When you have completed your metamodel customizations by creating the appropriate definitions, you need to add them into the User Props File definition.
To create a User Props File Definition
1 From the Explorer, right-click the Definitions group and select New Definition or Select Dictionary, New Definition.
2 Select User Props File and name it.
3 Add the user definition types that you have created in the appropriate order.
Note When selecting a rename number, there are 300 user-provided definitions that can be used for customization. The user-provided definitions are named User 1 through User 300. These definitions can be used to "Rename" a symbol, definition or diagram type.
Each user defined definition has a property called UserProp Rename Number. In this property, you can specify a number which can be used to "rename" a definition for example "User 10" to the User Symbol Type called "Book". By specifying a UserProp Rename Number you can control the output of the generated User Props file with the same rename numbers as any existing types in a production encyclopedia. The generated User Props file can then be imported into the production encyclopedia without breaking the name-value matches.
When generating a User props file you can also specify the Starting Rename Number for the user defined definition, diagram, and symbol types. If there is no starting number specified then the default is set to 1.
4 In the Explorer, right-click the User Props File definition instance that you want to turn into a usrprops.txt file, and select Generate User Prop. Specify the directory and name of the file (normally usrprops.txt) that you want to generate.
5 Optionally you can have System Architect load the usrprops.txt into the open encyclopedia’s Files table and reopen the encyclopedia by choosing "Yes" to the message "Do you want to load the currently generated UsrProps to the currently loaded Encyclopedia?".
When selecting Don’t ask me again always load the generated UsrProp file to the loaded Encyclopedia the following occurs in the encyclopedia:
▪The existing usrprops file, if any, will be copied as Usrprops_orig.txt.
▪The newly generated usrprop file is imported in the files table as usrprops.txt.
▪The encyclopedia is reloaded.
After the usrprops.txt file has successfully loaded you can continue to edit the user defined definitions or import the usrprops.txt file into your production encyclopedia.
If the generated usrprops file does not parse correctly and the encyclopedia cannot be loaded the following occurs:
▪The usrprops.txt file will be deleted.
▪The usrprop_orig.txt will be copied as Usrprops.txt file.
▪The usrprop_orig.txt will be deleted.
▪The encyclopedia will continue to load with the previously used usrprops.txt file.
When using the Auto-load option, there is also the risk of breaking any type name/number combinations in the MetaModel encyclopedia. To avoid any breaks in the encyclopedia, do the following:
▪Try not to populate the encyclopedia with a significant amount of data. If breaks do occur it will not be of any consequence.
▪The "Always load" option is used to quickly identify any changes that may need to be made to the definitions.
If changes are necessary you can simply modify your definitions and regenerate the usrprops.txt file. Once you are satisfied with these changes you can import this new usrprops.txt file into your production encyclopedia.
Once you have created new diagram, definition, or symbol types, you may create a Metamodel diagram for them.
