Building 3D/2D Thumbnails in Interactive Mode

The Thumbnail Builder can be run in interactive mode from the Administration Configuration installation you used in the MSI generation process.

Important: Before you begin, you must add the command to your action bar using the Me > Preferences > Customize command. For more information, see Customizing Sections, Manage User-defined Sections from the Customize Dialog Box.

This task shows you how to:

Build 3D/2D Thumbnails

Follow the procedure below to build 3D Thumbnails.

  1. Search for a part, right-click the part and select Explore.
    The part is opened in a Navigation app.
  2. Select a reference root, it can be any node in the Tree.
  3. In the action bar, click 2D Thumbnail and 3D Thumbnail Builder .
    The Thumbnail Builder dialog box appears. To define the 3D Thumbnail computation options, see Define Thumbnail Builder Parameters below.
    Important: By default, all users have access to the 2D & 3D thumbnail builder command although access can be removed from or granted to authorized users by Admin. Access may be granted or removed to "User", "Role", "P&O Context", "Project, "Organization" and "User all" through an MQL script. However, access propagation along P&O role/project/organization hierarchies to the P&O context is not supported.

    The command to grant access is 

    set context person creator;modify command "vplm::ENOVIA_ThumanailBuilder" add user "xxx"

    The command to remove access is 

    set context
person creator;modify command "vplm::ENOVIA_ThumanailBuilder"
remove user "xxx"

    xxx stands for either 'User' , 'Role', 'P&O Context', 'Project', 'Organization' or 'User all'.

    An error message appears for unauthorized users if the command is launched from other action bar or CATUTILITY.

  4. Click OK to launch the Builder.
    The Thumbnail Monitor appears, enabling you to follow the progress of the Builder. Once the 3D Thumbnail under construction is completed and saved in the database, it is displayed.
  5. To momentarily stop the Builder, click Pause.
  6. To restart the Builder, click Continue.
  7. To see the generated report, click Report.
    If there are no errors, then the message No error during 3D Thumbnail creation is displayed in the report.

    If there are errors, they are displayed in the report as follows:

    Report columns correspond to the following:

    • Rank: computation rank of 3D Thumbnail creation
    • Config Id: configuration identifier if it exists, else "None"
    • Node name: the name of the node reference corresponding to the V_PLMExternalId attribute.
    • Type: final node ("leaf") or intermediate node ("intermediate")
    • Error code: see About Building 3D/2D Thumbnails
    • Message: additional information about the error code or warning
  8. To completely stop the Builder, click Close.

Define Thumbnail Builder Parameters

Thumbnail Builder parameters enable you to fine-tune the generation of 2D and 3D thumbnails.

Root Indexing Date

  • The Index Release Date indicates the date at which the content was last indexed.
  • If a connection to an index server has not been established, then a message indicates that the index release date is not available.
  • The Root Indexing Content section does not appear for some connectors.
  • We recommend that you run the Indexer as often as possible.

Accuracy

  • Very Low: equivalent to 0/100
  • Low : equivalent to 10/100
  • Medium: equivalent to 20/100
  • High: equivalent to 70/100
  • Very High: equivalent to 100/100, edges and some hidden faces are not removed

Update Mode

  • Incremental: only modified terminal leaves and all intermediate leaves are re-computed
  • All: all 3D Thumbnails are computed even if no modifications were made
Important:
  • The Update Mode options are not available because 3D Thumbnails for final leaves are computed using the Indexer.
  • If the Indexer is not available, final leaves are computed. However, it is strongly recommended that you use the Indexer to avoid this case.

Options

  • Compute only the selected node: In this mode, only the 3D Thumbnail of the selected node will be generated; otherwise, an expand all will be done on the database (which can be costly). 3D Thumbnail creation will start from the root and not from leaves.
  • Update only terminal nodes: all references without children (terminal leaves) are computed
  • Generate 2D thumbnails at same time: a jpeg representing a 3D Thumbnail is computed at the same time as the 3D Thumbnail
  • Generate without save: enables you to simulate 3D Thumbnail creation, no 3D Thumbnail will be saved in the database
  • Clean 2D and 3D thumbnails: thumbnails are removed, not created.

  1. To define the Accuracy of the generated 3D Thumbnails, select the option from the proposed list.
    • Very Low
    • Low
    • Medium
    • High
    • Very High
    Important: During 3D Thumbnail generation, 3D Thumbnail size in memory is strongly linked to the Accuracy parameter. It is recommended that you choose "Very Low" for large assemblies, otherwise 3D Thumbnails might not be created for assembly nodes.
  2. Select the Update Mode:
    • Incremental
    • All
  3. If you want to only generate the 3D Thumbnail of the selected node, activate the Generate only the selected node checkbox.
  4. If you want to update only terminal 3D Thumbnails, activate the Update only terminal nodes checkbox.
  5. If you want to compute 2D thumbnails associated to each 3D Thumbnail, activate the Generate 2D thumbnails at same time checkbox.
    Important: If you want to regenerate everything from scratch, then you should select the All option.
  6. If you only want to simulate 3D Thumbnail generation, activate the Generate without save checkbox.
  7. Click OK to launch the Thumbnail Builder.
  8. After the Thumbnail Builder has completed, open your product in a new Navigator tab.
    Newly computed thumbnails appear and removed thumbnails no longer appear.