	Related Topics:
	Introduction to the Synthesis Platform

Working in Synthesis

In Synthesis-enabled applications, you will work with repositories, which are relational databases that can contain one or many projects. Each project can contain one or more analyses; in addition, the project can contain resources, which represent various types of information available for use throughout the project. The databases and all of their projects can be accessed by any Synthesis-enabled application that is installed on your computer. In each application, you will see only the analyses and resources that are applicable to the current application. Certain types of resources are applicable in, and accessible from, multiple applications.

For example, let’s imagine that you have a data set from testing a component called “Component A.” You use Weibull++ 8 to perform life data analysis on that data set. You can then take the fitted distribution and its parameters and publish that information as a resource called a model. Let’s call this particular model “Component A Failure.”

Now imagine that you want to analyze the reliability and maintainability of a system that incorporates Component A. In BlockSim 8, you can create a resource called a universal reliability definition (URD) that describes an item’s failure rate and any activities performed to maintain that item. In this case, you create a URD called “Component A RAM” that includes your failure model and some additional resources called tasks, which describe the maintenance activities. You then assign that URD to the block that represents Component A in your reliability block diagram or fault tree.

In this example, you have two types of analyses: the life data analysis, which is accessible only via Weibull++, and the system reliability and maintainability analysis, which is accessible only via BlockSim. You also have three types of resources: the model, the URD and the tasks. All of these are accessible from all applications via the Resource Manager, but are used only in BlockSim in this case (although these types of resources are used in certain other Synthesis-enabled applications). Additionally, because the model was created by publishing analysis results, it can be changed only by returning to the life data analysis in Weibull++, changing the analysis and republishing.

The topics in this section address the following:

The differences between standard and enterprise databases (repositories), and how to create new databases and open existing databases.
Managing repositories, including:
- Using e-mail notifications to keep users up to date on the progress made in completing assigned actions.
- Settings that affect analyses in all projects throughout the database, including time units, default naming conventions, global identifiers and more.
Projects and their properties.
Managing workflow in a multi-user environment, including implementation of security features.
Managing and restoring data via backups/maintenance and project baselines.
How to work with attachments.
Importing and exporting information.