Description
ArtiosCAD Outputs have many options, this article describes how to configure these options so that an Output can be used as a WebCenter CAD Download Format.
Relevance
Much of this article is relevant with current releases through July 5, 2017. The releases available as of this date are ArtiosCAD 16.1 and WebCenter 16.1.1
There are some points which are based on future releases. They are noted below.
Procedure
A WebCenter CAD Download Format is actually an exposed ArtiosCAD Output. For more information on how this is done, see this article:
The most important thing to note is that the ArtiosCAD Output must be configured to produce exactly one output file in an unattended manner. Below are some of the important Output tabs with notes on how they should be configured:
Output Type Tab
Most Output Types are supported as long as they are configured to produce exactly one output file. For a Sample type output, the download format produced will be as if the Make Sample button had been pressed. For a Group Output type, the output type on the Grouped Outputs tab must be set to Zip so that it produces a zip file output.
Typically, the Scale option should be to set To fit one page, however, if a specific scale is required then the Device Size on the Position tab must be large enough so that the output fits on one page. An Output which produces a tiled result because it does not fit on the device size will not work as a Download Format because it will attempt to produce multiple output files.
Another way to avoid tiling when using a scaled output is to set the Device Size on the Position tab to 0,0. This will automatically use the output size as the device size, thus avoiding tiling. The only exception where tiling is permitted is when outputting to PDF and in this case the Put all tiles in one file (PDF only) option on the Tiling tab must be set.
Device Tab
The Driver Types supported include CAM Driver which produces an Output To File and Driver Type: Bitmap which always goes out to a file.
Destination Tab
The main setting should be Output To Directory and the Automatically Open option should be turned off. The Extension field should be set to the proper file extension as that is the extension that WebCenter will use for the file that WebCenter will download.
Project-Bill of Materials Tab
As of ArtiosCAD Enterprise 16.1.1, a Bill of Materials output type is available to be used as a CAD Download Format. Below is how such an output can be configured.
For Bill of Materials type output, the only supported options are Multipage PDF and XML since they both go out to a file. The Show project information dialog before running output option should be turned off and Use prompting report file against each document is also not supported for outputs which are exposed as download formats.
Download Format Issues
Currently in WebCenter, once a document is successfully downloaded in a particular format, the resulting output file is stored with that version of the document so that it is not generated again. For the most part, when used with a typical export type format (CF2, DDS, etc) this works as expected since the geometry of the document cannot change within a document version. However, when used with a Report type output, report fields may be out of date if they have changed since the time the initial download format was generated.
To support dynamic ArtiosCAD download formats (download formats depending on WebCenter document metadata or project data), the WebCenter configuration has been extended with an option to not cache specific download formats. Examples of dynamic download formats where turning caching off could be needed are Bill of Materials reports and reports that are based on metadata that can be edited directly in WebCenter (without uploading a new CAD file version). The CAD Download Formats for a given document version are by default, generated and cached in the system when first downloaded by a user. Subsequent users downloading the same download format will get the same cached file (so no re-generation).
The caching behavior is controlled per CAD document type and download format. Cached downloads will be faster, but will not adapt to any changes made in, for e.g.: document or project metadata after the download was cached for that document version. If this is a problem, it is possible to turn caching off for this format (re-generate on each download).
To turn caching off or on for a given document type and download format, go to Admin > CAD > CAD Download Formats page.
Each download format has a Cache checkbox per CAD document type. There is no Cache option for the ArtiosCAD format (native document) as this format is always available. When the Cache checkbox is not selected and you save the setup, it will disable caching and delete (mark for delete by cleanup tool) any cached data for this download format and document type system wide.
Disabling cache feature is available in WebCenter 18.0 and newer.
Another issue to consider is the latency of the CAD Engine behind WebCenter which is used to generate the Download Format. This CAD Engine functions much like an instance of ArtiosCAD Enterprise, logged in as an Admin user and will typically use the Database Cache Refresh Times from the Shared Defaults:
Based on this, a user may experience situations where a download format may not contain the latest information.
| Article information | |
|---|---|
| Applies to | ArtiosCAD Enterprise 18.0.x WebCenter 18.0.x |
| Created | 30-Jun-17 |
| Last revised | 17-Jan-19 |
| Author | MRAN |
| Case Number | |