About Parameters

Activity Parameters

Activity parameters are named quantities that are exposed as inputs whose values can be driven externally (by other activities) and outputs whose values can be accessed by other activities. Parameters can store a value directly, or you can provide an expression to define the value of the parameter.

All steps within a given activity share access to the common set of parameters defined for the activity. In addition, you can map a parameter from one activity to a parameter in another activity.

To help customize your simulation process, you can give parameters unique names based on the quantities they represent.

Parameters have a structure associated with them. The simplest structure is a scalar parameter, which is a single value. Parameters can also be arrays, as described below. You assign a value to each parameter and a data type (Boolean, integer, string, real, object, or timestamp) that defines the type of the parameter value.

You can add, edit, and delete parameters. If you have a large number of parameters, you can import them from a selected XML file.

In the simplest case activity execution typically proceeds in the following phases:

1. The set of input parameters is prepared from the default values in the simulation process and is modified by any mappings from parameters in other activities.
2. Expressions are evaluated to set the values of any parameters that were not mapped from other activities.
3. The activity runs using the prepared parameters, modifying the output parameter values.
4. The output parameter values are stored in the results and can be mapped to subsequent activities.

Array Parameters

Array parameters are an array of activity parameters (one, two, three, or four dimensions). Each item in the array has the same data type. The array size is the number of elements in each dimension and follows the row-major ordering rule. Therefore, for a 2D array the first dimension is the number of rows and the second dimension is the number of columns. When you define an array parameter, you can indicate that the array parameter is resizable during execution. For example, an array needs to be resizable when you are reading parameters from a text file

Object Parameters

Object parameters are activity parameters with a data type of object. An object parameter refers to an object in the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, such as a part, a simulation document, or a Physics Simulation.

Parameter Names

Every parameter defined in an activity must have a unique name. However, parameters defined in different activities can have the same name. This naming process helps with consistency because a given quantity is often used throughout a process. Using the same name in different activities allows the parameters to be automatically mapped between the activities.

Parameter names are not case-sensitive and can be up to 130 characters. Parameter names can be a string of Unicode characters but cannot contain the following characters:

• Control characters (for example, tab or new line)

• Space character at the start or end

• Periods (.), square brackets ([ ]), curly brackets ({ })

• Commas (,), question marks (?), at characters (@)

• Asterisks (*), pound characters (#), dollar symbols ($)

• Slashes (\\\), quotation marks ("), percent characters (%)

• Greater/less than characters (< >), and vertical bars (|)

Parameter Modes

Process Composer for Dashboard supports four types of parameter modes: Input, Output, In/Out, and Neutral.

Parameter Mode	Description
Input	Provides a value to the activity, either a default value or a value mapped from some other activity.
Output	Captures information from the activity for subsequent use via mapping or viewing.
In/Out	Serves as both input and output parameters simultaneously and has two values (pre-execution and post-execution).
Neutral	Used inside an activity or as an output result from an activity that is not exposed to other activities in the simulation process. A neutral parameter has a default value that can be used as input to the activity, and its value is saved for postprocessing. You cannot map a neutral parameter to/from other activities in the simulation process. A common usage of a neutral parameter is a quantity that is produced by a step within an activity, then used later by another step within the same activity but that does not need to be visible to other activities.

3DEXPERIENCE Parameters

You can create 3DEXPERIENCE parameters with other 3DEXPERIENCE apps, such as Part Design. 3DEXPERIENCE parameters include Knowledgeware parameters and PLM parameters. Knowledgeware parameters define features of objects such as parts, products, or simulation objects. PLM parameters are parameters with the characteristics of a PLM object, including lifecycle and maturity. 3DEXPERIENCE parameters are described further in the Knowledge Basics User's Guide. You can map 3DEXPERIENCE parameters to activity parameters, which allows you to pass data between Process Composer for Dashboard and other 3DEXPERIENCE apps.