Units
If attributes of the data type FLOAT (floating point number) are unit-bound values such as units of measurement or dates, you have the possibility in the attribute administration of HELiOS to define a Unit category and a Standard unit for display, with which you can distinguish between EU and US units, for example.
These units are then taken into account accordingly when entering and outputting values in HELiOS.
The possible Standard unit for display depends on the selectedUnit category: e.g. for the Time category you can choose between the units s, m and h (seconds, minutes or hours) as standard display, for volume data between mm³, cm³, m³, in³ or ft³ (cubic millimetres, cubic centimetres, cubic metres, cubic inches or cubic feet), and so on.
The Unit category that you can assign in each case when creating or changing FLOAT attributes includes the following selection and standard definition options:
|
Unit category |
possible Standard unit for display |
|---|---|
|
Dendity |
kg/m³, g/cm³, lb/ft³ or lb/in³ (kilograms per cubic metre, grams per cubic centimetre, pounds per cubic foot (feet) or pounds per cubic inch). |
|
Pressure |
Pa, bar, MPa or psi (pascal, bar, megapascal or indexed horsepower) |
|
Flow rate |
m³/h, m³/s, GPH or GPM (cubic metres per hour, cubic metres per second, cubic metres per hour in gallons or cubic metres per minute in gallons) |
|
Surface area |
mm², cm², m², in² or ft² (square millimetre, square centimetre, square metre, square inch or square foot) |
|
Surface area per length |
m²/m or ft²/f (square metres per metre or square feet per foot) |
|
Force |
N oder lbf (Newton oder Pound-force) |
|
Length |
mm, cm, m, in or ft (Newton or pound-force) |
|
Performance |
W, k/W, BTU/h or hp (watt, kilowatt, British thermal unit per hour or horsepower) |
|
Mass |
g, kg, t, oz or lb (gram, kilogram, ton, ounce or pound) |
|
Mass per length |
kg/m² or lb/ft² or lb/in² (kilogram/square metre or pound/square foot or pound/square inch) |
|
Mass per surface area |
kg/m or lb/ft (kilogram / metre or pound / foot) |
|
No unit |
Standard assignment of HELiOS. This is also automatically assigned to attribute entries of older HELiOS versions, in which there was no possibility to assign unit categories, during update installations. See the notes on this further below. |
|
Temperature |
K, °C or °F (Kelvin, Celsius or Fahrenheit) |
|
Volume |
mm³, cm³, m³, in³ oder ft³ (cubic millimetre, cubic centimetre, cubic inch or cubic foot) |
|
Thermal expansion coefficient |
1/K or 1/°F Kelvin or Fahrenheit) |
|
Thermal conductivity |
W/(m·K) or BTU/(h·ft·°F) (watts/metre/kelvin or inches/hour/square feet/°Fahrenheit) |
|
Angle |
° or rad (degrees or radians) |
|
Time |
s, m or h (seconds, minutes or hours) |
Please note:
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To create edit the unit categories of attributes, you must be logged into the HELiOS attribute editor with administration rights.
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In the case of a new installation of a HELiOS standard database from version 2700 onwards, the corresponding unit categories including standard display are already defined for many FLOAT attributes. Legacy data of older databases are not converted by update installations at first, but you can cause this by a one-time manual change of the unit category.
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Please note, however, that attribute values stored in the database may change when converting units (categories).
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For MultiCAD interfaces, the attribute mapping must therefore be configured so that the imported values are available in the correct base unit.
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For interfaces to ERP systems or similar., it should be taken into account that conversions may be necessary. As of HELiOS Version 2022 (v. 2700.0), the PDM API always returns values in the base unit for attributes with units. If you use your own adaptations, you may have to adapt them.
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KSTs (customer interfaces) of the ISD are also affected.
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Important note for HiCAD users: If you work with the HiCAD-HELiOS interface and want to use units for attributes that are relevant for coupling, you must work with a HiCAD version >= 2022 (V. 2700.0).
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Due to the change of units, there has also been a change in the interpretation of the decimal separator for FLOAT attributes: A German HELiOS version uses the comma, an English version the point as decimal point. For the user, this also has the advantage that the numeric keypad can be used sensibly in this respect.
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If you work with unit categories, the standard display units of relevant attributes are also output when transferring product structures to the Report Manager. The standard display unit is also used when displaying the attributes in the product structure tree.
Example: New FLOAT attribute with unit category
Let us assume that you want to create a new attribute for production parts that gives information about an upper temperature load limit.
To do this, click on Article in the HELiOS Attribute Editor under Create user-defined attributes and then, in the HELiOS Attribute management window for articles that is called up, click on New in the bottom right-hand corner.
After you have given the attribute a unique name in the Name field (e.g. MAXTEMP), next enter FLOAT in the Data type field using the pull-down menu. Then under Unit category select Temperature.
You now have the option of choosing between K, °C or °F(Kelvin, Celsius or Fahrenheit) as the Standard unit for display.
Under Display format you can also define the number of decimal places displayed. When indicating upper temperature limits, a high value is probably not really necessary here. If you select the empty upper line of the pull-down menu, decimal places are only displayed for the attribute if the corresponding value in the database field contains some (in the exact number of the attribute value).
Save the entries by clicking OK.
The new item attribute is added to the overview of the HELiOS Attribute management. In the column Additional, you will see an indication of the corresponding category for attributes whose Unit category is other than No unit:
Change unit category
Of course, you can also subsequently define a category for FLOAT attributes that were originally assigned no unit or No unit as Unit category by selecting a corresponding attribute in the overview of the HELiOS attribute administration and clicking on Change.
FLOAT attributes of an existing delivery database older than HELiOS version 2022 (V 2700) are automatically assigned No unit as Unit category during update installations (and the corresponding update of the database subversion).
If you make a subsequent change of unit categories to attributes (for which values are already entered in the database), a query then appears:
If you exit the window with the option Do not update already entered data values activated (default) by clicking OK, then the corresponding unit category will be assigned to the attribute, but no updating of legacy data available in the HELiOS database for the corresponding attribute will be carried out.
Click Convert already entered data values into [Unit] and update in the database to convert existing attribute values in the database, depending on the selection of the category and the base unit. If the option is active, you can also change the standard unit for displaying the attribute before conversion in the pull-down menu under "The values are currently entered in the following unit of measurement".
Depending on the size of the dataset, the conversion process may take some time.
If you change the Unit category of an attribute that is already a unit other than No unit and for which data has already been generated, you will receive a message that the unit category will be changed, but corresponding data values will be taken over instead of converted
