Amid rapid technological advancements and digital transformations, staying ahead in the realm of product lifecycle management (PLM) is crucial. One powerful way to do that within the 3DEXPERIENCE platform is to use Enterprise Knowledge Language (EKL), a Dassault Systèmes proprietary language, to customize behavior and automate tasks.
xLM Solutions uses EKL in many of the configurable tools we develop and we recently had the opportunity to share our expertise and best practices during a webinar that I had the pleasure of co-hosting with Allauddin Ali Ahmad, Chief Technology Officer and Solutions Architect at xLM Europe.
In this blog post, I’ll share some key takeaways, but you’re also invited to view the full replay. It’s available for download here.
What Is EKL And Why Should Your Business Use It?
As I mentioned, EKL is a programming language that Dassault Systèmes engineered and maintains to enable quick and easy application development within the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. You can use EKL to customize components on top of 3DEXPERIENCE V5 and V6 architecture, including:
- Business Rules
- Validation Rules
- Generative Rules
- Product Structure Navigation
- And much more
In short, EKL allows designers and other users to develop and customize specific functions, resulting in a high level of automation that eliminates the need to perform the same steps repeatedly. In addition to enabling automation, EKL helps embed design decisions into the design definition. It’s an extremely effective tool for saving time, reducing your potential for error and testing and validating exploration use cases.
There’s a good chance you’d benefit from EKL and may not even realize it. One of my favorite use cases is very simple: Do you ever wish you could update one field and automatically see other, pertinent fields updated to reflect that change without going through a dozen manual steps? Automation via EKL is the answer you’ve been looking for
How To Use EKL In The 3DEXPERIENCE Platform
One of the great things about EKL is that it’s very versatile within the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. You can use it to write scripts within many 3DEXPERIENCE applications, including:
- Engineering Rules Capture
- Quality Rules Capture
- Know-How Apps Suite
- Data Setup
- Data Model Customization
- Quality Rules Reuse
For context, each of these applications serve different purposes, yet they all share a common feature – the ability to harness EKL for scripting and functionality. Data Setup, for example, is widely utilized by administrators to tailor the behavior of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform for diverse business processes. Similarly, Know-How Apps Suite follows the same pattern.
Your primary tool for using EKL within the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and its various applications is EKL Editor, which has IntelliSense built in. EKL Editor features a toolbar menu with different functions, such as the syntax check and language browser where you can look up out-of-the-box (OOTB) functions/methods and filter based on type, as well as a main body section that supports the actual scripting process.
During our 3DEXPERIENCE EKL Fundamentals webinar, Ali offers a step-by-step tour of EKL Editor and other tools for using the programming language, including:
- Knowledge Debugger, a built-in solution for debugging code
- Knowledge Monitor, a tool within the Global Toolbar that supports timeline, unit profile and versatile view
Our experts have also developed a variety of custom solutions using EKL. Watch the webinar and click the links below to learn more.
The event continued with a discussion about EKL type hierarchy, fundamental skills for writing your own script and an overview of some common use cases. These lessons are best learned through visual aids, so I highly recommend tuning into the full webinar for more information.
3DEXPERIENCE EKL Training Workshops from xLM
Our 3DEXPERIENCE EKL Fundamentals webinar provides an excellent overview for anyone interested in using EKL for customizing behavior and automating processes within the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, but our team is also proud to offer paid training for teams that would like to take their EKL knowledge to the next level.
Our customizable EKL workshop is typically offered in two six-hour sessions for a total of 12 hours. During our first session, we take a deep dive into the world of EKL and its practical applications within the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of the Data Setup application and roles, Business Logic (BL), the significance of PLM Opening ID, Event trigger points, EKL trace, and trace API. To make learning even more engaging, we’ll cap off this session with a live demo of the Data Setup App, bringing theory to life.
Building upon the knowledge acquired in the first session, our second session delves deeper into the Engineering Rules Capture application. We’ll explore topics such as EKL Action, Rules, Check, and Reaction, along with product structure navigation, parameter management, and PLM query. By the end of this session, participants will be well-equipped to harness the power of EKL for advanced rule-based engineering.
At xLM, our focus is on bridging the gap between your PLM system and your organizational processes, ensuring the best fit. One of the ways we do that is by identifying time-saving opportunities and creating tools that replace hours of manual work, as seen by many of the configurable tools we’ve developed for the 3DEXPERIENCE platform using EKL. Please get in touch if you have any questions about our latest webinar or are interested in paid EKL training or other PLM consulting services. Thank you
