About Checking in CAD Objects

A policy governs the behavior of a business object--its lifecycle, access privileges, revisioning schemes, the file formats associated with the object, and where or how the checked-in files are stored in the database.

You can select the default Checkin policy for a type on the Preference page. See Setting CAD Tool Preferences.

Although many Types support more than one policy, only one policy can be in effect at a time. When you check in files, the Checkin page shows the default policy for the type of file being checked in. The default may be the system default or one you set in your preferences. .

Revision and iteration have the same object types. The revision object is created with the major policy and the iterations are created using the policy derived from the major policy. You cannot change the policy set of iteration from the preferences and global preferences page.

Attribute synchronization ensures that the attributes in the design file on your computer match the attributes for the ENOVIA object.

During the design process, you can enter or change attributes or properties of the CAD object. When you check in the design, you want those attributes and properties to become part of the metadata for the ENOVIA object. You can also use X-CAD Design Management to change attributes on the ENOVIA object. When you check out that design, you want to make sure the attribute changes are updated for the designs.

Attribute synchronization always happens within the same revision stream and cannot happen across the revision stream.

During checkin with attribute synchronization from a CAD tool to ENOVIA, the attributes are transferred to the iteration being created. The attributes from the iteration are also synchronized with the major object.

Your Administrator specifies which attributes and properties can be synchronized.

Once the design is in ENOVIA Live Collaboration, you can synchronize attributes without checking the design in.

The following cases describe the automatic attribute synchronization that happens during checkin for the latest iteration:

• Checkin of latest iteration with create iteration ON:

  When checkin is done to create the new latest iteration, then the attributes from the latest iteration is synchronized with the revision. In this case, the active iteration and latest iteration are the same.

• Checkin of latest iteration with create iteration OFF:

  When checkin is done to overwrite the existing latest iteration, then the attributes from the latest iterations will be synchronized with the revision. In this case, the attributes from CAD will be updated on the existing iteration. In this case, the active iteration and latest iteration are the same.

When you check in a design to the same stream, for example, checking iteration A.0 into the A revision stream, the lock status is ignored.

You can check in the design, whether you locked it or not, if you have lock/unlock access to the design:

• You have lock access to the design. You do not have to actually lock the design.
• You have unlock access to the design.

Once you select the design and click Checkin, the file is checked in and the design is unlocked, unless you selected the Retain Lock check box.

If the design has been locked by another user and you have lock/unlock access, then the design is unlocked and is checked in. You may want to check with the person who locked the design prior to checking in your modifications.

Your Administrator can restrict the checkin of designs that are locked by other users.

To check in designs to a different stream, such as checking in iteration A.0 to the B revision stream, you must first lock the stream where you want to check in the design.

If a design is unlocked in X-CAD Design Management, you can check in that design if it has no later iterations and has not been overwritten by another user.

The Background Checkin option lets you use the CAD tool while the checkin process is in progress.

If you want to look at the details of the checkin, locate the BackgroundCheckinSuccessLog.htm file in the BackgroundCheckin directory. The log file contains details of the Checked in files and the date and time of checkin.

Usually, when you check in a design, X-CAD Design Management creates a new iteration of that design within the Revision stream.

When the check box is selected, and you check in the document, the new iteration of the object is created. When check box is cleared , and you check in the document, the current iteration is overwritten.

Your Administrator can configure X-CAD Design Management to disable iterations. If so, the first time a design is checked in, a iteration is created for it. All subsequent checkins of that design overwrite the iteration and no new iterations are created.

If you or your Administrator has disabled creating iterations, then design changes are overwritten and there is a risk of losing the previous changes. For example, when a product family or assembly is set for Individual checkin and creating iterations is disabled, it is possible for one instance of the objects to be checked in (overwriting) a separate instance of the object, especially when different users are working on the different instances. Also, if another user checks in a design after you and the Create iterations option is not activated, their design overwrites yours and your changes are lost.

When implementing X-CAD Design Management, your Administrator maps the file types used in your CAD tool to object types used in X-CAD Design Management.

A single CAD type can be mapped to several ENOVIA types, with one ENOVIA type as the default. When you check in an object, X-CAD Design Management recognizes the object from the entry in your working set and automatically selects the correct object type for checking in the design.

If you want to check in the design using a different type, you can select a different value from the Design Type drop-down list. The list includes only those types that have been mapped to the CAD tool type.

X-CAD Design Management blocks the type-change checkin or save to ENOVIA, in case the design is used elsewhere. If you change a design’s type and then try to save it, ENOVIA checks to see if the design is used in any another designs; if so, ENOVIA will not save the design and will display an error message.

You cannot have 2 designs with the same name, but with different types.

If you select a different type, X-CAD Design Management changes the type of the Revision object and the current iteration object. Any prior iterations of that revision are not updated to the new type, but all subsequent iterations will use the new type. If you are not creating a new iteration (because creating iterations is disabled on your system or you cleared the Create iterations check box), the existing iteration is overwritten with the new iteration and the new type.

If the revision stream contains iterations of different types, only the latest iteration type is considered as the revision object when you check in.

When you checkin an assembly, some of the components associated with it could be new components while others are modified components.

In addition, the assembly could have multiple instances (a Parameterized Model object, for example). .

The checkin operation creates the appropriate iterations and instances for all items selected for checkin.

Your CAD tool has an option for quickly checking in the current or all open designs. If you use this option, the system uses your default preferences for checkin options such as Derived Output, Apply To Children, Create iteration, and so on.

If you use single-click Checkin and one of the following conditions exists, the system shows the standard Checkin page:

• Obsolete nodes would be included
• A new design is included and your system is configured to assign a part to all new designs
• You do not hold the lock for a modified design

Refer to the documentation for your collaboration product for instructions on performing single-click checkin.

Your system may be configured to automatically run the EBOM Synchronization process when files are checked in.

The Intermediate Data Format (IDF) lets you exchange information between ECAD and MCAD applications.

The following X-CAD Design Management functions are not supported for IDF models:

• Promote
• Demote
• EBOMSync
• Rename
• SaveAs
• Purge
• Baseline

Not all client-side extensions support IDF collaboration.

The MCAD engineer and ECAD engineer follows this process to collaborate:

The MCAD engineer, as part of the mechanical assembly, checks in the board outline as an IDF Model object.

The ECAD engineer checks out the IDF file, inserts the board outline into a layout, and populates the board.

The ECAD engineer checks the IDF file into the IDF Model object.

The MCAD engineer imports the IDF file into the Assembly Design.

The MCAD engineer, as part of the mechanical assembly, checks in the IDF Model object.

The design process iterates steps 2-5 until a final design is produced.

The system notifies the required MCAD and ECAD engineers when the IDF file is checked in.

When you check in a new drawing with a component or assembly structure, you can also perform EBOM Sync.

Your system must be configured to perform EBOM Sync during check in.

You cannot make modifications to older iterations of designs in 3DEXPERIENCE database by overwriting them during checkin (Save).

Changes in older iterations of designs are not available on the revision object.

If you want to work on the old iterations of designs, you have to make the obsolete design as the latest. To do this, you have to check out the older iteration, that does not have the latest modifications, and save it back again in the 3DEXPERIENCE database either to create new iterations in the same revision or to create new revisions (depending on your requirement).

The new iterations thus created will contain your required data. This modification will also be present on the revision of the design. Overwrite of old iterations is not permitted.

Otherwise, checkin (Save) with overwrite is allowed only for the latest iteration within a revision (subject to access permissions).

It is recommended that you always work on the latest iterations of designs.

It is possible that, during the design process, you must have created new iterations only for the sub-assemblies or for the components within an assembly / drawing.

In such circumstances, X-CAD Design Management ensures that the As-Built structure of the revision object for each parent node is always updated such that, on accessing the revision object of any parent design, you always have access to the latest iterations of all child designs in the structure for the given revision of the parent design.

To work on a specific iteration of the child node, you need to explicitly open it (checkout) from 3DEXPERIENCE Platform server.

During the design process, if you create new revisions of child designs, the As-Built structure of the revision of the parent is not updated.

However, X-CAD Design Management also ensures that any parent design always refers to the immediate next revision of its child designs if it is released.

If float on release is activated, promoting a revision of child object to the Release state floats the parents of only the immediate previous revision to the current released revision. The parent revision is connected to the released revision of the child for physical connection.

For example, consider a Product(rev ---)-->Part(rev ---) structure. There are A and B revisions of the Part. If revision A of the Part is released, the structure is Product(rev ---)-->Part(--A). If revision B of Part is then released, the structure is Product(rev ---)-->Part(rev --B).

However, if revision B revision of Part is released before releasing revision A revision, the revision B revision is not connected to Product(rev ---) as the float on release works with sequential release of the revisions.

This behavior can be deactivated by setting EnableDECFloatOnRelease to false. The Float on release feature works only when the flag is marked in both X-CAD Design Management and Engineering BOM Management.

In case you wish to preserve a reference to the old structure of the parent design, before such relationship floats to the newer released child, it is recommended that you baseline the structure for the required revision of the parent before the newer revisions of the child designs are released.