Library Items

On the LIBRARY screen, library items are displayed on the Library Items tab and are filtered by the currently selected library type. You can view the properties of a selected library item on the Details tab at the bottom of the screen.

Library items are electronic documents that can be linked to data and data types in NEXUS IC using connections (see Library Connections).

The electronic documents can be uploaded directly into the NEXUS IC database, or can be referenced using URL or UNC paths.

You can maintain library items from several screens within NEXUS IC, including:

Library Items tab on the LIBRARY screen (see Library)

Library tab on the ASSETS screen (see Library)

Library tab on the INSPECTION screen (see INSPECTION)

Library tab on the ANOMALIES screen (see ANOMALIES)

Library tab under Configuration ‣ General ‣ Functions ‣ Edit Function Definition

Library tab on the Edit Asset Type dialog under Configuration ‣ Assets ‣ Types

Library tab on the Edit Table Definition dialog under Configuration ‣ Events ‣ Event Types ‣ Edit Table Information

Example

If you upload company piping specifications to the NEXUS IC Library and assign it to the asset type “Pipework”, the piping specifications will be available from the Library* tab of the ASSETS screen whenever the active asset is of type “Pipework”.

You can also maintain library items on the Library pane of IC-Inspection.

Manage Library Items

You use the standard toolbar functions on the Library/Library Items tab to add, edit, delete, import, export library items or customise the grid layout. For more information about these functions, see Using the Grid.

Note

From this toolbar, you can edit the properties of the selected library item, not the document itself.

Deleting a library item will delete all the connections of that library item.

The Export option only exports the contents of the grid, not the library items themselves.

See below for more information about some actions you can perform on library items:

Add Library Items

To create a new library item, proceed as follows:

Start adding a new library item in one of the following ways:

On the Library/Library Items tab, choose Add from the toolbar.

Drag files from your file explorer onto the Library/Library Items tab.

If you’re on the LIBRARY screen, you must first select a library type before adding a library item to it (see Library Types). On some other screens, you must choose a connection option from a list before proceeding.

Select the library type, enter a name for the library item (mandatory) and enter other parameters as required. For information about filling in all the parameters, see Add/Edit Library Dialog.

If the document is to be uploaded into NEXUS IC, then click on the Attachment button, else enter a Hyperlink location.

When adding an attachment, you can either Import or Link it:

If you import, the item will be saved to the database. If you subsequently change the original on disk, the item in the database will not change to match.

If you link the item, then when you change the original on your disk, the next time you view the item within NEXUS IC, you’ll see the updated item.

Note

NEXUS IC still loads a copy of a linked item into the NEXUS database. This ensures that if the original is unavailable (for example, because you are away from your network), NEXUS IC can display the cached copy.

When you view the item, if the original has been updated, the database cached copy is updated too. You can’t link items that are on your local hard disk, only items on network drives can be linked. The Link feature is designed to keep you up-to-date with items that may have been changed by others, and that is not possible on your local drive.

If you drag and drop multiple files, they will be added, and then multi-selected in the grid. You can then click Edit to multi-edit them (see Multi-Edit). Drag and drop will import items, not link them.

Click OK.

On the LIBRARY screen, you can view the details of the library item by selecting it and checking the Details tab under the Library Items tab.

On the LIBRARY screen, you can add or maintain connections to library items from the Connections tab under the Library Items tab. For more information, see Library Connections.

Launch Library Items

Use the Launch toolbar button to launch library items on the local machine. By default, NEXUS only launches files with the following extensions: doc, docx, xls, xlsx, jpg, png, jpeg, bmp, tiff, gif, mpg, mp3, wav, ppt, pptx, txt, pdf, emf, zip, dwg, avi, rtf, mp4, csv.

Hint

Use the Space Bar on your keyboard to launch the currently selected library item.

Note that if the local machine does not have an associated viewer for the document type (for example, AutoCad viewer for DWG type), then the document can not be launched.

Email Library Items

Use the Email toolbar button to send an email message with the selected library items attached to it. You can select multiple library items to be sent in the same email message. Note that you must have properly configured your email settings (see Set Up Email) for this option to function.

Warning

If the size of the attachment exceeds your organization’s attachment size limit, you may get an “Out of memory” error message.

Import Library Items

You can import library items using the standard Import toolbar option (see Import). You can download the MS Excel Import Template, which shows the required format for importing library items.

You can also import the Connections in the same import as the library items, so in addition to the Library Import columns, you can additionally define the Connection information using the following column headings:

Library Connection.Connect To

Library Connection.Workpack

Library Connection.Asset Type

Library Connection.Asset

Library Connection.Event Type

Library Connection.Event

Library Connection.Anomaly

Library Connection.Risk Model

Library Connection.Function

Note that the Connect To column should only contain one of the following text items:

Anomaly

Asset

Asset Type

Event

Event Type

Function

Risk Model

Workpack

Double-click

The first time you double-click on a library item, NEXUS asks you whether you want to launch the library item in an external editor, or edit the library item. If you want your choice to become permanent, tick the Always do this checkbox. Note that if you hold down the Alt key while double-clicking, you will be asked again.