Assignment and BoM settings

The options in this section are relevant for CAD and PLM Gateways, and for CAE Gateways that support assignment to components in a product geometry (for example, HyperMesh).

Option Description
DisableHierarchicalBoM
Specifies whether or not the currently-active assembly is viewed as a hierarchical BoM when opening MI Materials Gateway from the host application toolbar.
  • By default (or if this option is set to false), when MI Materials Gateway is launched from the toolbar, the assembly is shown in the Assignments panel as a fully-hierarchical BoM structure. Users can also launch Gateway from the context menu on a sub-assembly, part, or body, in order to view their selection as a list of parts with bodies.
  • If this option is set to true, only the contextual view is available. If MI Materials Gateway is launched from the host application toolbar, it shows the parts that are currently selected in NX in List mode, or (if nothing is selected in NX) the current work part in List mode.
Note: Some features (for example, exporting assignments to a BoM file) can only be used when viewing a hierarchical BoM, and will not be available if DisableHierarchicalBoM = true.

Only applies to: Gateway for NX
BomIsReadOnly

Can be used to specify that MI Materials Gateway for a particular host application is ‘read-only’.

If true, then users cannot assign data to parts or edit existing assignments. However, they can browse or search for materials in the database, edit or update favorites, and analyze the BoM in BoM Analyzer (if Restricted Substances or Sustainability analysis is enabled).

Only applies to: CAD and PLM Gateways
AllowBomExportTypes

When exporting a Bill of Materials file (see EnableBomExportToFile), users can select from a list of Granta MI XML BoM schema types, or .csv format.

Optionally, you can use the AllowBomExportTypes setting to restrict the XML BoM schema types that will be available for users to select. The permitted types must be specified as a comma-separated list, using the Key for each schema type that you want to make available.
Note: At this release, the only XML BoM schema type supported is BillOfMaterials2301.

If this setting is not configured, all supported XML BoM schema types will be available. (Note that .csv format is always available for users to select, regardless of this setting.)

Only applies to: CAD and PLM Gateways
DisableViewInBoMAnalyzer

If your organization has a license for MI Restricted Substances and/or MI Sustainability, users will see a right-click menu item View in BoM Analyzer in the Assignments panel, that opens a copy of the BoM in an instance of the BoM Analyzer application.

If required, you can use the DisableViewInBoMAnalyzer setting to hide the View In BoM Analyzer menu item for one or more of the CAD and PLM host applications.

  • By default (or if this option is set to false), the menu item is available if you have a license for MI Restricted Substances and/or MI Sustainability.
  • If this option is set to true, the menu item is hidden, regardless of license availability.

Only applies to: CAD and PLM Gateways
BomSyncNXSheetBody
This setting controls the type of bodies that are shown in the Assignments panel of the MI Materials Gateway UI, and are available for assignment.
  • If false, only solid bodies are shown.
  • If true, both solid bodies and sheet bodies are shown.
Note: This default can be overridden on the MI Materials Gateway Settings page.

Only applies to: Gateway for NX and Gateway for Teamcenter with NX
NXPreferredReferenceSet

In MI Materials Gateway for NX, when viewing a selection of parts in List mode (for example, when MI Materials Gateway has been opened by right-clicking on selected items in the NX model), users can choose a reference set to view in MI Materials Gateway from a list at the top of the Assignments panel. The list includes all reference sets that are available for any of the parts (including 'Entire Part' and 'Model'), and the selected reference set is used to filter the bodies shown for all parts.

Optionally, you can use NXPreferredReferenceSet to specify a ‘preferred’ reference set, that will be selected by default if available in the list. A different reference set can be selected from the list if required.
  • If you specify the name of an NX reference set, this will be selected by default if it is available for any of the parts in the Assignments panel.
  • If no value is specified, or if the preferred reference set is not available, then the ‘Entire Part’ reference set will be selected by default.
Note: This setting is only relevant when working in List mode. In BoM mode (for example, when MI Materials Gateway has been opened or refreshed by clicking in the main toolbar in NX), each individual part in the hierarchy is displayed using its current reference set in NX.
In Gateway for Teamcenter with NX, reference sets are ignored and the Assignments panel always shows ‘Entire Part’.

Only applies to: Gateway for NX
WarnIfBodyCountExceedsThisNumber

You can use WarnIfBodyCountExceedsThisNumber to display a warning when users attempt to load a part or assembly that contains a large number of bodies. The threshold at which the warning appears is configurable.

For example:

<HostOption a:name="WarnIfBodyCountExceedsThisNumber">
1000</HostOption>

enables the warning at a threshold of 1000 bodies.

<HostOption a:name="WarnIfBodyCountExceedsThisNumber">
false</HostOption>

disables the warning.

The default behavior is to not show a warning. Omitting the setting or specifying a value other than an integer will result in the warning not appearing.

Only applies to: Gateway for NX
AllowMaterialAssignmentWithNoDensity

This specifies whether a material with no data value for its Density attribute can be assigned in MI Materials Gateway when using basic material assignment (without an exporter).

If false or not specified, assignment of a material with no Density value will fail.

Note: The setting does not apply to assignment or import using an exporter. This includes material assignment using a default exporter (see CAD material assignment using a default exporter) and explicit assignment of a CAE material model (see View and assign CAE material models).

Only applies to: CAD and PLM Gateways
UsePartUnitSystemForExporterData
For assignment of materials using an exporter in Creo, this setting can be used to configure MI Materials Gateway to use the Part Unit System (as defined for the Creo part) to export and assign the data.
  • If true, Gateway uses the Part Unit System, provided it is listed in the exporter configuration file and is available in the Granta MI database. (Otherwise, Gateway uses the first unit system listed in the exporter configuration file.)
    Note: If you use the Creo default unit system, this must be specified in the exporter configuration file and Granta MI database using the name Inch lbm Second (Pro/E Default)
  • If false (default), Gateway uses the exporter unit system, as specified in the exporter configuration file (or the first one listed, if there is more than one).

Only applies to: Gateway for Creo
ReportFallbackWriteZeroMeasures

When exporting a BoM file, MI Materials Gateway includes either the part mass (if available from the CAD host application) or part volume (if mass is unavailable, for example, in a PLM Gateway) in the BoM that is exported.

By default, if both mass and volume are unavailable, the part will have no value for the mass or volume in the BoM.

For BoM file export, you can use this option to set the part mass = 0 in the BoM when both part mass and volume are unavailable.

  • If true then if both mass and volume are unavailable, the part mass will be set to zero in BoMs that are exported to a file.
  • If false or not specified, the part mass and volume in the exported BoM will have no value.
Note: This setting does not apply when a BoM is analyzed in BoM Analyzer. If both mass and volume are unavailable from the host application, the part will have no value for either mass or volume in BoM Analyzer, regardless of this setting.

Only applies to: CAD and PLM Gateways
BomShowShortNames
You can use this setting to configure the Assignments panel to display short names for Granta MI records by default. (Note that this setting only applies to the Assignments panel.)
  • If true, the Assignments panel will display the Granta MI record’s short name.
  • If false, it will display the long name.
By default, users will be able to override this setting in the Gateway user interface. To prevent this, you can set EnforceBomShowShortNames (below) to true.

Applicable to: All CAD and PLM Gateways, HyperMesh Gateway
EnforceBomShowShortNames
This setting determines whether users can choose to display long or short names for Granta MI records in the Assignments panel.
  • If false, an option will be available on the Settings page to choose whether to show long or short record names on the Assignments panel.
  • If true, this option will not appear. MI Materials Gateway will always use the setting that is specified by BoMShowShortNames.

Applicable to: All CAD and PLM Gateways, HyperMesh Gateway
EnableAlternateMaterialAssignment
If true, MI Materials Gateway will allow alternate materials (and other assignment types, where enabled) to be assigned to a part or body (as applicable) in addition to or instead of the primary assignment.
Note: The Alternates feature no longer requires an additional option (EnablePartDetails) to be set.

Applicable to: NX, Teamcenter with NX, Creo, and Windchill Gateways
EnablePrimaryWarning
When alternate assignments are enabled (see EnableAlternateMaterialAssignment), you can use this setting to display a warning on any part or body that has alternate assignments but no primary assignment.
  • If true, then if a part or body has one or more alternate materials but no primary material, a warning indicator is shown in the Material column on the Assignments panel. Similarly, for other assignment types (where enabled): a warning is shown in the Process, Surface treatment, or Color column if a part or body has one or more alternates of that type, but no primary assignment of that type.
  • If false (or not specified), no warning is shown.

Applicable to: NX, Teamcenter with NX, Creo, and Windchill Gateways
EnableRenderingOfColorAssignments

When this option is enabled, assigning a color to a part or body will render its surface appearance in Creo using the assigned color. See Enabling color rendering in Creo Parametric

Only applies to: MI Materials Gateway for Creo Parametric
PartPropertyDisplayMapping

Each entry of this type adds a column to the Assignments panel, containing the value of a part property in the host application. These additional columns will also be shown in the results of Where Used queries (where supported).

The entry consists of a colon-separated key and value:
  • The key corresponds to the part property name in the host application.
  • The value specifies the column display heading.
For more details and examples, see Show part properties for Assignments.

Only applies to: CAD and PLM Gateways
DisablePartLevelAttributesWriting
This option can be used to prevent MI Materials Gateway from writing data at part level in NX.
  • If false or not specified: when a Granta MI record is assigned to a body, data representing the assignment is also written to attributes on the parent part. This includes any additional attributes that have been configured to be written on assignment – see Writing data from attributes to host parts, and PartMaterialAttributeMapping (etc.) below.
  • If true, no data will be written to part-level attributes.
Setting this option to true is recommended if you are working with parts that contain multiple bodies.

Only applies to: Gateway for NX and Gateway for Teamcenter with NX
UseCategoryForHostAttributes
This option, when specified, will cause the ‘GDL’-prefixed attributes that are written to bodies and parts in NX on assignment to be written under a named category in NX.
  • If false or not specified, no category will be created for writing attributes.
  • If true, attributes will be written under a category. You can specify the name of the category using CategoryName (below). If you don’t specify a category name, the default category ‘Granta MI’ will be used.
Note: This setting only applies to the standard set of attributes (GUIDs, etc) that are written by default on assignment. It does not apply to any additional host part attribute mappings that you may configure using PartMaterialAttributeMapping, PartProcessAttributeMapping, etc. If you want those attributes to be written to an NX category, you must specify it as part of the mapping – see Writing data from attributes to host parts for examples.

Only applies to: Gateway for NX and Gateway for Teamcenter with NX
CategoryName
When UseCategoryForHostAttributes is set to true, this option specifies the name of the NX category that will be used for attributes written to bodies and parts in NX.
Note: This setting only applies to the standard set of attributes (GUIDs, etc) that are written by default on assignment.

Only applies to: Gateway for NX and Gateway for Teamcenter with NX
PartMaterialAttributeMapping

This optional element can be used to specify a Granta MI material attribute value that will be written to a part or body attribute in the host when a material is assigned. Any number of these elements may be specified.

The syntax is a colon-separated pair:
  • The name of the host part (or body) attribute that the value will be written to. In Gateway for NX and Gateway for Teamcenter with NX, you can optionally prefix this with the name of an NX category.
  • A formatted string determining the Granta MI attribute values to be written. This format may contain any combination of fixed strings (without quotes) and standard names of Granta MI attributes (in braces {}).
For example: 
HOST_PART_ATTRIBUTE_NAME:Supplier = {SUPPLIER_STANDARD_NAME}

If you want to specify an NX category, include it before the attribute name, separated by ‘/’:

MyCategory/HOST_PART_ATTRIBUTE_NAME:Supplier = {SUPPLIER_STANDARD_NAME}

For more details and examples, see Writing data from attributes to host parts

Applicable to: NX, Teamcenter with NX, Creo, and Windchill Gateways
PartProcessAttributeMapping

As above, but for process assignments

Applicable to: Gateways for NX, Teamcenter with NX, Creo
PartSurfaceTreatmentAttributeMapping

As above, but for surface treatment assignments

Applicable to: Gateways for NX, Teamcenter with NX, Creo
PartColorAttributeMapping

As above, but for color assignments

Applicable to: Gateways for NX, Teamcenter with NX, Creo
PartMaterialRemoveAttribute

This optional element can be used to specify any legacy host part attributes that may need to be cleared when a material assignment is updated or removed.

This scenario can occur if an attribute has previously been written to the part on material assigment (using either the PartMaterialAttributeMapping option above, or the AttributeToHostPropertyMappings.xml file for older Gateways), but is now no longer configured to be written on assignment. In this scenario, the existing attribute value would not automatically be updated or removed by any future material assignment.

Specify each legacy attribute to be removed as a separate element in gateway.config, using its name in the host application. For example: 

<HostOption a:name="PartMaterialRemoveAttribute">
HOST_PART_ATTRIBUTE_NAME</HostOption>

In Gateway for NX and Gateway for Teamcenter with NX, if the legacy attribute was written to an NX category, then you must ensure that you prefix the attribute name with the category name. For example: 

<HostOption a:name="PartMaterialRemoveAttribute">
MyCategory/HOST_PART_ATTRIBUTE_NAME</HostOption>
For more details see:

Applicable to: Gateways for NX, Teamcenter with NX, Creo, and HyperMesh
PartProcessRemoveAttribute

As above, but for process assignments

Applicable to: Gateways for NX, Teamcenter with NX, Creo
PartSurfaceTreatmentRemoveAttribute

As above, but for surface treatment assignments

Applicable to: Gateways for NX, Teamcenter with NX, Creo
PartColorRemoveAttribute

As above, but for color assignments

Applicable to: Gateways for NX, Teamcenter with NX, Creo