1.
DocDokuPLM : Using web technologies
in a desktop application
Morgan Guimard - 17 nov 2015 - OW2 con' 2015

2.
We are DocDoku
2
We help industrial organizations digitize their business
Based in France
● Toulouse
● Paris
Committed to the Open Source, we
make DocDokuPLM:
● https://github.com/docdoku/docdoku-plm
● Twitter: @docdoku
#PLM #HTML5 #Java #BigData
#WebGL #IoT #Industry

3.
About me
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Tech experience
● 10 years in Web Technologies
● JavaScript developer
● Java EE developer
Morgan Guimard
● DocDokuPLM dev leader
● Technical trainer

4.
Agenda
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1 – Introduction to Product Lifecycle Management
2 – Working with CAD files
3 - Our cross-platform solution

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1 - Introduction to Product Lifecycle
Management

6.
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Manages the entire lifecycle of a product from its conception to
its disposal.
Integrates people, data, processes and business systems and
provides a product information backbone.
Product Lifecycle Management

7.
PBS?
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Product Breakdown Structure
A hierarchical listing of assemblies and components, and the
quantities there-of, necessary to produce a final product

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Parts
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Each node of a PBS is a part
Stores every information of a component, as its name, custom
attributes, and its geometry file.
The part number is its identifier. You may find the same part at
multiple PBS levels.
V54S3434RTX

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Assembly / Leaf
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● Assembly nodes stores the structure informations
● Leaves stores the geometry
● Assemblies and leaves are both considered as parts
Example: An office desk

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Everything is tracked
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● Through Check-in / Check-out mechanism
● Iteration (1, 2, 3...) and Revision (A, B, C...)
Example: Part 100 A.3
A is the revision, 3 is the iteration and A.3 is the version
● Iteration = minor changes
● Revision = major ones

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2 – Working with CAD files

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Working with CAD files
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● Our target: CAD designers
● They are editing lot of files / large files
Check in / Check out
● Those files need to be synchronized on a server
● Collaborative work is a main topic

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Standard formats ?
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Some formats are standard
● STEP, IFC, OBJ, …
And some other formats are not standard
● SLDPRT, CATPART, …
We're trying to convert any format, even if not standard

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CAD files content
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Depends on the format, can contains
● Geometry only
● Structure only
● Both
Managed server side with DocDokuPLM server
● Converting many formats to a WebGL format
● Extracting the structure from CAD files and creating the PBS
● May require proprietary SDK to parse some none standard formats

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Multiple editors
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Many edition tools / platforms
● Windows - Mac OS X - Linux
● AutoCAD, SolidWorks, CATIA, BIM Editor ...
● Developing a plugin for all of them isn't realistic
● Should also be maintained for every software update

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How can we help every CAD designer ?
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Editor plugins ?
● Not realistic: too many editors, versions, languages
Operating system integration ?
● Would be a great solution, but requires more than a single code base
The easiest way for us is a cross platform application

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3 – Our cross platform solution

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Command line interface
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Fits for most advanced users...
● Scriptable
● Lightweight
● Easy to use
● Check in / Check out and synchronize files from command line with a
single command
● ...but lacks a graphical user interface to easily make bulk operations
$ dplm checkin some-part-number

19.
Choosing a cross-platform technology
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Native ? Web based ? What do we need ?
● Read and write the user's FileSystem
● Be able to interact with our JSON WebServices
● Interact with our CLI
● Have a responsive design for each display
● 3D preview

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Node Webkit
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Just a nutshell ...
● Wrapping NodeJS and a Webkit browser
● Let's keep a standard API: HTML5
● And let's use NodeJS low level API

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NodeJS brings us ...
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… exactly what we need
● Ability to walk the user's FileSystem to discover CAD files
● Read CAD files contents to display them in a 3D preview
● An API to interact with our CLI (Directly in java or bash)
● FileSystem watchers to detect any change made on a file
● An easy way to work with JSON objects

22.
Webkit browser
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Helps us to :
● Create a responsive design
● Keep a single code base for each platform
● Allow HTTP connections and easy JSON parsing
● Load 3D file with WebGL technology for a live preview

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Pros and cons of this choice
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We like...
● One code base, and code reuse
● Standard API
● Fast development process
● Latest web technologies can be used
● Easy to package
We don't like so much…
● App size (must embed Webkit and NodeJs)
● Requires more RAM and CPU
● Hard to mimic the OS look and feel
● May have bugs for NodeWebkit (notification, file system changes)

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Our web based solution
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DocDokuDPLM
● Built with NodeWebkit
● Using AngularJS as the main framework
● Using NodeJS API

25.
Architecture
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User's desktop
DocDokuDPLM APP
DocDokuCLINodeJS
Webkit + AngularJS
DocDokuPLM server
FSCAD editor

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Remote and local navigation
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● Allows the designer to browse remote and local folders

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File change detection
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● Allows the designer quickly see which files are out of sync
● Green tick icon means synchronized
● Orange cloud icon means modified

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Recursive download
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● Allows the designer to check out / download a whole structure within a
single action
● Select existing baseline

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Synchronizing a whole folder
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● Allows the designer to check in / upload a whole folder

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3D preview
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● Allows the designers to see their files in 3D before uploading them
● The same 3D engine is used in the DocDokuPLM server

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To come soon
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We'd like to bring the following features to our solution
● Desktop notifications (synchronization done, etc…)
● Better errors handling
● Shortcuts to open a part in the user's favorite editor from our app
● SMART check-in order when pushing many files in a single operation
● ...

32.
Questions ?

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Thank you !