From concept to creation
It is easy to traverse a SysML bdd (block definition diagram) to an ibd (internal block diagram). This is achieved via the cross references between the specification, holding the details, and its use on each diagram. A common piece of data represented in different ways on different diagrams. A case of record once, use many.
It is often the case that the accounts within a project have more than one role. For example an “engineer” role and a “team leader” role. Different privileges are needed for these roles, so it is possible that people will have more than one user account. This could create a problem if the user repeatedly needs to logout and re-enter credentials for each of their accounts. If a user needs to repeatedly change user profiles, these steps can become very time consuming.
Instead, a user can use the ‘Switch’ option in the ‘User’ group in the ‘Home’ tab. A similar mechanism is available in Cradle custom web UIs.
Cradle presents a list of other user profiles that the user can ‘switch’ to. When the user chooses one of these user profiles, he/she is logged-out from the current login account and logged-in to the chosen login account, without any use of the Login dialog, with no need to enter the new user’s username, and with no need to enter the password for the new login account.
This mechanism can be used to allow any number of users can to switch between any number of users in the SAME database.
The Publish Table function in Cradle gives a simple way to produce html (Hypertext mark-up Language) , rtf (Rich Text Format) or csv (Comma Separated Values) output.
Tip: Saving as html will maintain the formatting to directly open in Excel.
When you have a large number of projects and users it can get difficult to track them all. Project Manager, part of the Cradle suite, provides a method to hierarchically organise, categorise and sort your projects.
A Project may belong to more than one sub category, “Mechanical Department” and “Current Project”, you can place a link to the project in each of these folders. In the future the link may be in the “Mechanical Department” and “Completed” folders, its up to you. Project manager can also add a host of user defined categorisations and references. This will help identify a project and its associated contracts or references, now and in years to come.
You can set attributes for each project. These can provide extra details about the project’s purpose, status, dates and so on. Project Manager ships with nine default attributes, however, you can add your own or change those supplied.
There are multiple ways to create cross reference links in Cradle.
Drag and drop the items to create a cross reference link, use the Link Details dialog to manually enter, or use the ‘Make Link To‘ and the ‘Make Link From‘ option. The video above demonstrates how quick and simple these methods are.
A slightly more graphic method of producing cross references is to double-click, or right click and choose Create Cross Reference on the inter linking cell in a Matrix.
The cell also gives access to the items from the column and row that are referenced at the intersection, or details of the existing link between them
What can link to what, by whom and with what link type is controlled by link rules. Covered in this blog article.cross ref
Each of these options creates a link. Each one can have sixteen user defined link attributes. These are defined in the Project Schema, if you don’t define any, Cradle will default to providing “Reason, Rationale, Reference and Note” for the first four attributes to get you started.
Every organisation that deploys Cradle will want to satisfy itself that Cradle is safe to install. One free resource that can help is VirusTotal, at:
You can submit files or URLs to this free checking service and have it checked against a wide range of Anti-Virus (AV) products and resources. An example of a check of the Cradle Database Server (CDS), the file: crsvr.exe, is shown in the figure.
We are sometimes asked if it is possible to export the contents of individual baselines. Most commonly for baselines that have been closed in the past. The short answer is yes, and here’s how:
Note: You should NOT try to import information into old baselines. This is because:
For more information on exporting information from Cradle, this help article may help you.
A formal document is a document with special significance to you. When you publish a formal document, it appears in the ‘formal documents’ list in the UI. You can open the formal document in Word, compare it to other formal documents and other versions of the same formal document, and see the items that were published inside it. You can select items and see in which formal documents they have been published, so if the items change, you know which formal documents to re-issue.
When you publish a document from Document Publisher, you choose to publish it, or to publish it as a ‘formal document’. You use the same template in both cases. When you publish your template as a formal document, you can:
You can use these values inside the template, for example so they appear on the cover page. When Document Publisher publishes a formal document, uses the template in the same way as when it is published as a normal document, but also:
A new formal document is version 1. Later, you can publish a new version of that same document, which will be version 2, and so on.
There is a summary of this in the white paper here:
https://www.threesl.com/downloads/download.php?version=v7.1§ion=whitepapers&filename=ra00102-Document_Management.pdf
“Good morning, are our Wonder Widgets ready yet?”
“Urm, Yes…., I think so, I’ll just check with packaging”
“If you could just include your conformance report with the consignment, that would be great”
“Report, yes, I’ll add one…”
“Great, that just gives my team the confidence that everything from the mechanical safety standards to the power unit’s supply duration are all up to scratch. We’re happy to pay the extra for a fast courier if that means they will be here tomorrow”
“Mmm, power unit! urm, I’ll get on to it… Bye”
Oh dear, wasn’t it clear that the power unit was part of the sourcing deal? Did you just forget? What was the required duration? Where can I source 300 on a Thursday afternoon?
Managing a supply chain is just like managing the individual requirements of an in-house project. Just because you don’t manufacture each item doesn’t mean you don’t have to manage its specification, purchase and conformance. Changes to your customer’s original specification need to be managed all along the chain. That’s only possible if the links are clearly defined.
By importing your customer’s original documentation as a set of requirements, creating items from your supplier’s specifications and linking them together you can ensure complete coverage of your project’s vital obligations.
Trace and control your customer’s needs with your supplier’s products, commodities, crops or services and ensure you’re not the weakest link in the supply chain.
3SL would like to wish all our customers, partners and suppliers a happy and fruitful 2017.
We hope you are all back to work and busy using Cradle-7.1.2 for your design, requirements management. If you’ve not got the latest version for the start of the year head over to www.threesl.com, login to your account and download it from the Software part of the Resources area in our website here.
If you install Cradle-7.1.2 clients don’t forget to update the server too and visa versa!
We obviously love the fact that Cradle is used on such a diverse set of projects within a huge range of companies. Some customers have fully embraced integrated thinking and manage every aspect of their project with appropriate tools. However, we also know there are pockets of Cradle being used in isolation in engineering departments and disparate projects dotted around our customers’ sites, where unfortunately the wider organisation, their suppliers and customers are just not as tuned into well balanced control and design.
If you find yourself in that situation you may like to use the details in our set of white papers dealing with the uses of information systems in engineering. A paper dealing with the role of RM and SE tool scan be seen here.
3SL in Australia is distributed by our new partners at Agile Controls.
We are thrilled to announce they have recently signed up their first major customer, we wish them continued success in 2017 and look forward to supporting Cradle’s ‘down under’.
They can be contacted at:
Agile Controls,
108A Tregarthen Road,
Ashton
australia@threesl.com
+61 427 975 674
Sometimes you don’t have time to digest all the information in a newsletter. 3SL often tweet simple usage tips that can make a difference when learning all the capabilities of Cradle.
For example:
Confused about which symbol is which? Hover to see a tool tip or select Draw button from Tools ribbon.
Click to view this post or 
follow @threesl if you want to chat about #Cradle or #3SL don’t forget to use an appropriate #tag
When you need a static intranet version of your project, a version you can place on a CD or pen-drive and ship then consider Cradle’s Web Publisher. This allows you to publish your project to a linked set of html pages that can be packaged up and sent to anyone with a browser. You could of course publish parts as a paper report, or as a more complete document with Document Publisher. However, the simplicity of being click a symbol on a diagram and be taken to the specification behind it provides a simple way to share your data with other parties. Of course if you are able to enlighten your customer or supplier, then 3SL will happily demonstrate the full benefits of Cradle and then you can share exports or a common project database.