What’s New In GENESYS

One of GENESYS’s key benefits is its ability to extend its functionality via scripting. In addition to Visual Basic, C# scripting is now supported. The default scripting language is set in User Preferences under the General category by selecting an option from the Default Script Language drop-down list.

When creating a new script, you can select the language in the GENESYS 2022 release. On the Utilities tab, simply choose the Scripts icon, New Script, and the language from the Script Language drop-down list. This will override the default script language set in User Preferences.

Strong visualizations are essential to effective communications. Diagrams that are neat, clear, and well-organized are easier to understand than those suffering from layout issues. All of the free-form diagrams (physical, internal, flow, interface, state transition, spider, parametric, and class block) have the following enhancements:

• The layout of the diagrams now automatically spaces and aligns.
• A Distribute Lines command has been added that evenly distributes node connections.

• The spacing is now refined to prevent overlapping nodes when applying layouts.
• The usability of the diagrams has been dramatically improved by making them easier to manipulate and moving items on them easier.
• The diagram items are now anchored to prevent them from inadvertently moving.
• The diagram formatting commands are much more accessible. This was accomplished by moving them to the Layout section of the Diagram

Enhanced all of the free-form diagrams (physical, internal, flow, interface, state transition, spider, parametric, and class block) with the following enhancements:

• Added two new commands to the Layout section of the Diagram ribbon.

• Added a Route Lines icon on the Diagram ribbon that promotes the drop-down menu containing three route line options (routing orthogonally, polyline, or straightline) which were previously available under the Transforms icon. This makes these commands more visible and accessible to the user.

Each of the three options can be applied to all the lines in the diagram or selected lines.

• Added a Recompute connection points and port locations option to the Layout and Route Lines options.

When selecting the Layout and each of the Route Lines options, users can now select an option to recompute the connection points and port locations, at the dialog box that displays.

When the Recompute connection points and port locations option is checked, the layout algorithm will reposition the points where lines connect to nodes in the diagram to optimize the routing of the lines. Likewise, simple port nodes will also be repositioned to optimize the line routing.

Route All Lines Orthogonally with Recompute (Before)

Route All Lines Orthogonally with Recompute (After)

When the Recompute connection points and port locations option is not checked, the layout algorithm will maintain the points where lines connect to nodes in the diagram. The position of port nodes will also be maintained.

Route All Lines Orthogonally without Recompute (Before)

Route All Lines Orthogonally without Recompute (After)

• Added a Distribute Lines icon to the Diagram ribbon that when selected evenly distributes all the node connections on selected nodes in the
  diagram.

The user can also click the arrow on the bottom of the icon to access a drop-down menu that contains options for evenly distributing node connections individually on any of the four faces (sides) of the selected nodes.

This feature also distributes port nodes on the diagram. The following example shows the application of Distribute Lines when applied to all nodes on the  diagram.

Distribute Lines (Before)

Distribute Lines (After)

• Port nodes are now considered anchored immediately after being added to a node on the diagram. They will no longer move to a new default location when new ports are added to the node. This prevents tedious rework as the layout of all connected lines was previously impacted. The new ports will be placed where there is open space on the left and right sides of the node to which the port is being added.
• Lines connected to port nodes will now exit the port away from the node on which the port resides. The diagram will also attempt to maintain this behavior as the user moves port nodes and nodes containing ports. This helps prevent tedious work to achieve an aesthetically pleasing diagram.
• Line labels can now be positioned at any location along the line rather than having a fixed set of candidate positions. This greatly improves the precision of the label locations.
• Refined the spacing to prevent overlapping nodes when applying layouts.

The Model Assistant provides selectable STRATA methodology implementation rules, which, when selected, result in time savings and additional built-in consistency. For this latest GENESYS release, the model assistant rules have been expanded to enable users to easily flow through related concepts and levels of abstraction by further connecting behavior to use cases and states.

New Use Case Rules

• An Auto-create Primary Function for Use Cases rule has been added. When enabled, it automatically creates a primary function when you create a use case or use case subclass. This rule also creates an elaborated by relationship between the use case and the primary function.
• Another new rule added is Show Primary Function Views for Use Cases. This rule directly opens logical and behavioral views for use cases and use case subclasses when enabled. The view tabs for the diagrams appear at the bottom of the PropertySheet window, and the views are enabled on the Views

New State Rules

• Additionally, we added the new rule Auto-Create Root Function for States that creates a root function whenever you create a state when enabled. It also creates an incorporates relationship between the state and the root function.
• Also new is the Show Root Function Views for States rule that directly opens logical views for state and state subclasses when enabled.

Conformance to the SysML standard in the visual representation of the GENESYS Activity Diagram is key to communicating in environments where SysML has been chosen as the standard modeling language. Additional flow line options for Activity diagrams have been added to align with SysML v1 control flow and object flow notation, including:

• Flow lines can now appear as dashed lines (to represent control flow) and solid lines (to represent object flow).
• You have the option to revert between dashed and solid lines.
• Arrowheads on flow lines are now open-ended like standard industry SysML v1 Activity

By default, the flow lines appear as dashed lines. Now you can change the default setting that globally applies to all diagrams in Project Preferences. You can also locally override this setting in the diagram Toolbox Properties to apply only to the current diagram. In Project Preferences, select the option Show Control Flow with Dashed Lines under the Activity diagram to show dashed lines.

In the Toolbox Properties, select the option Show Control Flow with Dashed Lines to show dashed lines.

Actions for all diagrams can now be undone and redone, saving a tremendous amount of time fixing diagrams.

Any action that changes the state of the diagram can be undone and redone. This includes layout changes like changing colors and sizes of nodes and moving items on the diagram. It also includes database transactions like creating and deleting entities, relationships, and attributes on the diagrams.

Additional functionality has been added to drag-drop relationship targets between property sheets of the same class entities.

You must open two entity property sheets from the same class and select the same relationship folder on both property sheets.

The example below shows the Customers and Certification Authority entity property sheets from the same Component class. In both property sheets, we selected the performs relationship folder.

Now when you drag-drop the target relationship Make Information Request from the Targets & Attributes pane of the Customers property sheet onto the perform folder in the Relationships pane of the Certification Authority property sheet, a message displays that GENESYS 2022 is creating the new relationship.

When processing is finished, the new target relationship appears in the Targets & Attributes pane of the destination property sheet, as shown below.

NOTE: The above example shows a simple drag-drop operation that copied the relationship target and added it to the target entity. Holding down the SELECT key while performing this operation will remove the target from the source entity, move it and add it to the target entity.

Updates have been made to the System Definition Language to better reflect the scope of verification activities. The Test Activity class has been renamed to Verification Activity to reflect that it can model verification activities for standard methods (test, analysis, demonstration, and inspection) and is not limited to “htest,” as the previous name indicated.

We also removed the “specifies” and “basis of” relationships from the Verification Requirement to the Verification Activity. Replacing them with the “executes” relationship to reflect that the verification activities are executable and transform inputs to outputs. And we added the relationship “generates” a Concern or Risk.

The attributes have been updated to provide tight alignment with external third-party verification execution and project management tools, and in addition, we renamed and updated several attributes (Type is now Responsible Party; Start Date is now Planned Start Date; End Date is now Planned End Date; Completion Criteria is now Expected Result, and Prerequisite is now Preconditions). Additional new attributes are Actual Start Date, Actual End Date, PostConditions, Type (enumeration list: Verification Step; Verification Case; Verification Plan; Verification Campaign), Actual Result, and Status (enumeration list: Proposed; Baselined; Passed; Failed; Blocked; and Deferred).

GENESYS 2022 users can now view project statistics on the Statistics tab of the Project Properties screen. These statistics provide valuable information and insight into the size of a project (number of entities, relationships, etc.) and the degree of interconnectivity (cross-project entities, relationships, etc.) with other projects.

Project statistics include:

• Number of entities in the project
• Number of relationships in the project
• Number of related projects
• Number of cross-project entities
• Number of cross-project relationships

Number of cross-project entity references (entity attributes)

A warning message has been added to prevent accidentally overwriting views. This can happen when two users are working on the same view concurrently or if you have the same view open in multiple windows.

When you attempt to save the diagram, and another window or user saved the view since the diagram was opened, a warning message displays with options to save the diagram as a new view with a different name, overwrite the view, or cancel the changes to the view.

Suppose you attempt to close the diagram window without saving it, and another window or user saved the view since the diagram was opened. In that case, the following warning message displays an additional option to discard the new view.

We’ve enhanced the generate Resource Description Framework (RDF) by enabling relationships to be represented as simple predicates. This adds more flexibility to the model and simplifies the representation.

Now in GENESYS 2022, the smart import feature assists you in importing package files by detecting the type of file/package being imported and displaying the appropriate import options.

For packages, smart import displays a Scenario drop-down list where you can select one of two package import methods.

The Load Package option imports all package content without modifying the entity IDs or names. This method supports model management through packages.

The Instantiate Model Segment option imports all package content and modifies the entity IDs. This method supports instantiating your project’s pattern, part, or other model segments. We highly recommend that you specify an entity name prefix or suffix to differentiate entities instantiated as part of this model segment.

NOTE: The default method is Load Package.

To better assist you in selecting the appropriate import method, a description of the option now appears on the window when you select one of the options, as shown below.

Now when the import process completes, the Job Monitor window displays.

The third column on the Job Monitor indicates “Finished” if the import has been completed.

The fifth column on the Job Monitor states “True” or “False” to indicate if any conflicts occurred during the import process.

Software performance has been enhanced, improving user experience in both single and Multi-user scenarios.

Performance enhancements include:

• Project and diagram load times have been significantly reduced
• GENESYS GUI and server communication has been improved by up to 50%
• Schema and queries are processing more efficiently
• Scripts now execute more efficiently when accessing the GENESYS server over a network
• Performance of the Administrative Tools window has been significantly improved, eliminating lag time when managing users and groups

Reliability
GENESYS now continues running after the host computer returns from hibernation mode.

Performance
Administrative Tools – When connected to a remote GENESYS server, the application no longer suspends for an extended period of time when managing users and groups.

Connectors
Excel Connector – Inserting new entities in the Excel Connector when the target entity column is empty of data, no longer generates an error.

Data
Minimum and maximum values for integer and float types are now recognized by the
GENESYS UI.

Simulation
Simulation execution no longer fails when encountering a replication count exceeding 11.

Diagrams
Free-Form – Connection lines now route properly when nodes overlap or when deleting external nodes.

Internal Block – Connection lines no longer appear inside port nodes and nodes attached to the diagram frame. Also, the Diagram Toolbox now accurately reflects user selected
colors in all scenarios.

Constraint BDD – Changes to node properties persist.

Import/Export
During import/export, when list size exceeds available space, checking the last project in the list no longer fails.

Reports
The default filename for reports now contains the date format specified in the computer’s Regional settings.

Relationship Targets – The entity filter option has been moved from the Target band to the Relationships band, providing a mechanism to filter the resulting relationship targets.

IRS Report – The IRS Report now runs smoothly when recursive relationships exist in the project data.

TeamView
Hyperlinks for the nodes within the Use Case diagrams now link to the appropriate use cases.

TeamView now creates the correct output files when a custom homepage logo exists in the TeamView destination folder or when the active project contains cross-project  relationships to another project that does not exist in the repository.

Schema
Users are now able to change the initial value of an enumeration type attribute.

Migration
The project schema migration process now includes DOORS attribute mappings and stored views associated with the Interface N2, Internal Block, and Interface Block diagrams.

University Edition
Licensing – The GENESYS license now works after upgrading to the Windows 11 operating system.

General
Home Dialog – Double-clicking on the project list scroll bar on the GENESYS Home page no longer inadvertently opens the selected project.

Date Format – Dates in GENESYS now follow the format of the Windows Regional settings.

Local Service – When a user connects to a remote repository, the local GENESYS service will not start. Also, when exiting GENESYS with the option to stop the service selected, the local GENESYS service now stops.

Additional Software Enhancements
Administrative Tools – The dialog window for editing user and group properties is now resizable to facilitate editing many users/groups.

Excel Connector – The Table Definition Editor in the Excel Connector is now resizable to accommodate more data.

Project Utilities – The ID assigned to project utilities (e.g., sort blocks, filters, viewpoints, etc.) is now visible on the user interface.

Additional minor issues were resolved and improvements made throughout the product.