About Meta Inputs

• Getting Familiar With Meta Inputs

• Defining a Knowledge Template Containing a Meta Input

• Instantiating a Knowledge Template Containing a Meta Input

• Creating a Document Template Containing Meta Inputs

• Instantiating a Document Template Containing Meta Inputs

• Assigning a Type to the Meta Input

Getting Familiar With Meta Inputs

The meta input mechanism is a way to ease Knowledge templates instantiation (PowerCopies, User-Defined Features and Document templates.) It is designed to assemble objects together, and to connect them to their environments through their inputs. It relies on a component-based approach. Meta inputs specifications are stored in Knowledge Templates.

Meta inputs:

• Improve templates instantiation.

• Allow better control of templates instantiation. The architect can associate a type to a meta input thus ensuring the selection of the corresponding input at instantiation.

• Improve the usability of templates in the Business Process Knowledge Template workbench.

• Improve the instantiation through the Engineering Knowledge Language (EKL). To find out more, see Introducing the User Feature Definition Window  and Introducing the Document Template Definition Window.

The characteristics of a meta input are:

• Its name
• Its link to one or several real inputs. A real input cannot be linked to several meta inputs, so when an input is associated to a meta input, it is removed from the list of the remaining inputs. A meta input that is not connected to any real input will not be taken into account. If the inputs are modified, the meta inputs will have some obsolete links to old inputs. These links are checked each time meta inputs sub-inputs are asked programmatically.
• Its type (optional). This type is a Knowledge type, ranking from parameters to mechanical specifications (Hole, …), products, electrical objects, User-Defined Features, extended BKT types. This type is an information that will prevent you from selecting objects that do not support it. This information will also be used in the "type generation process" of user features: those meta inputs will appear as attributes of this type. If the definition of the Knowledge Template changes, the meta input is changed accordingly (if an input disappears, no meta input can refer to this input anymore).

Defining a Knowledge Template Containing a Meta Input

The step-by-step procedure provided below shows how to create a User-Defined Feature containing a meta input. The procedure is identical for PowerCopies and Document Templates.

1. Click the Create a User Feature icon () to display the User Feature Definition window, or from the Insert menu, select Knowledge Templates>User Feature.

2. In the Name field, type the name of the User Feature, then click the inputs in the specification tree or in the geometry.

3. Click the Meta Inputs tab. Click Add to create a meta input. Change its name in the Role field.

4. In the Meta Inputs field, select the input that you want to associate to the meta input and click the button.

5. Repeat the above operation to associate the necessary inputs to the meta input.

6. Click OK when done.

Instantiating a Knowledge Template Containing a Meta Input

The step-by-step procedure provided below shows how to create a User-Defined Feature containing a meta input. The procedure is identical for PowerCopies and Document Templates.

1. Click the Instantiate From Document icon () and select the file containing the template in the File Selection window, or if not in the Product Knowledge Template workbench, from the Insert menu, select Instantiate from Document. The Insert Object dialog box displays.

2. Select the input in the geometry and click OK when done.

At instantiation, depending on an option selected in the instantiation panel, meta inputs will be presented instead of real inputs, except if the user selected the Force meta inputs instantiation mode (an exclusive meta-inputs instantiation mode) in the definition panel. Inputs that remain not associated to a meta input are kept as standard inputs even in meta inputs instantiation mode.

	If you do not select the  Force meta inputs instantiation option when creating the meta input, 2 different modes are available at instantiation: MetaInputsInstantiation: The meta inputs are displayed in the Inputs list. MetaInputsNormalInstantiation: Even though meta inputs are defined, you can switch to the normal instantiation mode and select the real inputs.
	If you select the Force meta inputs instantiation option when creating the meta input, the MetaInputsInstantiation instantiation mode is available.

Inputs that remain not associated to a meta input are kept as standard inputs even in meta inputs instantiation mode

Assigning a Type to the Meta Input

You can associate a type to a meta input to make sure that the user selects an item matching this type at instantiation.

1. Click the Create a User Feature icon () to display the User Feature Definition window, or from the Insert menu, select Knowledge Templates>User Feature.

2. In the Name field, type the name of the User Feature, then click the inputs in the specification tree or in the geometry.

3. Click the Meta Inputs tab. Click Add to create a meta input. Change its name in the Role field.

4. In the Meta Inputs field, select the input that you want to associate to the meta input and click the button.

5. Repeat the above operation to associate the necessary inputs to the meta input.

6. Click the ... button. The Select a type window displays.

7. Select the type and click OK. The type of the input that you will select at instantiation will have to be identical to this type.

8. Click OK when done.

The types that display in the Select a type window belong to the packages you selected in the Language tab. (Tools>Options>Parameters and Measure).