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HELiOS 2020 SP2

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With HELiOS 2020 SP2 we have released the second and last Service Pack for HELiOS 2020. One focus of the further development was the extension of the new Mask Editor introduced with HELiOS 2020, which was enhanced with numerous new features in SP2. Examples are the transfer of formats to other mask elements, the exchange of attributes and the list of recently opened files. Development also focused on the further expansion of CAD, CAE and Office interfaces. Worthy of special mention here are the batch import/batch updating as well as the placement of marked documents (SOLIDWORKS interface), the transfer of user-defined semi-finished products as sub-items in the product structure (Inventor interface) and the insertion of mail attachments via HELiOS (Office). The HELiOS Spooler has also been enhanced. For example, the model area can now be included when printing and the plot area can be selected when printing files from AutoCAD. In addition, jobs can now also be bundled by document numbers.

Highlights

HELiOS Desktop, Spooler and Tools

Delete behaviour
If objects cannot be deleted by HELiOS - e.g. because the user does not have the right to delete them, or the corresponding edited objects are reserved for export, or are built into the product structure and/or model structure - then these objects are displayed in a corresponding result list after the deletion process, which shows the reason why the deletion process cannot be carried out for each object.

Settings for the Workspace
On the General tab of the HELiOS Options you can now find the new Settings for the Workspace area. As with the known setting options in the area of MultiCAD interfaces you can also change the local session directory for the Workspace of the HELiOS Desktop, if desired. You can also specify whether documents that are not currently being edited, or whether locally changed documents are to be removed from the work area when the program is closed.

Enhanced Mask Editor
The new Mask Editor introduced with HELiOS 2020 has been further revised and enhanced with new features.

  • The Transfer formatting function allows you to transfer the formatting of a specific element to a selection of other mask elements.
  • The also new Exchange function can be used to change the attribute stored in a data field via a selection dialogue.
  • The range of functions for opening, closing and saving mask files has also been extended, including a display of last used files.
  • Determining individual user colours
  • and much more

Spooler

  • Lizense check
    From SP2 on, the Spooler always requires a database connection. This must be configured during an update or installation. Due to the connection to the database, the Spooler must be on the same installation level (DB subversion) as the database itself. The communication between Client and Spooler becomes more secure/stable.
  • ELiOS Options: Include model area
    In the HELiOS Options for printing documents you find the new sub-menu item Include model area under Print all views. This option is relevant if you work with a CAD system (such as HiCAD or AutoCAD) that makes a distinction between model and drawing area. If the option is not activated, all sheet areas of the drawing are transferred when the print jobs are transferred to the Report Manager. If this option is activated, the model area is also transferred.
  • AutoCAD plot area definition
    When printing files from AutoCAD, the user can also select the plot area. With Service Pack 2 (Version 2502) the configuration options of MultiCAD formats of the HELiOS Spooler have been extended in such a way that the AutoCAD plot area, which distinguishes between model and layout, can be taken into account accordingly when printing AutoCAD files.
  • Print Client: Bundling of jobs by document number
    The option to bundle jobs in the PrintPlot menu part of the HELiOS Print Client has been extended. In addition to the default setting where print jobs are not processed in bundles (Bundle: Off), you can now choose between Bundle: All jobs and Bundle: By document no. If the Bundle: By document no. option is active, documents (e.g. SZA files with several sheet areas each) can be converted into separate PDF documents, where a PDF document contains a separate sheet for each HELiOS sheet area.
HELiOS MultiCAD general

Enhanced Workspace
The behaviour of the HELiOS Workspace, which is available in HELiOS Desktop and coupled applications like Office, AutoCAD, Inventor, Navisworks und SOLIDWORKS, has been revised and extended.

  • The new Show only documents of the current application filter only allows you to switch between a view of all open HELiOS documents across all applications and the open HELiOS documents of the current application. The latter makes sense with regard to the clarity of the data, the former may make sense if you want to open a DXF file from Inventor in Autocad or if you want to insert an Excel file with parameters for assemblies in your designs as a 3rd party reference. In such cases you can also work with the HELiOS Workspace.
  • In the HELiOS Options of your Multi-CAD application(s), the checkbox Remove documents that are currently not being edited from Workspace after closing the application is set to close the sessions of all documents that are not being edited. With the underlying option Remove locally changed files you can also specify whether locally changed documents should be removed from the workspace after closing the application or not.

Behaviour when opening: Supplement non-existing article context by (unambiguously) linked article
In the configuration dialogue of the HELiOS Options of your HELiOS with Autodesk Inventor or SOLIDWORKS, you will find the option Supplement non-existing article context by (unambiguously) linked article. When loading model structures in which nothing is entered, HELiOS orients itself on the assignment to the default article in case of ambiguous article assignments. The option is currently always active, cannot be switched off at this time, and will be extended by additional features in the future.

Behaviour when transferring to HELiOS
In the HELiOS Options window of your MultiCAD interface, under the heading Behaviour when transferring to HELiOS, you will also find the new checkbox Check whether the document needs to be saved first. If this checkbox is set to active (default), HELiOS checks when calling New in HELiOS or functions based on it, such as Batch import, whether the corresponding documents have to be saved first before execution. This ensures that the state of a document, exactly as it is currently visible to you, is actually transferred to HELiOS instead of an older state. Beneath Search associated drawings by following schema you can manually enter the suffix to identify drawings for the corresponding CAD drawing.

HELiOS and Autodesk Inventor

User-defined semi-finished products
If semi-finished products are not inserted with the As Standard, but the As Custom setting you can set the option Insert user-defined semi-finished products from Content Centre as sub-items in the section Behaviour when transferring product structure: of the HELiOS Options to ensure that the corresponding semi-finished products are transferred as sub-items into the product structure. The corresponding item is set to "CAD relevant" and displayed in the Utilized items tab of the item master data under CAD link.

New (Document / New article index) and New (New drawing index)
The HELiOS Part or HELiOS Assembly Ribbon contains the new function New (Document / New article index) and the HELiOS Drawing Ribbon contains the new function New (New drawing index). These functions allow to replace an existing AutoCAD drawing with a new Inventor drawing.

"Edit (all)" for active part
New in the HELiOS - Active part Ribbon is the function Edit (all), which allows you to edit the active part of an assembly in a model drawing. With this function all parts of the opened (or selected) document can be set to edited mode (i.e. reserved for exclusive editing by the currently logged in user) with a simple click.

Link new / existing article
The HELiOS Part and HELiOS Assembly Ribbon contain the new functions Link new article and Link existing article. With these you can create a new article or select an existing article to link it to the open document.

HELiOS and SOLIDWORKS

Batch import and batch update
In the HELiOS menu you will find the new functions Batch import (Models), Batch import (Drawings) and Batch update.

  • With the Batch import (Models) function you can import a variety of files from a directory to HELiOS with a few clicks via a selection dialogue. When you call the function, a dialogue window opens for selecting the directory from which .ipt and .iam files are to be imported in batch processing.
  • With the Batch import (Drawings) function referenced drawings can be taken over "afterwards", which were not considered during the batch import of the models due to the naming convention.
  • And with the Batch update function you can update a multiple selection of HELiOS documents "in one go" using the combined search. The documents are loaded, set to edited state, updated and checked in one after the other (they are not automatically removed from the workspace). In this way you can, for example, perform an update of older documents to a current CAD version or due to changed HELiOS or CAD configurations and avoid time-consuming updates by manually opening and saving documents in each case.

Place document and place preselected document
In the HELiOS menu of SOLIDWORKS you will find the two new functions Place document and Place preselected document.

  • With Place document you can use the HELiOS combined search to select the HELiOS document of a part or an assembly, which can then be placed in the active model drawing.
  • With Place preselected document you can place a HELiOS document in the active model drawing that was previously selected with a simple click on the context menu entry Preselect document, for example in the Workspace. The document can then be placed several times in the drawing area of SOLIDWORKS until you confirm the placement with the OK command.

Toolbox support and configuration sub-types
Various sub-types of standard parts that are managed in the SOLIDWORKS toolbox configuration-specifically are taken over by HELiOS with configuration-specific article masters.

"Edit (all)" for active part
New in the HELiOS - Active part Ribbon is the function Edit (all), which allows you to edit the active part of an assembly in a model drawing. With this function all parts of the opened (or selected) document can be set to edited mode (i.e. reserved for exclusive editing by the currently logged in user) with a simple click.

Link new / existing article
The HELiOS Part and HELiOS Assembly Ribbon contain the new functions Link new article and Link existing article. With these you can create a new article or select an existing article to link it to the open document. You will be asked if the article should be linked configuration specifically.

Recognition and preventing of part dependencies
So-called "in-context dependencies" can occur in SOLIDWORKS when the user edits features of sub-assemblies in the context of an assembly, while this feature refers to other elements of the assembly. Such dependencies are recognized by HELiOS and for assemblies that have parts with these dependencies, a call of the New in HELiOS function (whose execution would not preserve the dependencies) is prevented.

HELiOS and Zuken E3

New (Document/Find article)
In the HELiOS menu of your E3 interface you will find the new menu item New (Document / Find article). This function call saves the opened document (via the New in HELiOS dialogue window) with a new document master in the HELiOS database, which you can link to an existing article via the automatically called Find article mask of HELiOS.

HELiOS and Microsoft Office

Add attachments to E-mails
When you write, forward or reply to an E-mail in Outlook, the HELiOS Ribbon of the E-mail window also provides the Attach document function for attaching files via the HELiOS document search.

HELiOS options with automatic login
With the update to HELiOS 2020 Service Pack 2, an Options dialogue is available in the Office interface, as is already known from the HELiOS-MultiCAD interfaces. In addition to settings for the Workspace and for the import of attribute mappings, you can activate the option Automatic HELiOS login when starting the Office application under Settings for document to prevent the HELiOS login dialogue from preceding each start of an Office application.

Enhanced Mask Editor

Delete behaviour


HELiOS Desktop - Settings for the Workspace

Enhanced Office Interface


Enhanced Spooler

HELiOS in SOLIDWORKS - Batch import and batch update


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