Next_assembly_usage ID & location

In updating the capability representing_assembly_structure I have found that there is very little need to identify the relational entity instance between components of an assembly. One usage could however be to identify the location of a component in an assembly, but for this we have the attribute location_indicator. I have discussed this a bit with some of my collegues, and we have come to the following conclusion, which I will document in the capability unless anyone objects.

The assignment of an identifier to a Next_assembly_usage (and other subtypes of View_definition_relationship) cannot be mandatory. Such an id is almost never, it seems, unique in a data exchange file, but only in the assembly itself (most systems today do not use ids on the relations, and so they are often invented or automatically generated if they at all exists). Furthermore, references to the relational entity instance is done by identifying the assembly and the component individually (probably a result of today’s system’s inability to identify the relation?). Therefore, the assignment of identifiers will be optional.

The location_indicator attribute is used for “item find numbers”. It is not clear if it should also be used for other type of placement, like “left” and “right” wheel, but I suppose that is the idea. The current capability is unclear whether the location_indicator or the id attribute carry the real denominator between Next_assembly_usages that have the same relating part_view_definition, but due to the above discussion about ID I will use only the location_indicator attribute to separate them.

If anyone have an issue with this, please inform me with a good example of when this is not applicable, so I can document the capability correctly.

Peter Bergström

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