Before you begin integrating authoring tools and sharing data, you need to understand the following integration concepts as they apply to full and basic integration.
Most of the concepts presented here apply to basic integration as well as to full
integration. However, features related to workflows, projects, work breakdown structure
(WBS), or the Web Client are available with full integration only. Other exceptions
are noted where appropriate.
Register
Before authoring tools can share data, you must associate each plant in the authoring tool with a SmartPlant Foundation plant database. This process is called registration. Registering an authoring tool allows the tool to communicate with the SmartPlant software components, display SmartPlant commands, and share data. For more information about registering an authoring tool, see Register an Authoring Tool.
Documents
Documents are used as containers for the authoring tool data that is published and retrieved through integration. Documents can be drawings, reports, or model files. Nothing smaller than a document can be published and retrieved.
When documents are published, the authoring tool typically creates an XML file that contains the data and a viewable file for viewing in SmartPlant Foundation. Not all documents are published with a view file, and some documents are published by the authoring tools as view files without any data.
Publish
When authoring tool users are ready to share data from the tool database, they publish the documents that contain the data that they want to share. Publishing exports the data from the authoring tool database, generates an XML file in a common format that SmartPlant Foundation recognizes, and begins the process of loading the published data into the SmartPlant Foundation repository. For example, when an Aspen Basic EngineeringTM user is ready to share the data in a PFD with upstream users, the Aspen Basic Engineering user publishes the PFD.
For more information about publishing documents and data, see Publishing in an Integrated Environment.
Workflows
In SmartPlant Foundation, workflows manage changes to documents. When you publish a document, you can submit the document to a workflow by selecting a workflow in the Publish dialog box. The workflow determines what happens to the document when it reaches SmartPlant Foundation, including whether the document must be approved before the data is loaded into SmartPlant Foundation.
For more information about workflows, see How to Configure the Workflow Model.
Retrieve
When authoring tool users want to import data that has been published by other authoring tools, they retrieve the document that contains the data they need from SmartPlant Foundation. For example, when users in downstream applications, such as Smart P&ID, are ready to incorporate data from an upstream tool, such as Aspen Basic Engineering, into their work, they can retrieve the data from a PFD published from SmartPlant Foundation.
For more information about retrieving data, see Retrieving in an Integrated Environment.
Correlate
When an authoring tool retrieves a document, the authoring tool can create a Same As relationship between an existing object in the tool database and an object in the published document. For example, equipment that is published in a data sheet is correlated with the equivalent piece of equipment in Smart P&ID when the data sheet is retrieved.
The Same As relationship indicates that an object in another tool is equal to an object in the current tool so that updates to properties in one tool are made to the correct object in other tools. The Same As relationship also creates a shared object in SmartPlant Foundation.
Some authoring tools have the ability to auto-correlate based on the item tag. If the item tag of a retrieved object does not match an item tag in the tool database, the user can do a manual correlate in the authoring tool.
To Do Lists
When you retrieve data, authoring tools like Smart Instrumentation, Smart P&ID, and Aspen Basic Engineering analyze the impact of the retrieved data on the tool database and display those results as tasks in the To Do List. These tasks allow you to create, update, or delete objects in the tool's database that do not match the data you retrieved from SmartPlant Foundation.
The To Do list gives you the opportunity to view and understand potential changes before accepting, deleting, or modifying tool data based on the retrieved document.
If you are using full integration, SmartPlant Foundation also has a To Do List that
is used to manage user assignments for workflows.
Subscribe
If users want the software to notify them when a document that interests them is published, they can subscribe to changes to that document. When you subscribe to a document, the software notifies you by e-mail when another user publishes changes to that document. The software automatically subscribes you to all the documents that you have retrieved at least once. You can also subscribe to documents manually in the SmartPlant Foundation client. For more information about subscribing to documents, see Change Notifications.
This functionality is available only with full integration.
Authoring Tool Mapping
Authoring tool mapping defines the objects and properties that are published and retrieved by each authoring tool. Most authoring tool mapping is defined in the authoring tool schemas. Each authoring tool delivers out-of-the-box mapping in its tool schema, but this mapping can be extended. The Schema Editor is used to define the mapping.
For more information about authoring tool mapping, see SmartPlant Mapping Overview.
Intercompany Collaborations 2 (ICC2)
Using standard integration, you can publish from an authoring tool to a SmartPlant Foundation plant. Intercompany Collaboration 2 (ICC2) extends that functionality and allows you to revise and publish documents in a project configuration in a tool to either the plant or a project configuration in SmartPlant Foundation. With ICC2, owner operators can find and manage inconsistencies across projects or disciplines within projects, such as:
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Data inconsistencies across schematics tools
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Project scope inconsistencies across schematics tools
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Overlaps in scopes across projects
For this release, you can use ICC2 to revise and publish to the plant or a project
in that plant from Smart P&ID, Smart Instrumentation, Smart Electrical, or any SmartPlant
Foundation authoring environment, except Excel Adapter. However, you cannot retrieve
to or from a project. Support for ICC2 revise and publish capabilities in additional
tools, such as Smart 3D, is planned for future releases.
For more information about implementing ICC2 for an authoring tool, see Configure an authoring tool to support publish from the plant or project level.