Notes on Configurations and Default Articles
If there are several configurations for a contained SOLIDWORKS part when opening HELiOS documents, a dialogue appears in which you can make a corresponding selection.
When selecting a configuration, the article context after loading the part may differ from the article originally selected by the user. The dialogue appears when loading via the document master without a unique article master, but not if an article master uniquely assigned to a configuration is used.
If an article context is not unique, you are asked for a unique assignment.
In addition to default articles, there are also configuration-specific articles.
When selecting an article for a document (including configuration), you are asked whether this article is a default article.
Different configuration values of a document can be assigned either to a unique default article or to an individual configuration-specific article.
This means that a document with a unique default article link can contain both configurations that are linked to the default article and configurations that are linked to another, individually configuration-specific article master.
When loading a subordinate document without article context, this default article is then used as the context. If exactly one default article exists for a document, it is used for all configurations for which a configuration-specific article link has not been assigned or will not be assigned subsequently.
When inserting a corresponding document (also from a pure document search) into an assembly, the unique article context is stored in the temporary model structure and is transferred to HELiOS when the assembly is saved. The same applies to the functions New in HELiOS and Derive model structure. Here, articles for configurations of standard parts are always created configuration-specific, all others as default articles.
When calling the article display for the active part of an assembly, a check is made if a default article can be "set" if the article context from the model structure is missing.
Generally, there can be several default articles for one document. In this case, you will be asked to select the appropriate one in a step that requires a unique default article context (e.g. when placing a component using the HELiOS function Combined search). This should remain unique for the rest of the process.
Please note the following special cases that may occur:
- There are N default articles but no configuration-specific articles, which corresponds to the link model N:1 (article:document). Example: A document has several materials and therefore different article masters.
- There are no default articles and only configuration-specific articles: This corresponds to a 1:1 (configuration:article) link model. This can be the case for standard parts, for example.
Please note:
Also note related information about the behaviour of ToolBox standard parts.
In the Attribute configuration of Article/document links for result lists (e.g. for link rows in the article detail window) the following attributes are available for working with configurations in HELiOS:
- Document configuration ("VA_DocumentTargetConfigName"): the name of the configuration of a document is stored here
- Document configuration identifier ("VA_DocumentTargetConfigid"): the unique identifier of the configuration of a document
- Document configuration information ("VA_DocumentTargetConfigInfo"): if a corresponding information is available, the attribute shows you the configuration name, the configuration identifier or "Default article" if the linked article is a default article.
Please note:
- If you want to transfer an assembly with configurations into the database, in which sub-parts are hidden depending on the configuration, then you must transfer all individual sub-parts successively with New in HELiOS.
- If, for example, a standard part is inserted using the Combined search with a unique configuration-specific article context, the correct CAD configuration is automatically selected. If the article context of a part is not configuration-specific, a query appears asking which configuration is to be installed.
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If you work with configurations, when you open documents without an article context, the SOLIDWORKS configuration selection appears first, followed by the selection of the HELiOS article context, if applicable. This has the advantage that you can open a SOLIDWORKS document with configurations in any configuration independently of any existing article contexts in HELiOS. Otherwise, the selectable configurations might be limited by the existing article contexts. Basically, the option Settings for the Document > Supplement non-existing article context by (unambiguously) linked article applies. When dragging a document with configurations from the HELiOS workspace into an empty SOLIDWORKS window (the dragging process then results in opening the document), a configuration selection also appears. In this case, the document is always opened, but no article context is taken into account.
- Renaming configurations is only transferred to HELiOS if the part of the configuration is saved directly. Not if you rename a configuration and then set another configuration active. In this case the renaming is not transferred. So be sure to save directly.
- Be careful when deleting configurations in SOLIDWORKS, because saving the component will not delete them from HELiOS. When opening an assembly that referred to a deleted configuration, errors may occur.
- When new standard part specifications are transferred to HELiOS, the toolbox file is automatically compared with the standard part file saved in HELiOS. There is a risk here that a document already saved in HELiOS will be recognised, but the configuration set was not yet transferred to HELiOS at the time of the original transfer. At this point, make sure that the status of a model drawing you are working with locally does not conflict with the status of the HELiOS database.
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If, within the scope of a batch update, sub-parts of assemblies exist that have been transferred in different configurations with default article master with the New in HELiOS function, the corresponding documents are opened successively in all configurations known in HELiOS (of the matching article/document context). This updates the document several times. If you save certain attributes in the attribute mapping as configuration-specific, then all configurations known in HELiOS will also be updated for these.
