<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation:  Library > Editing the Process > Global vs. Local Properties

Assembly Planner supports the reuse of certain entities, such as activities, resources, and components. For example, since you can use the same activity under multiple routings, the activity exists as a stand-alone entity in addition to existing as an entity in one or more operations under one or more routings. The same is true for the resource and component entities. Because of this, there are two different types of properties: global and local. Even if you never re-use entities, you will still deal with both global and local properties.

 

A global property applies wherever an entity appears (i.e. ID, description, activity time).

A local property may take on different values depending on where it is used or its relationship to its parent operations (i.e. group ID, parts consumed, sequence number).

A full list of Assembly Planner's standard fields and their properties can be found in the Standard Fields section of this manual.

 

When performing a basic or advanced search with global properties only, you will see only the global entries. Furthermore, if you select global entries, you will only be able to update global properties of the activity. If you search and include some local activity properties, you will see all of the individual local entries that match the search parameters. Furthermore, if you select local entries, you will only be able to update local properties of the activity.

 

The following is an example of the differences you might see in three searches for the same entity. The first is an example of a global search. The user searched for an activity ending in "094," but did not defined a routing nor an operation. The search returns a single activity and displays its global properties. Wildcards such as the percent sign in the example below can be used to improve search results.

 

The second is an example of a local search. The user has searched for the same activity ending in "094," but this time defined a routing in which to search. This time, the search returns two instances of the same activity, because the activity is performed twice in the routing, and each displays its local properties. (Notice the Consumption and Model-Option Mapping tabs now appear, whereas they did not for the global search; this is because consumption and model-option mapping are considered local properties).

 

The third is another example of a local search. The user searched for the same activity ending in "094," but this time defined a routing and operation in which to search. The search only returns one instance of the activity, because the activity is only performed once in the routing/operation combination. The local properties of the activity within the operation are displayed in the activity worksheet. (Notice the Consumption and Model-Option Mapping tabs now appear, whereas they do not for the global search. This is because consumption and model-option mapping are considered local properties).