FAQ 554: Exporting Bus Configuration from Bus Manager for Reuse in Another Project

Question

How can I export a bus configuration from the Bus Manager?
Can we reuse an already created bus configuration from Bus Manager without losing model mapping?

Solution

This document provides  an overview of how to export a bus configuration from the Bus Manager and reuse it in other projects. 

1. Open ConfigurationDesk and the related Bus Manager project.
2. Navigate to the “Working view” manager, right-click in the white space, and create a new working view.

3. Navigate  to the signal chain, then use Ctrl to multi-select the Bus Configuration function block and the model port blocks that are mapped to the respective bus configuration.

4. Drag and drop the blocks you multi-selected in Step 3 into the newly created working view from Step 2.

5. Now the bus configuration and model port blocks are part of “Working view (1)”. To export the working view, right-click the working view and select Import/Export – Export Signal Chain from Working View from the context menu.

6. Select a file name and location for the ConfigurationDesk application fragment (CAFX) file and save it.

7. Open the target ConfigurationDesk application. 
Precondition:
The application must have the same bus database file and the same model already imported as the application from which the CAFX file was exported.

8. Navigate to the Working Views Manager, select your preferred working view, and select Import/Export  – Add Signal Chain to Working View from the context menu.

Note: The Merge and Replace import modes are not supported for bus configurations.

9. Now you can see the bus configuration as part of the new ConfigurationDesk application, without losing model mapping.
 

Limitation with respect to CAFX file containing Bus Configuration function blocks:

1. CAFX files exported with Release 2020-B or earlier are not supported.
2. Merging or replacing signal chains in working views is not supported.
3. If the Bus Configuration blocks use user defined ISignal IPDUs or ISignals, you must add the same user defined elements in the Buses Browser communication matrix, including parent elements, names, direction (Tx/Rx).
4. User-defined settings in communication matrix elements are not included in CAFX files. So if Bus Configuration blocks were configured using communication matrix elements with user defined settings (e.g., PDUs with custom cyclic timing or ISignals with modified data types), these custom settings are lost after importing the CAFX file.
5. Importing a CAFX file that contains Bus Configuration blocks might cause issues during bus simulation container generation. To avoid problems:
          i. Do not import the CAFX file into the same ConfigurationDesk application from which it was exported.
          ii. Do not import the same CAFX file into a ConfigurationDesk application more than once.