Motivation
CAD systems in our days are used to create 3-dimensional solids and assemblies with extended geometric dimensions and tolerancing designs. Most archive products are only able to store Binary Large Objects (BLOBs). In such scenarios, however, archiving products should be able to store a CAD file with geometry and product structure information. Since a complex product structure is always changing, using a simple black box approach of an archive for 3D implies that the full structure would need to be stored with every single update.
Additionally, 3D-CAD applications create a proprietary CAD format, which is changing over time, for example with every major version of the CAD product. This leads to the requirement of handling a complex product structure with an easy way of doing updates based on a long term CAD file format.
Goals
The ImageMaster 3D approach addresses the preservation of the assembly structure including the possibility of tracking partial updates during the lifetime of parts and products. It is not intended for direct and close connection to CAD systems, which usually provide a monolithic assembly structure. The 3D geometry of a single part is provided as a single assembly node with relationship information.
In case of an update of the product structure, only the single assembly/part file needs to be changed and archived. The archive system maintains and manages the update in the product structure. In the case of a missing part or assembly, a dummy file is used. ImageMaster 3D is able to define which kind of dummy is needed and dummy content can be defined by customization.
The retrieval works along the product structure. All single files are collected based on the last version information or on a date of archive creation/modification and delivered including dummies. The collection can be exported to a file system in to use it in an external viewer.
A validity date can be provided with any incoming document from an external source. If no date is supplied, the current date and time is set. A configuration in the AdminClient decides if this validity date will be used to define which parts to export at a given litigation time point. See 3D document types in the AdminClient user manual [UM AdminClient].