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 Copies of iPPE Objects and Structures

Use

Developed products and their data are often used as the basis for designing and developing new products. In the iPPE Workbench Professional, you can copy complete iPPE objects and structures, or parts of them. You can then rename the copies, assign them to different classes, and edit them.

This considerably reduces the time and effort required to create new data for a new product.

Integration

Engineering Change Management (ECM):

  • When you copy a structure, whose objects have already been edited using Engineering Change Management, all the change statuses for all the objects are copied when you enter the relevant change number.

  • If you copy an object that has already been edited using Engineering Change Management, you can choose which change statuses are to be copied. You can also specify a new change number for the copied object.

Focus:

  • You can copy objects and structures from the product structure into a focus, where they are converted in to the corresponding focus objects.

  • If a node with one or more alternatives is copied in the focus, the system will not copy the alternatives. All objects and structures are directly assigned to the lower levels of the node.

Status:

  • If there are component variants and assembly items for which you use status management, the statuses for the copied objects are created again with the status Initial .

Features

You can copy objects and structures from the product structure, process structure, and line structure.

You can copy individual nodes, variants, alternatives, and also structures. You can decide what is to be copied and how detailed the copies are to be.

You can provide a prefix or suffix for copies, so that you can easily recognize them as copies.

When you copy objects, you can convert them into different objects providing that you have made all the relevant settings in Customizing.

Example Example

When copying, you wish to convert a structure node (technical name S_ST) into a node type that is not contained in the SAP standard system.

In this case, you must create a suitable variant type, node type, relationship type, and layout for the tab pages in the Customizing for X_ST. You must assign the layout to a profile and make the necessary settings for displaying the objects in the navigation area and detail area in the iPPE Workbench Professional.

End of the example.

Recommendation Recommendation

Work with the object types provided by SAP.

End of the recommendation.

Actions

Copying an Object:

  • In the navigation area, load the object that you wish to copy.

  • Right-click the object and choose Start of the navigation path Structure Node (Access Node, Activity,and so on) Next navigation step Copy End of the navigation path .

    The Copy Object dialog box appears. The system displays a window with a log of all the messages related to the copying process.

    The object that you selected, the class, and class type are displayed in the Start Object group box.

  • Specify if you want to copy the structure or the object.

  • In the New Identification section, enter a name for the new node and change the class and class type if necessary.

  • Ensure that the copy mode is set to Object Copy .

  • Choose Detail.

    The system displays tab pages in the lower section of the dialog box. You can decide which information and data are to be copied from the object.

    1. Alternative :

      If the object you are copying is a node and has alternatives, you can state whether the alternatives are also to be copied. You can rename the alternative and enter a change number for the copy of the alternative.

      Variant :

      As for the alternatives, you can decide whether to copy variants of the node and if the copies are to be created with a change number.

      iPPE Relatshp :

      You can decide whether to copy any relationships that point from the object or its alternatives to other objects.

      Applic :

      You can decide which additional data is also to be copied from the object.

  • Choose Execute.

    The object is copied and the system displays all messages that are related to the copying process in the log.

    Note Note

    If the copy contains errors, a dialog box will appear prompting you to save the data or not.

    End of the note.

  • Save the data.

Copying a Structure:

  • In the navigation area, load the object that represents the header of the structure you wish to copy.

  • Right-click on the object and choose Copy Structure in the context menu.

    The Copy Structure dialog box appears. The system displays a window with a log of all the messages related to the copying process.

  • Specify if you want to copy the structure as a single-level or multi-level structure.

  • In the New Identification section, the system proposes the first 4 letters from the user’s name as a prefix for all copied objects. Change this proposal if necessary.

  • Ensure that the copy mode is set to Structure .

  • Choose Detail.

    The system displays two tab pages in the lower section of the dialog box:

    New Classes :

    You can decide whether to assign the copied structure to a different class than the original.

    Scope :

    You can decide

    Which additional data is also to be copied from the objects on the previous tab pages

    Whether to copy relationships that are used for forming a sequence within an application, between activities, for example

    Whether to copy assignments that exist between applications (such as structure node or component variant <-> activity)

  • Choose Execute.

    The structure is copied and the system displays all messages that are related to the copying process in the log.

    Note Note

    If the copy contains errors, a dialog box will appear prompting you to save the data or not.

    End of the note.

  • Save the data.