Checking the integrity of COS database vs. group type setup

Plant Modeller sessions monitor the state of the group type setup object during area updates. If this object has changed, then one of the sessions (per site) initiates a full scan of the COS project database to find out if objects stored in COS are still compatible with the group type setup. This is in case an administrator has modified the group type switches in a way that these alone cannot be trusted when Plant Modeller has to make decisions about removing group memberships during area updates.

With large models this scan can take several minutes. If incompatibilities are found, only users with administrative privileges are notified. The results of this scan are stored to two files in the site directory:

  • Site/pm/.grouptype_vs_projdb.txt – Stores status per group type. If a group type is marked OK = 1, then Plant Modeller can trust group type switches during update, otherwise not.

  • Site/pm/__MbsActions.txt – Contains an entry on each object that either refers to dead groups or objects and/or stores memberships in a way that is contrary to group type setup.

If there are lots of objects storing memberships contrary to group type setup, a brute-force method to fix these would be:

  • Force everybody to check in all objects.

  • Create a new design area that covers the whole project.

  • Check out all objects and groups.

  • Save (select 'Update COS database' and 'Check in all objects' in the Save dialog).

  • Delete the area.

This would naturally make all objects to have a new modification time, and that in turn would mean that all drawings (the next time they are opened) would prompt that views should be updated.

A more laborious way would be to gradually fix objects that seem to be in conflict. This means that both the group and all member objects need to be checked out, forced to have an artificial change (for example, change their System), and then be checked in again.

Currently Plant Modeller does not offer an automatic method to target the operation only to those objects that actually need to be fixed.