3.1. Improvements to FMEA Handling

Improved Context Selection

Modeling of causes and effects has been made easier for FMEA, SWA, and DC worksheets. The Select... dialogs for causes, effects, detection measures, and prevention measures now remember the last state of what elements were expanded and collapsed, per worksheet and per column, until the project or tool is closed.

When opening a dialog for the first time, all SysML models and failure collections are shown, with models and collections collapsed.

In addition, the Select... dialogs now show empty collections by default. You can edit these from within the dialog.

Handling of Large Failure Nets

We have added tools to the cause/effect net editor to make navigation of large nets easier. Use the new tools to:

  • Set an initial maximum distance between elements

  • Limit the maximum distance between elements in the editor, so that only the specified level of elements around the selected node are expanded

  • Double-click the left or right edge of an element to expand or collapse connected nodes.

  • Reset the distance to the initial maximum distance

  • Use the Back icon or the history dropdown to set the view back to a previous one

The cause/effect editor remembers the state of the maximum distance as well as the expand and collapse states.

Support for Measures without Causes

In FMEA and SWA worksheets, you can now assign measures to potential failures/potential weaknesses without first creating a cause/effect net. Simply enable the feature in the cover page, then in the worksheet create placeholder causes and assign measures to them. After a measure has been assigned, you can use that failure as a cause; the cause includes the same measures as in the original failure.