Engee documentation

T-FLEX DOCs Support Package

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T-FLEX DOCs is a product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system developed by TOP SYSTEMS. It provides centralized storage, versioning, lifecycle management, and collaboration on project documentation, drawings, and 3D models.

The T-FLEX DOCs support package is designed to organize automated data exchange between computing tasks in Engee and calculation objects in T-FLEX DOCs. This allows you to create an end-to-end digital cycle: upload the source data for calculations from T-FLEX DOCs to Engee, perform calculations using Engee computing power and tools, and then upload the calculation results back to T-FLEX DOCs for further use, analysis, and version control.

Getting started with the T-FLEX DOCs Support Package at Engee

To start working with the T-FLEX DOCs support package in Engee, you must first configure T-FLEX DOCs and install the Engee subsystem.Integration.

  1. Preparation of T-FLEX DOCs:

    • Download and unpack archive.

    • Import the reference books from the file into your T-FLEX DOCs database Reference books for calculations.ddx.

    • Import the macro to access T-FLEX DOCs from the file Integration with Engee 1D Lite.ddx.

    • Place the executable file TflexDocsEngee.exe to the folder Program your installed version of T-FLEX DOCs.

  2. Installation of the Engee subsystem.Integrations:

    • To install the hardware support package, run the client program and connect it to the Engee server, follow the instructions described in the article. Engee.Integration.

  3. Import the T-FLEX DOCs support package and create an object: After connecting the Engee subsystem.Integration return to Engee and run the following command:

    using Main.EngeeDeviceManager.Devices.TFLEXDOCS

    Next, create an object TFLEXDOCS, which will be used to interact with the system:

    tdocs = TFLEXDOCS.Tflexdocs()

Basic methods of working with T-FLEX DOCs

The following methods are used to interact with the T-FLEX DOCs system:

  • TFLEXDOCS.start_work — initializes a session for working with T-FLEX DOCs.

  • TFLEXDOCS.new_calculation — creates a new calculation object in T-FLEX DOCs.

  • TFLEXDOCS.upload_files — uploads files with calculation results to the specified calculation object.

  • TFLEXDOCS.download_files — downloads files with source data from the specified calculation object.

  • TFLEXDOCS.stop_work — ends the session of working with T-FLEX DOCs.

Step-by-step example of working with T-FLEX DOCs

Let’s look at an example of a full work cycle: from creating a session and a calculation object to uploading data, performing calculations in Engee and uploading the results back to T-FLEX DOCs.

  1. Create a session for working with T-FLEX DOCs — start the session, specifying paths if necessary. If no paths are specified, the default values will be used.

    # Starting a session with default paths
TFLEXDOCS.start_work(tdocs)

# Alternative option with indication of paths
# docs_path = raw"C:\Program Files (x86)\T-FLEX DOCs 18\Program"
# exe_path = raw"C:\Program Files (x86)\T-FLEX DOCs 18\Program\TflexDocsEngee\TflexDocsEngee.exe"
# TFLEXDOCS.start_work(tdocs, docs_path, exe_path)

  2. Create a new calculation object — create a new object with a name and description in T-FLEX DOCs.

    TFLEXDOCS.new_calculation(tdocs, "new_calc", "Calculation for testing integration with Engee")

  3. Upload the source data for the calculation — get the files from the created calculation object. Before doing this, make sure that the necessary source data is placed in the calculation object in T-FLEX DOCs.

    # Getting files from the calculation object "new_calc"
download_files = TFLEXDOCS.download_files(tdocs, "new_calc")

# A function for saving received files to the Engee working directory
function prepare_files_for_engee(calc_files::Dict{String, Vector{UInt8}})
    for (file_name, file_content) in calc_files
        write(file_name, file_content)
    end
end

# Saving files
prepare_files_for_engee(download_files)

  4. Performing calculations — Use the uploaded files to perform the necessary calculations in Engee. In this example, the calculation is simulated.

    # Simulation of calculation and result generation
path = "results.txt"
result_content = ""
for i in 1:10
    calculation_result = i * 100 / i^3
    result_content *= string(calculation_result) * "\n"
end

# Writing the calculation result to a file
write(path, result_content)

  5. Preparation and uploading of calculation results — Prepare the received result files and upload them back to the calculation object in T-FLEX DOCs.

    # A function for preparing files to be sent to T-FLEX DOCs
function prepare_files_for_docs(paths::Vector{String})
    files_dict::Dict{String, Vector{UInt8}} = Dict()
    for path in paths
        file_content = read(path)
        base_name = basename(path)
        files_dict[base_name] = file_content
    end
    return files_dict
end

# Preparing the results file
files_to_upload = prepare_files_for_docs([path])

# Uploading the results to the calculation object "new_calc" in T-FLEX DOCs
TFLEXDOCS.upload_files(tdocs, files_to_upload, "new_calc")

  6. End of session — Close the session at the end of the work.

    TFLEXDOCS.stop_work(tdocs)

Possible problems and their solutions

  1. Initialization error — if the session does not start (TFLEXDOCS.start_work completes with an error), then make sure of the following:

    • Paths to the Program directory and executable file TflexDocsEngee.exe indicated correctly.

    • The TflexDocsEngee directory has been copied to the Program folder of the installed version of T-FLEX DOCs.

    • Necessary reference books (.ddx-files) are imported into the project.

  2. Calculation object not found — when calling TFLEXDOCS.download_files or TFLEXDOCS.upload_files make sure that the calculation object with the specified name exists in T-FLEX DOCs.

  3. Problems with file transfer — The T-FLEX DOCs support package expects files to be presented as a dictionary Dict{String, Vector{UInt8}}, where the key is the file name, and the value is its contents in the form of an array of bytes. Make sure that your file preparation functions (prepare_files_for_engee, prepare_files_for_docs) convert the data correctly.