Hello everyone! I’m pleased to announce that I will be the chairman for the next Capella Webinar, on 3rd April with José Fuentes (Chief Sales Manager, The Reuse Company) and Ilyes Yousfi (Sales & Consulting Engineer, The Reuse Company).
Modern systems are increasingly complex, requiring several tools to manage their development effectively. To build a coherent and valuable digital thread, it is important to have seamless connectivity and interaction between these tools. Furthermore, as many development programs involve different organizations, it is more than necessary to link the digital threads together in order to facilitate decision-making. This brings the challenge of building interoperable toolchains that enable collaboration, data exchange, and global configuration management throughout the system lifecycle.
Capella, thanks to the ARCADIA method, provides an excellent framework for collaboration and development of systems of systems. Its integration into a Single Source of Synchronised Truth (SSoT) enables all system engineering assets to be centralized and improves the management of requirements and models.
José and Ilyes will show you how integrating Capella models into the SES ENGINEERING Studio platform facilitates collaboration, guarantees data exchange and synchronization, and ensures ontology-controlled requirements management.
As always, the webinar video replay will be uploaded to YouTube two weeks after the main event, with first-week access for everyone who answered the post-webinar survey. Every question left unanswered during the event will be posted here with a direct response from José and Ilyes.
Hi everyone,
Following the webinar, Ilyes agreed to answer the questions we could not address due to the lack of time. So thank you very much to Ilyes who accepted to answer them in written form.
You will find the answers below. For questions that have already been answered during the webinar, you can take a look at the replay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAweRXv9E8o
Full Name
Question
Answer
Naresh Kumar
Is SSoT a commercial tool?
Already answered in live
Reece Matthews
How does this work with respect to data security models whereby some information may / may not be available to some people throughout the lifecycle?
Already answered in live
Rishika Khajuria
How do we integrate with existing enterprise workflows (e.g., CRM, ERP, and other SaaS tools)?
Already answered in live
Lorenzo Grenier
Have you defined a method or best practices for selecting the right source for the right concept? And how do you deal with the situation where several sources contradict each other?
Already answered in live
Reece Matthews
Does this just link pre-established elements, or if I create new information in one tool (i.e. new requirements in Polarion) can it create new elements in other tools for me (i.e. Capella?)
Already answered in live
Vincent Saluzzi
Are the APIs enabling knowing which object (eg. SF Function) which corresponds to which (eg. Actiivty in SysML) … or are we applying rules to enable the correspondences and avoid a multitude of manual traces created in the demo?
Within each connector in SES, we retrieve the information contained in the source tool using the editor’s API. If connecting to a PLM/ALM tool, we get and synchronize the attributes that characterize the object (ID, Title, Description, and the custom attributes needed for the connection can be selected), and in the case of MBSE tools, we can get the class, stereotypes, properties of the object, among others. These attributes can then be used to help assess the quality of the requirements, manage traces and detect suspect links, and are used as input for the Interoperability tasks. In any case, the connectors to third-party tools are developed in-house and can be adapted if required. In a future release, there will be REST API-based connector for customizable connections.
Stephen Paulraj C
We are into Embedded System Device development. We have different tools for hardware, mechanical and Software. Can we integrate all the tools for traceability
One of the main features of SES ENGINEERING Studio is to use the universal connectivity to establish traces between different HW/SW/modelling/mechanical tools. In case there is no API-based connector to one tool, some users deal with work-around situations such as using file exports (xml for instance) from the tool while the connector is being developed by our teams.
Vincent Saluzzi
How does/will SES diferentiate itself (or complement / augment / work_with) object-based lifecycle management of digital assets performed in a PLM solution such as Teamcenter?
As mentioned during the webinar, SES is implementing a synchronization hub (SSoT = Synchronized Source of Truth), which enables to connect different sources together by storing the assets in a centralized repository. We can of course perform some object management (baselines, versions, attributes & workflows management) natively in the tool, but the approach is not towards wiping out existing tools such as Teamcenter, but rather to bring them together. In the case of PLM solutions such as Teamcenter, typical use cases that involve SES are the following: Traceability between Teamcenter and other tools (usually not integrated or compatible with TC), Interoperability of bill of materials from Teamcenter to modeling tools, Requirements quality assessment in Teamcenter, etc.
Vincent Saluzzi
How will Teams4Capella repository edits synchronization work with the SES scheme herein? (if you don’t get an answer, reach out to Obeo)
The expected behavior with Team4Capella is the same as the regular Capella instance. Once the source is connected in SES, users can see the model structure and track changes that occurred in the source, and also push changes back to T4C. Since users might be accessing the model at the same time in T4C, conflicts might occur if changing the same elements, and the tool would notify about it if not able to synchronize the concerned element.
Marcin Gramza
Is the list of supported sources available for a reference?
Yes, the list is available on our website. Link to the form to request download of the connectors list: Form
Vincent Saluzzi
How will/can SES manage SMW System to Subsystem Transitions of models originating from SMW (eg. using ‘SId’ from Capella) but required in other tools such as Cameo / Rhpsody? So … toolchain Supplier A (SMW, SMW Transition) Supplier 2 (Cameo)?
This would require an investigation to check whether the current connector can get information from the elements produced by the “System to Subsystem Transition” add-on. In any case, connectors are developed in-house by our developers and can be adjusted to connect to the add-on data (for instance we already connect to the requirements viewpoint add-on modules and requirements). In any case, with the Interoperability Capability of SES, model structures can be converted from Arcadia (Capella) to SysML (Cameo & others).
Vincent Saluzzi
Will RAT plug-in work with PLM solutions Teamcenter, which is where Requirements are authored, and not in Capella?
RAT Plug-in already works with PLM solutions like Teamcenter, and generally speaking in all web-based platforms, since the development of a “RAT Web Extension” is available in web browsers like Chrome, Firefox and MS Edge. Link to a video clip showing how it works within Teamcenter (same as the example shown during the webinar with Polarion): RAT – AUTHORING Tool for Teamcenter
Marcin Gramza
Is the tool extendable (with a concept like a plugin) to address new sources of data?
The connections are established from the tool SES ENGINEERING Studio (using the APIs provided by source tools). In order to get new sources of data, you need to create a connection in SES ENGINEERING Studio. If the connector is supported, the connection can be established, and the new sources of data will be loaded and synchronized to the centralized hub. The tool roadmap for future versions includes the possibility to use APIs to connect to new sources, to be able to create customized connectors. As mentioned in one of the answers above, the connectors are developed in-house and can be adapted.
Eduardo Ibanez
Are you using part of the ISO 15926 standard?
The ontology language used by the tool (knowledge base with the concepts that support the SES ENGINEERING Studio semantic features) is compatible with SKOS/RDF formats which are addressed in the standard. For the connected assets, the tool relies on a specific internal data model to represent the objects coming from the different tools in a neutral way.