Document Associations and Links

This page deals with the following subjects:

Links/Reverse Links

CATIA V5 enables you to create a drawing based on a part or a product.  When you save the drawing into the SmarTeam database, a general link is automatically created between the drawing and the part/product on which it was based. This enables you to manage the drawing together with the part/product as you create revisions.

The drawing and its associated part/product are called Associated Objects. SmarTeam creates the following relationship between the two documents:

  • Link: The part/product is linked to the drawing.
  • Reverse Link: The drawing is a reverse link of the part/product.

For example: You create a drawing named Circuit drawing based on a part named Metallic Circuit. SmarTeam creates a link between these two documents as follows:

  • The Metallic Circuit part is a link of the Circuit drawing(since the drawing is dependent on the part).
  • The Circuit drawing is a Reverse link of the Metallic Circuit part.

For more information about CATIA links, see Enriched Decision Support with All V5 Links.

Revising Associated Objects
As you revise your documents, SmarTeam protects the relationship between associated objects:
A drawing and its associated part/product.

When you perform a lifecycle operation on a document (such as Check In or Check Out), you can display and manage the document's associated objects. Each associated object is color-coded for easy recognition.

To display associated objects:

  1. From any life cycle window, right-click to display a dropdown menu.

  2. Point to Associated Objects and choose the type of object you wish to display.

    Each associated object is color-coded as follows:

    • Links are displayed in red .

    • Reverse links are displayed in blue .

SmarTeam protects the relationship between these associated objects as you make revisions:

  • Each time you check out a drawing from a vault in order to revise it, its dependency (part/product) is automatically checked out together with it.

  • When you check out a part/product from a vault in order to revise it, you have the option of viewing and checking out its associated drawing.

Before you can work with associated documents (dependencies, reverse dependencies), an administrator must enable them. The administrator can define dependencies based on a customized class structure.

Drawing & Link Exposure in Expose Mode

You can customize the CATIA-SmarTeam integration product to expose the drawing sheets ("expose mode").

In the case of the expose mode, you may choose to expose only the links between the sheets to the external documents and not to expose the links of the drawing document to the external documents.
Here are the options required to customize the drawing link exposition.

  • Links exposed from both Drawing and sheet to the referenced documents

    In this case, the sheet will expose its direct dependency links and the drawing will expose all the sheet dependency links. This is the default behavior.
    In case of error, the user should check that the variable CATIA_TEAM_PDM_DRLINK is not set.

  • Links exposed only from the Drawing to the referenced documents

    In this case, the sheet does not expose any dependency links.
    The variable CATIA_TEAM_PDM_DRLINK should be set to DrOnly

  • Links exposed only from the Sheet to the referenced documents

    In this case, the drawing does not expose any dependency links. The variable CATIA_TEAM_PDM_DRLINK should be set to ShOnly