Description

The Aspect component is the highest element in the tree of the model. Aspect is a general viewpoint for the description of a source. The most common Aspects encountered in BMS include:

  • Geographical: allows the location of the sources (city, building, zone, etc.) to be defined
  • Occupation: allows the different BMS groups involved in the project (electricity, plumbing etc.) to be defined
  • Tenants: describes the organization in services, Business Unit etc. of the end customer
  • Nature: describes the nature of the BMS elements.

Aspect is a container that groups Definitions (including NodeDefinitions) and Nodes.

 

Implementation

There are two ways of adding an Aspect to the station:

  • Via the manager located in the Model folder of the BtibService
  • Via the pallete, dragging and dropping the component into the Model folder

When creating an Aspect, the following fields must be entered:

  • shortName (usually comprising the first 3 letters of the name in lowercase).
  • AspectType

Initialize the Aspect by clicking on the manager button or by right clicking -> action -> init

 

The name of an Aspect must not contain special characters.

Note: the name of an Aspect cannot be modified once it is created (but its displayName can).


Properties

  • Status: State of the Aspect. Can be {ok}, {fault}, {disabled} or {null}. See the corresponding actions.
  • FaultCause: Message complementing the Aspect status (usually explaining the reason for an initialization failure)
  • DisplayedName: Display name for the Aspect. It is recommended this be used rather than the "Set Display Name" command
  • Description: Description of the Aspect
  • ShortName: Allows an Aspect to be identified in a unique and rapid manner. It is recommended that 3 lowercase characters be used (geo, met, loc). It is notably used to name the relations dedicated to it (xxxSourceOf for example)
  • AspectType { EntitySet, DefinitionSet }: Defines the nature of the Nodes contained in the Aspect.
    • EntitySet: A Node represents a single, usually real, entity (e.g.: Building A. There will be as many Nodes named Building A as there are buildings A in a site).
    • DefinitionSet: a Node represents all entities in an abstract manner (e.g. AHU, the Node does not represent a particular AHU).
  • Aspectlcon: Adds an icon specific to the Aspect that will be used in particular in hierarchies and views.

 

To change the ShortName and AspectType properties, it is necessary to clean the Aspect (Action Clean). Note that data will be lost during this operation and in particular the assignment of sources to the Nodes of the Aspect.


Advanced configuration properties

  • EnableGlobalMultiAssignment: Allows a source to be assigned to multiple Nodes of the same tree.
  • CreateHierarchy: Determines whether the hierarchy will be created or not on the Aspect initialization.
  • IncudeInSyntheses: Determines whether the Aspect will be taken into account during the creation of syntheses. See AddSyntheses Block.

The following configuration properties are only available in Aspects with the AspectType set to EntitiySet

  • SyncEnabled: Enables the propagation of the Aspect with all its children Definitions and Nodes to stations in the NiagaraNetwork.
  • SyncAuto: Enables the automatic propagation of the Aspect with all its children Definitions and Nodes modifications. Can be enabled only if SyncEnabled is set to true.
  • PropagateOnLifeCycle: Enables the propagation of the Aspect with all its children Definitions and Nodes modifications on a life cycle (initialization, clean, disable). Can be enabled only if SyncEnabled is set to true.

Actions

  • Initialize: Initializes the Aspect and all its children (Definitions, Nodes, Add-ons, etc.) The Aspect changes state to {ok}, or {fault} if the initialization fails.
  • Disable: Disables the Aspect and all its children. Changes the state of the Aspect to {disabled}. This deletes all the tags in which it appears. This action is reversible by rerunning an initialization.
  • Clean: Cleans the Aspect and all its children. Changes the state of the Aspect to {null}. This action is irreversible and must be run before permanently removing an Aspect (it allows all references to this Aspect to be cleanly removed).
  • Resetld: Resets the id of all child Nodes.
  • Refresh Cache: Manually refreshes the cache related to this Aspect. The cache is generated automatically but this action can be used in case of manual or offline modifications for example.
  • Synchronize: Propagates the Aspect with all its children Definitions and Nodes to the stations in the NiagaraNetwork.

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