Administering Generative View Styles and Standards

  This section deals with the following subjects:

This task documents the administration of both generative view styles (Generative Drafting workbench) and standards  (Interactive Drafting workbench), as the procedure is basically the same whether you are administering generative view styles or standards. The examples provided in this task specifically deal with the administration of generative view styles.

For more information on customizing and administering standards, refer to the Administration Tasks chapter in the Interactive Drafting User's Guide.

 

Location of Generative View Style Files or Standard Files

The location of generative view style files or standard files is defined by two environment variables which can be set during installation or modified afterwards:

Variable name

Description
CATCollectionStandard Path and name of the directory (or directories) which contains:
  • the generativeparameters sub-directories (which themselves contain the customized generative view styles). It is in these generativeparameters sub-directories that you should add the generative view styles customized for a company, project or user. 
  • the drafting sub-directories (which themselves contain the customized drafting standards). It is in these drafting sub-directories that you should add the drafting standards customized for a company, project or user. 

 
CATDefaultCollectionStandard Path and name of the directory (or directories) which contains:
  • the generativeparameters sub-directories (which themselves contain the predefined generative view styles delivered by Dassault Systemes).
  • the drafting sub-directories (which themselves contain the predefined drafting standards delivered by Dassault Systemes). 

The default location for this directory (set during the installation process) is the installation directory install_root\resources\standard.

Setting the location of generative view style files
Refer to the Administration Tasks chapter in the Interactive Drafting User's Guide for specific information on how to set the location of standard files.

There are two possibilities:
  • If you want to place all customized generative view styles in a custom directory, named mydirectory for example, you need to proceed as follows:
 

  1. Create a directory named as you like (mydirectory, for example).

  2. Create a sub-directory under this directory, which needs to be named generativeparameters.

  3. Place the XML files containing your customized generative view styles in mydirectory\generativeparameters. 

  • If you have not yet customized your XML generative view style files, then proceed as follows:

  1. Create a directory named as you like (mydirectory, for example).

  2. Create a sub-directory under this directory, which needs to be named generativeparameters.

  3. Set the CATCollectionStandard variable to mydirectory. After you have customized the XML generative view style files, the standard editor will then save them in  mydirectory\generativeparameters.
  • If the CATDefaultCollectionStandard and the CATCollectionStandard variables both contain an identically-named generative view styles, it is always the style found in  CATCollectionStandard  which will be used. 
  • If two directories referenced by the CATCollectionStandard and/or CATDefaultCollectionStandard variables contain identically-named generative view style files, it is always the style in the directory listed first which will be used.
  • Drafting standard files are not supported if they contain a . (a dot) in their name (apart from the extension .xml).
    For example, a drafting standard file with the name ISO.customized.xml is not supported.

Customizing and Defining Generative View Styles or Standards

To edit and save generative view style files or standard files in Tools> Standards, you must be running the V5 session in administrator mode (-admin). 

The recommended method for customizing generative view style files or standard files is the following:

  1. You need to work in administrator mode. To do this, proceed as follows: 

    1. Set up the CATReferenceSettingPath variable.

    2. Start a V5 session using the -admin option. 

    For more information, refer to the Managing Environments chapter in the Infrastructure Installation Guide.

  2. Set up the CATCollectionStandard environment variable as explained above.

    If none of the conditions are respected, a warning message will appear to let you know that you will neither be able to modify nor save the XML files.

  3. Modify the generative view styles or the Drafting standards as appropriate.

  4. Use the Save As or the OK button to store your modifications.

  5. To exit, use the Cancel button.

Once the generative view style files or the standard files have been customized and saved, they can be used in a V5 session in normal mode.