Property Mapping Basics

The Integration Tool Setup utility enables the administrator to map properties from CATIA directly to an object's Profile Card. This provides users with the highest level of integration, enabling a bi-directional link from a CATIA property to the object's Profile Card and from a Profile Card to CATIA property.

This section provides an overview of property mapping. It deals with the following topics:

For reference information on the Integration Tool Setup utility, refer to the SMARTEAM documentation.

Integration Tool Setup Utility

The Integration Tool Setup Utility is used to:

  • Define new relationships between SmarTeam and CATIA.

  • Add, update and delete mapping groups, mapping properties and mapping attributes.

  • CATIA Product: This indicates that the associated set of mappings are related to documents stored in the CATIA Product class.
  • Read only : when you define a mapping you also define its direction. Read only is one of the options determining the mapping direction.
     

Mapping Groups Tree Window

Properties are mapped from the Mapping Group Tree window.

  1. To access the Mapping Group Tree window, select SmarTeam >Tools > Property Management.
    All property types (or group types) are mapped in the same way.

    • CN_DEFINITION: The mapping property name corresponds either to a CATIA formula or a hardcoded CATIA attribute.

    • Enable updating of property: This is one of the options determining the  mapping direction.

Mapping Direction

For each mapped property, the mapping direction has to be defined:

  • Database->CATIA i.e. CATIA property values come from the database

  • CATIA->Database i.e. CATIA property values are written to the database

Note that you can select both mapping directions.

These options determine the mapping direction:

  • the CATIA value is stored in the SmarTeam database or,
  • The SmarTeam values are applied to CATIA
  • The mapping is bidirectional

In the table below you will notice that the property mapping information relates to both the title block and the revision block.

Property Name in CATIA

Attribute Name in SmarTeam

Attribute Type in SmarTeam

Update Direction

Type

Document Type

character

Database->CATIA

Designer

ID

character

Database->CATIA

Date

Creation Date

character

Database->CATIA

Drawing_Title

Title

character

Database->CATIA

Scale

Scale

character

CATIA->Database

Revision

Revision

character

Database->CATIA

Comment

Note

character

Database->CATIA

ApprovalDate

Approval Date

character

Database->CATIA

Authorized

Approved By

character

Database->CATIA

 

Hard-coded Property Names

Here is a list of the hard-coded names accessing product properties and sheet information.

Some of them can only be read from the CATIA document. In other words, defining a mapping from SmarTeam to CATIA will not work because these properties are read only on the CATIA side.

Property Name Read/Write? Description Relevant Class
CN_PART_NUMBER read/write Contents of the Part Number field CATIA Part and CATIA Product
CN_REVISION read/write Contents of the Revision field CATIA Part and CATIA Product
CN_DEFINITION read/write Contents of the Definition field CATIA Part and CATIA Product
CN_NOMENCLATURE read/write Contents of the Nomenclature field CATIA Part and CATIA Product
CN_SOURCE read/write Contents of the Source field CATIA Part and CATIA Product
CN_DESCRIPTIONREF read/write Contents of the Description field CATIA Part and CATIA Product
CN_CONTEXTUAL read File name of the referenced
CATIA Product for a contextual Part		 CATIA Part
CN_SHEET_NAME read Name of the sheet CATIA Sheet
CN_SHEET_FORMAT read Format of the sheet CATIA Sheet
CN_VERSION_TO_READ read Minimal CATIA version which can be used to open the document

Values are displayed like CATIAVxRy where:
x=5
y=6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and so on.

 All classes used to store V5 documents

Note that surface, mass and volume mapping are no longer documented as it has a negative effect on saving performance.

If such mapping has already been done, remove it from the database as follows:

  1. Run the Integration Tools Setup utility.

  2. In the tree displayed, select CATIA then right-click on Mapping group types.

  3. Right-click on each class one by one (such as CATIA Product or CATIA Part) and select Open Group Tree.

  4. Check that neither CN_MASS nor CN_VOLUME nor CN_SURFACE are under Engineering Information. If they are, delete the appropriate mapping property information.

Map a Text Value...

Before using SmarTeam > Properties > Map a Text Value (for an example, see Displaying a CATIA Drawing SmarTeam Attribute in a Title Block), create a group-type corresponding to the name of the class used to store the drawing (this group-type is created using Integration Tools Setup).

Performance and Attribute Mapping

Attribute mapping is one of the major element in terms of performance implied for the Save and Open transactions.

Thus, it is advised to clearly identify the needed mapping:

  • A previous section describes the importance not to map the mass, volume and surface
  • The user should determine whether each type of mapping is needed from CATIA to SmarTeam, from SmarTeam to CATIA or from both directions:
  • If it is really required, the revision should be mapped only from SmarTeam to CATIA
  • The parameter attributes can be mapped from (and to) CATIA to (and from) SmarTeam but most often only the CATIA to SmarTeam mapping direction is needed.
  • The same consideration can be performed on the CN_MATERIAL attribute. Most often, only the CATIA to SmarTeam mapping direction is needed.

Note

Some attribute mapping operations may require the loading of documents.