Siemens PLM has introduced lots of new functionality and improvements in the  latest version of Active Workspace 3.3 , the key themes being

1. User Productivity Improvements
2. Reduce Information Overload
3. Configure, Extend, and Deploy
4. Process Execution and Other Application and Industry Template Exposure

The user productivity improvements are breakdown into three categories.

1. Improved user efficiency

First focus area for user productivity is  improved user efficiency and proficiency, which is achieved through the use of accelerators such as drag and drop and multiple select to do bulk actions. Some key capabilities are

• Universal viewer
• Tab overflow
• Command stack for analysis
• Copy and paste hyperlink improvements
• Drag and Drop Editing structure editing

2. Enable “Completing a thought” with a single client

Second focus area for user productivity is to enable users to complete a thought with a single client.  Users are enabled to execute complete use cases with just the Active Workspace UI or with a native authoring application and Active Workspace hosted within it.  In the latest version core features and capabilities are extended for targeted use cases. Some key ones are

• Manage Security in Single Level Projects Hierarchy – multi-select for project security
• Achieve secure collaboration by applying project security to configured structure content
• Effectively manage granular access to data in larger programs through hierarchical project level security
• Assign existing effectivity criteria to qualify what structured content will be configured
• Define new effectivity configuration criteria
• Create a baseline of a structure to capture a view of that structure at a point in time
• Enable showing only the results from a find in context to easily visualize them

3. Responsive performance

Third focus area for improved user productivity is to make the client perform and respond as fast as possible to user gestures.  In the latest version server calls are minimized to reduce latency sensitivity.  Things like long running reports are run in the background to free up the client and to allow the user to do other work. Some key improvements are

• Minimize bandwidth and memory usage through virtual paging and streaming of content
• Minimize server communications and sensitivity to high latencies
• Efficient execution through journaling, analysis, and tuning

I will introduce the new user productivity improvement features to you in detail through the subsequent blogs