Cradle 6.3 is now available

3SL are happy to announce that Cradle 6.3 is now available from the 3SL website.

There are 20 new features and enhancements:

Cradle-PDM (Product Data Management)

1. A Cradle/Acrobat PDF link utility has been added to this release. This utility allows you to link a Cradle database to a specific area in a specific page in a PDF file. This utility uses DDE to control Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader using a pathname, page number, zoom level, x and y coordinates that are held in a binary frame.
2. A Cradle/Visio link utility has been added to this release. This utility allows you to link a Cradle database to a specific symbol in a Visio document. This utility uses a pathname, page number, and ID that are held in a binary frame. It also searches for a symbol in a document if the page number has not been specified.
3. A third utility has been added (Cradle Capture Utility) which allows a Cradle database to be populated with placeholder items for some or all of the symbols or groups on a Visio diagram. Each of these placeholder items contain the external reference data to be able to reference that symbol or group from within Cradle using the c_visiolink utility.
4. Projects can now be created on any machine providing you have access to the Cradle Database Server (CDS). The CDS may or may not be running when you create a new project locally but if you are creating a project remotely the CDS must be running.
5. Binary frames have now been extended to store up to 6 data items which are available as $DATA1 to $DATA6 Command Directives. These additional data items allow you to reference parts of external information, specifically to reference regions of pages in PDF files and to reference symbols in Visio drawings.
6. System note types, frame names, usernames and passwords can now have a name of up to 40 characters
7. The size of basic item type names has increased to 255. This does not include data definitions.
8. The Toolsuite installer has been improved to help users with mixed Microsoft Office environments.
9. You can no longer renumber PROJECT-owned items.
10. The Teamwork Converter has been improved to attempt to preserve the position of connector labels when converting diagrams.
11. A new Alerts section has been added to Project Setup. Most of this information has been moved from the Miscellaneous section. As well as this a new Alerts… button has been added to the Item Definitions section for Item Types. From here you can choose when item alerts are to be sent, e.g. when items are created, modified, deleted, recovered, etc
12. An error message will now be shown when attempting to create a project via a local CDS on a mapped network share on Windows. The path must be supplied in UNC format. When attempting to create a project remotely on a mapped network share a warning message will appear notifying the user to confirm project creation.
13. Frame types for OpenOffice components have been added to the default schema and the DEMO project. A $OOFFICE Command Directive has also been added which can be used to view/edit OpenOffice frames.
    
    Cradle-GATE (Gateway)
14. This is a new module as of Cradle-6.3. It provides a traceability management interface between Cradle and a wide variety of third party tools. The Cradle Gateway allows data in these sources to be cross referenced to any items in a Cradle Database, and, in effect, allows Cradle data to be linked into any number of data sources held in any number of files or databases for these other tools.
    
    Cradle-WEBA (Web Access)
15. Annotations have now been removed from Web Access and replaced with a new discussions mechanism. This new mechanism allows comments to be added to items. The hierarchy of comments is called a discussion. This new mechanism allows users to propose changes to information, discuss these changes and reach a decision about each change. Please note that any existing annotations in a Cradle Database are now interpreted as individual discussions whose subject is a summary of the discussions content. The decision will be set to Open. A new Discussions tab has also been added to the Query dialog so you can search the database based on discussions.
    
    Cradle-WRK (WorkBench)
16. You can now print the top-level row numbers when publishing a table. There is also an equivalent command line option for c_table (-rownums).
17. When displaying a query in Document style the heading fonts also apply to any linked items in any nested views. This only applies when the identity (number, key or hierarchical attribute) appear in the first column of the view.
    
18. Annotations have now been removed from WorkBench and replaced with a new discussions mechanism. This new mechanism allows comments to be added to items. The hierarchy of comments is called a discussion. This new mechanism allows users to propose changes to information, discuss these changes and reach a decision about each change. Please note that any existing annotations in a Cradle Database are now interpreted as individual discussions whose subject is a summary of the discussions content. The decision will be set to Open. A new Discussions tab has also been added to the Query dialog so you can search the database based on discussions.
    
19. A new type of report has been added, Baseline Comparison. This lets you choose a named baseline and then produces a report showing what has changed in the baseline compared to previous baselines.
    
20. When a reference frame is displayed the identity that is stored inside the frame is displayed instead of .

For more information, visit www.threesl.com and download the release notes

Visit www.threesl.com today to download Cradle 6.3