Tag: new features / release

New features / release and functionality are added at each Cradle release

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August 2022 – Newsletter

Cradle-7.7 – Released

We are pleased to announce the release of Cradle-7.7 which is available now for download from the downloads section of the 3SL website.  This is the latest version of Cradle.

Cradle-7.7
Cradle-7.7 splash screen

3SL customers with active maintenance have been sent an e-mail notification, and details of which of their enhancement requests and bug reports are included in this new release.  This is a significant Cradle release that increments the Cradle minor version number from 7.6 to 7.7. This means that the Security Codes for Cradle-7.6 or earlier will NOT work with this new Cradle-7.7 release. Therefore, if you want to upgrade to Cradle-7.7 then you MUST contact 3SL Support and request a Cradle-7.7 Security Code since your existing Cradle-7.6 Security Codes will NOT work with this new release.

New Cradle-7.7 Capabilities

This release contains a range of new capabilities, including:

  • Snapshots
  • Metrics added to graphs
  • New header option in views
  • New reports
  • Annular dial type added to Dashboards
  • Precision option added to Dashboards
  • Ability to test email setup from User Preferences

These new capabilities are shown below. For further information please refer to the Release Notes.

Snapshots

A snapshot is a read-only copy of all the information in a Cradle database at a specific point in time that can be viewed, in isolation, at any point in the future.

Snapshots can be created and selected from the Project tab in WorkBench:

Project ribbon in WorkBench
Snapshot options in WorkBench

Snapshots can also be created via the command line using c_prj.

When a user selects a snapshot, their access to information, cross references and definitions are determined by the contents of the user’s profile in the database, regardless of whether or not the user has a profile in the current snapshot and regardless of the contents of that user profile (if any) in the snapshot.

Snapshots are deleted from Project Manager or the command line (c_prj).

Metrics in Graphs

Cradle-7.7 includes a new type of graph which shows metric coverage or count of items with different categories set or unset. This is called a metric graph. An example is shown below:

Example Metrics Graph
Example Metrics Graph in Cradle

Header Option in Views

A new Header option is now available in the dialog. This provides a way of showing grouped and coloured headings when output. Example output is shown below:

Example Output showing coloured header
Example output from WorkBench showing a coloured header

New Reports

A new Baseline Summary List report has been included in this release. This outputs each baseline on it’s own row in a table.

The Baseline Summary report has been renamed to Baseline Summary Compact.

A Sort by filter has also been added to both the Baseline List report, Baseline Summary List report and the Baseline Summary Compact report. This provides the option to sort by the baseline name, when the baseline was opened or when the baseline was closed.

Report Details Dialog
Report Details Dialog showing Sort by options

Annular Dial Type in Dashboards

A new dial type has been added to dashboards – Annular %.

Annular Option in Dashboards
Annular Option in Dashboards

This is an annular percentage of a single dashboard bandset within which the KPI resides:

Example Annular dashboard
Example Annular dashboard

Precision Option in Dashboards

A Precision option has also been added to dashboards. This sets the count of numbers displayed around a dashboard dial:

Precision Option in dashboards
Precision Option in dashboards

Test Email Setup

The setup of emails can now be tested from User Preferences by selecting the new Test Email button:

User Preferences showing Test Email button
User Preferences showing Test Email button

Pressing the Test Mail button produces the Mail Test dialog where you choose an email recipient and whether you want to send the test email in plain text.

Mail Test dialog
Mail Test dialog

Please note the only user names shown in the Recipient drop down are Cradle users in the project who have an email address defined in their User Profile.

Download

You must contact 3SL for new Security Code(s) for Cradle-7.7. Cradle-7.7 will not accept Security Codes from Cradle-7.6 or any previous release.

Cradle clients (WorkBench, Web Access, Document Publisher for instance) and server (Cradle CDS) versions cannot be mixed. Therefore, you must upgrade all Cradle installations to 7.7.

Cradle-7.7 databases do not have the same format as Cradle-7.6 databases. Hence the Cradle-7.7 release includes a database converter for the transition from Cradle-7.6 to Cradle-7.7.  Full details are available in the 7.7 release notes, and updated manuals in addition you can always contact support@threesl.com .

Single User Products

Please note that there are no maintenance services for single-user Cradle products. Therefore, if you have purchased any of the single-user Cradle-7.6 products:

    • Cradle-RM Desktop
    • Cradle-RM Pro
    • Cradle-SE Desktop
    • Cradle-SE Pro

then you will not be able to request a new Cradle-7.7 Security Code. If you want to update your single-user Cradle system to the new Cradle-7.7 release, then you must buy the new Cradle-7.7 release.

Help with Cradle-7.7

In conclusion, we’re pleased with the new capabilities in Cradle-7.7 most importantly we hope you will benefit by upgrading. If you are not already a customer and would like more information about Cradle, you can download the software and a free evaluation licence, find more on our website, or request a webinar. If you would like to read some independent reviews feel free to use your favourite search engine or take a look at Capterra.

Upcoming Training Courses

We still have places available on our August Requirements Management training course. The dates are 15th to 18th August. This is a great opportunity for small teams, or a couple of new team members to get started with RM and Cradle. Don’t worry if you can’t make the August RM course, we are holding another one in November.

In September we then have our Risk Management course. Learn how to identify, analyse, evaluate, treat and monitor the risks associated with activities or events within your business. This course is designed for project team leaders or managers who administer and manage risks.

To book a place on one of our online courses please click here!

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Cradle 7.6 – Released

We are pleased to announce the release of Cradle-7.6

Cradle 7.6 Splash screen
Cradle 7.6

Cradle-7.6 is available now for download from the downloads section of the 3SL website.  This is the latest version of Cradle.

3SL customers with active maintenance have been sent an e-mail notification, and details of which of  their enhancement requests and bug reports are included in this new release.  This is a significant Cradle release that increments the Cradle minor version number from 7.5 to 7.6. This means that the Security Codes for Cradle-7.5 will not work with this new Cradle-7.6 release. Therefore, if you want to upgrade to the new Cradle-7.6 then you must contact 3SL Support and request a new Cradle-7.6 Security Code since your existing Cradle-7.5 Security Codes will not work with this new release.

New Cradle-7.6 Capabilities

This release contains a range of new capabilities, including major new modules RISK and TEST for risk management and test execution and management, respectively – these are charged for separately – and a collection of enhancements and bugs for the existing Cradle components:

New Modules

  • Risk Management
    • Risk management is an activity undertaken, to a greater or lesser extent, by almost every organisation. It is fundamentally concerned with identifying events which, if they occur, would have a positive or negative effect on an organisation or project.
  • Test Execution
    • Test execution and recording is generic testing of a system by people who are prompted to perform a series of steps and indicate the result of each of these steps, together with some text and image notes.

New Features

  • Linux Installer
    • Install process enhanced to improve installation experience and application launching shortcuts added to improve
      Cradle integration
  • Project Setup
    • Ability to hide unused item types from the WorkBench and Web Access user interfaces
  • User Preferences
    • New text size options now available
  • Quick Access Bar
    • Add Project queries to Quick Access Bar
  • Configuration Management
    • Ability to Approve All and Reject All from the Review tab
    • Ability to Register All from the Review tab
  • Systems Modelling
    • Categories can be chosen in Project Setup to colour item type symbols on a diagram
    • Option to initialise Project Setup with SysML related elements. There is also an option to clear SysML related elements.
  • External Commands
    • Two external commands added for item re-versioned and cross reference baselined.

Performance Enhancements

We have made a number of low-level, internal, changes deep inside the Cradle code that reduce the number of interactions between Cradle clients and the database. This will reduce the time that Cradle takes to perform a variety of common operations. The effect will be more noticeable the longer the time between your Cradle clients and the Cradle Database Server (CDS). Separately, we have made some fundamental improvements in the way that Cradle interacts with Oracle and MySQL RDBMSs so that those customers who store their Cradle databases in either Oracle or MySQL will see a particularly dramatic performance improvement.

Operations that will be noticeably faster include:

  • Displaying sets of top-level items or bottom-level items in the Project and Phase sidebars
  • Querying using levels
  • Handling cross references
  • Importing information
  • Indexing and frame handling in ODBC
  • Reduced PDB access when sending alerts

Download

You must contact 3SL for new Security Code(s) for Cradle-7.6. Cradle-7.6 will not accept Security Codes from Cradle-7.5 or any previous release.

Cradle clients (WorkBench, Web Access, Document Publisher for instance) and server (Cradle CDS) versions can not be mixed. Therefore, you must upgrade all Cradle installations to 7.6.

Cradle-7.6 databases do not have the same format as Cradle-7.5 databases. Hence the Cradle-7.6 release includes a database converter for the transition from Cradle-7.5 to Cradle-7.6.  Full details are available in the 7.6 release notes, and updated manuals in addition you can always contact support@threesl.com .

Single User Products

Please note that there are no maintenance services for single-user Cradle products. Therefore, if you have purchased any of the single-user Cradle-7.5 products:

    • Cradle-RM Desktop
    • Cradle-RM Pro
    • Cradle-SE Desktop
    • Cradle-SE Pro

then you will not be able to request a new Cradle-7.6 Security Code. If you want to update your single-user Cradle system to the new Cradle-7.6 release, then you must buy the new Cradle-7.6 release.

Help with Cradle-7.6

In conclusion, we’re pleased with the new capabilities in Cradle-7.6 most importantly hope you will benefit by upgrading. If you are not already a customer and would like more information about Cradle, you can download the software and a free evaluation licence, find more on our website, or request a webinar. If you would like to read some independent reviews feel free to use your favourite search engine or take a look at Capterra.

Article Updated

02/01/2021 – Additional information regarding changes and clarification for single user products.

08/02/2021 – Typo. Added link to special discount offer 7.5 – 7.6 Single user products

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Is Cradle designed in Cradle?

Yes! Why would you have a dog and bark yourself?

It would be a bit silly to have a requirements management tool and not use it to manage your requirements, wouldn’t it?  Cradle’s continued development is controlled within Cradle. Changes, testing and feature management are all controlled in a Cradle database. This allows us to track each change from the initial proposal or enhancement request through development and testing through to final documentation and release.

Ongoing Feature Development

This is the basic case of ‘Cradle designed in Cradle’. You can see from this sneaky peek at our 7.3 release a number of features you’ll benefit from in the coming months.

Cradle Development database
Cradle Development Database

Obviously we have removed customer references, but this simple view shows the ‘Change‘ items that follow a lifecycle through Cradle. The Change has a set of Test Cases written to cover different aspects  from usability through to access permissions and of course that it matches the original design requirement.

GID diagram showing traceability
Change to Test Result HID

During development and testing it is useful to get a quick overview. The hierarchy diagram above shows a simple view tracing from the feature through the Test Case to the Test Result. (GC: Luckily they all show ‘pass’ which is a relief as it is a feature I coded!)

Larger features

Again it is a case of Cradle designed in Cradle. For example Cradle 7.1’s SysML functionality, a separate project was used, as there were more collaborators, and the design team was spread both sides of the Atlantic. The view below shows multiple item types linked together, the «relationships», linked to the symbols, reported for the ‘act’ diagram type.

SYSML development Database
SYSML development Database

 

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March 2017 Newsletter

New Release – Cradle 7.2

We are pleased to announce the release of Cradle-7.2:

Cradle-7.2 interface

Cradle-7.2 contains a range of new capabilities that are described in its Release Notes.

Customers with active maintenance have been sent an e-mail notification of this release, and details of which enhancement requests and bug reports are in it.

Some of the highlights are:

  • Full support for IPv6 networking
  • Availability of 64-bit Cradle for Linux, use of the latest Windows .NET and improved support of Office 2016
  • Locking projects and disconnecting users through Project Manager
  • Improvements in custom web UI components, and the as-supplied Basic web UI
  • Dashboards as dials in WorkBench and in web UIs
  • More flexibility with Change Tasks in the CM system
  • Extended quality checks in the Conformance Checker and for SysML in the Consistency Checker
  • Find and replace
  • Extensions to queries and views
  • New functional modelling options with PADs and IDEF0

Download and Installation

Login and download Cradle-7.2 from our website here: www.threesl.com/downloads/software.php

You need a new Security Code for Cradle-7.2, other Security Codes cannot be used. If you have not received a new code and are under maintenance, please contact support@threesl.com. If you would like to discuss upgrading an out of date system, please contact salesdetails@threesl.com. If you have a single user version you can purchase the latest revision at the 3SL shop.

There is a database conversion from 7.1 to 7.2. The converter which will run automatically if you install Cradle-7.2, over the top of, in the same directory as, the earlier version of Cradle from which you are upgrading.

You must upgrade all of your Cradle installation to 7.2. (clients and server) as mixed versions, e.g. Cradle-7.1 clients / Cradle-7.2 server, and vice-versa are not supported.

I have a Cunning Plan…..

OK it does not have to be cunning, it just has to be clear. Cradle provides a bi-directional integration with Microsoft Project® that allows a Cradle project to be associated with multiple Project schedules and bidirectional updates with Project. By linking activities in each schedule to become a WBS hierarchy in Cradle the loop is closed and the plan and the Cradle requirements and models are all linked.

The main reasons to control things this way is to ensure there is no inconsistency between the management planning and the project engineering. To ensure that each engineering activity is planned for and each element of the plan has some actual work assigned to it, avoiding incompleteness. A plan linked to Cradle communicates the holistic view of progress and items all in one place.

To read more on this topic, our whitepaper “Integrated Project Management from Cradle” can be read here.

Social Media

Facebook Twitter Link

Our Facebook Logo Facebook account is connected to our Twitter Logo Twitter feed, so if you can’t follow us on Twitter (@threesl), you can still get the hints and tips via your Facebook timeline, see the (3SLCradle) page.

YouTube Learning

Our popular YouTube Logo YouTube channel has a number of ‘How to’ style videos to help you with particular aspects of Cradle, requirements management or systems engineering. We know that some of our customers may find a particular aspect complex, and although there is comprehensive online help documentation and articles provided, having a video take you through the steps can make a real difference. Of course 3SL can also offer full training, giving you broad coverage or highly tailored content as you require, contact us to discuss further.

Remembering the old adage “Tell me and I forget, Show me and I remember, Involve me and I understand” seems very appropriate. But what aspects are most appropriate to you our customer?

In this article 3SL’s managing director Mark Walker, asks for your feedback to guide 3SL’s video output.

“But the customer has sent it as an mp4!”

  • Your boss wants you to record the evidence of the test to provide full traceability
  • The testing house has sent a video of the compression strength test
  • You’re ‘stuck’ with all your requirements and tests in Cradle and now you have a video…

Don’t worry it’s not a problem. Although Cradle may not be able to play videos, it can store all sorts of information in its database, or by reference to external files. We provide a large list of files pre-defined, but Cradle can easily cope with new file types.

In this case you would add a binary frame to store video, you may have a directory alongside the Cradle database where these files reside, so an ‘As File’ frame would make sense, or if it is also to be controlled through the Cradle CMS (Configuration Management System) it could be “In PDB” (Project Database). You would choose our favourite app to view them in, then you would assign a frame of this type to your, say, TEST item type. Now you have the traceability you need with the test evidence referenced from the TEST item and links to the SYSTEM_REQUIREMENT through to the original customer Requirement.

In our LinkedIn discussion we describe adding a Document to an item.

Hints of the Month

Here are some links to helpful topics since our last newsletter, they should improve your Cradle experience:

A bright ‘Red’ box in the middle of the table screams Urgent/Highest/Action, when running a query you may wish to Highlight Important Values with Colour as described in this article.

Have you ever wondered what makes up the Content of a Cradle Database? Read the link for a simple overview.

No-one wants to lose their hard crafted work, our tips on Safeguarding Against Unintended Data Loss could ensure that if something does go wrong, you can limit its impact to your project and business.

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Cradle-7.2 is Available!

We are pleased to announce the release of Cradle-7.2!

3SL Customers with active maintenance have been sent an e-mail notification of this release, and details of which enhancement requests and bug reports are in it.

New Capabilities

Cradle-7.2 contains a range of new capabilities that are described in its release notes:
https://www.threesl.com/downloads/download.php?version=v7.2&section=documentation&filename=rm00776-V72ReleaseNotes.pdf
Some of the highlights are:

  • Full support for IPv6 networking
  • Availability of 64-bit Cradle for Linux, use of the latest Windows .NET and improved support of Office 2016
  • Locking projects and disconnecting users through Project Manager
  • Improvements in custom web UI components, and the as-supplied Basic web UI
  • Dashboards as dials in WorkBench and in web UIs
  • More flexibility with Change Tasks in the CM system
  • Extended quality checks in the Conformance Checker and for SysML in the Consistency Checker
  • Find and replace
    – Extensions to queries and views
  • New functional modelling options with PADs and IDEF0

Download

Cradle-7.2 available from our website here:  https://www.threesl.com/downloads/software.php

You need a new Security Code for Cradle-7.2, other Security Codes cannot be used. There is a database conversion from 7.1 to 7.2. The converter which run automatically if you install Cradle-7.2 ‘over the top of, in the same directory as, the earlier version of Cradle from which you are upgrading.
You must upgrade all Cradle installations to 7.2. Cradle-7.1 clients cannot connect to a Cradle-7.2 server, and a Cradle-7.2 server cannot serve Cradle-7.1 clients.

We hope that you will welcome the new capabilities in Cradle-7.2!
Cradle Dashboards