User Interface (UI) Overview

The Aras Innovator user interface (UI) is dynamic; UI components, such as dialogs, toolbars, and buttons are shown or hidden depending on the context. Additionally, when a UI component is displayed in a lighter color, it indicates that this component is not available in the current context. This section describes essential UI interactions and components to navigate in the Product Engineering application.

Clicking the Navigation button

displays the Navigation Panel. This panel displays the Aras Innovator Table of Contents. A User’s permissions determine the categories that appear in the Navigation Panel. The Navigation Panel is auto hidden when you click outside the TOC. Click the Pin button

in the Navigation Panel if you wish to pin it to the UI.

The Product Engineering application has several categories on the Navigation panel:

• Change Management – Contains Engineering Change Items, such as Problem Reports (PRs), Engineering Change Requests (ECRs) and Engineering Notices (ECNs). This list may vary depending on how an administrator configures the system.
• Design – Contains Part and Product items.
• Documents – Contains Document and CAD Document items.
• Sourcing – Contains Manufacturers, Manufacturer Parts, and Vendor items.

Hover or click on an item in the Navigation Panel to access the search page.

The Search toolbar enables you to search for items and view the search results.

1. Click the Search button to run a search.
2. Click the Clear button to clear search criteria.
3. Search Modes dropdown menu:

UseSimplesearch when the columns that appear in the search grid are sufficient for the desired search criteria.

UseAdvancedsearch when entering complex search criteria where each criterion can use one of these operators: =, ≠, like, not like, null, not null.

UseAML search to create a complex search query.

Use Hidden to hide the search criteria from the search grid.

4. Query Type dropdown menu:

Current returns the current version of items.

Latest returns the most recent version of items based on a specified date.

Released returns the most recent version in the released state on a specified date.

Effective returns the effective version on a specified date.

5. The Query Date dialog box enables you to select a date in conjunction with the Latest, Released, and Effective Query Types. By default, it is set to Today.
6. The Layouts menu presents a list of layouts to select from. This menu also provides the ability to save a new layout, update a default layout, and delete a layout.
7. The Refine menu presents a list of item Properties and Extended Properties to select that appear in the Search Grid.
8. The Display menu allows you to select the level of details to display when an item is selected from the search results.

ChooseForm to display the selected item’s form at the bottom pane of the search results page.

ChooseProperties to display details in a pane to the left of the search results page.

ChooseHide to show no details.

9. The Share menu presents options to export search results.
10. Click the New button to create a new Item.

The Search Grid shows search results for items of one ItemType. Double-click on an item in the search grid to open it for viewing, or right-click it to access the context menu. If you select multiple items, the context menu displays multi-item actions applicable for that ItemType.

In Simple Search mode, you can enter simple search criteria in the blue filter row of the Search Grid to filter the results against these criteria.

All searches are case insensitive. Use * or % as a wildcard search. Use * to search for all non-blank values. Use 0 or 1 to filter on properties with check boxes: 0 corresponds to not checked, 1 corresponds to checked values.

For example, you can type Parent* or Parent% in the Name blue cell of the Parts Search Grid to get all the Parts that have names that start with the word Parent.

The first column shows the claim status of Items. Use this column to search for items claimed by you or someone else. For details, refer to section 2.4 Item Claiming.

The Paging Controls toolbar enables you to move from page to page in the Search grid, specify the total number of pages/results, and specify the maximum number of results that display on a page.

1. Click the Prev button to go to the previous page.
2. Click the Next button to go to the next page.
3. Displays the Current page.
4. Click the Show Total Pages and Results button to view the total number of pages and search results.
5. Use the Results per Page box to specify the number of results that appear on a page.
6. Enter a number in the Maximum Results box to specify the maximum number of results returned from a search.

The context menu displays the available actions for items appearing in the Search grid. Right-click an item in the grid to access the context menu. The context menu is an alternative access point to the functionality provided in the item window toolbar when you open an item. Each context menu contains commands specific to the ItemType and state of the item and is subject to permissions. As such, context menus are dynamic and variable. The commands common to most context menus are explained here.

• Open displays an Item in a new tab in view mode.
• Favorite allows you to favorite an item.
• Claim explicitly locks an item to prevent editing by other users and keeps the item locked/claimed between sessions. For details, refer to section 2.4 Item Claiming.
• Unclaim releases the claim from the item.
• Promotetakes the item to its next life cycle state if any is available. For details, refer to section 4.3.1 Manual State Promotion.
• Navigate contains exploration options for the selected item.
• Structure Browser is used for exploration and comparison of item’s relationships. For details, refer to section 11.2 Comparing Items.
• Where Used is used for determining where an Item is used by other Items. For details, refer to section 11.1 Finding Where an Item is Used.
• Reports displays the Reports available for the selected item.
• Share displays options for sharing the selected item.
• More displays additional actions available for the selected item.
• Properties displays the item’s properties in the Properties dialog.
• Save As starts the copy process by opening a form page tab to create a new item.
• Delete displays options for deleting the current version or all versions of an item.

A view of an item appears as a new Page tab with:

1. The Page Title bar
2. The Item toolbar
3. The Form accordion
4. The Relationships accordion
5. The Accordion Arrow button, which folds and unfolds an accordion

The contents of the Item toolbar depend on the ItemType, state of the item, and permissions.

When you create a new item, the Item toolbar displays the following buttons:

• Save enables you to save changes to the Item and continue editing it.
• Done enables you to save changes to the Item and unclaim it.
• Delete enables you to delete the Item.

When editing a saved/existing item, the Item toolbar displays the following buttons:

1. Save saves changes to the item and enables you to continue editing it.
2. Done saves changes to the item, unclaims it, and quits edit mode.
3. Discard reverts all changes to the item, unclaims it, and quits edit mode.
4. Refresh updates the data in the View with the latest information.
5. Promotetakes the item to its next life cycle state if any is available. For details, refer to section 4.3.1 Manual State Promotion.
6. Navigate displays a menu with options to explore the item’s history, usage, and relationships.
7. Reports displays a menu with reports available for this ItemType.
8. Share displays a menu with export options available for this ItemType.
9. More displays a menu with additional capabilities available for this ItemType.

When viewing an item, the Item toolbar displays the same buttons, except the Edit button, which replaces the Save, Done, and Discard buttons:

Edit claims the item and launches it in edit mode.

The Relationships accordion hosts:

1. The Relationships accordion tabs
2. The Relationships title bars
3. The Relationships toolbars
4. The Relationships content area

Each Relationships accordion tab has a Relationships toolbar to provide functionality specific to its relationship type and Relationships content area. The Relationships toolbars are dynamic and variable. The contents of the Relationships toolbar depend on the relationship type, state of the item, and permissions. The buttons common to most Relationships toolbars are explained here.

1. The AddItems button launches a Search dialog to search for and add existing items to the Relationships grid.
2. The NewItem button creates a new row in the Relationships grid. When the item is saved, the related item is created.
3. The Delete Row button removes the selected row (relationship) from the table without deleting the related item.
4. The RunSearch button runs the search criteria on the related items.
5. The ClearSearch Criteria button clears the search criteria on the related items.
6. The Search Modes menu allows selecting the mode for the search criteria. For details on the search modes, refer to section 2.2.1 Search Toolbar.
7. The Refine menu presents a list of item Properties and Extended Properties to select which will be displayed in the Relationships grid.
8. The Display menu provides:
9. Redline View to compare each item to its previous Released revision

Save Layout to allow you to save the layout of the relationship grid

10. The Share menu displays options to export search results available for an item.

A Relationships content area can display a Relationships grid or a Relationships structure, such as a multiple level Tree Grid View.

In a Relationships content area, single clicking on an item highlights the item for further actions. Right-clicking highlights the item and opens its context menu. In a Relationships grid, double-clicking opens the Item in a new tab. Standard Aras Innovator search procedure are applicable to the Relationships grids.

A Relationship context menu contains commands for a relationship and related items. This menu can be accessed by right clicking on an item. The Relationship context menus are dynamic and variable. The list of available actions depends on the type and life cycle state of the related item, the relationship type, and permissions. Actions that are common to most relationship context menus are explained here.

• Open displays an Item in a new tab in view mode.
• Edit claims the item and launches it in edit-in-row mode.
• Done Editing unclaims the item, saves changes made to it in its table row, and stops edit-in-row mode.
• Discard Changes unclaims the item, undoes changes made to it in its table row, and stops edit-in-row mode.
• Replace replaces the Item in its table row with another Item while retaining any existing relationship information.
• Remove deletes the Item from the table.
• Claim explicitly locks an item to prevent editing by other users and keeps the item locked/claimed between sessions. For details, refer to section 2.4 Item Claiming.
• Unclaim releases the claim from the item.
• Actions→Add Item(s) to Changeopens the Choose Change Item dialog to select the change type with an option to create a new change or add to an existing change. For details, refer to section 13 Change Management.
• Copy Row copies the Item to the clipboard.
• Show Clipboard opens the Clipboard Manager dialog.
• Promotetakes the item to its next life cycle state if any is available. For details, refer to section 4.3 Manual Promotion and Revise.

Claiming an item explicitly locks the item to prevent editing by other users. Users can edit only items claimed by themselves. An unclaimed item automatically becomes claimed when a user puts it in Edit mode, and it becomes unclaimed when the user exits Edit mode.

An item can be claimed by selecting the Claim flag

on the item page or by right-clicking on the item from a search grid or relationship grid and selecting Claim.

When you claim an item, the item will display a green claim flag

. When an item is claimed by another user, the item will display a red claim flag

.