Trying to decide on whether baselines or snapshots are best for your project? Here we explain the differences so you can make the informed decision on which is best for your project.
What is a Baseline?
A baseline is a mechanism in a Configuration Management System to protect formally reviewed and approved information from modification. It is a named repository for the definitive state of a system at a specific point in time to which only read-only access is permitted. A succession of baselines can be created over the life of a project, each containing information from an increasing subset of the phases in a project.
Principles of Baselines
When a new baseline is created, unchanged items will migrate into it from the previous baseline. Therefore new copies of items are not created for each new baseline. This avoids such copied items increasing the number of items in the database and hence the database size.
These are a collection of the accepted/approved items that can be reported / queried / viewed in numerous ways.
The items are progressive in that each instance of an item is controlled by the Version attribute and “work in progress” items are labelled with a draft “A”
Baselines only contain the data. Not the definition files that existed at that time (e.g. views, queries, documents, reports).
What is a Snapshot?
A snapshot is a read-only copy of ALL the information in a Cradle database at a specific point in time that can be viewed, in isolation, at any point in the future.
This includes definition files (excluding Personal) and the project definition.
When a snapshot is selected, access to information, cross references and definitions is determined by the contents of the user’s profile in the database they are currently logged into, regardless of whether or not the user has a profile in the current snapshot and regardless of the contents of that user profile (if any) in the snapshot.
Select Snapshot dialog
Snapshots can be deleted from Project Manager or via command line (as power user).
*If you will have the same users in the new project that are in the existing project.
The Solution
To avoid the Personal and/or User definition files being part of this import, we would suggest the following:
Log in to the existing project as MANAGER
Select Project > Export
In the Export dialog set Owner to Everything and Info Type to ProjectSchema and User Profiles (if users are required, see comment above)
Press Export to create the export file and close the Export Status dialog but do NOT close the Export Information dialog:
In the Export Information dialog, change the Info Type to ONLY show Definition Files:
You will see that some new options appear – Definition Type and Location:
The Definition Type option allows you to specify the types of definition file to be included in the export. For this example, we will leave this as All:
The Location option defines which location you are exporting the definition files from.
Users may have created Personal or User definition files that might not be relevant to the new project. Personal and/or User definitions might only have been useful to an individual person rather than the project so could be omitted.
In this case, we would only need to select Team*, User Type* and Project
* It may only be necessary to select Project
Press the Export button again. This will present you with the option to Overwrite, Append or Cancel. Select Append:
In Project Manager, create your new project with an EMPTY schema:
Log into the new project as MANAGER
Select Project > Import and set Owner to As in File and Overwrite to On:
You will see that your new project contains:
Users
All the Project Setup information including the phase hierarchy and all supporting definition files
Summary Note
If you had NOT chosen to append the definition files, it is highly likely that the phase hierarchy from the existing project would not work in the new project and would produce errors.
These definition files are important to define the WorkBench environment.
Also, if you had chosen to export all the definition files, this may have resulted in numerous views, forms, queries, documents etc., that are not particularly relevant or accepted into project definitions.
Some issues have been detected when running our Toolsuite applications (Document Loader or Document Publisher), e.g. when running dual monitors, with certain scaling settings etc.
Example of Toolsuite Errors
Sometimes when having more than one monitor connected you may see one of the following error messages.
Solutions
The following solutions can fix the problem without having to remove the monitors.
Scaling
Set the scaling of both monitors to 100%
Restart your machine
Resolution
Set the resolution of both monitors to be the same
Advanced scaling
In Display settings click Advanced scaling settings
Enable Let Windows try to fix apps so they’re not blurry
Restart your machine
High DPI scaling override
Right click on DocPub.exe and choose Properties. Note: if your problem is with Document Loader then just follow the same steps but for DocLoader.exe
In the Compatibility tab select Change high DPI settings
Enable Override high DPI scaling behaviour
Restart your machine
Program DPI
If the above doesn’t work then in the same dialog as High DPI scaling override enable the Use this setting to fix scaling problems…. within the Program DPI section
Optimise for Compatibility
Open Word Options
Select the General tab
In User Interface options ensure the When using multiple displays option is set to Optimize for compatibility (application restart required)
I need a sequence of information, how do I do this in Cradle?
There are a number of ways to create sequences of information.
You can create a hierarchy of linked numbered Cradle items. This will give you the full flexibility that every element is a complete item and can hold any information you like.
Item Hierarchy
You can simply type in a text frame. Text frames are free-form so you can type what you like.
Plain Text
You could (On Windows® systems) add an RTF frame which allows you to embed styled lists with numbers and bullets.
RTF List
Define a frame of the base data type LIST. This will provide a numbered, bulleted or plain list with a title and text element that is held as a sequence within the item.
List Frame TypeFrame Assignment
Can I keep an item’s change history when exporting?
The simple answer is yes!
I certain scenario’s you may need to export items from one Cradle database and import them into another. Depending on your reasons for this, you may want to retain an items change history. However, this is only possible when using the Standard Cradle Export Format and Change History is enabled for your item types.
Enabling Change History
Each item type can have change history enabled in the Project Schema via the Project Setup dialog. You can see how to enable change history in this Cradle help article. Once enabled you should start to receive a change dialog pop-up when making changes to items of that type.
Change details
You can choose to enter a change comment, which can include your reasons for making this change. This can prove useful in situations where there are a large number of users in one database enabling full traceability.
Standard Cradle format
Cradle export format files are unique to Cradle and can store every piece of PDB (Project Database) information which does include an item’s change history. However, the type of information that is stored can be further defined by you in the export interface.
There are the usual operating system shortcuts such as <ctrl> + C and <ctrl> + V to cut and paste text. Users can see and set the additional Cradle keyboard shortcuts in their user preferences.
These preferences are first drawn from the system wide cradle.ini/cradle.rc file. If you alter any of them for your own needs, they are saved in your personal user preferences as a difference between the system setting and you chosen value. Thereby balancing consistency between users, whilst allowing flexibility when needed.
This menu is selected from the tab Home -> Preferences
Cradle Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard
The Cradle shortcuts are mainly based around diagram drawing operations. This can speed up productivity considerably. For example; you don’t have to keep moving your mouse cursor to a menu, just to switch between say drawing and selecting.
More information about keyboard shortcuts can be found in the Cradle Help . Similarly the reset of the user preference details can also be set in the same dialog.
Cradle Toolsuite is compatible with both 2013 and 2016Office 365. To see all Toolsuite compatibility see this page. Toolsuite should work with Office 365 the same as with a normal Office install. Occasionally there are problems due to issues with Office 365 not always with Toolsuite.
Document Loader, Document Publisher and Spellchecker make up Toolsuite
Office Updates
Recently there was an issue with an update to Office 365 which stopped our InstallShield correctly detecting the installed version. This issue has been fixed by changing our detection routine in a patch release. If you are seeing this issue with your original install files, please download the latest files and try again. Unfortunately this could happen again as we have no control over these updates. All 3SL can do is update our routines as and when this comes to our attention.
Occasionally when Office is updated and when newly installed, it requires you to Accept new terms. If you have not done this then you will see an Error when trying to start Toolsuite applications.
Error instartup: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
Windows 10 Updates
Since a Windows 10 update earlier this year everything is running slower on may different Microsoft™ Windows flavours. Word can open slower and this can cause issues if you are trying to publish a document. There is no work around for this except to keep trying to publish. Check this blog for more information but the summary so far is:
With Windows 10 on newer silicon (2016-era PCs with Skylake, Kabylake or newer CPU), benchmarks show single-digit slowdowns, but we don’t expect most users to notice a change because these percentages are reflected in milliseconds.
Aklso on Windows 10 on older silicon (2015-era PCs with Haswell or older CPU), some benchmarks show more significant slowdowns, and we expect that some users will notice a decrease in system performance.
Windows 8 and Windows 7 on older silicon (2015-era PCs with Haswell or older CPU), we expect most users to notice a decrease in system performance.
Windows Server on any silicon, especially in any IO-intensive application, shows a more significant performance impact when you enable the mitigations to isolate untrusted code within a Windows Server instance. This is why you want to be careful to evaluate the risk of untrusted code for each Windows Server instance, and balance the security versus performance trade-off for your environment.
Connection or Server Issues
Occasionally the Microsoft server or the connection is down (DownDetector) and this can also cause issues with the Office and Toolsuite. There is no work around for this except patience. Once the connection/server is fixed and up and running you should have no issues with Toolsuite.
Subscription and MSI installs
Having a mix of subscription and Microsoft Installer based MS Office installs can cause detection issues during a Toolsuite install. For example the user has a click-to-run Office 2013 installed but a Microsoft Installer version of MS Project or Visio™. This has been fixed by altering how we detect the architecture of the Office applications.
Mixed Office Versions
It is recommended in our install guides not to have mixed Office environments. For example you may have MS Office 2010 but Project 2016. These type of environments can cause install issues. Even once an install is successful there can be application issues including the loading and publishing documents.
Many of us spend long periods of time working at our computer screens. Consequently, eye strain can become a serious problem. Also, we can sometimes be more productive if we can maximise the amount of information shown. Hence, changing the text size used in the Cradle UI can help in both of these cases, and in several other situations as well.
Maximised Data Display Area
Read articles covering how to maximise the screen area available to display information or drawings.
For comparison, if you use all of the tips described in that other blog post, the UI will have a maximised data display area and will appear like this:
Display in Normal Text
Increase Text Size
You can increase the size of text used in the UI by setting the Text size user preference to Large:
Set Large Text Size
You must re-start WorkBench after making this change.
Using the larger text, the above query and view will be shown like this:
Display in Large Text Size
Decrease Text Size
You can decrease the size of text used in the UI by setting the Text size user preference to Small:
Set Small Text Size
You must re-start WorkBench after making this change.
Using the smaller text, the above query and view will be shown like this:
Display in Small Text Size
Uses
Cradle provides several options to maximise the screen area used to display information. You can change a user preference to change the size of text used throughout the UI.
You can use these in combination to:
Simply see bigger text and reduce the risk of eye strain
Reduce the risk of eye strain and also maximise the display area so you do not reduce the amount of information shown in the UI
Use smaller text because you are using a low display resolution and Cradle is using text that is needlessly large for your display
Reduce the size of text and also maximise the display area because you have a large screen and good eyesight and you must have the maximum possible data visible, particularly when you are using multiple panes to display multiple sets of information at the same time
In the case of a standard hierarchy in a book, it is unlikely you’d see duplicates. Chapter 1 may contain paragraph 1 and sub paragraph 1.1. (A complete reference of 1.1.1). Paragraph 1 in chapter 2 would be 2.1 and therefore, even though paragraph 1 is a duplicate number the full identity is unique. However, in an engineering context, it is much more likely that information will be referenced in more than one place. Hierarchy duplicates are not unusual for referenced information. After all, it is much better to store the information once and use it many times. This is one of the major benefits of a Requirements Management tool. Imagine each component that has to meet a certain design standard. It makes complete sense to relate each part to the standard, rather than copying the standard numerous times. In this regard the hierarchy contains duplicates. For each part that is drilled down many components will end up with the same standard at a lower level of the hierarchy.
Linked Hierarchical Information
The following example shows the expansion of a component (Pump) into the sub components (we’ve followed a link type of SUB-PART). The diagram shows that two of the components have to comply with specific flammability requirements. Both Pump Housing and Pump Electrical Control are linked to REF-13 for Flammability. In turn this has lower elements of Smoke generation for plastics and flammability of Cables.
The diagram illustrates that REF-1.3 is a duplicate by the small square in it’s NE corner.
HID Expansions
Controlling Expansion of Hierarchy Duplicates
The Hierarchy Diagram Properties dialog has an option to control whether items seen as duplicates are expanded to further levels. Here the Expand Duplicates option is unticked which is why the user does not see REF-12 and REF-14 expanded below it.
There are a number of different storage types in Cradle. These relate to where the data is held and how it is accessed. This article outlines the different storage in Cradle and explains when and where you may consider using it. Whilst there are some compelling reasons to hold certain data in certain ways, others can be a matter of choice.
For example if you want to add a URL to your item, there is no point trying to store the data inside Cradle this is, by its very nature, an As Reference storage type. On the other hand a binary word processor document could easily be stored inside the Cradle Database or as a reference to an external file on the rest of the company’s network. In this case it could depend whether the file needed to be accessed from outside Cradle or whether it was shared by multiple Cradle projects
Frames
Within an item data is either held in the main indexed database fields, such as ID, name, key or a category, or in associated frames. These frames are defined as part of the project’s schema to hold different types of data. There are a large number of predefined types and the ability to define your own.
Base Types
These are the fundamental type of data we expect to see in the frame. They may be presented in different ways to the user. For example a plain text based frame can be shown in Forms and Views and read directly on the screen. The same is true for basic images. However, a word processor document is held as a binary frame and viewed within whichever application your company uses. A CAD sketch would not be directly visible in Cradle, but could still be stored in the item and viewed with an external program.
These are the fundamental and abstract data types offered in Cradle
Text
Binary
Image
URL
Category Picklist
Category Multiple Picklist
RTF
Date
Time
Integer
Positive Integer
Real
Storage Types
Each of the above types can be stored in Cradle in one or more ways. Some storage in Cradle, such as a date, make no real sense to store in more than one manner, the URL as mentioned or a date would not make sense to be stored in a file!
In PDB
As File
By Command
As Reference
Referenced File from Item
Frame Type Details dialog
Storage Matrix
This shows the combinations of base type and storage in Cradle that are possible. More information in Cradle help.
In PDB
As File
By Command
As Reference
Referenced File from Item
Text
✓
Binary
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Image
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
URL
✓
Category Picklist
✓
Category Multiple Picklist
✓
RTF
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Date/Time/Integer/Positive Integer/Real
✓
Benefits and Usage
In PDB (Project DataBase)
✔ Frame data stored in the database is inherently linked to the database item that owns it. It is controlled in the same way as all the other fields of data (name, category, group, description, etc.). This means it can be imported and exported as part of the item. Text frames can form part of a query. Images, text and RTF can be displayed in-line. They move through the CM (configuration management) system with the item. Different revisions of the frame form part of the item’s history, and can be rewound. ✗Not ideal for very large data, e.g. video. Not externally accessible.
As File
✔ Frame data stored in a file is loosely linked to the item that owns it. Date and access times are remembered by Cradle so changes to the file can be highlighted. Great for large files. Other users can access the information externally to Cradle if they have access to a common file directory. Can be accessed through Cradle and item is locked while file is being edited as if it were part of the item. ✗Not directly controlled within Cradle, nothing to prevent the external file being removed or deleted. Can’t be rewound.
By Command
✔ Frame data is held in an external environment under an identity, the item stores this identity, and uses Get and Set commands to move the data between the environment and a temporary file where it can be operated on. ✗Not directly controlled within Cradle, nothing to prevent the external file being removed or deleted. Can’t be rewound.
As Reference
✔ Frame data stored anywhere and only loosely linked to the database item. Ideal for large resources such as Intranet pages. Ideal for information that is expected to change outside Cradle and be accessed by others. Cradle does not wait when viewing or editing. ✗ This is not considered storage in Cradle so there is no CM or rewind available. No control over alterations.
Referenced File from Item
✔ Frame data is held in a frame of a different item whose identity (PDUID and frame name) is stored in the current item. When the frame is accessed via a View the user is editing the common shared data held by the referenced item. This provides a method of reuse, allowing multiple items to directly access a data component of a different item. The ‘host’ item and the frame data follow normal CM operations. ✗Not ideal storage in Cradle for very large data, e.g. video. Not externally accessible.
Setting Up a Frame Storage in Cradle
In this example of storage in Cradle, a frame will be set up to hold a word processor document, internally (in pdb), in a file (as file), and in another item (referenced file from item).
Frame Setup
Storage Frame Setup
First set up a set of frames for each storage type and set commands on how to view and edit the file.
Frame Assignments
Ensure the items you want have these frames assigned. In this example the Feature has all three types and the Reference item has just the stored in pdb.
Frame Assignments
Usage
When the file types are set up the data can be imported into the item using the frame button and import Content… this brings the document into the item and it can be stored in the database. It can then be viewed and edited from the same button. In this illustration the Design Notes and Legal Requirements and have been stored in in this way.
The Company Design Standards are held in one directory for every project to access. The illustration links to this as file from where it can be viewed or edited.
Finally the Reference item holds the Legal Requirements document so that it is under formal control. However, other linked items can access this file directly, without having to open the holding item. Their frame is an alias for the data held by the other item.
