About the Merge Assistant

Collaborative Design automatically determines and assigns merge actions such as Create, Merge, or Discard, to each feature in the briefcase. To do so, it uses a number of proven built-in rules that interpret the briefcases owner's intent and preserve the integrity of the model. However, the advanced users may want to have more insight on the decisions made by the software and possibly modify them to better balance the need to integrate other people contributions while preserving their own modifications. The Merge Assistant helps you gain a deeper understanding the impact of the merge and provides the ability to explicitly see merge actions.

The following topics present you the tools offered by the Merge Assistant to help you to have the better insight possible on the decisions made by the software:

This page discusses:

See Also
Using the Merge Assistant

The Merge Assistant Dialog Box

The Merge Assistant dialog box opens when clicking Merge Assistant .

Choose one of the following visualization options available in the dialog box:

Options to select:

  • Updated: The shared feature already exists in the receiver's representation but the sent version seems to be more recent. When activated, all the updated features are displayed.
  • Older: The shared feature already exists in the receiver's representation but the sent version seems to be older. If the receiver merges the sent feature, modifications made can be lost. When activated, all the older features are displayed.
  • Conflict: The shared feature already exists but modifications have been made by the sender and the receiver simultaneously. When activated, all the features that are in conflict are displayed.
  • New: the shared feature does not exist in the receiver's representation. When activated all new features are displayed.
  • Same: The shared feature is the same as the one in the receiver's representation. When activated, all the sent features that are the same as the ones that already are in the receiver's representation are displayed.

The box list:

  • Merge View: Displays all the features to be merged. It is the default mode.
  • Not Merged View : Displays all the features that are not to be merged.

3D Turn Table View

The 3D Turn Table representation lets you see the features contained in a briefcase. 3D icons and bubbles are displayed on the Turn Tables to let you see the relations between all the features: Parent features, children features and dependencies.

Notes:
  • The features displayed on the 3D Turn Table are representations of typical features; they are not the replica of the sent features.
  • When receiving a briefcase, the feature it contains are displayed on a Turn Table. Some of these features may be represented with abstract icons because they are not detailed enough to have a precise 3D representation. When the merge is performed, you get more precise 3D icons on your Turn Table.

    In the case of the parallelism for example:

    When the feature only exists in the briefcase - not in your representation When the feature now exists in your representation - more information found




  • When no 3D representation exists for a feature, the feature is represented by the following generic 3D icon: .

Structure View

The Structure View presents the structure of the sent briefcase according to the options you select the Merge Assistant dialog box.

It is represented through 3D Turn Tables.



Relation View

The Relation View presents the hierarchical relations (Aggregator, Aggregated, Dependencies) between a selected feature and the other features contained in a briefcase. It is represented thanks to bubbles that display 3D Turn Tables when clicking them to better explore their content.

Bubbles

The Bubbles are used in the Structure View:

And in the Relation View:

  • Aggregator: corresponds to all the parents of the selected feature.
  • Aggregated: correspond to all the children of the selected feature.
  • Dependencies: corresponds to all the dependencies of the selected feature.

Tips:
  • A maximum of 15 features can be presented on a 3D Turn Table. When more than 15 features, only the first 15 features are displayed. The others are in a bubble indicating the number of features remaining.
  • Click the bubble to have the following 15 ones displayed on the 3D Turn Table. The first 15 ones are now indicated in the bubble.
  • Make your features pass from the bubble to the Turn Table as many times as you need to be able see all of them.
  • Therefore:
    • When the first 15 features are displayed on the Turn Table, the bubble indicates: Results 16-45
    • When the following 15 features are displayed on the Turn Table, the bubble indicates: Results 1-15, 31-45
    • When the last 15 features are displayed on the Turn Table, the bubble indicates: Results 1-30.

Merge Assistant Context Menu

When exploring the content in the briefcases, you get access to the context menu.

The following options are available in the context menu:

  • Set item to Not Merge: When selected, you decide not to merge the sent features in your current representation.
  • Set Item to Merge: When selected, you decide to merge the sent features of your choice with your current representation.
    Warning:
    • Set Item to Merge is not available for the Body, Geometrical Set, and Ordered Geometrical Set features.
    • Set Item to Not Merge is not available for the Body, Geometrical Set, and Ordered Geometrical Set features with New Status.
    Important: The Set Item to Not Merge and the Set Item to Merge statuses can be propagated to all the objects that have a link with the selected features to have a consistent and coherent model.
  • Switch to Relation View: This action is similar to double-clicking a feature located in the Turn Table.
  • Switch to structure View: This action enables you to return to the Structure View Turn Table. It can be useful if you have explored the hierarchy of the feature and want to return quickly to the root without making several back actions.