can </connected_to> be empty ?

economidis-nick commented 5 years ago

@economidis-nick proposed the change that <connected_to> should be allowed to be empty. @DrCaFr reminded an early argument that undefined connection list can lead to wrong modeling.

Question: Is the format meant to express any phase of the process, or just the final phase, where all necessary connection information is there?

A complete connection file should, indeed, have a non-empty<connected_to>.
Having no connected parts, at some point, is a state of the connection information. In my opinion, this state could still be stored or transferred from one program to another.
It is therefore a valid format. An invalid xmcf format is one that simply does not have <part> or <assy> as connected parts.

Not knowing the type of <seamweld> or <rivet> is not complete modelling, but it expresses an early phase of the model.

My opinion is that we should have another version of the schema, which tests for completeness.

Reference:

connected_to_is_optional

DrCaFr commented 5 years ago

We all know, that "Is the format meant to express any phase of the process" is just a rhetorical question, yes? ;-)

economidis-nick commented 5 years ago

Confirmed by AK25 (darmstadt, May 2019) that may be empty:

DrCaFr commented 4 years ago

Standard document still contains following remark, just before section "5.3.1 Connected Objects":

Remarks: • An empty or missing (meaning a connection according only to geometric neighborhood) is not allowed by the standard. However, systems may import such files with warnings.

This remark needs to be removed.

economidis-nick commented 4 years ago

done

economidis-nick / createXSDforxMCF

can </connected_to> be empty ? #5

Question: Is the format meant to express any phase of the process, or just the final phase, where all necessary connection information is there?

Reference: