Month: March 2018

This is the week of the IBM Think! in Las Vegas. I actually hate Las Vegas, it is a very aggressive place to be for my poor Asperger brain. I already had some serious “Sensor Overload Errors” there. I prefer Florida but you can’t win them all. IBM wants met to go to Vegas…

Also the IBM Conferences get bigger and bigger every year. The I loved the Innovate in Florida, not just because of Florida but also because it was much smaller. You could really find all the people you need. In LV it is almost impossible to meet somebody.

Luckily there is the German IoT Conference (and hopefully the US IoT Conference) I feel a lot more at home there.

At least “Think!” is a great name, thinking is generally a good idea.

Hyperlinks

To gather information in your model it is a good idea to use Hyperlinks. You can use hyperlinks to save links to:

• model elements (Change the view of your elements)
• websites (Compiler, CPU, Willert!)
• documents on your disk (For use in the project)

For documentation it is better to use “controlled files”, they will be part of the model and can be transferred to others.

Package Hyperlinks are a bit hidden, you have to right-click on a package and select “Add New”, “Relations” , “Hyperlinks”. Don’t forget that a click on a hyperlink will not open the features but the target of the hyperlink.

Explorer Helper

I often search for my Model directory. Rhapsody does not always show it in the File Menu and you then have to open the configuration, go to the Settings Tab and look where the generated source is. There is a better way to do that.
Goto “Tools” “Customize” “Helpers…”.
Add a new item there, call it Explorer (or what you like) and fill in “explorer” at the command and “.” at the arguments.
This will give you a menu item under Tools that opens an explorer window with your project directory. Cool eh?

Happy Modeling with Rhapsody!

Walter van der Heiden ( wvdheiden@willert.de )

Introduction

Today I will write about our RXF. I hear a lot of users that have issues and worse, there are a lot of users that do not speak about issues…. We find out indirectly that there was trouble.Most issues can be traced back to errors in the install procedure, take really good care that this is done properly.Also a big source of problems is the installation of a new version of the RXF. OK, this is not straight forward, I admit.Although the RXF has its own Macros for sending events, if you want to use the same model in an OXF environment, you better use the IBM macros.Assign the Memory Properties in the Component. Make new components if you want to experiment with these values.

Hints and Tips for installation

• We are there to help you. Really. I know you are afraid that your friend Google might be insulted if you ask someone else for help, but really: he is not.
• Install should run without errors!
  Yes. If install gives you an error, it’s serious. There is something wrong. You should not ignore it.
• • Install can tell you after entering a path for a compiler, RTOS or Rhapsody that it cannot find some file. Pressing “Yes” will much later expose errors that you cannot map on the install anymore!
  • READ!!! OK, OK… we do not always write clearly but you should be able to understand what the install program wants from you.
  • if you cannot read: ASK!
  • Check if the install path is not to long! (c:\user\thatsme\Install directory for tools\Rpy_CPP_embOS_IAR5_CM3_EFM32\Rpy_CPP_embOS_IAR5_CM3_EFM32\Rpy_CPP_embOS_IAR5_CM3_EFM32 is too long. Install will either give errors or just not copy everything. Sometimes without error message….
  • The version numbers of Compiler, RTOS and Rhapsody are not given in the install fore nothing. That means that the RXF is tested with these specific versions. Installing the RXF using older or newer versions can work, but not necessarily…
  • Do not install the RXF under a “magic” windows directory like “c:\Program Files” or any language/bitsize variant. As already said in one of the first entries: Installing Rhapsody.
• If, in spite of being careful, you have problems: tell us! Windows is a complex environment, that in combination with differences in hardware and interfering IT departments can cause nightmares.
• If you want to use the Willert Software Tools Embedded UML Studio: You HAVE to install and RXF! Just install, you don’t have to use it.

Hints and Tips for re-install

• We are still there to help you. Never mind your girl-friends Siri and Alexa, we are better, much better!
• Regularly check http://download.willert.de for updates.
• Speak with us when you want to use a new version of Rhapsody, Compiler or RTOS (Or even CPU)
• There are different use-cases for re-install.
• • You have a new version of Rhapsody but want to use the same RXF
  • • You still have to re-install the RXF…. It may seem to work but it is not integrated in your Rhapsody…. No problem, it is still working in your old Rhapsody, that is… if you install the RXF to the same path as where it was.
  • You have the same Rhapsody but a new RXF
  • • Is more difficult. Best is to install the new RXF and load the profile in the existing model. You have to check which stereotypes are used in your model and manually re-assign them to the new profile. A good test is to try and delete a profile, if there are stereotypes used, Rhapsody will refuse to delete it.
    • The properties for the static memory blocks are the same… but the MetaClass changes… you have to re-assign them to the correct properties.

I hope this makes your life with Rhapsody a bit easier!

Walter van der Heiden ( wvdheiden@willert.de )

Introduction

This week I’m in Switzerland. helping a customer to install and use Rhapsody and a lot of other tools. Switzerland is cool, very nice to travel to because of the beautiful landscape. Not nice to travel to because everything is soooo expensive… For the price of a  normal meal I can feed my entire family in Germany… This time I was lucky, finding a very nice and quit hotel where the food was delicious and not even that expensive (Well not for Switzerland…) I was also lucky with picking up my rental car: a free upgrade… OK, not a Merc, but the BMW 420D X-Drive was a nice car. And the snow on the last day was a piece of cake with the 4-wheel drive and the winter tires.

Back to work

As I have written before, it is not easy to install all tools in a way that everything works. Careful planning is required here.

Willert RXF License

The RXF does not have a license. There are 2 types of customers: One that is willing to pay and one that will never pay for software. License mechanisms are only there to annoy the first type: People that have paid for software and are legally entitled to use it.
The second type tries to hack it and if that is not possible: they will use other software.
We at Willert have rather that people steal our software then that they buy it from our competitors.

IBM Rhapsody license

IBM uses the so-called Flexible License Manage (Flex-LM), in spite of the name it is a very inflexible piece of software. Many things can go wrong there. We literally spend hours to get the stuff running sometimes.

Steady or Floating?

There are many different license types for Rhapsody depending on how you use the software and what version you use.

• AU – Authorized User
• FL – Floating User

The difference between these 2 is that an AU License is for a named person. This has to be the same person, always! (You can, of course, move the license internally but not on an hourly basis)
An FL can be used by multiple persons that not even have to be on the same location just not on the same time. Theoretically, if you have sites all over the world, you can have 3 people working a full day with same license. IBM allows that, Telelogic had a special (more expensive) license for that.
NOTE: IBM requires you to have a list available with the licenses you use and the names of the actual user! They are entitled to check that. (This is one of the points in the license agreement that you have not read)

Server, Locally or Dongle?

Flex-LM works with a license file. There are parts built into the software that uses it to check the file and determine if you are allowed to start it.

• Server, you have a server that is reachable for everyone in the company (Yes that can be an international server)
• Locally Server, you have the Flex-LM server on your local machine
• Locally license file, there is no Flex-LM server, Rhapsody will read and decode the license file itself. The license file uses your network cards MAC address as a “key”.
• Locally Dongle, you have a license file that uses the Dongle “ID” as a “key”

For the Server (local or remote) you need to install the Flex-LM key Manager

Have I already told you that I hate Windows?

I do. Really. It is such a @#$%^&*( OS. The fact that you must distinguish between 32-Bit and 64-Bit is already a pain not to mention everything else.
So for the dongle driver you need to check if you have 32- or 64-Bit. Also it seems to be a bit of a problem when you have the latest Windows 10 version. (although it seems to be Windows Type, (Home, Pro, ultimate, etc) dependant.
You can download your driver here.

OK. I did all that. It doesn’t work. Now what?

First: Don’t get mad or sad, this is not abnormal… Here are some pointers where you can start to get stuff running:

• As always: You can ask us. We help you.
• You can ask google. You’ll be surprised what google knows when you type in your exact error message.
• READ the error message. Flex-LM mostly says exactly what the problem is.
• find your lmtools.exe program, it helps you finding what is wrong
• There is an environment variable TELELOGIC_LICENSE_FILE that points to license files or paths where license files are (The latter only finds “license.lic” files). Unfortunately this is not the only source for locations, there is also:
• A Registry Entry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\FLEXlm License Manager also has a Field “TELELOGIC_LICENSE_FILE” that contains the path information. If you want to delete incorrect entries you have to do it here as well… Flex-LM updates this entry when you add new paths to the Environment Variable but does not delete any when you change the Env Var again…
• Check the number of your Dongle (Do this also physically on the Dongle itself) in the lmtools tab: “System Setting” and in the license file.
• Any change in your system, OS update or Rhapsody update can influence the working of your license. beware of that. So if your license does not work anymore, try to check if something happens to the OS or other software (Check logs files)
• Do you have a new network card? Most licenses work with your MAC address. Sometimes you can change the MAC address of your network card. But you can ask for a new license, IBM will give you one (Not every week of course…)

So. I hope this helps a little bit!

Happy modeling with Rhapsody!

Walter van der Heiden (wvdheiden@willert.de)

Somehow my Schiphol flights are jinxed. Last year my Zürich flight was cancelled twice, once with snow, the other one while the flight control center wasn’t working. But I was not thinking about that in the train to Schiphol. Today I fly to Bristol, that is… when KLM, Schiphol or whoever is letting me…

It is snowing very lightly so the plane arrived late, but that’s OK… Dropping of my suitcase was real quick today (thanks SkyPriority ) I could even pass the really long line for the passport check (What??? Yep… Brexit, remember…) But I always carry my real passport with me so I could use the electronic line. 5 minutes instead of 1,5 hours… Cool. I thought…

But at the gate, where I met Robert who was flying in from Detroit, we were waiting and waiting and waiting… After a while the PA system explained that they had computer problems and that boarding might take a while. Oh great.

But it was faster than feared and we were in the bus pretty fast. Wait the bus??? Yep.. Since Brexit the UK travels via gate D6 in the basement, you have to go by bus to the place where they park the, relatively small, airplanes (Embraer 175/190) After entering the bus and driving a bit we were waiting before an airplane. And waiting… and waiting… until the electronic Bus voice told us that the bus was leaving…

And after a small drive we were being dropped of at the terminal. When all passengers were back they told us that the plane we saw was really there but they couldn’t find the crew….

I’m typing this while waiting for a crew. Hoping we still go, it would be very inconvenient when the flight would be cancelled now.
After almost 3 Hours (The time after which KLM would have to start pay….) they finally managed to get a crew and get us in the air.. Hey! Flying is fun. Always.

C or C++

Always the question. I don’t want to answer it now, I just want to give some tips and tricks. In Rhapsody, a model (a.rpy file) has a language. if you open the file with a text editor you can see that on the first line, it says “C” (or “C++” or “Java”) Now, all units, which are files basically, have this language indicator in them. There is also a “*”, that indicates a “don’t-care” what the language is. That is very useful for profiles that are more or less language independent (e.g. a “Styles” profile that contains stuff to influence the GUI )

So it is possible to switch parts of your model to another language, just right click on the unit, select “Edit Unit” and then you can select the language. Now there are some side-effects. You can change the language of a component but it can only contain packages and classes/objects of the same language in its scope. So that is why not all browser elements show up. Also… there is a way to make elements show up in both, the “*” method. You have to edit the .sbs files by hand but it works.

I already tried that for you and…. it works…;-) You can create a “C” package, include that in the scope of a “C” Component, close the model, edit the package file by hand to be the other language, open the model and…. you can include it in the other component. Then edit the package file to be “*” (after closing the model…) and you will see that you can generate 2 different languages from the same package.

32Bit or 64Bit

I think that Rhapsody 8.3 has a real good 64Bit version. If the issues with the new file format and extensions (and some other issues) are solved, we start to test our RXF and other tools for the use with 64Bit. That will solve some problems! Also 64Bit is a lot faster when handling large AUTOSAR Models!

IFix2

– IBM just released iFix2 for Rhapsody 8.3.

That’s it for today, happy Modeling with Rhapsody

Walter van der Heiden (wvdheiden@willert.de)