The Digital Twin Manager enables you to create and manage assets around your physical connected devices in Cumulocity IoT. Assets can be used to structure and describe devices in logical hierarchies as encountered in the real world environment. In addition, assets in Cumulocity IoT can be extended and enriched with addtional information using the Asset properties.
The home screen of the DTM application gives an overview of the application. You can see the number of asset models, asset properties and assets available at a glance. You can add asset properties, asset models and assets using the quick links.
You cannot create asset models, properties and assets if you dont have inventory admin permission.
Note: Digital Twin Manager is supported on Cumulocity UI and microservice version of 10.14 and above
The Digital Twin Manager is shipped as a standalone application for now. This means it will be installed as a separate application, which provides all the features of the
Digital Twin Manager as described in the features section. The standalone application is available in the release section
and can be downloaded.
- Download dtm-ui.zip from the release section
- Open the
Administrationapplication in your Cumulocity tenant - Navigate to
Ecosystem-->Applications - Click on
Add application - Select
Upload web applicationin the modal dialog - Select the zip archive, which you downloaded from the release section, to upload it to the tenant
After following these instructions, the application will be deployed on the tenant and is ready for use. In the application switcher on the top right you can now select the Digital Twin Manager application.
If you want to use Import assets functionality, then the microservice needs to be installed.
- Download dtm-ms.zip from the release section
- Open the
Administrationapplication in your Cumulocity tenant - Navigate to
Ecosystem-->Microservice - Click on
Add microservice - Select Upload microservice in the modal dialog
- Select the zip archive of microservice, which you downloaded from the release section, to upload it to the tenant
- When prompted Subscribe to microservice select Subscribe
After following these instructions, the microservice will be deployed on the tenant. Once the microservice is deployed you can use Import Assets feature.
Note: If the microservice is deployed but not subscribed, then the Import Assets button will not visible in assets page.
-
Navigate to the
Administrationapplication via the application switcher in the top right corner. -
Under Quick links click Roles.
-
In the Global roles tab, select a role to which the permission has to be provided.
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Set Admin permission level for Digital Twin type in the "Permissions" section.
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Click Save.
Once the permission is assigned, the bulk import feature can be used.
Note: If the permission is not assigned, then the CSV template will not be downloaded correctly.
To use Localization feature, you must have public-options web application installed on the tenant. One of the ways you can get the public-options web application is by subscribing to Feature Branding. The following are the steps:
Log in to the corresponding management tenant as an administrator
- Navigate to Tenants > Subtenants
- Select the subtenant for which you want to add this feature.
- Under Applications subscribe for Feature branding.
Complete the setup by following the below steps on the tenant where you want to use Localization feature
- Log in as an administrator of the tenant.
- Navigate to Administration > Ecosystem > Applications. Under Features, make sure Feature Branding is subscribed.
- Navigate to Settings > Branding, and click on Apply. Once done, make sure you can see public-options web application under Ecosystem > Applications.
Note: If you don't have the access for the tenants, please contact your administrator.
The Digital Twin Manager consists of the following features:
Assets- Lists all the available assets and its hierarchy which are created using asset models and properties.Asset properties- Create your own asset properties (simple or complex) to define how data should be stored on an assetAsset models- Define asset models to describe the blueprint of your assetsLocalization- Dynamically translate asset model and asset property descriptions to multiple languages.
Assets are the digital representation of physical assets. An asset in DTM application can contain subassets and devices. Initially, no assets are displayed in the Assets page by default. If you have already created assets, you find them listed with its hierarchy.
An asset hierarchy is a structure that organizes multiple assets and devices into a hierarchy, allowing for the visualization and management of complex systems.
The asset hierarchy is displayed in the Assets page. An asset hierarchy consists of a root asset and all its subsequent subassets. Click Add asset to create the entire hierarchy of an asset in the New asset page. For details, see To create an asset.
You have two options for creating assets in the DTM application. The following section describes how to create an asset via the UI. Alternatively, see Creating assets via bulk import on how to import assets in bulk into the DTM application.
You can create assets based on the asset models and properties you have defined previously.
To import all the assets of a particular asset hierarchy at once, use the bulk import feature. Microservice is being used to download the template and import the assets. To use the Bulk import feature, user must be part of a role that has Admin permission level for Digital twin type.
Configure a role for Bulk Import
Note: Import assets button is disbaled if user doesn't have permission to create a group.
You can find more information about how to download the template, import the assets here
Select an asset in the Assets page to view the asset details in Subassets tab. It shows all the subassets, child devices and asset properties.
You can view the hierarchy of the asset in the Asset tree tab. Initially the asset hierarchy is collapsed. Click the expand icon to view the next level of subassets.
Click Add asset to add more subassets or click Import assets to add child assets in bulk.
You can search for assets through the Search button at the right of the top bar. Enter a search term into the textbox at the top of the Search window to see all assets matching the search criteria in the section Search results.
To see more details click Go to the asset data table at the bottom. This will show the entire search results in a table format.
The Search page only shows a limited number of matches. In case of more matches, switch to the asset data table to see the complete results.
The Asset properties can be used to create your own properties to define how data should be stored on an asset. These asset properties can be either complex (nested object) or simple (key-value pair). Furthermore, you can choose a specific data type for each property you define. As of now, the Asset properties supports following data types: Text, Number,File Upload Date Picker, Enumeration, Boolean.
Asset models serve as a blueprint for your assets and define how they are structured. An Asset model defines what asset properties an asset should have. Additionally, you can specify relationships between multiple Asset models, which will be respected when you create your actual asset hierarchies. Once the Asset model is created, it can be used to create various assets.
You can use the Localization component to define translations for your asset models and asset properties. These translations can be provided for all supported languages in Cumulocity IoT. This component requires to have the feature-branding feature subscribed for your Cumulocity tenant.
Subscribing for Feature-branding
Let us know, if the current way for setting up and maintaining an asset hierarchy meets your needs and expectations. For any suggestions, please navigate to Issues and open a new issue with all the relevant details. Once you have created your issue, we will make sure to assign the correct label to it, which will help us to categorize your issue:
- 🐞 use "bug" for something that is not working
- 📖 use "documentation" for any feedback about the documentation
- 💡 use "idea" for every new idea, feature request or suggestion
- ❓ use "support" for questions or anything that needs further assistance
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