Subsequent Export to AVEVA Bocad Steel

The challenge now is to determine what has changed since the last export. This is the issue. With so many values of date and time, which do we choose? Here is the algorithm.

There are 3 dates/times IDATE, MDATE, LASTMOD. (IDATE represents the :FABIDATE and :FABITIME UDA values; MDATE similarly; LASTMOD is the last database SAVEWORK date/time)

If MDATE UDA is unset

Use LASTMOD as MDATE

If IDATE UDA is unset

Use LASTMOD as IDATE

-For comparison, find out TESTDATE

If the IDATE UDA is set

use later of IDATE and MDATE as TESTDATE

else

use MDATE as TESTDATE (Item has not been imported)

if ( (TESTDATE + buffer) > LASTMOD ) item has NOT changed within buffer time of the SAVEWORK

The value of the buffer is critical. The default value is 3 minutes. However, for larger models, this buffer should be larger, possibly as high as 15 minutes. The buffer does not affect the time difference between export/import transactions, rather it represents the elapsed time of the previous export/import transaction. We cannot store this value in the database, because we do not know to which particular transaction the buffer value would refer. For example, we might import several files of varying size in quick succession, or edit the model outside of the ABSI system.

Therefore, there is a PML global variable that can be changed by hand using the experience of previous transactions. It can be locally changed in the current base product session using the command below, but it will revert to the default value of 3 minutes on session start-up.

Note:
This can also be configured in the bocuserdata.pmlfnc user configuration command file.

!!bocExpTimBuf = (15)