pottsm - Friday, July 23, 2010 8:18 PM:
Hello,
We are working on bringing up a new Aras system and I am wondering if anyone might be able to help with a integration issue.
We currently use EMAs CIP interface to pull new part numbers and gather parametric data for electrical parts used on schematics. CIP wants it's own database and schema separate from any other system (important note for later). This interface can be seen here:
www.designadvance.com/.../component-information-portal.aspx
The back-end database of that tool plugs into Orcad CIS, which is visible from the schematic and allows us to view parametric part information when building schematics. CIS interface seen here:
www.designadvance.com/.../capturecis.aspx
We would like to use Aras as the master for part information, especially since there are other parts we pull for example mechanical enclosures, etc that would not be pulled in the CIP interface because it is not used on our schematics.
However, we would like to be able to keep the CIP interface as it provides simple access to quite a bit of parametric data that can be used when building schematics.
The problem is that the internal part number information has to exist in the back-end CIS database (populated by the CIP web-interface) along with manufacture part number, etc. But that information also needs to exist in Aras and would prefer NOT to have duplication of this type of data (don't want to design with one data source, then produce production BOMs with another data source).
Has anyone dealt with integrating this type of external part origination interface into Aras? If so, please let me know how you dealt with it. If not, please give any ideas you might have. The best thing I can come up with at the moment is synchronization of the two data sources or somehow using partial federated data for electrical parts and regular Aras data for non-electrical parts??
Thanks for any input
RobMcAveney - Saturday, July 24, 2010 12:02 PM:
I think the key question here is if there will be any information tracked in Aras about the parts that live in the CIS database. This could include things like cost, status, classification, weight, etc. If so, then you will probably want federated properties in Aras that are populated on demand from the CIS database. This means that there will be a Part item in Aras for each Part in CIS and there will be some mapping between them based on id or part number. When a user retrieves a Part in Aras, any property values that are stored in CIS will be retrieved through the integration dynamically and displayed in the Aras user interface.
If there is no data to be stored in Aras, you can instead choose to use a federated ItemType. In this case, there is no table in the Aras database to store information about the Parts from CIS. The Parts are simply retrieved from the CIS database each time they are needed, but still appear in the Aras UI as if they are native to Aras. In this situation, you would also have to update the Part BOM relationship to allow CIS Parts to be added alongside Aras Parts.
There's a good wiki on federation here: http://www.aras.comhttp://www.aras.com/Community/wikis/kb/how-to-use-federation.aspx.
Rob
