Exercise 4.1 - Windchill integration on Web Dashboard
- Debesh Roy Chowdhury
Objectives
The new learning objectives of this exercise are to create a repository connection to a Windchill repository on the Syndeia Web Dashboard (SWD), view the repository including properties, relations and search, and create a reference connection.
Preparation
This exercise assumes the student has
· Syndeia Cloud 3.4 installed with a valid user account,
· A valid user account to a Windchill repository, and
· A valid user account to a at least one other on-line repository, e.g. JIRA.
The user can use any Windchill repository they have available. Because the content of your Windchill repository will be different, the specific examples in the following exercise instructions are only a guide and example for your actions. It is generally advisable to carry out these exercises in a non-production repository, a “sandbox”, set up for training and practice purposes.
See Video 1.9 for an introduction to the Syndeia Web Dashboard.
Background – Windchill
As envisioned by Intercax, the Digital Thread is composed of inter-model connections between models in different repositories, which Syndeia creates and manages, and intra-model connections between elements in the same repository, which the individual tool creates and manages. As of Syndeia release 3.4, the Syndeia Web Dashboard can extract and display some model information from the Windchill repository. Figure 1 shows a tree view of this information, with labels identifying the Windchill element types. The label color coding indicates how the Windchill element type is mapped to the Syndeia Cloud element types: Repository (green), Container (red), and Artifact (blue). Other Container element types include Libraries and Projects.
In the case of the Syndeia Windchill integration, the Relations table (Step 7) and the Digital Thread Explorer (Step 9 onwards) can display some intra-model connection types between Artifacts, including usage links and occurrence links, as well as inter-model connections. The intra-model connections are not permanently part of the Syndeia Cloud graph; they are extracted and displayed as needed.
This information is important in formulating and interpreting Syndeia graph queries. A more complete diagram of the Windchill data model as it is understood by Syndeia is available through the web dashboard help menu on the left.
Figure 1 Tree view of Windchill repository
Exercise
Log on to the Syndeia Cloud Web Dashboard (see Video 1.9) and click on the Repositories icon on the left border (Figure 2).
Figure 2 SWD Repositories page (initial) – Repositories icon outlined in red
If no repository connection to Windchill is available, select Windchill in the left column, then click the + icon at the top of the column. Complete the form and click Create (Figure 3).
Figure 3 Adding a Windchill repository connection
If a Windchill repository connection already appears under Windchill, but you need to add your own access credential, select the Windchill repository and click the Gear icon at the top of the column. Complete username and password and click Update (Figure 4).
Figure 4 Updating Windchill repository info
Your repository should load. Expand it to show Spaces and Pages, as in Figure 5. See Background section for discussion of Windchill artifact types.
Figure 5 Viewing Windchill repository contents on Repositories page
On the right border, there are three icons, labeled Details, Relations and Search. Select a Windchill element in the Tree View column (Aircraft Platform in our example) and click on the Details icon. A Detail list appears to the right as in Figure 6. Scroll down and review the attributes of the Windchill element that are available to Syndeia 3.4, including name and externalKey, which is the unique part number in the Windchill repository. Click the Details icon again to close the list.
Figure 6 SWD Repositories page, Details list (Details icon highlighted in red)
Click the Search icon on the right.
In the Search window, select Container or Part. If Container is selected, fill in the Name contains field and click Search.
If Part is selected, fill in the Part number field and click Search. In our example, we entered 00000000227 for Part number (note that this is the externalKey value from Figure 6. The result(s) of the search are shown on the right, as in Figure 7.
Click the Search icon again to close the Search window.
Figure 7 SWD Repositories page, Search feature (Search icon and search result highlighted in red)
Select a Windchill element in the Tree View column (Body in our example) and click on the Relations icon on the right.
In the Relations window (Figure 8), you will see a list of Inter-model relations, from the selected Windchill item to other non-Windchill models, and a list of Intra-model relations, from the selected Windchill element to other Windchill elements in the same Windchill repository. In this example, there is one Inter-model relation, to a Jama requirement, and multiple usage relations to other Windchill parts.
Figure 8 SWD Repositories page, Relations lists (Relations and Add icons highlighted in red)
To create a reference connection between the selected Windchill item and an element in another repository, click on the + (Add) icon highlighted in Figure 8. A Create Reference Relationships window will appear as in Figure 9.
At the top, either select an existing Syndeia project to save the connection within (DZSB13 in our example) or create a new project. See Video 1.5 on creating Syndeia projects for further discussion.
Under Select target artifact, choose the other repository to which the new connection will be made. In our example this is Aras Innovator @ Intercax.
If you have valid access to this repository, its contents will appear at the bottom of the window. Scroll down to the element that will be the target of the new connection and click the checkbox beside it. This is Aras part Payload in our example.
Each Syndeia connection has a directionality. The Select direction pull down menu higher up in the window allows the directionality to be set as desired before the connection is made.
Click on the Create Reference Connection button at the bottom. The new connection should appear in the Inter-model list after the Reload icon is clicked.
Click the Relations icon again to close the Relations window.
Note: In Syndeia release 3.4, it is not possible to create Model Transform inter-model connections or intra-model connections through the SWD. Some of those use cases will be added in future releases.Figure 9 SWD Create Reference Relationship window
The Digital Thread Explorer or DTE (Figure 10 - Figure 12) provides interactive visualization of inter-model and intra-model connections in a graph format. To launch DTE, right-click an item in the Tree View and choose Graph View. In our example, this is a Windchill Part, Body. Initially, it appears as a single node in the Graph View, as in Figure 10.
Figure 10 DTE, stage 1
Click on the node (it will show a black border when selected), right-click on it and choose Expand. If this element has any connections, they should appear as in Figure 11. In our example, the initial element had four intra-model connections to other Windchill parts (green circles) and two inter-model connections, to a Jama requirement (orange) and an Aras part (red).
Figure 11 DTE, stage 2
If I right-click on one of the new nodes (Aras item Payload) and expand it, additional edges and nodes are displayed (Figure 12), including an inter-model connection to a SysML element (purple) and multiple Aras parts. This process can continue until all connections are displayed.
Figure 12 DTE, stage 3
Windchill elements in either the Graph View or the Tree View offer direct access to that element in the Windchill repository. If I right-click on Body in the diagram in Figure 12 and choose More Details, my browser will open to the same element in Windchill as in Figure 13 (I may be required to log-in to Windchill first).
Figure 13 Windchill browser interface launched from Syndeia Web Dashboard
