE, but also for the
remaining parameters, from the “Administrator Console” in Teamcenter’s “Translation”
menu by investigating a conversion job that was started interactively.
PRIORITY: 0=none, 1=low, 2=medium, …
FILE: name of File parameter (optional). If present, COMPDM will use the uploaded file
KEY=VALUE: optional key/value pairs. These parameters might be required by some con-
version services of Teamcenter. You may use the variable {{IOID}} for the item’s
Teamcenter UID and {{ROID}} for the item revision’s Teamcenter UID inside the VALUE
part
Example of a _conversion_service value that starts the CATIA to JT conversion ser-
vice after uploading a CATPart to Teamcenter:
SIEMENS:catiav5tojtdirect:TRANSLATION:2
Example of a _conversion_service value that starts the NX to JT conversion service
after uploading an NX “prt” file to Teamcenter (UGMASTER):
SIEMENS:nxtopvdirect:TRANSLATION:1
For CATIA or NX related datasets, you may use the “Auto” mapping alternative in the
Mapping Editor (see 4.2.1) to use the standard conversion services as shown in the two
examples above.

The “BOMLine” is COMPDM’s counterpart for Teamcenter’s BOMView/BOMView Revi-

sion objects. Please be aware that this is not an exact correspondence, as COMPDM has
one BOMLine object for every combination of parent and component, whereas a
BOMView comprises all components (i.e. the whole BOM). During import this can lead to
arbitrary results for attributes with different values.
Use the Object Editor to include BOMView / BOMView Revision properties. In addition,
the BOMLine features an optional pseudo attribute _precise which may be set to
“false” on a data import to have structures created as imprecise. If _precise is unused,
unspecified or set to “true”, a precise assembly structure will be created.
Furthermore, the pseudo attribute _view_type can be included to specify a custom
BOMView type to use instead of the standard.
In the case of the “PSOccurrence”, use the pseudo attribute _transform to read and
write the positioning of the instance.

It is possible to use a custom relationship between Item Revision and Form. To control
this, include the pseudo attribute _parent_relation with the form and write the name
of the relationship to it during the mapping. For data export, use the Teamcenter setting
“Item-Form relation types” to provide the names of additional relations that shall be
searched on data export.
For Alternate Identifiers (which are available as “Extensions” for part objects, just like
Forms), the pseudo attribute _id_context has to be included to specify the ID Context’s
name to use for the identifier. You may also include the pseudo attribute _for_item for
an identifier that should be assigned to the item only (not to the revision). By default, the
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alternate identifier is created for item and revision, and it should contain an attribute
marked as “key” and one marked as “version”.
Teamcenter forms can be related to datasets as “named references” instead of the usual
relation type (“IMAN_specification”). A popular example for this is the “cat-
ia_doc_attributes” form of Teamcenter’s CATIA integration, “tcic”.
If you include the pseudo attribute _as_named_reference with the form, COMPDM will
relate the form accordingly on import, or find the form during export.
The setting “Import under ‘Newstuff’ folder” can be used to specify that imported parts
shall be found in the user’s Newstuff folder (either all or only the root parts of a structure),
or that they shall not appear in the Newstuff folder. Alternatively, the default behavior of
Teamcenter can be chosen (implementation dependent).
You can also include the pseudo attribute _folder for items and map the name of a tar-
get folder to it. If this is used and the folder is present in Teamcenter, the imported item
will appear under the folder. This also takes precedence over the “Import under
‘Newstuff’ folder” setting.
Note that as opposed to the situation with the properties, where you can switch
COMPDM’s Object Editor to show either the internal (technical) name or the user interface
label, the names of the Item, Dataset and Form types are always the internal (technical)
ones. Since it is common practice that the Teamcenter objects have different names in the
user interface, it sometimes turns out to be difficult to determine the proper objects to
choose. Check the Console Window, when a Teamcenter server is contacted for the first
time after COMPDM server startup, COMPDM dumps an alphabetic list of all object
names with their internal names to the console traces.

NX Data Handling

CAD file packages in the NX format typically contain references among the individual files,
e.g. for assemblies or drawings. Normally, when NX data is stored to Teamcenter in the
“Managed Mode”, these references will become database links (references to Teamcenter
objects), whereas when NX data is exchanged as a collection of files, these references
will specify the target file name.
If a file package is imported directly by COMPDM, the file-based links are not changed.
When you open the assembly in NX from within Teamcenter, Teamcenter’s NX integration
will automatically change the file references to database links. Other scenarios, e.g. direct
export from Teamcenter using Teamcenter’s ug_clone utility, will not work this way.
There can also be cases where so-called “Reference sets” in the NX data get lost.
When you export an NX assembly that resides in Teamcenter (having database links),
using COMPDM’s NX module as the target representation, the links will be deleted and
re-created as file-based links, which can have disadvantages likewise.

These issues can be overcome if the NX module is licensed together with the Teamcenter
module.

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On export, it is possible to patch the NX internal links, instead of deleting/recreating them.
This is described in section 3.4.9 under “Exporting database links from Teamcenter”.

On import, you can optionally configure an additional processing step which converts the
file-based links to database references using Teamcenter/NX native utilities. Be aware
that the import to Teamcenter will take significantly more time in this case
(+150%...+800%).

The relevant settings can be found in the Settings Editor’s “Expert mode” on the white
Teamcenter tab:

• Use NX-TC utility: If checked, update of the NX internal links after import to
Teamcenter is activated
• Teamcenter FMS_HOME value: COMPDM runs the ugin_import.exe tool of
the NX installation (as configured in COMPDM’s NX settings) which requires the
FCC process for importing files to Teamcenter. The FMS_HOME environment vari-
able must be set for this (typically, to the “tccs” sub-directory of the Teamcenter
client installation)
• Teamcenter JRE_HOME value: Here, you need to configure the JAVA runtime
environment to be used for the Teamcenter related utilities (COMPDM’s own JAVA
runtime environment cannot be used for this purpose due to much newer language
level)
As a prerequisite for running the ugin_import.exe tool which converts the NX inter-
nal references, all NX files need to have the information about the Teamcenter Item revi-
sion where the files are attached to, by storing Item ID and Revision ID in NX properties.
• The setting Use standard properties for NX-TC utility controls which properties
are used for this purpose. If set, COMPDM will use the properties DB_PART_NO
and DB_PART_REV (standard convention). In case these properties are needed
to have different values for some reason, deactivate this setting to make
COMPDM use the properties COMPDM_TC_ID and COMPDM_TC_REV instead.
Before running ugin_import.exe, COMPDM will set these properties on all NX prt
files where they are not yet set according to the target Item Revision. This preparation
step contributes significantly to the processing time. It is therefore recommended to avoid
it by adding the relevant properties (DB_PART_NO/DB_PART_REV or
COMPDM_TC_ID/COMPDM_TC_REV) to the NX representation, and to set them using
an intermediate NX based representation. Even if your import method did not have an
intermediate NX representation before, it pays off due to better performance of the NX
module in comparison with standard NX utilities to set the properties.

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3.4.3 VPM V4 module

Representation objects of COMPDM as described in 3.1 can be chosen from the following
VPM tables:

Kind Symbol Description

Part Any PART_LIST table
CATASS for normal product structure links
Assembly
Multi-model links (see below)
Fixed, CATASS (dual instance), corresponds to a
Instance $EXT entry (with $TYPE=’CATASS’). For multi-model
links, no Instance object is available.
CATIA-V4 (=CATIA_MODEL), any table from part’s
Document
environment whose name starts with “DOC”
Extension Feature table28 (name starts with “FEAT”29)

Table 7: COMPDM Object Correspondence to VPM Tables

When creating a new VPM representation, COMPDM will include an Assembly object la-
beled “CATASS” and an Instance object labeled “CATASS (dual instance)”, which togeth-
er represent an instance of a part from one of the $EXT tables.
Other objects, i.e. parts and documents, will receive a name which consists of the VPM
environment name, a dot, and an identifier of the corresponding table. For parts, it is
“PART” (internal table name of VPM: PART_LIST), for CATIA V4 models, it is “CATIA-V4”
(internal table name of VPM: CATIA_MODEL), for other documents, it is the name of the
document table (COMPDM supports all tables whose names start with “DOC”).
In VPM, document types are always bound to a specific VPM environment. When you
include parts from several environments and documents with these parts, the COMPDM
data model will not directly reflect these restrictions. However, the “Target choice…”
mechanisms for document mappings (see 4.2) in this case will only allow to choose
among the document types from the part’s environment, and if only one document type is
available in the representation for a particular VPM environment, the target chooser will
not be executed even in case other document objects from other VPM environments are
included.

28 COMPDM will analyze the contents of any feature tables it finds to find out which table the fea-
ture relates to. As a consequence, empty feature tables will not be available to use as extensions.
29 The setting “Additional extension tables” can be used to specify further extension tables with
arbitrary names, which need to have a $COID column that refers to extended parts, or $COID and
$COMPID if it refers to extended documents
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VPM can manage “Multi-model links”, i.e. CATIA internal references between geometrical
(or other) elements inside the CAD files. COMPDM can retrieve this information and map
it to additional “Assembly” relations between the parts that carry the CAD documents. This
allows to identify and retrieve all parts / CAD files that are in a reference relation. Note
however that when extracting the CATIA files, the contained links will be broken and need
to be repaired manually.
Use the Object Editor’s “Add Assembly…” button for a list of available multi-model link
types.

• All $EXT entries for any of the environments where part objects are select from,
and whose $TYPE starts with the String “CATMM”, are offered as additional assem-
bly objects. The naming will be “MML.<Name>” for $TYPE = “CATMM<Name>”

• If you have custom tables for managing additional multi-model links, you may de-
fine them in the settings under “Additional MML table”. Here, such custom tables
can be specified in the form “<Name>:<Table>:<RefTable>:<RefCoid>”,
with
<Name>: Name the assembly object shall have. “MM.“ will be prefixed
<Table>: Table name (with environment)
<RefTable>: Name of the table column that carries the table of the referenced
object
<RefCoid>: Name of the table column that carries the $COID of the referenced
part / document

If the VPM installation is using check-in / check-out of parts, the setting “Automatic check-
out” can be used to automatically check out parts before updating them30. The setting “Au-
tomatic check-in” can be used to ensure that all parts are checked in after an import, re-
gardless of whether they were checked in or checked out before.
The setting “Failsafe maturity” may be configured to the name of a maturity state which
allows to update parts or documents; if used, COMPDM will temporarily change the ma-
turity state of objects before updating them.

For data exports from VPM, a “PSN graph file” (structure view file saved from VPM’s cli-
ent) can be used to specify the product structure to export. This is used for batch-type
invocations of the COMPDM client (see 2.9.1). The –export command-line option is
used with the syntax “—export=<Method name>&<PSN file name>”, for example:

client.bat –user=admin –password=123456 –profile=default

–export=MyExport&C:\tmp\graph.psn

30 The setting “Automatic check-out C_ORG_RESP values” may be used in addition to restrict au-
tomatic check-out to parts whose C_ORG_RESPONSIBLE value is in the list provided here
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3.4.4 EnoviaV6 module

COMPDM offers two options for creating a new EnoviaV6 representation31:

Figure 30: Creating a new EnoviaV6 Representation

• Empty: Create a representation from scratch.

Typical: A representation that initially contains Part, EBOM, EBOM (dual instance),
plus CATIA or NX related document types if applicable (licensed) and present.

Representation objects of COMPDM as described in 3.1 can be chosen from the following
Enovia objects:

Kind Symbol Description

Part Any sub-class of “Part”
Assembly Relation between any of the selected parts
As Enovia does not use the relation/instance model
Instance internally, but rather creates relations as often as re-
quired, this object is always a “(dual instance)”
Any sub-class of “Document” or “*PLMEntity”32 which
Document
can be related to a part
Any object that can be related and is neither a “Part”
Extension
nor a “Document”

Table 8: COMPDM Object Correspondence to EnoviaV6 Objects

31 All object and property definitions are directly fetched from the EnoviaV6 server. In case you are
using COMPDM with several differently customized EnoviaV6 systems, make sure to be connected
to the one your data exchange method shall be used with, when starting to create a new EnoviaV6
representation, so that the proper EnoviaV6 objects and relations with their properties are available
32 Object types ending with “PLMEntity”: different versions of Enovia use different prefixes
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Revise
If an object gets revised, any checked-in files are included in the new revision, unless a
new file is imported with the new revision.
CAD Structure
In Enovia, it is common practice to have BOM and CAD structures in parallel. This is re-
flected by COMPDM’s EnoviaV6 module by a special semantics of the EBOM / EBOM
(dual instance) relationship: It represents also the “CAD SubComponent” relation if neces-
sary. This means that the available attributes are in fact the sum of Enovia’s EBOM and
CAD SubComponent relations. On export, if the related parts of an EBOM relation carry
documents, which are related by “CAD SubComponent” relations, these relations are
added (merged) with the EBOM relations. This requires a synchronized structure in Eno-
viaV6.
On import, the “Synchronize structure” setting for the EnoviaV6 module allows to control
whether only EBOM relations, or both EBOM and CAD SubComponent relations are cre-
ated or updated for a COMPDM relation object.

Figure 31: EnoviaV6 Structure Import Options

Uploading files
Files are checked into the default format. When checking in, version objects (minor ob-
jects) are created.
If the document type is “Common Document Model”, a version object is created with the
version policy and linked to the document (major object) with the two relations “Latest
Version” and “Active Version”. The file gets checked in to the major object (document), the
minor object receives the file name as its title.
If the document type is “MCAD” (CAD data), the minor object is linked to the major object
with the relation “VersionOf” in addition, and the file gets checked into the minor object.
Promote
To read or write the state of an object, use the EnoviaV6 attribute “current”.
You may also use the “value list” compact representation of multiple relation instances by
concatenating the attribute values using a “|” character.
Policy
When creating an object, a policy has to be provided. This can be done explicitly by in-
cluding the attribute “policy” for the object type and setting its value in the mapping.
If no value is provided, COMDPM will use the first valid policy for the object type, in the
case of “Part”, it will use the policy “EC Part” if it is present in the EnoviaV6 customization.

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Relations
When objects must be related where the relation type to use is not specified explicitly,
COMPDM uses the first valid relation type that can relate the objects, with the following
exceptions:
If the EnoviaV6 customization contains the relation, COMPDM will use
• Part Specification to relate a document to a part,
• New Part / Part Revision to relate an ECO (extension) to a part
• New Specification / Specification Revision to relate an ECO (extension) to a docu-
ment
• Reference Document to relate other kinds of extensions with documents
• Associated Drawing to relate Drawing-type documents with other documents of the
same part

History

To export the complete history of an object,

include the read-only property “history” in
the attribute list. To export only the record
of events related to specific events (e.g.
approval, revise), include the corresponding
read-only properties (e.g.
“history_approve”, “history_revise”).

Viewable files
Viewable (lightweight) files contain a simplified representation of CAD data suitable for
previewing CAD documents. On export, COMPDM can retrieve these files in addition to
CAD documents present. You need to include their document object types in the repre-
sentation.
The viewable document types have a pseudo attribute _derived_from which carries the
file name of the document they are derived from. The CAD documents can have a pseudo
attribute _derived which contains a list of the file names of any viewable files that were
extracted in addition for an export.

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3.4.5 Windchill module
COMPDM’s Windchill module offers two modes for mapping the Windchill data model:
Standard and “document as part”. For both variants, a new representation can either be
created with no objects to start with, or with a “typical” selection of objects already includ-
ed as a starting point:

Figure 32: New Windchill Representation Alternatives

Windchill documents (all subtypes of wt.doc.WTDocument or wt.epm.EPMDocument) are

less restricted than documents in COMPDM, in particular, they can have zero or several
file attachments (COMPDM document: always exactly one), there can be relations to oth-
er documents (not representable in the COMPDM data model), and there are different
relation types possible to assign a document to part.
By selecting a Windchill representation that is based on one of the “document as part”
types, the Windchill module will map Windchill documents to and from COMPDM part ob-
jects, where all these restrictions do not apply.
Using the standard mapping, on the other hand, may simplify import and export mappings
for e.g. CATIA or NX significantly.

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Standard case: Windchill Document  COMPDM Document

Kind Symbol Description

Part wt.part.WTPart or its sub-class
Assembly Relations of type: wt.part.WTPartUsageLink
Windchill occurrence of type:
Instance
wt.part.PartUsesOccurrence
Any class or sub-class of “wt.doc.WTDocument” or
“wt.epm.EPMDocument” which is related to a part by
relations: "wt.part.WTPartDescribeLink",
"wt.part.WTPartReferenceLink",
"wt.epm.structure.EPMDescribeLink" or
"wt.epm.build.EPMBuildRule" and has an attachment
Document
of type: "wt.content.ApplicationData".
If the WC Document has multiple attachments,
COMPDM creates as many document instances
Also wt.viewmarkup.DerivedImage attached to
wt.part.WTPart can be exported
Extension Not supported

Table 9: COMPDM Object Correspondence to Windchill Objects for Standard Mapping

Document as Part case: Windchill Document  COMPDM Part

Kind Symbol Description

wt.part.WTPart, wt.doc.WTDocument ,
Part
wt.epm.EPMDocument or its sub-class
Relations of type: wt.part.WTPartUsageLink,
wt.part.WTPartDescribeLink,
Assembly wt.part.WTPartReferenceLink,
wt.epm.structure.EPMDescribeLink or
wt.epm.build.EPMBuildRule
Windchill occurrence of type:
Instance
wt.part.PartUsesOccurrence
“wt.content.ApplicationData" or
Document
wt.viewmarkup.DerivedImage
Extension Not supported

Table 10: COMPDM Object Correspondence to Windchill Objects for “Document as Part” Mapping

The relation type that is used to link WC parts to documents can be controlled with the
pseudo attribute _linkType

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Handling of Windchill reference types
Some Windchill object attributes are internally references to other objects. Examples for
such attributes are wt.inf.container.WTContainer, wt.folder.Folder,
wt.org.WTUser. When exporting such attributes, COMPDM will read the referenced
object and returns its human readable name.
In the import case, the values are looked up in target type. If the value is not found (e.g.
container or folder with the name does not exist), COMPDM will show the attribute as
empty. COMPDM will not create referenced objects for unknown values.

Check-Out and Check-In behavior

COMPDM will checkout all objects if needed for updating or for creating additional rela-
tions using the current user, provided that the object is not already checked out. After pro-
cessing, COMPDM will check in all objects that were checked out during processing.
Check-in and check-out will cause Windchill to increase the version iteration. This is nor-
mal behavior and cannot be affected.

Handling of version attributes

COMPDM treats version and version iteration as version relevant attributes.
The version iteration is not updated or changed by COMPDM, it is handled automatically
by Windchill. The version iteration can be used to check if some object was updated after
export; it cannot be easily imported.
COMPDM can update the Version attribute by creating new version but only in compli-
ance with the Windchill versioning schema. For example, version B cannot be revised to
A, but only to C.

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3.4.6 STEP module
In the Settings editor, you can enable the use of the STEP module. If enabled, you can
edit the file extensions that will be used in the file selector when searching for STEP input
files (this is a list of possible endings, separated by semicolons).
COMPDM offers four alternatives for the creation of a new STEP representation:

Figure 33: Creating a new STEP Representation

• Generic: Data will be mapped to and from STEP AP242. The file format is XML
based. There are many predefined standard attributes with their ISO10303-
conformant mappings included. You may add additional properties which are
mapped in a generic manner (see below).

• From reference data analysis: Allows selecting a STEP AP242 file for analysis.
COMPDM will create a STEP AP242 representation as in the “Generic” case, but
will add any user-defined properties found in the analyzed file to the representa-
tion. This facilitates the support for custom properties being sent with the STEP
data.

• Airbus convention: Data will be mapped to STEP AP214, “STEP physical file”
format (ISO 10303-21). The data model is fixed and matches the specifications
used by Airbus for supplier data exchange33.

• Daimler convention: Suitable for reading STEP AP214 files created by the
“Smaragd” PLM system used by Daimler AG. Note that this type of representations
is only intended for reading (import), not for writing STEP files in a Smaragd com-
patible manner.

33 There is a respectable ‚community‘ of supplier companies of Airbus which can import or export
this kind of files, therefore the decision was made to integrate it.
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When you create a “Generic” (i.e. AP242 based) STEP representa-
tion, the “Use attribute…” button can be used to include standard
properties into a representation. These are mapped semantically cor-
rect to and from the STEP format. You may use the “New attribute…”
button to add other attributes that are mapped as “Properties” to and from the STEP file.

Refer to section 5 of the “Advanced Customization” manual for details of the STEP AP242
implementation.

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3.4.7 File module

In the Settings editor, you can enable the use of the File module The File module allows to
import files without any structure information to a PLM system, for example, text docu-
ments. In addition, it supports a variety of more-or-less commonly used formats for de-
scribing meta information and structure.
There are four alternatives to choose from:

Figure 34: "File" Representation Alternatives

Single: The imported file is represented by a COMPDM part with a document. The only
available attribute is the file name, or parts of it. If several files are uploaded, an
instance of the “Part” object is created for each of them.

From CSV file (MS Excel) analysis: Lets you choose a “.csv” file as exported by e.g. MS
Excel. That’s a text file where each line contains values separated by commas or
semicolons; the first line contains the column headers.

Figure 35: Example of a CSV File

The created representation will only contain a part object named “Record”. Each column is
represented as an attribute.

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 Figure 36: "Record" Part

When using the CSV based file representation as the source of an import, a part instance
is created for every line in the input file34. When using the representation as the target of
an export, a CSV file is created which contains a line for every part (Record) instance.

From XML file (MS Excel) analysis: Lets you choose an XML file as exported by e.g.
MS Excel from the “Developer Tools” menu. COMPDM supports XML files where
all sheet rows are represented as elements under a common root node, each one
carrying the column values as its elements.

From PLMXML file analysis: Create a representation suitable for reading or writing
PLMXML files as used in the context of Siemens/Teamcenter products. Note that
Teamcenter can be configured for many different instantiations of the PLMXML
format; COMPDM supports the format use by the so-called “ConfiguredDataIm-
portDefault transfer mode”.

In the Settings Editor, you can enable or disable this module as a whole. When enabled,
you can specify the file extensions to be considered when using the file selection dialog at
the beginning of an import. Note that the configured list only filters files visible in the file
search dialog. It is not a filter for the files to process. Note further that it is recommended
to set the filter to “*.csv” in case of a CSV based file representation.

The value of the setting “Files to upload” controls the files that will be uploaded once a file
was selected for import. The possible values are:

• Direct: Only the selected file will be uploaded and processed

• Siblings: The selected file and all other files in the same directory will be pro-
cessed

34 To create a root part which collects all imported parts in the CSV file under a common node, use
the “Tag” feature as described in the “Advanced Customization” manual, section 2.1
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 • Children: The selected file, all other files in the same directory and all files in di-
rect sub-directories will be processed

• Subdirectories: The selected files, all other files in the same directory and all files
in any sub-directory below it (regardless of the depth) are processed.

Note that for the Children and Subdirectories alternatives, there is no handling for file
name collisions. That is, if two files in different directories have the same name, only one
of them will be processed and it will be picked at random. You have to ensure that such a
situation does not occur.

As with the CSV case, when importing more than one file for a “Single” file representation,
it might be useful to define a “Tag” instance in addition (see “Advanced Customization”,
section 2.1) to collect all files under a common node.

The File module may also be used in the TRUfusion Enterprise integration to attach TFE
send reports to exported parts in the PLM system.

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3.4.8 CATIA V5 module

COMPDM offers up to three alternatives for the creation of a new CATIA V5 representa-
tion:

Figure 37: Creating a new CATIA Representation

• Generic: A fixed set of COMPDM objects representing CATIA

CATProduct/CATPart structures, only some built-in properties are defined. New
properties can be added.

• From reference data analysis: When selecting this option, choose the root
(CATProduct) of a reference data package. The package will be uploaded to the
server and analyzed. The new representation will then include all user defined
properties that are used within the reference data set. Additional information about
typical values will be shown:

Figure 38: Reference Data Analysis Result Example

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 • From PDM workbench configuration: This option is only available in conjunction
with Aras. If T-Systems’ Aras-CAD integration, the PDM Workbench, is detected in
Aras, this option is available and when choosing it, the representation will contain
the CATIA properties that are configured in the PDM Workbench.

In any CATIA representation, the set of predefined COMPDM objects is fixed, with the
exception of optional additional objects for dealing with CGR files and non-CATIA files
(see below). Each CATPart or CATProduct will be represented as a “CATIAPart35” with
exactly one
“CATIADocument”.
Only the CATIAPart object can be customized by adding additional properties (i.e. CATIA
user defined properties). The standard properties of CATIA V5 are always included:

Figure 39: Standard CATIA V5 Properties

In the Settings Editor Window, you will find an option to configure the file extensions that
can be selected in the file selection dialog use to start a data import. By default, the ex-
tensions “CATProduct”, “CATPart” and “CATDrawing” are used.

Support for CGR files

CGR is CATIA’s proprietary format for a lightweight representation of geometry for visuali-
zation purposes. Normally, when you open any CAD geometry in CATIA, CATIA will au-
tomatically create a CGR file for it and store it in a specific location, the “CGR Cache” 36.
This processing takes some time. When the same geometry is opened again, CATIA will
check whether it has a corresponding, up-to-date CGR file in its cache, and will redo the
creation if not. This up-to-date check is based upon the file modification date, which be-
comes part of the generated CGR file’s file name37.
If CATIA is set up for CGR generation, all read operations of the CATIA module will implic-
itly trigger the creation of the CGRs likewise.

35 Note: “CATPart” is a possible file extension of CAD files from CATIA whereas “CATIAPart” is a
COMPDM object that represents a CATIA object.
36 See CATIA options, “Infrastructure / Product Structure / Cache Management”
37 For the following, COMPDM requires that the CATIA option “Infrastructure / Product
Structure / Cache Management / Timestamp / GMT timestamp format” is set
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COMPDM can be configured to retrieve the generated CGR file for handling within a data
exchange method. For example, it is possible to store it in Teamcenter, which means that
when opening the imported data from within Teamcenter’s CATIA integration (tcic) later,
CGR generation is no more necessary, hence the CATIA structure gets loaded much
faster.
For write operations, the timestamp that is part of the CGR’s file name can be adapted
consistently.
To use this feature, enter the location of the CGR Cache in the COMPDM setting “Path to
local CGR cache”. This path can be found in the CATIA options under “Infrastruc-
ture / Product Structure / Cache Management / Cache Location /Path
to the local Cache".

In the Representation Editor, add the document type “CGRDocument” to the CATIA based
representation. When reading CATIA data, the product structure will then contain the CGR
files in addition to the CATPart files and they can be handled normally, for example they
can be imported to a target system.
Note that in the case of Teamcenter, the standard dataset type for storing CGR files is
“CATCache”. If you include this type in a Teamcenter based representation and map the
CGRDocument to it, COMPDM will also create the required “catia_cache_link” rela-
tions as expected by the Teamcenter-CATIA integration, tcic.
Handling non-CATIA documents
It is possible to add the part type “Other” to a CATIA representation, which also adds a
document type named “Other (dual instance)” to the representation. These objects repre-
sent non-CATIA related files which can be exported from a PLM system to a CATIA rep-
resentation in addition to CATIA data, or they can be imported together with the CAD da-
ta.
If the “Other” part type is used, COMPDM will instantiate an “Other” part for all imported
files that are not handled by the COM/Recon tool (i.e. their file name does neither end in
“.CATPart”, “.CATProduct”, “.CATDrawing”, “.model”, nor in “.cgr”). Their only attribute is
the file name. Note that when a non-CATIA related file is chosen as the “root” file of an
import, none of the imported files will be treated by COM/Recon, even if other files (sib-
lings of the root) are CATIA native files. On export, documents of type “Other (dual in-
stance)” will be just added to the exported data38.
SmarTeam data import
COMPDM supports the reading of additional information contained in XML files located
alongside with the CATIA data, or in a direct sub-directory. This feature is for use with
meta data exported from the SmarTeam system and is used for data import and reference
data analysis only, not for export. To activate, set the “Add properties from XMLs to
CATIA data” option using the Settings Editor (see 2.3).
The XML files have to have the same name as the CAD files, with the ending “.xml”. They
may be situated next to the CAD files, or in a direct sub-directory. The client will change

38 I.e. it is not necessary (but allowed) to instantiate the “Other” part object in the export case, the
“CATIAPart” may use “Other (dual instance)” as document.
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its behavior to upload files in sub-directories of imported data in addition when this option
is activated.
The XML files have to be in one of the following formats:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<SmartXML>
<ItemsTable>
<Attributes>
<TDMX_ID>0000041726</TDMX_ID>
...

Or:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<STDOCUMENT>
<FILE LASTMODIFIED="2016.11.29 09:05:37" NXLOCKSTATE="" LOCKEDBY=""
DISPLAYNAME="AM04073395" ...

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3.4.9 NX module

COMPDM offers up to three alternatives for the creation of a new NX representation:

Figure 40: Creating a new NX Representation

• Generic: A fixed set of COMPDM objects representing NX “prt” structures, only

some standard properties are defined. New properties can be added.

• From reference data analysis: When selecting this option, choose the root (.prt)
of a reference data package. The package will be uploaded to the server and ana-
lyzed. The new representation will then include all user defined properties that are
used within the reference data set. Additional information about typical values will
be shown39.

• From PDM workbench configuration: This option is only available in conjunction

with Aras. If T-Systems’ Aras-CAD integration, the PDM workbench, is detected in
Aras, this option is available and when choosing it, the representation will contain
the NX properties that are configured in the workbench.

In any NX representation, the set of predefined COMPDM objects is fixed. The only ex-
ception is an optional part type “Other” which may be added (see below). Each “prt” will be
represented as a “NXPart” with exactly one “NXDocument”.
Only the NXPart object can be customized by adding additional properties (i.e. NX user
defined properties). Some standard properties are always included:

Figure 41: Standard NX Properties

39 See illustration in 3.4.7 (CATIA module), which is the same functionality

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The NX module also supports mixed NX and JT assemblies without using NX wrapper
parts for the JT files (as is the NX default behavior), but rather by direct reference to JT
files from within NX assemblies. This mode is used by the company Daimler in supplier
data exchange. To enable it, set the option “Avoid wrapper prts for JTs in assembly” in
the Settings Editor:

Figure 42: Enable NX Module to handle mixed NX/JT Assemblies as used in Daimler Context

Handling non-NX documents

It is possible to add the part type “Other” to a NX representation, which also adds a docu-
ment type named “Other (dual instance)” to the representation. These objects represent
non-NX related files which can be exported e.g. from a PLM system to a NX representa-
tion in addition to NX data, or than can be imported together with the CAD data.
If the “Other” part type is used, COMPDM will instantiate an “Other” part for all imported
files that are not handled by the COM/Recon tool (i.e. their file name does neither end in
“.prt” nor in “.jt”). Their only attribute is the file name. Note that when a non-NX related file
is chosen as the “root” file of an import, none of the imported files will be treated by
COM/Recon, even if other files (siblings of the root) are NX native files. On export, docu-
ments of type “Other (dual instance)” will be just added to the exported data40.

SmarTeam data import

COMPDM supports the reading of additional information contained in XML files located
alongside with the NX data, or in a direct sub-directory. This feature is for use with meta
data exported from the SmarTeam system and is used for data import and reference data
analysis only, not for export. To activate, set the “Add properties from XMLs to NX data”
option using the Settings Editor (see 2.3). For further information, refer to the description
of “Add properties from XMLs to CATIA data” in previous section 3.4.7.

Exporting database links from Teamcenter

NX files can contain internal references to other NX files (e.g. assemblies, drawings etc.)
and when NX data is stored in the Teamcenter system, such internal references will be
references to database objects instead of references to files.
If the Teamcenter module is licensed together with the NX module, COMPDM can update
such references from database-based to file based when NX data gets exported from

40 I.e. it is not necessary (but allowed) to instantiate the “Other” part object in the export case, the
“NXPart” may use “Other (dual instance)” as document.
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Teamcenter.
The NXPart object has a pseudo attribute _teamcenter_link in this case, which has to
be included in the NXPart’s attribute list. For data exchange methods that export to the NX
module, COMPDM will then retrieve the necessary information from Teamcenter to allow
patching the references. In the absence of this attributes, references will be deleted and
re-created, but this has a number of disadvantages, for example so-called “component
patterns” will be destroyed.

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3.4.10 Cache Module
A Cache is an in-memory representation of a product structure with the option to store
data persistenly to disk (i.e. act like a database, or like a PLM system), to access the data
using webservices, and to keep track of changes.
A Cache combines a representation with a persistent storage. The representation has a
hybrid behavior: It behaves like a PLM based representation in that reconciliation is
performed when data is written to the representation (i.e. the objects are compared with
the contents of the persistent storage), however in terms of the meta model, it behaves
like a file based representation in that objects and attributes can be freely defined41. A
number of usage scenarios are possible with the help of the Cache Module:

• Virtual Extensions to PLM objects are implemented using a specialized (and hidden)
Cache based representation (see 3.3.4)

• COMPDM keeps track of updates of existing objects inside the Cache and can
automatically provide the “delta” to “subscribers”, i.e. some recipient will receive all
objects in a defined scope once, then on subsequent invocations, only the modified
objects. This can drastically reduce the amount of data being sent.

• If an integration scenario maps several different sources to one target PLM system,
first mapping the data to a Cache representation, then to the target PLM allows to
handle differences between the sources in the first step while handling the target
specifics in the second step, which can reduce complexity of the overall
implementation considerably

• Using Mapping Patterns (see “Advanced Customization Manual”, section 3) in

conjunction with a target representation with many similar objects (as is e.g.
commonly the case with Teamcenter) can be very cumbersome as the pattern
definition requires to specify the precise target object types. This can lead to many
very similar patterns which only differ by the target object types. Instead, a cache
based representation can be defined which contains a generic part/document (e.g.)
object. The 1st mapping step (to the Cache) will perform all structural changes using
mapping patterns. The 2nd mapping step (from Cache to target PLM) then only selects
the appropriate, specialized object types.

• COMPDM provides REST services (webservices) to read data from a Cache, or to

write (upload) data to a Cache. In combination with a REST service for invoking
processes and/or automatic processes, this allows to expose data in a PLM system for
access via REST services, and to use REST services to upload data to a PLM
system. Refer to the “Advanced Customization Manual”, section 7, for a detailed
description of the available services.

41 See remark at end of this section

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In the Settings Editor, you can enable the use of the Cache module.

When creating a new Cache representation, you can choose one of the existing other
representations as the source, which means that all objects and attributes will be copied
from there. Note that not all properties of the attributes are copied, in particular, string
length restrictions are not taken into account. Such a “clone” of an existing representation
can then be freely changed by adding or deleting objects or attributes.

Alternatively, you can start with an empty Cache representation and define all objects and
attributes manually.

Figure 43: Creating a new Cache Representation

There are two fundamentally different types of Cache representations available:

Persistent: Data is stored persistently on disk, when data gets written to the
cache, reconciliation is performed and subscribers (see below) get informed
about any changed objects within the portion of the data they have
subscribed to. Webservices can be used to access the data. Such a cache representation
can only be used as the source or the target of a data exchange method, not as an
intermediate representation; and a data exchange method can only make use of at most
one persistent Cache representation (i.e. it is not possible to copy data directly from one
Cache to another). In a multi-server configuration (see “Advanced Customization Manual”,
section 4), the Cache is always hosted by the primary server.
The Client Main window of the client app will change its appearance. Tabs appear which
group the processes. The first tab shows the COMPDM icon and lists all processes that
are not related to any Cache. Subsequent tabs are created, one for every Cache
representation. Each tab will contain processes related to that Cache, i.e. processes that
read from, or wrote to, a Cache. The tab header will indicate the number of objects
currently persisted in the Cache.

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 Figure 44: Cache related Processes in separate Tab of Main Window

Note that this is not supported in the browser based client.

Volatile: A volatile Cache representation does not store data persistently on

disk and supports neither subscriptions nor access via REST services. Its pur-
pose is solely to serve as an intermediate representation of data during map-
ping, to simplify certain transformations. Data that gets stored in it will cease to exist as
soon as the process that wrote the data terminates. Consequently, a volatile Cache repre-
sentation can only be used as an intermediate representation of a data exchange method,
i.e. it can be neither the source nor the target of it.

To read data from persistent Caches, a data exchange method is created that uses it as
the source of the data. There are three alternatives to read the data:

• Data can be exported manually as from a PLM system based representation by

activating the “Allow interactive export from cache” option. An export button will be
added to the Client Main window, allowing to perform a search and select some root
part for export

• You can define a “Scheduled task” using the data exchange method (refer to
“Advanced Customization Manual”, section 5). In this case, a subscription is created.
On first execution of the task, all objects that match the defined filter criteria are
exported. On subsequent executions, only those objects are exported that were
updated since the last execution.

• A subscription to read such changes can also be created using REST services, in this
case, data is fetched using webservice invocations (see section 7 of the “Advanced
Customization Manual” for details).

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The client app lists each subscription in the Cache’s tab, together with information about
how many objects are in scope of the subscriber’s filter criteria and how many of them
have changed since the subscriber received the last update. The latter information is
shown as a graph over time in the “Queued” column.

Figure 45: Cache Subscription Status Display in Client

The “Reset” symbol (eraser) can be used to discard the delta calculations for the sub-
scriber. This means on the next export, the subscriber will receive all objects again, re-
gardless of whether they have changed or not.

Caution: When a persistent Cache representation gets edited (i.e. objects are added or
removed, or attributes inside the objects are added, modified, or removed), all per-
sistently stored data (related to the previous state of the representation) gets dis-
carded. In this case, processes running on secondary servers likewise cannot
make use of the Cache anymore until their configuration gets updated with a con-
figuration release (see “Advanced Customization Manual”, section 4). For these
reasons, modifications to persistent Cache representations (including virtual ex-
tensions) should be avoided once they are part of productive data exchanges

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3.5 Template Manager Window
Companies often use file naming policies when storing or exchanging CAD data. This
means that a CAD file’s name represents several important attributes of the part the CAD
geometry belongs to, e.g. the part number, version, and name. Typically, a description is
provided which explains the length of each element, allowed characters, connecting char-
acters and the like.
When mapping product data between two representations, it is a common task to extract
some portion of (e.g.) a filename which is known to represent a certain part attribute, or to
compose a value by concatenating several distinct PLM attributes.
COMPDM supports this with so-called “Templates”. A template defines the elements a
string is composed of, with their length, allowed characters, intermediate characters etc.
By assigning a name to each element, COMPDM will allow accessing each element di-
rectly in a mapping, or to compose a concatenated string by specifying values for the indi-
vidual elements.
The application of this feature is not limited to file names. There are many other situations
where a string value needs to be composed from several source values, or where we
need to access a specific substring. Instead of using custom JAVA code at this point (refer
to volume 05 “Extended Customization with JAVA” of the COMPDM documentation), you
can instead define the characteristics of the value composition or decomposition in a tem-
plate and then assign the template to the string attribute holding the composed value, via
the “Case” cell in the Object Editor, as described in 3.3.1.

Use the “Templates…” button in the Representation Manager window to open the Tem-
plate Manager window:

Figure 46: Template Manager Window

It contains the following elements:

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 • To the left, a list of templates currently defined. Each template has an icon as-
signed.
Note: COMPDM is shipped with a number of pre-defined templates for some OEM
file naming policies. While these were created to the best of our knowledge, we
cannot guarantee that they are valid, in particular as often different versions of
these file naming policies exist. You should always verify the output against the
regulations you have to conform to.
• If a template is selected from the list, the middle section of the window lists the el-
ements the template consists of. Use the “Add…” button to add further elements,
or “Delete” to remove some. You may use the mouse (drag & drop) to re-arrange
them
• At the top of the middle section, the “Change icon…” button allows to se-
lect/change the icon that’s associated with the template. This icon will be used in
various places of the user interface (Object Editor, Mapping Editor)42
• If an element is selected from the list, the right-hand portion of the window shows
the parameters of the element and allows to change them:

Cumulated offset: indicates the element’s offset (count starts at 0) if all previous
elements have a fixed length
Optional: Can be checked for elements that can be omitted
Fixed length: If checked, provide a field length and select left or right justification
for shorter values in the “compose” use case. The “Replacement” character
will be used to fill up shorter values accordingly (it defaults to a blank)

42 A wide range of image formats is supported here. It is recommended to use a transparent back-
ground for the icon.
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 String case: Can be used for automatic conversion of values to uppercase or low-
ercase when “composing” the complete string value
Trim blanks: Can be used to remove any leading and/or trailing blanks (space,
tab, line wrap etc.) from values written to the template element
Character set: Allows to enumerate either all valid characters, or all invalid char-
acters, and optionally a replacement character to use for invalid characters
when “composing” the complete string value
Prepended by: Use for fixed strings that separate this element from its predeces-
sor. For cases where several different separation characters are allowed,
several entries can be provided using the “+” button. When “composing”
the complete string value, COMPDM will always use the first “Prepended
by” value even if there is more than one
• At the bottom, several buttons for creation of a new template from scratch or by
copying one of the existing ones, for importing or exporting template definitions
(see below), for deleting a template, to save or undo changes to the current tem-
plate definition, and to close the window.

You can support the “COMPDM community” by shar-

ing a template definition you have created for some
OEM’s file naming conventions. Use the “Export
Template” button to save the template in a (proprie-
tary) “*.comt” file. You can send it to other users of COMPDM who can then import the
definition.
If you send it to T-Systems, we can include it in future COMPDM installation packages.

To support the development of templates, the “Test Template” button

can be used to apply the selected template on either a text file
(whose lines should contain the values to be parsed), or a directory
(the names of all contained files are parsed). A dialog opens which
shows how all items (i.e. lines of text or file names) are broken up into the template
elements. Entries that cannot be matched against the template defintion are shown in red.

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4 Data Exchange Methods and Mappings
Representations as described in the previous chapter 3 are the “building blocks” for data
exchange methods in COMPDM. Use the Method Editor window (see 4.1) to plug repre-
sentations together into data exchange methods. From there, you can also invoke the
Mapping Editor window (see 4.2) where you specify how the data is mapped between a
source and a target representation.

4.1 Method Editor Window

Figure 47: Method Editor Window

The Method Editor contains a list of all defined data exchange methods and gives a visual
feedback about their completeness and whether they can be executed.
Representations are shown as rectangles, a red background signifies that the representa-
tion is not usable for the moment (e.g. because the PLM system is unavailable, because
the data model does not match the PLM customization or because the representation is
incomplete). A mouse over message (tooltip) gives information about the reasons in this
case.

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Data flow is shown with arrows between the representations. Note that all data exchange
methods and mappings are unidirectional. That is, any data exchange method works in
one direction only (example: import or export), for the reverse direction, a new method
needs to be created.

Use the “Reverse Method” button to create an initial proposal for a

reversal of an existing method. All 1:1 attribute mappings will be
reversed.

The mapping arrow colors have the following meanings:

Green: the mapping is completely defined, for all attributes of all objects in the
target representation there is a specification how their value has to be comput-
ed.
Yellow: the mapping is complete enough for execution, because for all key
attributes in the target representation the value can be computed. However,
some non-key attributes are not yet specified.
Red: the mapping is not executable because not all target key attributes’ map-
pings are specified.

Furthermore,
a warning sign inside the arrow indicates that the mapping definitions contain
custom JAVA code that has compile errors, rendering the method unusable
even if it is not shown with the red color.

Double-click on the arrow to open the Mapping Editor window for the data conversion from
the representation to the arrow’s left to the representation to the arrow’s right (see 4.2).

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4.1.1 Creating new Data Exchange Methods
Use “New Method” to start the definition of a new data exchange method
from scratch. You have to select a source and target representation.

Figure 48: Define Identifier, Source and Target Representation for Method

Data exchange methods can be more complex than just a mapping from a source to a
target representation. Use “Add intermediate Repr” and “Remove intermediate Repr” but-
tons to add or remove intermediate representations43.
Examples for the use of intermediate representations in a mapping method:

• A CATIA data import to a PLM system where the CATIA files should be reworked
before import, e.g. by changing the file names according to local conventions or
set some CATIA user defined properties according to company rules. This prepa-
ration of the data before the actual import requires a write operation by the CATIA
module which is represented by an intermediate CATIA representation

• A data export from a PLM system which shall modify the exported data in the sys-
tem e.g. to prevent unauthorized modification, for example by changing the life cy-
cle state, requires an intermediate PLM based representation to specify the life cy-
cle change to be written to the system.

Use the “Copy Method” to create a clone of the selected method.

You may exchange the source or target representation of the origi-
nal method by other representations that are based upon the same
modules.

43 You cannot add representations before the source representation or after the target representa-
tion; this should be considered when choosing source and target. To replace source or target, use
the “Copy Method” functionality
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4.1.2 Customize Process Monitor Views (Tabs)
In the sequence of representations (rectangles) of a method, exactly one has a bold
frame. This is the representation whose tab is shown initially when the Process Monitor is
opened on a process that is based on the method. By default, this is the leftmost (source)
representation.
Right-click on a representation’s rectangle to open a context menu with the following op-
tions:

Figure 49: Method Visualization Control

• Visible: When unchecked, the corresponding view is suppressed and not visible
for the end user. For the “admin” user, the view is shown when in “Detail” mode of
the Process Monitor (see 2.4) and suppressed otherwise. Invisible (suppressed)
representations are shown with the “invisible” icon:

Note: At least one representation within the method must remain visible

• Initial tab: When checked, the Process Monitor shows this representation’s tab ini-
tially.

• Fixed profile: Available only in some cases. Refer to 4.1.4

• Edit label: You may provide a label for the representation which is used instead of
the representation name as the header of the corresponding tab. Use this feature
e.g. if the same representation is used several times within a method to indicate
the processing stage, or in general for usages of a representation in different con-
texts/methods, to clarify the semantics for the end user

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4.1.3 Restrict Availability of Method to certain Settings Profile
The tabular representation of the methods contains a “Profile” column where (by double-
clicking into it) a method can be restricted to a settings profile. This column is only present
if settings profiles are defined (see 2.3.1). For example, it might be necessary to define
different ways to handle data for different exchange partners. If distinct settings profiles
are used for each partner, you can ensure that the end user will automatically use the
correct exchange method after having selected the corresponding settings profile.
Note that when invoking a data exchange method in batch mode (see 2.9.1), the specified
--profile parameter will override the profile restriction from the Method Editor. A warning
gets issued to the process log file in this case.

4.1.4 Customize PLM Export Button Labels and Root Types

All methods that use a PLM system based representation as their data source are consid-
ered to be export methods, and if they are executable, the clients will show appropriate
buttons to start the export44. In the case of the rich client, the available exports are
grouped in a “Menu button”. By default, the label of the export method will be the name of
the method. In case the source representation contains several part types, all of them are
considered as possible starting points for an export, so a button or menu item is created
for each of these types.
Double-click into the “Export Labels” column of an export method opens a dialog that al-
lows to supply individual labels for an export method, to exclude certain part types as the
starting point of an export (checkbox to the left of the row), and to have the rich client
show the method on a separate “Export” button (instead of showing it as one of the choic-
es in the menu button)45.

Figure 50: Export Method – Root Type Exclusion, Label, and Distinct Button

44 Note: The setting “Disallow interactive process starts by user” allows to suppress the “Import”
and all “Export” buttons in the clients. This is used for configurations where processes should only
be created by command line invocations from outside, e.g. from a TRUfusion Enterprise server
45 This is useful for the common practice to define one PLM representation that is used both in
import and export contexts; often, the import should consider additional part types in certain situa-
tions, which are however not relevant for a data export.
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4.1.5 Using a Fixed Source Profile
A representation’s context menu may show the “Fixed profile…” option. It is only available
for source representations, and currently only for methods that export from Aras, VPM, or
Teamcenter. It allows to “tie” the representation to a settings profile which overrides the
settings profile the process is started with. The primary use case for this is to create pro-
cesses that transfer data between two different hosts of the same PLM system, i.e. the
source representation’s profile in this case will have access parameters like server URL,
user, password set to different values than the profile that’s used with the target represen-
tation.
A dialog opens which allows to select the fixed profile, and allows to select any of the
available settings using the “Add” button:

Figure 51: Fixed Source Profile and Settings Selection

For the settings selected, the process will use the setting values from the selected profile
whenever the source representation is accessed (e.g. structure retrieval, extraction of file
from the PLM system). All remaining settings values are taken from the profile the process
is started with.

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4.1.6 Send exported Data using TFE

This column is only available if the optional TRUfusion Enterprise integration is used. Fur-
thermore, a data exchange method’s “Send data” cell is only selectable when the target
representation is a file format (CATIA, NX, STEP).
By double-clicking onto the cell, you can set or unset the “Send data” flag for a data export
method. If set, the Rocket logo is shown. Data exported using the data exchange method
will be handed over to the TRUfusion Enterprise server for sending to a partner. Additional
elements will appear in the Part Search dialog for selecting the recipient of the data, as
described in section 2.6.2 of the “User’s Manual” (volume 02-A46 of the COMPDM docu-
mentation).

4.1.7 Interactive Setup

When launching an import or export process, it is possible to override the settings values
from the used settings profile with values collected from the user. It is possible to select
any number of COMPDM settings, including settings that were added individually (see
2.3.3), as long as they are available to the user for editing (see 2.3.2).
Double-click into the corresponding “Setup” cell and select any of the user-editable set-
tings using the “Add” button. Change the order of their appearance using drag & drop.

Figure 52: Configuring Interactive Process Setup

If a data exchange method is configured this way, each process will first enter the “Wait
for setup” status. A wrench symbol will be shown in the Client Main window or Landing
Page in the process table.

46 This functionality is currently not supported by COMPDM’s browser client

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 Figure 53: A Process Waits For Setup

When clicking on it, a dialog opens (or a panel appears, respectively) and collects the pre-
defined settings values before the process is actually starting.
This feature is useful e.g. if certain attributes in a mapping need to be set to some specific
value which is one of a greater variety, so that creating distinct settings profiles for each
possible value is impractical and it is more straightforward to collect the value to use be-
forehand.
It can also be used to prevent import processes that were started from outside (e.g. by a
TRUfusion Enterprise server) to start reconciliation (comparison of incoming data with
present data) long before the user reviews the reconciliation result, with the risk that the
reconciliation results are in fact outdated due to changes to the PLM system that hap-
pened in the meantime. By configuring the method to collect an “unimportant” setting val-
ue (like “Transfer protocol detail”), processing will not start before the user is actually
ready to review any reconciliation results.
By removing all settings from the Configure Interactive Setup dialog, a method can be
changed back to run without interactive setup.

4.1.8 Serialized Processing

In case several data packages are imported to a PLM system, it might be crucial that the
packages are processed in the order their imports were started, because they represent a
defined sequence of e.g. revisions which should be processed exactly as received. How-
ever, by default COMPDM will run all processes in parallel so the order would not neces-
sarily be preserved unless one waits for every import to be finished before the next one is
started.
To simplify such scenarios, you can activate the “Serial processing” flag for the data ex-
change method. If activated, each process will load the source representation, but then
wait until all other processes have terminated which are based on the same data ex-
change method, and use the same settings profile, and were started earlier.
This is done regardless of whether the processes were started by a different user, or by
the same user.

4.1.9 Custom JAVA Method

Double-click into the “Custom” column to specify custom JAVA code to be executed at
various processing stages. Please refer to the “Extended Customization using JAVA”
manual, section 3.12, for details.

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4.2 Mapping Editor Window

Figure 54: Mapping Editor Window

The Mapping Editor Window contains the following elements:

• Title bar with names of target and source representation and data exchange method

• On the left, you can select a pair of source/target objects to specify a mapping for
(grouped by object class: parts, Part-component links …)

• To the right, mapping specification for the attributes of the currently selected pair of
source/target objects (“ReadOnly” target attributes are not shown)

• At the bottom, several buttons

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4.2.1 Object correlation and attribute mapping definition

To define the mapping from one representation to another, you need to specify a mapping
for each pair of source/target objects of the same kind47. That is, from part objects to part
objects, from document objects to document objects, etc.
These mappings can be accessed from the left-side “accordion”. An icon shows the com-
pleteness of the mapping (warning sign: mapping is not yet executable, wrench: executa-
ble but not complete for all optional attributes, green check mark: mapping is fully speci-
fied)48.
Notice that the “accordion” has a “Mapping Patterns” section, and possibly a “Dictionary
mapping” section. Please refer to COMPDM documentation volume 04: “Advanced Cus-
tomization” for details about these.
In many cases there is only one source and one target object of a class and this task is
fairly simple. The task gets more complicated if there is more than one source object or
target object of a class, e.g. when you specify several document object types to be sup-
ported. In such cases, a mapping for each combination of source, target objects can be
specified. Here is an example where the target representation contains three different part
object types, “Part”, “Manufacturer Part”, and “ECR”:

Figure 55: Mapping Target Object Selection

Note that target type selection is only relevant if more than one of the mapping alterna-
tives is enabled and executable (has neither “ban” nor warning symbol). If only one of
them is executable, it will be used and the tar-
get selection definition, even if present, will not
be executed. The target choice button will show
a “ban” icon to indicate that it will not be rele-

47 Note that COMPDM considers the mapping between to representations to be executable if at

least every target object has an executable mapping defined, however, it is not required to define a
mapping for all source objects as an actual product structure does not necessarily contain all the
source objects
48 When you change attribute mapping definitions, this icon only gets updated after you used the
„Save“ button
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vant for this reason.

There are two alternatives for specifying the target object type to create.

Table driven Target Type Selection

The “Target choice…” button opens a dialog that allows to specify the target type in de-
pendency of a source attribute value.

Figure 56: Select Mapping Target Object using Decision Table

At the top, select a source attribute upon whose value the decision shall be based. Note
that the use of template elements (as shown above) might be particularly useful here. The
figure shows a typical use case where the Teamcenter dataset type to be created is se-
lected according to the file extension, which is accessed using a template.
Below, you can specify which target type to create if the selected source has a specific
value. You may use the wildcard characters “*” and “?” here.
At the bottom you can control whether value comparison shall be case sensitive, and op-
tionally you may specify a default target type to create.

JAVA Code based Target Type Selection

The “Target choice…” button opens the Code Editor dialog to specify a JAVA method that
decides from a source instance (Part) which target object type to choose when the map-
ping is executed by the process. This functionality is described in volume 05 of the
COMPDM documentation (“Extended customization with JAVA”).

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When you select one of the source/target object combinations to the left, the right side of
the Mapping Editor Window will list all target object attributes and allows specifying how
they should receive their values during mapping.

Disabling Source/Target Pairings

If source or target representation of a mapping contain more than one object type of a
certain kind, all possible combinations of objects are shown, and mappings can be defined
for each of them. Often, not all these combinations are useful. You can “disable” any
combination via a context menu (right-click on the source/target pairing). In some cases,
only one combination is needed. The context menu’s “Disable all others” choice may be
used to establish this.

Figure 57: Disabling Source/Target Mapping Pair

Use the context menu on a disabled pairing to re-enable it.

If you check the “Hide disabled pairings” box at the top, disabled pairings are not shown
any more for a better overview of relevant mappings.

Attribute Mappings
In the upper right-hand corner, a checkbox “Hide optional attributes if undefined” is
present. When checked (default), mapping elements are only shown for key/version or
mandatory attributes or other attributes where a mapping is defined. This checkbox thus
allows keeping an overview in situations where many attributes are optional and not used
in a mapping method.

For every attribute, a selector lets you choose one of following:

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 Figure 58: Attribute Mapping Alternatives

• undef: the attribute will not receive a value and will remain unchanged: If a warn-
ing sign is shown (as above), this is not a permissible option (e.g. because the at-
tribute is a key attribute or it was specified in the representation editor that it “must”
receive a value)

• source: the attribute value is copied from one attribute value of the source object
(see below)

• sources: the attribute value is copied from one or more attribute values of the
source object, if present, otherwise, a default value can be specified (see below)

• fixed: the attribute is set to a fixed value (which can be specified here)

• null: the attribute will be cleared (in the case of CATIA/NX, the property will be re-
moved from the CAD file)

• setting: the attribute will receive its value from the value of a setting (you can
choose the name of the COMPDM option from a selector)

• auto: Only available if the target attribute has the “Auto” flag set (see 3.3.1). Note
that if the target representation is based on Aras, this will be the only available
mapping alternative for the attribute, as Aras does not allow overriding “sequence”
type attributes with custom values.

• code: A JAVA method is provided which computes the value when the process
executes. This alternative is explained in volume 05 of the COMPDM documenta-
tion, “Extended customization with JAVA”

In cases where the target representation contains several objects of the same type, e.g.
document, additional selectors may be present which allow to specify that the mapping of
an attribute shall use the same parameters as an attribute of another object of the same
type. When one of them is selected, the other object’s attribute mapping is shown in a
disabled state. This is particularly useful for representations with many very similar ob-
jects. This is very common e.g. in Teamcenter due to the inheritance used internally. In
the following example, the mapping to the dataset type “JPEG” makes use of several pre-
viously defined mappings to the dataset type “CMI2Part”:

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 Figure 59: Specify Attribute Mapping to be "as" a different Object's

The most common mapping case will be the direct mapping of a source attribute value to
a target attribute value (“source” alternative for mapping). A selector will be shown which
allows specifying the source attribute to map from. This can be either an attribute of the
source object, or of an object that is directly related to the source object (example: the part
to which a document belongs). Use this feature with care as the relating object may not be
unambiguous, in which case you’ll have a random result49.
For source attributes that have a template definition assigned (see 3.3.1), you can either
select the source attribute value as a whole, or one of the template elements it is com-
posed of.

Figure 60: Target Value Mapped From Template Element

In some cases, it is necessary to specify a list of source attributes to check, the first being
set should be taken. Or it might be necessary to use a fixed default value in case the giv-
en source attribute is unset.
For cases like these, the “sources” alternative is used.

Here, you may open a list editor where you can specify a list of source attributes. When
the process is executed, the first attribute value from the list will be used that is neither
unset (null) nor empty. You may also optionally specify a fixed default value.

49 It is preferable to use a JAVA method („code“) instead in such cases to implement precise value
selection criteria
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 Figure 61: "Sources" Mapping Dialog

To remove the default value, press the backspace key on the empty field. The “null” sym-
bol will be shown (see figure above).

4.2.2 Composing a Template Based Attribute Value

The Mapping Editor will show the template’s icon next to a target attribute that is associat-
ed with a template (as described in 3.3.1). If you want to set the value as a whole, you can
do this as usual. Note that COMPDM will not check whether the value matches the tem-
plate definition.
Alternatively, you can provide values for each of the template elements and leave the task
of composing the complete value to COMPDM. Open the context menu on the target at-
tribute name and select “Distinct elements”

The Mapping Editor will now provide elements for all the template elements:

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 Figure 62: Compose Template Based Value

When the process executes, the target attribute value (“_fileName”) will be composed
from the individual values, taking all length restrictions, valid characters and replacements
etc. into account.
The context menu allows to switch back to “Whole value” mapping.

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4.2.3 Interactive Mappings

For parts and documents, attribute mappings can be subject to interactive verification by
the user. This means the mapping definition as laid out in the previous section will only
compute a “proposed” value, which is then presented to the user for confirmation or modi-
fication. In case the mapping produces no value at all (e.g. “undef” alternative), the user is
responsible to provide a value and cannot skip this in case the attribute is a key attribute
or has the “must” flag set (see 3.3.1).
To mark an attribute for interactive mapping, right-click on the target attribute name and
choose “User confirmation”. The interaction symbol will be shown next to the attribute
name (see above for the “Part Type” example). You can remove the interaction symbol by
right-clicking again and selecting “No confirmation”.
In the Mapping Editor, you can only specify that all instances of an attribute have to be
verified interactively. Using custom JAVA code, it is also possible to create mappings
where user interaction is only requested under specific circumstances. This is described in
volume 05, “Extended Customization with JAVA”, section 3.3.2.

4.2.4 Auto-completion (Mapping Wizard)

In particular when defining a new mapping from scratch, you may find
the Auto-complete button quite useful. It connects source and target
attributes automatically according to several criteria, including “key”
property of the attribute, attribute name, attribute type50, or information
from the PDM Workbench configuration.

50 If unambiguous, e.g. if both source and target object have exactly one attribute of type „Position“
they will get “connected”
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4.2.5 Using Value Mapping Tables and Scale Factors

Set the check mark in the element above to use a value mapping table in addition (i.e. to
map source attribute values to target attribute values). Select the table from the selector.
You can create and edit value mapping tables using the “New Table…” and “Edit table…”
buttons. Check the “reversed” box if you want to use the table in the reverse direction
(right to left). Here is an example of a value mapping table:

Figure 63: Example of Value Mapping Table

Set the check mark ‘If none applies’ if you want to use a default value. If no default value
is defined, and none of the predefined values match, the incoming value is used directly.

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It is possible to explicitly map a value to ‘null’ (i.e. delete), for example for the lifecycle
status in Teamcenter:

Figure 64: Delete Value using Value Mapping Table

To get the ‘null’ symbol, you have to press the ‘back space’ key when the field is empty.
For target attributes of type ‘double’ (floating point number) or ‘position’ (transformation
matrix), a scaling factor for the value can be defined. In the case of the position, this ap-
plies only to the translation (positioning) and not to the rotation.

This can be used e.g. to convert between metric and imperial units. Check the box and
enter the scaling factor.

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4.2.6 Using Extensions in Data Exchange Methods

To define mappings to and from extension objects, there are two alternatives:
a) Using the direct “Object  Object” mapping definitions, extensions can be handled
implicitly (see below)
b) Using mapping patterns, extensions can be handled explicitly as source or target
variables of a mapping. This allows mapping an extension to/from a part class ob-
ject with a relationship, to implement non-standard strategies for resolving multiple
extension instances to a single target object, or to change the cardinality of exten-
sion instances, to name a few examples. The use of mapping patterns is described
in volume 04 of the COMPDM documentation: “Advanced Customization”, section
3 (3.4.1).
Note that in either case, mapping of extensions is considered to be optional; therefore, a
mapping method can be executable even if the extension objects of the source represen-
tation are not mapped yet.
When you select a target object’s direct (Object  Object) mapping definition, all attrib-
utes of extension objects appear together with their parent object. If the attribute name is
not unique, the name of the extension type is appended with a “@”. Consider the following
example:

Figure 65: Target Extension Attributes in Implicit Mapping

In this case, the “Item” object uses two extensions, “Item Master” and “ItemRevision Mas-
ter”. The former has attributes “user_data_1” and “user_data_2”, whereas the latter has
attributes “user_data_2” and “user_data_3”. Consequently, the “user_data_2” attribute
appears twice and is qualified with the name of the source extension type.
When source value mapping is used, any extensions for the source objects likewise ap-
pear like additional parent attributes and use the “@” qualifier to indicate their source.
Consider the following example where the source “Part” has two extensions, “Part Chang-
es and “Part Goal”.
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 Figure 66: Source Extension Attributes in Implicit Mapping

Note that in the above list, the first “created_on” attribute originates at the “Part” item itself
and therefore has no qualifier.
You may use any of the usual mapping alternatives such as “source”, “fixed”, “undef” etc.
The “code” alternative is likewise available but be aware that although the extension at-
tributes look like parent object’s attributes in the Mapping Editor Window, they are ac-
cessed quite differently internally; observe generated code to understand how they need
to be read from or written to (more information in volume 05: “Extended Customization
with JAVA”).
At first glance, the extension attributes look just like the usual object attributes, however
the internal handling is only similar to a parent attribute if the extension object’s cardinality
was set to “0 or 1” in the Object Editor window (see 3.3.3). In this case, however, any
“mandatory” or “key” flags of the extension’s attributes are ignored, i.e. the Mapping Editor
does not enforce a mapping definition for them. These flags can nevertheless be used for
consistency checks of created extension instances, or to support sharing of extension
objects (forms) in the Teamcenter system.

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The picture gets more complicated if any of the involved attributes belongs to an exten-
sion that has unlimited cardinality (“Any”). The following cases can occur:

1. Mapping a multi-instance source extension attribute to a multi-instance target

extension attribute
In this case, the mapping engine will create as many target extension instances of the
attribute’s owning type as there are source extensions with the given attribute. Each
instance, of course, will receive one of the specified source extension instance’s at-
tribute values.

2. Mapping a multi-instance source extension attribute to a single instance target

extension attribute or a “normal” parent object attribute
In this case and if there are actually several source extension instances, their values
will be converted to Strings and will be concatenated using the “Separator” character
defined in the Object Editor (3.3.3), which is the semicolon “;” by default. The target at-
tribute has to be of string type and if it is not, the source extension attribute will not
appear as a possible choice for source mapping

3. Mapping a single instance source extension attribute, a “normal” parent attribute,

or a singular value (“fixed”) to a multi-instance target extension attribute
If the value is a string, the mapping engine will try to split up the value using the de-
fined separator character, and if successful, create as many target extension instanc-
es as there are concatenated values. For other types of values, just a single target ex-
tension instance will be created.

Note the following:

A. As “sources” value mappings can define a list of attribute sources, of which the
first is used which does not have a null value, a mapping can actually execute the
1st or 3rd case from the above, depending on the actual data.
B. If the target extension object has several attributes, a situation can easily arise
where the number of computed target attribute values differs. The mapping engine
will create the maximum number of extension instances (i.e. corresponding to the
attribute where the maximum number of values was computed). Any attributes
where less values than this number of extension instances were computed, will be
filled up by repeating the last of the computed values as many times as neces-
sary.
C. The 2nd and 3rd case above are designed to enable mappings between representa-
tions that support extensions (i.e. PLM based) and those that do not (i.e. CAD
based).

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4.3 TRUfusion Enterprise file handling configuration

The optional TRUfusion Enterprise integration can be used to hand over exported data to
the TRUfusion Enterprise server (TFE) for sending it to an exchange partner.
This typically includes automatic preparation of CAD data using dedicated TFE processes.
However, TFE can only properly handle the files if the file format is specified. The different
file formats supported are called “systems” in TFE.
To be able to convey this information to TFE, COMPDM is using a mapping table as de-
scribed in 4.2 which maps file extensions to configured TFE systems. The latter ones can
be customized individually within TFE, and COMPDM’s mapping table “TRUfusion file
type to system” has to be edited to reflect these:

Figure 67: Mapping to TRUfusion Enterprise

The configured “systems” will then drive the presentation of selectors for the processing of
file types in the Search Part Dialog (refer to section 2.6.2 of the User’s Manual, “Part
Search Dialog with TRUfusion Enterprise integration”). A “system” selector is shown if the
selected contact is known to handle the format (an information from the TFE partner data-
base), and if the system is configured in the mapping table shown above.

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4.4 PDM Workbench compatibility (Aras)
In case you are using COMPDM in conjunction with the Aras PLM system, and you use
the PDM Workbench (PWB) as Aras-CATIA or Aras-NX integration, when defining data
import methods for the Aras system, you should take some aspects into consideration to
ensure that the resulting assemblies can be properly loaded from the PWB. In case you
have created your Aras / CATIA / NX representations using the “From PWB workbench
configuration” options (see 3.4.1/3.4.6), COMPDM will create the data import method in a
way that PWB compatibility is ensured at least for standard cases. However, since you
might e.g. use differing part classifications (etc.), it might be necessary to adapt or com-
plete these mappings:

• If you are using BOM instance or CAD structure (dual item) for a COMPDM In-
stance, you need to include the “pwb_cad_instance_name” and
“pwb_transformation_matrix” properties, which are imported into your cus-
tomization when the PWB is installed. If CAD instance is used, use the standard
properties “name” and “transformation_matrix”.

• In the case of CATIA, in the settings of the CATIA V5 module (white tab), activate
“Suppress internal components”. This means that CATIA internal components will
not be represented as Part/CAD items, which would not be compatible with the
PWB

• The CAD item’s classification needs to be “Assembly”, “Component” or

“Drawing”, depending on whether the CATIA file is a CATProduct, a CATPart/V4
model or a CATDrawing, or whether the NX prt file represents an assembly, a part
or a drawing. 51

• The CAD structure’s classification property needs to be included, and set

to “Structure”, “Reference”, or “Drawing”, depending on whether the relating
(assembly) part carries a CATProduct, a CATPart or a CATDrawing. In the NX
case, the mapping wizard will generate code to compute the pwbnx_is_3d,
pwbnx_is_drawing, pwbnx_is_assembly flags if they are part of the repre-
sentation

• The CAD item’s authoring_tool property needs to be included, and set to

“CATIA” or “NX”

• The CAD item’s authoring_tool_version” needs to be included, and set to

the CATIA or NX release, e.g. “V5R24”. There is a property named “CATIA Re-
lease” available at the CATIADocument object of the CATIA representation which
will carry this information, therefore can be used as mapping source for the proper-
ty value. Likewise, the NXDocument carries a “NX Release” attribute.

• The CAD item’s external_owner property needs to be included, and set to

“T-Systems.Mechanical.CATIA” or “T-Systems.Mechanical.NX”, respec-
tively

51 Note that different values could be required, depending on your Aras and PWB customization
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5 Maintenance Dialog
This dialog is used for stopping or restarting the COMPDM server, possibly in conjunction
with some maintenance activities.
• If the COMPDM server is installed as a Windows Service, it can only be stopped
using the standard Windows Computer Management dialog. In this case, the but-
ton is labeled “Restart…” and its purpose is to trigger a server restart.

• If the server is installed as a stand-alone application, the Maintenance Dialog is

used to stop the COMPDM server. In this case, you should always perform an or-
derly shutdown of the COMPDM server (rather than e.g. killing the process or just
shutting down the PC).

Caution: As long as this dialog is opened, it is neither possible to start new client
sessions, nor to start new processes from existing client sessions.

Figure 68: Server Maintenance Dialog

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Select the „Immediate“ button (if there are active processes and sessions that will get in-
terrupted52) or the „OK“ button (shown if nothing would get interrupted) to perform the
server restart or shutdown. The client window will be closed.

Before shutting down and/or restarting, some maintenance operations can be performed,
or the server configuration can be changed, which will become effective when the server
starts the next time.

You have the following options:

• Check “Shutdown server, then restart immediately” if you want the server to restart
immediately, for example because the reason for the shutdown is a change in the
configuration. This element is only available for a stand-alone server configuration;
for a Windows Service, an immediate restart is always performed as long as the
Windows Service is enabled and set to auto-start.
• You can select “Restore configuration” and select a configuration backup from the
list. A backup of the configuration is automatically saved each time an “admin” cli-
ent session is started, and the configuration was changed since the last backup.53
• You can select “Import configuration”, then select a configuration file that was e.g.
provided to you by T-Systems
• You may check “Move COMPDM work directory” and select a new location for the
work directory54. Note that the new directory has to exist and needs to be writable.
• You may check “Change COMPDM client/server communication port” and chose a
different communication port to use. The clients have to be reconfigured likewise
(refer to section 2.6 of the Installation manual, volume 01 of the COMPDM docu-
mentation).

52 An option setting is available that triggers an automatic restart of interrupted processes after
restart. The processes will, however, be restarted with „admin“ as owning user. Therefore, this
option should be used with caution
53 The number of backups kept is configurable in the Settings Editor (see 2.3 of the User’s Manual)
54 COMPDM will copy the contents of the current work directory to the new location, therefore the
shutdown may take some time
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When you have selected a configuration to install before restart, you may use the “List
contents” button to get a summary of the contents of the selected configuration and non-
default option values, in a console-like window (see 2.7 of the User’s manual).

Figure 69: Console Window to check Configuration Contents

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Change History / Release Notes

Version Last revised Author/Editor Reason Changes/Comments

2.0 6.12.2016 Jens Kübler Release Initial Version for COMPDM 2.0
Martin Fren-
zel
2.1 02.06.2017 Jens Kübler Update COMPDM 2.1: Manage Server
dialogs, VPM specifics,
Teamcenter specifics, “as” map-
ping, Dictionaries, effectivities,
Automatic processes
2.2 15.12.2017 Jens Kübler Update Move description of tags, dic-
tionaries, mapping patterns, auto
processes, AP242 to volume 04.
Add extension object, auto gen-
erated values
2.3 04.06.2018 Jens Kübler Update EnoviaV6 module, interactive
setup, interactive mappings,
Teamcenter module specifics,
Maintenance dialog changes
2019 07.12.2018 Jens Kübler Update Server Downtimes, Templates,
new Teamcenter/VPM module
features
2019.1.1 24.01.2019 Jens Kübler Update 3.4.6 new alternatives for File
based representations
2019.2 21.06.2019 Jens Kübler Update 2.4 Process Monitor details
mode, 2.8.2 Client Debug Con-
sole, 3.4 New modules (WTC,
Cache), Improved modules (NX,
CATIA, Teamcenter) 3.5 Test
Template, 4.1.2-4.1.5 Method
functionalities
2020 11.12.2019 Jens Kübler Update Module specifics, Method Editor
2020.2 06.2020 Jens Kübler Update 2.3 new Settings Editor features,
2.9.1 using export definition files,
3.4 preview image import, folder
control, NX-TC utility, Non-CAD
documents, 4.2.1 Disable/Hide
pairings

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