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GRANTA MI™ Version 7

Release Notes for GRANTA MI Version 7

November 2013

Release Notes for GRANTA MI 7

GRANTA MI™ is the leading system for materials information management in engineering organizations. It enables you to control, analyze, and securely share critical corporate data on materials and processes, managing the materials information lifecycle.

www.grantadesign.com

© Granta Design 2013 All rights reserved

Cambridge Engineering Selector, CES Constructor, CES EduPack, CES INDEPTH, CES LAB, CES Selector, CES WEB, Eco Audit, Eco Materials Adviser, Granta Design, Granta Material Intelligence, Granta Material Inspiration, GRANTA MI, Hybrid Synthesizer, Material Intelligence—The Game, Materials Gateway, MaterialUniverse, MI:, ProcessUniverse, the GRANTA, GRANTA MI, GRANTA Material Intelligence, and GRANTA Material Inspiration logos, the Granta CES EduPack and Granta CES Selector logos are trademarks of Granta Design Ltd.

Windows®, Excel®, and PowerPoint® are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States or other countries.

ANSYS Workbench® is a trademark of ANSYS Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States or other countries.

Creo® and Pro/ENGINEER® are registered trademarks of PTC or its subsidiaries in the United States or other countries.

CATIA®, ENOVIA®, SIMULIA®, SOLIDWORKS®, and Abaqus/CAE® are registered trademarks of Dassault Systèmes or its subsidiaries in the United States or other countries.

NX® and Teamcenter® are registered trademarks of Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software or its subsidiaries in the United States or other countries.

Autodesk®, Autodesk Inventor®, and Moldflow are trademarks or registered trademarks of Autodesk Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States or other countries.

CAMPUS® is a Registered trademark of CWFG mbH, Frankfurt/Main, 1991

The ASM logo is a registered trademark of ASM International.

IDES is a trademark or registered trademark of Integrated Design Engineering Systems, Inc.

ESDU is a registered trademark of Information Handling Services Inc.

Granta Design Ltd. makes reasonable efforts to explicitly acknowledge all trademarks cited in our literature or on our website. If you would like us to add or alter an acknowledgement, please contact us.

http://www.grantadesign.com/contact/


© Granta Design 2013 3

Table of Contents

1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 4

2 GRANTA MI System Overview .................................................................................... 5

3 Summary of Key Enhancements in Version 7 ............................................................. 7

Key new features and enhancements ................................................................................... 7 Enhancements to GRANTA MI reference data modules ....................................................... 7

Find out what is of interest to you ........................................................................................ 8

4 What’s New?—Detailed Descriptions ...................................................................... 10

GRANTA MI:Server .............................................................................................................. 10 GRANTA MI:Viewer ............................................................................................................. 11 GRANTA MI:Toolbox ............................................................................................................ 13

GRANTA MI:Optimize .......................................................................................................... 14

5 Data products ........................................................................................................... 15

6 Documentation at this release ................................................................................. 16

7 Upgrading from previous versions of GRANTA MI ................................................... 18

8 Known Issues ............................................................................................................ 20

MI:Service Layer .................................................................................................................. 20 MI:Server ............................................................................................................................. 20

FEA Exporters ...................................................................................................................... 20



1 Introduction GRANTA MI™ Version 7 from Granta Design Limited is the latest version of the leading materials

information management software system for engineering enterprises. GRANTA MI meets the disparate needs of the materials experts, design teams, engineering analysts, environmental professionals, managers, data publishers, and other professionals who work with information related to metals, composites, ceramics, plastics, and other materials.

Granta is committed to maintaining GRANTA MI’s leading position. Regular releases deliver major new features and performance improvements, guided by input from our customers, while keeping pace with changing systems requirements. Between releases, a series of interim updates maintains a regular flow of minor enhancements and fixes based on customer feedback.

This document provides a brief overview of changes to the system modules in the latest release, Version 7, and provides information about some issues that may require attention when upgrading.

GRANTA MI Version 7 is the most capable and robust version of the leading materials information management system yet. It has been designed specifically to help companies deal with common engineering realities, by providing capabilities such as:

• Centrally managed templates for Remote Import – so users uploading data to the system can do so with minimal or zero training.

• Cross-database selection – to enable powerful search queries that can, for example, fill gaps in your in-house material knowledge with data from Granta’s reference databases.

• A significantly enhanced MI:Materials Gateway 2.0 interface to enable faster, more efficient access to materials data in CAD, CAE and PLM software.

• Major enhancements to the charting and comparison functionality including zooming, value readouts, color changing and cross-database chart overlays.

To install GRANTA MI please follow the installation instructions available in the download. You will also need the alphanumeric key from your license agreement. If you have any problems, questions or feedback, please contact us at Granta:

Email: [email protected]

Telephone: USA or Canada: 800 241 1546

UK: 01223 518895

France: 08 00 76 12 90

Germany: 0800 182 5026

Elsewhere: +44 1223 518895

Web: www.grantadesign.com

http://www.grantadesign.com/



2 GRANTA MI System Overview GRANTA MI is a modular system, enabling you to construct a solution that meets your needs.

Core modules • MI:Server—the core database system. Included with MI:Server is MI:Admin (a Windows

application for database schema construction and maintenance), MI:Server Manager (a Windows® application for configuring the GRANTA MI installation), and other core technologies (e.g., the GRANTA MI Service Layer).

• MI:Toolbox—a Windows application for import, export, or transformation of data.

User interfaces • MI:Viewer—the main web browser user interface, which enables browsing, searching,

editing, management, and use of both corporate materials data and reference information via your browser.

• MI:Materials Gateway—a suite of modules enabling data and tools from GRANTA MI to be accessed within CAD, CAE, and PLM software. MI:Materials Gateway applications are now available for Abaqus/CAE®, ANSYS Workbench®, Autodesk Inventor®, CATIA®, Creo® and Pro/ENGINEER®, NX®, and Teamcenter®.

Data management templates • MI:Metals Template—a template database schema and homepage for managing metals data

plus supporting import, export and analysis tools. • MI:Composites Template—a template database schema and homepage for composites plus

supporting import, export and analysis tools. • MI:RSDB Template—a template database schema and homepage tools for in-house materials

and substance data to support risk assessment and management relating to restricted substance regulations such as REACH.

• MI:Medical Template—a template database schema for medical applications, supporting capture of in-house engineering, biocompatibility, and other data alongside authoritative medical reference data.

Standard reports • Restricted Substances Reports—reports and dashboards to provide risk assessments and

compliance reports, including REACH Article 33 reports, obsolescence risk reports and others • Eco Audit Reports—reports and dashboards to provide up-front guidance on environmental

impact, including energy, CO2 emissions and water usage • Critical Materials Reports—reports to summarize the risk associated with material criticality,

price volatility, geopolitical risk and reporting restrictions due to Conflict Minerals legislation • Preferred Materials Reports—reports to summarize the preferred status of materials in a

part, assembly or product portfolio, based on in-house material supplier tierings.



Add-on modules • MI:Optimize—helps you to make strategic decisions relating to materials selection or

substitution, and to implement these decisions enterprise-wide. It provides engineers and designers with web-based materials selection tools, customized to your organization’s business rules.

• MI:Substitute—a tool to identify candidate substitute materials and explore the implications of switching to them.

• MI:API—programmatic access to the data managed in GRANTA MI, enabling you to integrate in-house systems and data with your GRANTA MI installation.

Comprehensive descriptions of these tools and the combined capabilities of the resulting materials information management system are available in the accompanying documentation. Please refer to the Administrator’s Guide in the download.

Supporting data modules

A wide range of supporting data modules provide reference data on metals, plastics, and composites that can be accessed via GRANTA MI and applied using its tools. See Section 5, Data products.



3 Summary of Key Enhancements in Version 7

Key new features and enhancements • GRANTA MI for CAD, CAE and PLM—Version 7 is compatible with new or recently-enhanced

MI:Materials Gateway implementations, including those for Abaqus/CAE, ANSYS Workbench, NX, Pro/ENGINEER and Creo. All MI:Materials Gateway 2.0 modules are compatible with MI Version 7, and Granta is progressively releasing these for all supported host platforms. See the separate Release Notes for each of these modules.

• Upload anywhere—The Remote Import feature has been extended to support import of text files, centrally managed templates and an API interface. See item (13) on page 13.

• Cross-database selection - the ability to create searches which reference data across links to other databases, enabling powerful queries that were previously impossible. See item (7) on page 11.

• Charting enhancements— a collection of new charting capabilities including new cross-database Comparison Charts, zooming, interactive value read-outs and color changing. See item (8) on page 12.

• Updated MI:Metals Template and new MI:Medical Template to enable fast database development, building on Granta’s extensive materials data management expertise

• Performance improvements — There have been some significant performance improvements, particularly importing large datasets in the Bulk Data Importer, as well as some MI:Viewer performance improvements. See item (10) on page 12 and item (15) on page 14.

In addition to these new Version 7 features, a number of significant enhancements, performance improvements and fixes have been made in the interim Version 6 Updates delivered since the last major release in November 2012. These changes are included with Version 7. See the detailed descriptions section of these Release Notes for more details.

Enhancements to GRANTA MI reference data modules In the data releases at the time of GRANTA MI Version 7 (November 2013):

• Two new Data Modules: CAMPUS & M-Base Plastics and SteelSpec.

• MaterialUniverse updates: including new biopolymers data, Processability data and new ‘folder-level’ records that summarize particular families or classes of material.

• Data Module updates: CAMPUS and IDES plastics; StalhDat SX, MI-21, MMPDS-07, NIMS, ASME BPV Code metals; and medical data.

Please see the individual data module release notes for more information about the enhancements included in each release.

See also Section 5, Data products, for a full list list of the data modules that are compatible with this release.



Find out what is of interest to you The table shows which enhancements will be of interest to particular groups. The item numbers in parentheses refer to the detailed descriptions of features on pages 10–14, below.

Audience Relevant features (item # below) Key benefits

Materials experts Cross database selection (7) Extract maximum benefit from disparate materials information

Materials experts Comparison Charts (6) Quickly compare charts from multiple sources to make informed decisions

Database admins Cross database reporting & Comparison Charts (6, 7)

Reduce the time and complexity of data reduction / rationalization programs

Database admins Performance improvements (10, 15) Reduce project times; improve user satisfaction; get quicker ROI and more end user buy in

Database admins Template Databases, including major new version for Metals

Benefit from Granta’s unrivalled expertise and save time when setting up a materials database

All users of MI New graph tools: zoom, change color, read off values, overlays (8)

Reduce the need to export data to Excel; quickly make compelling presentations of materials data

CAD/CAE users MI:Materials Gateway 2.0 UI enhancements

Quicker, more efficient access to materials information – shorten design times

CAD and (especially) CAE users

Version notification and ability to update model in Gateway 2.0

Enhanced simulation quality and confidence from full data version traceability

Product specialists; product stewards; program managers

Where Used in MI:Materials Gateway for PLM

Exploit the power of consistent materials assignments in CAD and PLM with Where Used information

Materials lab engineers, remote staff, etc.

Remote Import template management (13)

Burden of complexity removed from lab engineers who just upload files and choose templates from a list



Audience Relevant features (item # below) Key benefits


Remote Import text option (13) Easy for labs to upload general ASCII files, e.g. test machine outputs, via web browser


Remote Import API (13) Allows machines to upload data directly to Granta through a programmatic interface – no manual intervention required

Those involved in implementing corporate materials strategies

MI:Optimize importer tool (16, 17) Easy for companies to modify their material selection strategies as they change

IT admins New installers (1) Easier installation

These and other enhancements are detailed below. Descriptions are organized in sections according to GRANTA MI system modules. Customer support staff at Granta will be pleased to provide advice on optimizing the performance of your GRANTA MI installation.



4 What’s New?—Detailed Descriptions This section details enhancements in GRANTA MI Version 7 since the Version 6 November 2012 release, including enhancements in all Version 6 update releases.

GRANTA MI:Server

Improved installation process with new Installers 1.Installers for Remote Import and MI:Service Layer are now included in the GRANTA MI Installation Manager. Installation of these components is optional, and they can also be installed separately if you decide not to install them at the same time as the core GRANTA MI components. See the GRANTA MI Installation Guide for details.

Installation location 2.On 64-bit machines, GRANTA MI software components are now installed into the Program Files folder and not Program Files (x86) as in earlier product versions.

Improved workflow for updating multiple databases 3.Multiple database updates can now be packaged in a zip file and applied to a database in a single operation, making the task of applying several separate updates much easier. Simply select a zip file in the Apply Database Update dialog to load and apply all of the updates within the file, one after another. To update a database, use the MI:Server Manager tool.

Improved stability for multi-core servers 4.

Improved configuration workflow 5.Two new configuration tools for MI:Server are available at this release:

• MI Server Connection tool, for modifying the login and authentication details used for the connection between MI:Server and the GRANTA MI configuration database on your database server (initially specified during installation). You do not need Administrator-level privileges on the database server to use this tool.

• MI:Server Manager, for adding and removing databases and configuring a range of MI:Server settings including database and licensing details, specifying default currency for the database, managing system and database security groups, and configuring email notifications for watched items. This tool requires an Administrator login on MI:Server.

These tools replace the MI:Server Configuration tool included in previous versions of MI:Server. For more information about using them, see the GRANTA MI Administrator’s Guide or the Help included in the tools.



GRANTA MI:Viewer

Cross-database Comparison Charts 6.The ability to compare functional data charts across different databases has been introduced in this version of GRANTA MI. All datasheet charts in MI:Viewer now feature a Comparison Chart button which allows the chart to be added to the Comparison Chart if it is compatible.

To ensure that the user can only compare data which is appropriate, MI checks that the units and parameters of the functional attributes to be compared are the same. For example, this allows stress-strain curves from multiple databases to be compared, even if the attributes have different names.

If functional attributes in different databases share a compatible unit for the y-axis, and the same parameter name and compatible unit for the x-axis, then they can be compared. Note that for units, the symbol is used for comparison. Also, both unit symbol and parameter name comparison is case-sensitive.

Therefore to get the most from this feature, both the unit symbols and parameter names in the databases installed within your MI installation should be consistent across databases. The Granta data products released with MI Version 7 have consistent units and parameter names, meaning that data can be compared between them. If you want to compare data between your custom databases and Granta data products, you will need to ensure that the units and parameters in your custom databases are consistent with the Granta ones.

For example, if you want to compare a stress-strain curve in your own custom database, to one in a Granta data product, e.g. MMPDS, then you need to ensure that the stress-strain attribute conforms to the following convention:

• y-axis: Unit = MPa or ksi • x-axis: Parameter name = Strain, Unit = % strain Note that in some earlier versions of Granta data products, strain had a unit symbol of %, and not % strain.

Remember that if you change unit symbols or parameter names, there may be knock-on effects on your importers, exporters or reports.

If you require further information on this matter, please contact Granta support, or your Granta technical representative.

Cross-database selection 7.• The advanced search page and Search Templates now support the specification of search

criteria from linked attributes in different databases. For example, if you had an in-house materials table linked to Granta’s MaterialUniverse database, you could search for all in-house materials linked to MaterialUniverse materials with a price of less than $2/kg.

• In the Advanced Search page these criteria are added by clicking the “Add Attributes to your Search” button. In MI:Admin, these criteria can be added to Search Templates using the dropdown box above the attribute picker.



Charting enhancements 8.• All functional data charts in MI:Viewer now support zooming and interactive data read-outs.

Moving the mouse over the chart will read out the values of the co-ordinate axes at the mouse position. Left clicking and dragging will zoom the chart; the Reset Zoom button below the chart will restore the chart to its original view.

• Comparison Charts support the ability to change the colors of individual curves or multiple curves. Click the color palette buttons in the chart legend to launch a color picker. The color picker in the legend header row will change the colors of all curves displayed in the legend. If the legend is filtered on a particular parameter, the color picker in the legend header will only change the colors of those curves which are displayed in the filter.

Improved precision support 9.• The maximum number of significant figures at which MI:Viewer truncates numbers is raised

from 6 to 15, to support greater decimal digit precision. (To change the number of significant figures displayed, go to the Options tab on the MI:Viewer Settings page.)

• Data is now exported to the same precision as it was entered, regardless of the significant figures setting for the MI:Viewer application.

Performance Improvements 10.• Improved performance of the Contents tree when using IE8 and working with large profiles. • Improved performance of the record list when adding a large number of records to a report. • Improved speed of attribute selection for X-Y charts when working with a large number of

records. • Improved performance of generating a Comparison report. • Improved performance when loading datasheets with many links. • Improved search speed in the Granta Restricted Substances Database. Performance issues

that were causing some searches to ‘time out’ have been removed.

Usability improvements 11.• Usability improvement to filtering records in comparison table reports means that selecting

and deselecting attributes now works in a more intuitive manner. • A number of usability improvements and bug fixes have been made to Search:

o The Advanced Search page now provides more helpful feedback when there is a problem with the search criteria that have been entered, for example, because an attribute name does not exist in the database or a non-numeric value is entered in a numeric field.

o A new Refine Search button has been added to the toolbar at the top of the Search Results page which works in the same way as Refine in the Search Criteria panel, returning you back to the search page so that you can change your search criteria. Click this to return to the Search page instead of your browser's Back button.



Updated Home Page Author Guide 12.

The GRANTA MI:Viewer Home Page Author Guide has been updated for this release and covers how to set up customized application, profile and database home pages for MI:Viewer users, including:

• Details of the type of information and links that can be displayed on each home page and on external pages.

• How to create links to direct the user to certain MI:Viewer tools from the home pages and from external web pages.

• How to add Home Page files to MI:Viewer.

This guide is included as a PDF file in the Documentation subfolder within the MI:Server installation folder, typically C:\Program Files\Granta\GRANTA MI\Server\Documentation.

GRANTA MI:Toolbox

Remote Import improvements 13.• The Remote Import tool now supports Text file import in addition to Excel file import. Text

file import is via the same template method as used by MI:Toolbox. • The Remote Import tool now supports centrally managed templates. This will be of

significant benefit for users of the tool who are untrained and not expected to understand the concept of Granta Import Templates. Users can view and manage templates by clicking on the Templates link in the top right of the Remote Import interface. All users can view and download templates; Admin users can upload new templates and edit and delete existing ones. When uploading data via Remote Import, users will be able to select a template from the list of centrally-managed ones, or upload their own.

• The Remote Import tool has been enhanced with an API interface to allow other programs and applications to call it directly. Supporting documentation and sample code is available – please contact Granta Support for more details.

Usability improvements 14.• The color of records and folders can be exported by the Excel Exporter and updated by the

Excel Importer. • Record names can be updated using the Excel Importer. • Multiple records can be selected on the Contents tree when using the Record Manipulator. • A new command-line option for the Text and Excel Importers allows you to specify a source

file as an alternative to a source folder. This makes importing data from a single file easier when importing data from the command line, as it is no longer necessary to create a temporary folder for the source file. Usage: -sourcefile <filename>

• The locale of text files for import can now be specified in the Text Importer template. See the GRANTA MI:Toolbox Text Importer Template Author Guide PDF document installed with the plug-in for details.



Performance improvements 15.• Improved the start speed of imports. • Improved performance of the Bulk Data Importer in all areas, but particularly when adding a

large number of records. • Performance has been significantly improved when running reports on databases that use

‘tabular data’ structures. This is particularly relevant when running restricted substance reports, such as “Restricted substances in this item”, on databases with tens of thousands of records.

• Performance has also been significantly improved when importing large databases containing tens of thousands of records. This is due to more efficient caching of the information required to display the ‘tree view’ of the database to the user.

• Performance of the Excel Importer for large imports has been improved. • Performance of the Excel Importer when importing data containing equations and logic

attributes has been improved.

GRANTA MI:Optimize

MI:Optimize Importer integrated into MI:Admin 16.

MI:Optimize now features an import tool available within MI:Admin. The tool enables administrators to import and modify Optimize templates to deploy material selection rules to end-users.

New MI:Optimize documentation 17.

A new document, GRANTA MI:Optimize Guide, describes how the 'business rules' – the calculations and preferred material classifications – that define your materials selection strategy can be captured systematically in a Microsoft Excel template file and then imported into an MI database to define the steps, options and controls available in the MI:Viewer Optimize wizard.

This document is provided as a PDF file in the Documentation subfolder within the MI:Server installation folder, typically C:\Program Files\Granta\GRANTA MI\Server\Documentation.



5 Data products All of the data modules listed in Table 5-1 are compatible with GRANTA MI Version 7. Units and parameters in these data modules have been made consistent to support the use of cross-database selection and comparison charts (see items 6 and 7 in Section 4).

Several data modules have also been updated with new and/or updated content at this release, as indicated in the table. A number of other data modules are fully compatible with MI Version 7, but do not include any new content updates at this time; as the table shows, new versions of many of these data modules have been released since the MI Version 6 release in November 2012.

Table 5-1 Data modules compatible with the MI Version 7 release (November 2013)

Data module Database now compatible with MI v7

New content at MI v7 release

Content updated since

v6 released

Exporters updated*

ASME BPV Code Yes Coming soon Yes

CAMPUS Yes Yes Yes

CAMPUS and M-Base Yes Yes Yes

Cardiovascular materials Yes Yes Yes

CMH-17 Yes

Composite Design Yes Coming soon

ESDU MMDH Yes Yes Yes

Firehole Composites Yes Yes

Human Biological Materials Yes Yes

IDES Plastics Yes Yes

MI-21 Yes Yes

MMPDS-07 Yes Yes Yes

NIMS Creep and Fatigue Yes

Orthopaedic Materials Yes Yes Yes

Powder Metallurgy Yes

Sheet Steels for Automotive Yes

StahlDat SX Yes Yes Yes

Steel Spec Yes Yes

MaterialUniverse Yes Yes Yes

MaterialUniverse Medical Edition Yes Yes Yes

* A “Yes” in the “Exporters updated” column indicates that the relevant GRANTA FEA exporters have been updated at this release; if you are using FEA exporters from older MI releases, you should read FEA Exporters on page 20.

See www.grantadesign.com/products/data for detailed information about GRANTA MI data modules.

http://www.grantadesign.com/products/data



6 Documentation at this release The following table details the PDF documentation available for GRANTA MI at this release.

In addition, user help is available by clicking Help in MI:Viewer or within the MI:Admin, MI:Toolbox, MI:Server Manager, MI:Service Layer Configuration, and Remote Import applications.

Document title Description

Release Notes for GRANTA MI Version 7 (this document)

Provides an overview of changes to the system modules in Version 7, and provides information about some issues that may require attention when upgrading.

GRANTA MI SYSTEM AND DATABASE ADMINISTRATION

GRANTA MI Installation Guide Takes you through a complete installation of GRANTA MI, from installation prerequisites through installing the MI:Server software and GRANTA MI databases, and including installation of the Service Layer and the Remote Import tool.

Software & Hardware Requirements for GRANTA MI 7.0

Provides detailed information on the hardware requirements and third-party software requirements for GRANTA MI Version 7.

GRANTA MI Administration Guide Detailed information on the administration of the GRANTA MI system and GRANTA MI databases during normal operation of a standard configuration, covering:

• Configuration and administration of MI:Server and MI:Viewer

• Administration of GRANTA MI databases, including controlling profiles and access control

• MI:Toolbox plug-in configuration

Record Version Control in GRANTA MI Describes how version control is implemented in GRANTA MI, allowing changes to a record and its data to be tracked.

CUSTOMIZATION

GRANTA MI:Optimize Guide *NEW* See Item (17) on page 14.

Controlling User Access to GRANTA MI Describes how system and database security for GRANTA MI are implemented and covers how to configure access control schemas on GRANTA MI databases for fine-grained access control.

GRANTA MI:Viewer Home Page Author Guide Describes how to set up customized application, profile and database home pages for MI:Viewer users. See Item (12) on page 13.



Document title Description

IMPORTING DATA

GRANTA MI:Toolbox Excel Importer Template Author Guide

The MI:Toolbox Excel Importer plug-in is used to import data from Microsoft Excel into a GRANTA MI database using template worksheets inside a template workbook.

This document describes the specification of the Excel templates for the Importer.

GRANTA MI:Toolbox Excel Importer Command Line Interface

The Excel Importer can be run from the command line without the need for user interaction.

This document describes the command line arguments for the Excel Importer.

GRANTA MI:Toolbox Text Importer Template Author Guide

The MI:Toolbox Text Importer plug-in is used to import data from text files into a GRANTA MI database.

This document describes the specification of the XML template files used by the Text Importer.

GRANTA MI:Toolbox Text Importer Command Line Interface

The Text Importer can be run from the command line without the need for user interaction.

This document describes the command-line arguments for the Text Importer.

GRANTA MI:Toolbox Bulk Data Importer Command Line Interface

The Bulk Data Importer is a command-line tool for importing data from text or Excel files into a GRANTA MI database without the need for user interaction.

This document describes the command-line arguments for the Bulk Data Importer.

EXPORTING DATA

GRANTA MI:Toolbox Excel Exporter Template Author Guide

The MI:Toolbox Excel Exporter plug-in is used to export data from a GRANTA MI database into a Microsoft Excel workbook. This is done through the use of template worksheets inside a template workbook.

This document describes the specification of the Excel templates for the Exporter.

TRANSFORMING DATA

GRANTA MI Automatic Link Creator Command Line Interface

The Automatic Link Creator is a command-line tool for creating static record links within a GRANTA MI database.

GRANTA MI Tabular Roll-up Module Command Line Interface

The Tabular Roll-up Module is a command-line tools for converting the data in a specified column of a tabular attribute to a single value using a roll-up rule, and using this value to populate another attribute within the same record.



7 Upgrading from previous versions of GRANTA MI See the GRANTA MI Installation Guide for upgrade advice and detailed information about the upgrade process .

It is strongly recommended that you back up your existing databases before performing any upgrade.

Custom files

It is strongly recommended that you back up any custom files (e.g., system home page) to a different directory before performing the GRANTA MI software upgrade.

Search projects

Search projects from earlier versions will not be available for use in MI:Viewer Version 7.

Upgrading databases

Any databases that you retain from your previous version of GRANTA MI will need to be upgraded to be compatible with GRANTA MI Version 7 using the MI:Server Manager tool. The status of any databases that need to be upgraded will be displayed in MI:Server Manager as “Must Upgrade”. Until the databases are upgraded, they will be unavailable to users. To upgrade, select the database and click on the Upgrade Schema button at the bottom of the screen.

Granta reference databases

When a new GRANTA MI software version is released, existing Granta reference databases can either be:

• replaced with a new edition which includes a new database schema and (usually) new content, or

• upgraded, where the existing database schema is modified to make it compatible with the new software release, but no changes are made to the content.

At GRANTA MI version 7, many Granta reference databases have been enhanced with revised content. Provided that your existing Granta reference database has not been extended with additional customer data that you want to keep, you should simply replace your existing database with the latest version (where available), rather than upgrading it. For more information, see the GRANTA MI Installation Guide.

GRANTA MI reference databases are supplied in the form of a SQL Server 2005 backup file. You will need administrative access to SQL Server to restore the backup file and map user roles, as described in the GRANTA MI Installation Guide.

Reapplying changes to GRANTA MI configuration files after a software upgrade

Please note that an upgrade of GRANTA MI software is effectively a new installation of GRANTA MI. Any changes made to GRANTA MI configuration files therefore need to be reapplied. If you need to reapply configuration settings, the previous files can be found in a backup folder created in the relevant installation folder.



GRANTA MI system security groups

A GRANTA MI installation creates the following Windows user groups on the machine where MI:Server is installed. These are assigned to the four GRANTA MI system security roles: MI_READ, MI_WRITE, MI_GRANT, and MI_ADMIN.

If the software detects that these groups are already present, then it will use the existing groups.



8 Known Issues

MI:Service Layer Additional Windows Server 2012 configuration requirements for Service Layer

Windows Server 2012 requires some additional configuration to allow MI:Service Layer to operate correctly. Use the Add Roles and Features Wizard in the Windows Server Manager console. You must be logged on to a server as an administrator to install or uninstall roles, role services, and features.

Start the Windows Server Manager console. 1. Choose the server to administer (typically Local Server). 2. Open the Add Roles and Features Wizard. 3. On the Features page, expand .Net 3.5 or .Net 4.5, depending on what you have installed. 4. Expand WCF Services, and then select HTTP Activation. 5. Continue through the wizard until you reach the Confirm installation selections page, then 6.

click Install.

Windows SDK 8.1 issue

The Service Layer SDK example client code cannot be built on Windows SDK 8 or higher. The workaround is to use Windows SDK versions 6 or 7.

MI:Server Notifications stop working after upgrading

If you are using the Email Notifications feature in MI:Server, you may need to reset the email notification time to some point after the upgrade has been completed to ensure that notifications continue to be generated. You can set this in MI:Server Manager on the Email Notifications page: on the General Settings tab, under Email Notifications, enter the new time in the Last Run (UTC) box.

FEA Exporters At this release, the XSLT processor used by GRANTA MI FEA Exporters has changed. By default, MI:Server is now configured to use the newer .NET XslCompiledTransform instead of the now obsolete XslTransform class. For more information please see http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/66f54faw.aspx.

Users should be aware that any text exporters that have been written or modified should be tested to ensure they do not require any adjustment to work with the new XSLT processor. In particular, XslCompiledTransform will not load any exporters with templates containing uninitialized parameters or variables, even if the template is never called.

Exporters in older Granta reference databases (that is, Granta reference databases from MI version 6 or earlier) will need replacing in order to work with XslCompiledTransform.

Note that, whenever possible, existing Granta reference databases (including exporters) should be replaced with a new edition or upgraded to be compatible with the latest MI software version (where available); see Granta reference databases on page 18.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/66f54faw.aspx



If you want to continue to use your existing (Version 6 or older) Granta FEA exporters, you have two options:

• Modify your exporters to make them work with the new XslCompiledTransform. This is the recommended option.

• Alternatively, it is possible to configure MI:Server to use the obsolete XslTransform class by default.

Option 1 (recommended): Modify your exporters

If you have modified copies of the following files, or are not planning to replace your Granta reference database with a new edition, you should follow the steps below:

• CommonUtilities.xsl, • AbaqusUtilities.xsl • AnsysUtilities.xsl

Procedure:

Remove the following template references from CommonUtilities.xsl and put them in a new 1.file named PlasticHardening.xsl. <xsl:template name="plasticHardeningData"> <xsl:template match="plasticStress | plasticStrain">

Add the following reference to the files AbaqusUtilities.xsl and AnsysUtilities.xsl: 2.<xsl:include href="PlasticHardening.xsl"/>

Option 2: Configure MI to use XslTransform

It is possible to configure MI Version 7 to use the obsolete XslTransform class by default. To do this, you need to edit the MI:Server configuration file MIServer.exe.config:

In a text editor, open the configuration file MIServer.exe.config (located in the bin folder in 1.your MI:Server installation folder).

Locate the following line: 2.<TransformStore transformClass="XslCompiledTransform"/>

Make the following change: 3.<TransformStore transformClass="XslTransform"/>

Save your changes and close the file. 4.

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