Author Topic: EA only recognising aggregation and not reference connectors  (Read 4898 times)

RayB

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EA only recognising aggregation and not reference connectors
« on: August 03, 2021, 11:31:27 pm »
Hi all,

In producing my bdds i have noticed that to see a reference property in the IBD I have to use aggregation. It doesn't work with the reference connector without the daimond. In Lenny Delligati's course he avoids aggregation altogether in his descriptions in favour of normal reference connectors.

Is this a nuance of EA or due to my version 13 or am I doing something wrong? Thanks in advance.

Ray

philchudley

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Re: EA only recognising aggregation and not reference connectors
« Reply #1 on: August 04, 2021, 12:47:58 am »
I hope I have understood your post correctly.

In my opinion you are not doing anything wrong. I am not familiar with the Lenny Delligati's course you mention, but it is my understanding that in EA when an aggregation connector is used between Blocks on a BDD, EA creates a Reference Property, which when displayed as a Part in an IDB displays with a dashed border.

I assume this dashed border is what you are after?

Upon some initial investigation, in EA 15.2 (not sure about version 13), the Part Property element's Properties view has a tab named Property in which there is a checkbox named Reference which is checked for the dashed border.

What I suggest you try, is:

1) Select the Part in the IBD that you wish to make a Reference
2) Examine its properties, by double-clicking to open the Properties dialog
3) Click the Advanced tab
4) Change the isReference from false to true

You should now see your dashed border.

Hope this works for you.

Phil
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RayB

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Re: EA only recognising aggregation and not reference connectors
« Reply #2 on: August 04, 2021, 01:57:20 am »
Thanks for the reply Phil.

"when an aggregation connector is used between Blocks on a BDD, EA creates a Reference Property, which when displayed as a Part in an IDB displays with a dashed border." -- I am in agreement with this and yes I want a dashed bordered reference property.

I am able to create reference properties by an aggregation link between two blocks and in the IBD synchronise elements to see the ref property with dashed border. So with aggregation everything works perfectly.

The problem is if i connect one block to another block (external system) and instead of using aggregation (white diamond) I use the reference connector (straight line only) then i don't see the dashed reference property in the IBD anymore.

For example in the system shown below two reference connectors connect eps to cdhs and flight computer. In EA using these connectors I've found the reference properties are not visible in the IBDs.

https://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/chap3_9780321927866/elementLinks/03fig01.jpg