twinstudio catalogue

What the Catalogue is

The catalogue shows everything stored in the twinsphere tenant you are connected to: digital twins, submodels, concept descriptions, your own drafts and the files in the file repository. Each kind of content has its own page, and each page has its own controls.

The catalogue pages share a common layout:

• A toolbar at the top with Refresh, the view switch, the number of entries and the actions available on that page. Refresh reloads the first page of entries using the filters you have set.
• The filter rail on the right. Set filter opens the filter dialog; the filter entries you have added are listed underneath and can be removed one by one.
• Load more at the bottom of the list, if more entries match than are currently shown. Each load adds up to 50 entries. The count in the toolbar tells you whether it refers to your whole tenant (50+ Entries in this tenant) or to the current filter (Entries matching the current filter).

Every ID column contains a copy button. It shows a shortened ID; select it to see the full value, and use the copy icon next to it to put it on your clipboard.

Version is only shown when the entry has a version in its administration. If it has none, a dash (-) is displayed. A missing revision is treated as 0.

Catalogue of digital twins

The twin catalogue is the main page of the catalogue. Switch between the Cards and List views with the buttons in the toolbar. Both offer the same actions; only the presentation differs.

The twin designation in both views is a processed value, derived from the shell in this order: displayName, idShort, id. A card additionally shows the description and the thumbnail of the twin, the asset kind (Instance, Type or Not Applicable), both identifiers, and the number of submodels it contains. The list view shows the same information in columns.

Select the submodel count to open a dialog listing the submodels of that twin with their basic details.

Creating and importing twins

• Create new Digital Twin opens the twin creation wizard.
• Upload Twin opens a twin from an AASX, JSON or XML file, or from the clipboard. If the file contains more than one twin, you are asked which one you want. Submodels of type template are filtered out and the files they contain are ignored. Afterwards you are taken to the twin builder.

Both buttons are only available with the Studio Creator licence.

Filtering twins

The Asset Kind facet in the filter rail is always visible and lets you narrow the list to instances, types, or twins without an asset kind with a single click.

For anything else, select Set filter to open the filter dialog. It has three tabs:

Tab	Filters
Twin Data	Asset kind, global asset ID and AAS ID
Used Submodel Templates	Twins that use a particular submodel template
Nameplate Values	Manufacturer name, designation, article number, serial number, year of construction

Each entry you add appears on the right-hand side of the dialog as you build it up. Entries of the same kind are combined with or, and the three tabs are combined with and. Select Apply filter to apply the result, or Clear all to start again.

Text filters find a match anywhere in the text, ignoring case. Year of construction is compared as a range, so min and max narrow the result from both sides.

The Twin Designation filter is not available yet. It is disabled because the underlying AAS query language does not support it at the moment.

Actions on a single twin

The more actions menu on a card or a row offers:

Action	What it does
Show	Opens the twin in the twinsphere Viewer to inspect all of its data
Edit	Opens the twin in the Twin Builder for editing
Export	Opens the export dialog (see below)
Duplicate	Creates a copy of the twin (see below)
Delete	Deletes the twin (see below)

The eye and pencil icons on a card do the same as Show and Edit.

Exporting a twin

The export dialog asks four things:

1. Where to export to: the clipboard, or a file download.
2. The format: JSON, XML or AASX.
3. Which submodels to include. All Submodels selects or clears the whole list at once.
4. Whether the concept descriptions should be included.

Two restrictions apply:

• AASX can only be selected when the target is File, and only for a twin that has been published and not changed since. Publish the twin first, or export it from the catalogue instead.
• Concept descriptions are only available for a twin that exists in the repository, because only then are they stored there.

Duplicating a twin

Duplicate copies a twin with all of its data, including the referenced submodels. New identifiers are created for the copy.

We recommend setting up the ID generator before duplicating. Without it you are asked to enter an AAS ID and a global asset ID by hand, and every new submodel ID is derived automatically by appending /sm/{ULID} to the AAS ID.

Deleting a twin

The delete dialog names the twin that will be removed and lists its submodels. Clear the checkbox of any submodel you want to keep. Submodels that are referenced by other twins cannot be selected for deletion, because deleting them would break those twins.

Deleting a twin of asset kind Type shows an additional warning about the consequences.

Catalogue of submodels

The submodel page lists every submodel and submodel template in the tenant. It offers the same Cards and List views as the twin page.

A submodel card shows the description with the languages it is available in, the submodel ID, the type of the submodel (Instance or Template) and the template it is based on, if that template can be resolved. Submodels and templates are listed together; the table shows the same information in columns.

Importing a submodel

Select Import Submodel to add a submodel that was created elsewhere. You can drag a file onto the dialog or read the submodel from the clipboard.

The submodel is validated before it is stored, and the problems found are shown to you first.

Exporting a submodel

The more actions menu of a submodel or template opens the same export dialog as for twins, so you can choose the format and the target.

Catalogue of concept descriptions

This page lists all concept descriptions in the repository of your twinsphere tenant. Concept descriptions are the semantic definitions that the submodels in your tenant refer to.

The Data Specification column shows which kinds of specification a concept description contains. Only the type IEC61360 is recognised and shown by name; anything else is labelled unknown. Please tell us if you come across such a value, so we can extend the recognition.

Select the specification chip to open the details of an IEC61360 specification: preferred name, short name, unit, source of definition, data type, symbol, value format, level type, definition and the embedded data specification.

The more actions menu offers Export.

A concept description can carry its names and definitions in several languages. The values that are shown use the first available match in this order:

1. your preferred data language
2. a value containing your data language
3. your interface language
4. a value containing your interface language
5. English (en)
6. a value containing English

Select a language tag to switch to that language. The selected tag is highlighted.

Catalogue of drafts

Your personal twin drafts are listed here, most recently modified first.

Column	Meaning
Name	The name of the draft
Version	The version of the twin
Draft Type	Currently always a twin draft
Created At	When the draft was first saved
Last Modified	When the draft was last changed
State	Valid, or Invalid with the number of issues as a tooltip

The Draft Type switch also offers Submodels and Blueprints, but those draft types do not exist yet, so only twin drafts are listed today.

The Edit button continues work on a draft. The more actions menu additionally offers Delete, Export, Duplicate and, for drafts without validation issues, Publish. Publishing transfers the twin to your twinsphere tenant and removes the draft afterwards.

Editing, duplicating, publishing and deleting a draft require the Studio Creator licence.

Drafts are private to you. Nobody else can see or edit them.

Catalogue of files

This page lists all files in the twinsphere file repository. Files are the documents and images that can be attached to twins and submodels.

Column	Meaning
File Name	The name in the repository, with a preview of the file type
Display Name	A descriptive name you can set yourself
Classification	The document classification according to VDI 2770 sheet 1:2020
Size	The size of the file. Values are shown in kB below 100 kB and in MB above that
Custom Attributes	How many custom attributes are set. Select the number to display them all
Uploaded	When the file was stored

Show only files uploaded by me narrows the list to your own uploads.

Classification values that are not part of the VDI 2770 list are shown as invalid. An empty value is shown as a dash (-).

Custom attributes

Select the number in the Custom Attributes column to see all attributes of a file in a dialog. The Edit button there opens the properties dialog directly.

Actions on a single file

Each row has an Edit Properties button and a more actions menu:

Action	What it does
Download File	Downloads the file
Copy File Path	Copies the twinsphere file path to your clipboard, for use in a File element
Edit Properties	Opens the properties dialog (see below)
Delete	Not available yet. Offered once file references can be checked before deletion

Uploading a file

Select Upload File in the toolbar to open the upload dialog.

Drag your file onto the drop area, or select it from a file dialog. The maximum file size is 50 MB.

You can then set:

• Twinsphere File Name without a file extension, if you want a different name in the repository.
• Display Name, independent of the file name, to make the file easier to recognise.
• Document Classification according to VDI 2770.
• Custom attributes, up to 50 key and value pairs. Keys and values may each be up to 2048 characters long.

All criteria are combined with and, so a file has to match every one of them. Custom attributes are matched exactly. If a key or a value is left empty, that pair is ignored.

Custom attributes are free-form. A common pattern is a key such as type with a value such as logo, which later makes it easy to find every logo with the file filter.

Editing file properties

Select Edit Properties in a row to change the display name, the classification and the custom attributes.

Every custom attribute needs both a key and a value, or it has to be removed completely. Keys must be unique. If Save Properties stays disabled, one of those rules has been broken.

Filtering files

The file filter dialog offers:

• Display Name and File Name, which find a match anywhere in the text, ignoring case.
• File Size.
• Creation Date, as a start and an end date. The start date is read as 00:00:00 and the end date as 23:59:59.
• Document Classification.
• Custom attributes. Add as many key and value pairs as you need.