Introduction:
R2019x FD03 brings a new highlight in the “Product Release Engineer” role that accelerates the process of engineering definition initialization by providing a new tool to import engineering items from a spreadsheet.
A new command, “Create from Spreadsheet,” is now available in the “Engineering Release” widget:
That enables the user to:
- Download a dedicated spreadsheet template of format *.xlsx, *.xls or *.csv
- Import engineering items in an existing spreadsheet
The current scope of this import process is as follows:
- Create new items
- Add new or reuse existing items
- Update editable attributes of existing items: these are attributes of the following types:
- String (with free form text)
- Integers
- Real (with no unit of measure values, such as: Length (mm, m…) or volume values (ml, gallons))
Spreadsheet Template:
The template used to define the engineering items to be imported can be downloaded from the widget, “Engineering Release,” or you may simply use the “Export” tool from the same widget, then reuse the same exported file to import items.
The basic template you can use should look like this:
Note:
If you download the template from the widget (using the corresponding command), you will get a spreadsheet template that contains more attributes than those shown in the image above. You can remove those that are not displayed in the above image, as you will not need them for the import (example: CAD Master, Modification date, Maturity state).
Attributes in the spreadsheet:
As you can see from this table, in order to reuse existing engineering items during the import, you must fill-in the following attributes in the spreadsheet: Level, type, name and revision.
Import under the authority of a Change Action:
The import can be performed under the authority of a change action, using the “Work Under” function.
Newly imported or updated data will be captured in the “Realized Changes.”
The Import Process
Using the command “Create from Spreadsheet”, you will be prompted to upload an existing file of the following format - CSV, XLS or XLSX:
This file content will then be scanned and validated. If all values in the spreadsheet are correctly defined, then the following dialogue box will prompt the user to review the mapping:
The combo boxes on the left side have the following meanings:
If the user does not wish to map certain columns from the spreadsheet, then they can simply deselect the combo box in the dialog box shown above for that mapping (this will remove the value in the combo box of “Attribute Name”).
Once the mapping is finalized, then the import will begin, after clicking on “Import”:
If there is an issue with the spreadsheet content, such as wrong column name or wrong cell value, then a hyperlinked error message will be displayed to the user to review the issue:
(Column name-related error)
(Content-related error)
Clicking on the error message, displays a detailed report showing more info related to the error and its location in the spreadsheet:
Note:
- The total number of engineering items to be updated or created by the spreadsheet import process should not exceed 300.
- The spreadsheet can contain up to 10,000 rows of data, as there can be many items that do not require modification.
- Currently, the attribute “Instance Name” is not mapped to “Instance Title.” This leads to the creation of an instance with “Instance name” value same as “Title” with suffix .1, .2 etc…
This issue is slated to be resolved in 19x FD04.
Last word:
This new tool should not be used in any circumstance as a tool for a full legacy data import and migration from an older PLM Database to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. To achieve this migration, the relevant tools dedicated to legacy data migration should be used.
