Creating a Download Rule

A download rule moves data from the database to your working directory where it can be accessed by the application in a simulation activity. You can download documents and the files they contain, or you can export VPM data. You must have read/write access to a simulation activity to create a download rule.

You can also create a download rule and specify the data to download when you create and configure a download step.

See Also
About Rules
Previewing Download Rules
About Parameters
  1. From the search menu in the Top Bar, search for and select the simulation activity in which the download rule will be created.
    Process Composer displays the simulation activity in the navigation pane and the table page.
  2. From the navigation pane, select Content.
    Process Composer displays the Content page.
  3. From the table page, select the documents, folder, or VPM data to download. A selected document can be owned or referenced, or it can be an engineering document, as described in Collaborative Lifecycle: Document Management: Working with Engineering Documents.
  4. From the Actions menus, select Create Download Rule.
  5. From the Create Download Rule window that appears, do the following:
    1. Enter the Title of the rule.
    2. Select the Download Step in which the rule will be executed.
    3. Choose whether the rule is Enabled. By default, the value is True and the download rule will be executed. You can choose a value of False to run an activity without executing its export rule.
    4. By default, the download rule refers to the document by an internal reference that does not change if the document is moved or renamed. Toggle off Content Reference to force the rule to refer to the name of the document. (If you toggle off Content Reference, you can change the data category in which the document resides and the document title and type.)
    5. Enter the File Name of a specific file to export from the specified document. If you leave this field blank, Process Composer exports all of the files in the specified document. You can use a wildcard to export multiple files from a document; you can also enter a parameter expression and a comma-separated list. For example, ${myDocument}, *.doc.
    6. Select the Download Method.

      You can choose from the following:

      • Download the documents and allow them to be modified (read-write).
      • Download the documents but do not allow them to be modified (read-only).
      • Checkout the documents.
      • Use exporter. Process Composer does not checkout or download any documents if you use the exporter method. See Exporting Data to an External Simulation Representation for more information.

    7. Choose the Exporter. If you selected Use Exporter as the export method, the exporter is used to move data from the database to an application. Otherwise, the exporter refers to a postprocessing script that operates on the files in your working directory after the export rule is executed.
    8. Select the Download Path. You can choose whether or not to create a directory under the working directory that corresponds to the category in which the documents are stored. Process Composer always creates a directory corresponding to the folder, if any, in which the documents are stored. If you choose this option, you must configure the application to look in the appropriate subdirectory for the files that were exported.
    9. Click Done to create the download rule.

      You cannot create a download rule by reference to export VPM data; see Exporting 3DSpace Data, for more information.