FBDI Principles

This section describes the principles of File-based Design Import (FBDI) which allow content migration from V5 to 3DEXPERIENCE.

This page discusses:

FBDI in Standard Mode

This section describes FBDI in Standard mode.

The characteristics of FBDI in Standard mode are:

  • Used in Interactive or Batch mode.
  • The content is imported as new for each import. The new content (data) is generated in 3DEXPERIENCE corresponding to the migrated documents, even if they have already been imported.
  • If one of the pointed document is missing, the FBDI import fails. To import missing documents, see Content.

Some documents which are not applicable in 3DEXPERIENCE are not imported. Therefore, they do not appear in the FBDI list of documents to import.

Before the FBDI migration, open the File to Process window. The file list also depends on what has been customized in Search Order. For more information about Search Order, see Installation and Administration | 3DEXPERIENCE Platform | 3DEXPERIENCE Platform - Administration | Native Apps User Preferences | General | Search Order. It is recommended to use the same ordered list in V5 as in 3DEXPERIENCE.

Note: FBDI migration may fail in the following cases:
  • Relative folder is activated.
  • Folder of the link, Folder of the pointing document, Other folders are deactivated.

It is recommended to activate one of the other folder strategy if you need to use Relative folder option.

An order is then defined, because it is not possible to create an instance if the reference does not exist. The following order is used:

  • CATPart documents.

  • CATProduct documents.

  • Other documents (CATDrawing, CATProcess, CATMaterial, etc...).

This order is used during the loading and check stages. The migration is done document after document in this order.

When selecting a document using the command: Share > Import > CATIA File..., a complete set of documents is built. The set of document represents the list of documents that should be migrated with the selected one. So, if the selected file has a link to another file, this file should be migrated too and it is referenced in the list.

The import executes all processes one after the other. Due to the asynchronous mode, all links are naturally rerouted on previously imported packages.

To know which feature can / cannot be imported in 3DEXPERIENCE, see Importing Application Files from Previous Versions.

FBDI in Advanced Mode

This section describes how to use the Execution Mode option in FBDI to improve import success.

FBDI improves the import success by:

  • Reducing problems due to corrupted content by launching a cleaning operation automatically before link analysis. This operation reduces content preparation with CATDUA in V5.

  • Reducing dependencies by considering only required documents for migration.

These capabilities use the following options available in the Execution Mode section of the FBDI window.

Using Mapping Tables

With mapping tables in the Select the files to Import dialog box, you can:

  • Re-use content which has already been imported, by clicking No re-import. This is called Asynchronous Migration. It can be run in interactive or batch mode.

    You can migrate a group of related documents in different steps using mapping tables. This happens because a mapping table registers what has already been imported in 3DEXPERIENCE. Thus, content coming from the second migration is then based on content coming from the first one.

  • Update the result of previous migration by clicking Update.

Mapping Tables (RMT & DMT) and 3DEXPERIENCE content is persistent.

Isolating Links on Missing Documents

If a link pointing a missing document is found in V5 content, the dependency bundle computation is interrupted. As a result, the FBDI process stops. An error message giving name of the missing file appears in the report.

To solve this problem, you can select the Isolate links on missing document check box (in Interactive or batch mode). The missing document is ignored and the link is automatically isolated.

The application in charge of a feature can also declare a link as useless. It means that the pointed document will not be used in 3DEXPERIENCE. This document will not appear in the list of documents to import and it will not be imported.

When the link is isolated, a message appears in the FBDI report to explain details of the links.

If the link is pointing a missing document and cannot be isolated, you should redirect or remove it in V5.

Importing Large Content in Packages (Split and Import)

The FBDI import of too many documents is memory consuming. Therefore, it is recommended to divide the import into several sub-processes to reduce the number of documents to be saved in the database simultaneously.

The Grid Computing mode can be activated to decrease the global processing time. The sub-processes having no prerequisites with each other run simultaneously on different nodes of the grid computing cluster. The sub-process feeding is automatically handled by the FBDI main process.

This functionality can be launched in the FBDI batch mode only.

For more information about this option, see Importing V5 content in Split and Massive Modes.

You can customize split options available in the Performance tab, in Me > Preferences > General > File-based Design Import.

It is not always necessary to change these default values. These options are useful in advanced mode only.

Importing Using Structure Only Option

Structure Only is used to import only the necessary core content of a document. Structure Only is useful when there are some documents that cannot be imported using standard FBDI import. FBDI Structure Only is also a method to ascertain the core integrity of the content before a standard FBDI import is used.

For more information about Structure Only, see Running FBDI Interactively