Introduction

This document intended to provide a detailed comparison between various templates provided by DELMIA Brand teams for exporting the work instructions.

Before to enter in the details of the comparison, here under a summary description of the :

Different Ways to Export Work Instructions

1. OOTB HTML Export from “Work Instructions Author”:

The OOTB HTML Export is done using the command “Generate documentation” available in the Work Instructions author app.

• It used the OOTB XSLT and Attributes to Publish.XML which comes by default with the installation.
• Here, for each System/Operation under the current system, separate HTML file gets generated.
• The page of the system/operation contains:
  • Links for pages of their child systems/operations and
  • Details of that operation, Work Instructions created on it, views available on it etc.
• The document generated is of generic format and excessive information is exported.
• This don’t need any extra licenses.

• By modifying the business logics used for this export, we have managed to export the work instructions in more interactive format using external executables and custom Style Sheet (.xslt) files. We have created:
  • PDF Export
  • HTML Export

2. PDF Export from “Work Instructions Author” (customized)

The Custom PDF Export is done using the command “Generate documentation” available in the Work Instructions author app. After modifying the Business logics, this command asks you choose between OOTB Export and custom export. If user selects custom export:

• It uses custom Stylesheet (XSLT) and custom attributes to Publish.XML which is customized as per our needs.
• An external executable (FOP.bat) is launched to perform the transformation on the raw data XML into PDF by using the custom XSLT.
• This don’t need any extra licenses.
• The exported PDF contains desired information only.

3. Custom HTML Export from “Work Instructions Author” (customized)

The Custom HTML Export is done using the command “Generate documentation” available in the Work Instructions author app. After modifying the Business logics, this command asks you choose between OOTB Export and custom export. If user selects custom export:

• It uses custom Stylesheet (XSLT) and custom attributes to Publish.XML which is customized as per our needs.
• An external executable (msxsl.exe) is launched to perform the transformation on the raw data XML into HTML by using the custom XSLT.
• This don’t need any extra licenses.
• The HTML file exported is more interactive, easy to read, has clickable tabs/buttons and has useful information only.

4. CATIA Report Generator Template (customized)​​​​​​​

CATIA Report generator is used to create various types of reports. We can export Work Instructions from here as well. We have prepared a template to export work instruction in a Word Document format. Here you need extra licenses: RGD (Report Template Administrator) and RGR (Report Producer).

To create a report:

1. You need to create a report template using Report Template Design app. This defines which information to export and how to arrange it (Layout of document).
2. An output format needs to be created using Report Generation app. This defines the format of the exported report file. RGN supports various output formats like DOCX, DOCM, RTF, XLSX, XLSM, CSV, PDF, HTML and XML.
3. Finally, a Report object needs to be created, which utilizes the created template and the output format to generate the final report.
4. Using RGN, user can export the necessary info in various file formats.

Comparison of Various templates.

In green the best solution for a given criteria: