Activity log
The activity log function is designed to be used in two ways.
- As a record of personal usage for curiosity or reporting to management.
- GEOVIA has a number of Surpac consultants who are charged by GEOVIA and on-sell their time of usage to their clients. This function allows them to accurately account for their time using the software (on a per-client basis), and also allows Surpac to determine the cost for that consultant over a given period.
To run this function: Choose File > Utilities > Activity Log, or...
Please Note - This functionality records information on the time that the software is open, and the time that the software is active, nothing more. It never sends any information automatically or otherwise to GEOVIA. Consultants who need to send their usage information to Surpac must do so manually, using their own email (or courier) systems.
Surpac and other Surpac Software products are distributed with two different styles of hardware sentinels. The new style sentinels (marked on the sentinel with "superPro") allow this functionality. Old style sentinels (marked with "cplus") do not. If you wish to have this functionality, but do not have a "superPro" sentinel, please contact your nearest Dassault Systèmes GEOVIA Inc. office.
The activity log information is stored and retrieved from the sentinel. Therefore, the log information is on a per-sentinel basis, and has nothing to do with what versions of Surpac are used, or what machine the software is run on. The information the sentinel saves only stores information from the last time you invoked the activity log function. Historical data is not saved, and only exists in the file SSI_ETC:activitylog.sul. Therefore, if you want any historical data (consultants will need to at least keep this information for the invoicing period) then you must be careful with the activitylog.sul file. SSI_ETC:activitylog.sul is an encrypted file that you can read at any time by dragging it into the graphics window (from the Surpac navigator), but no attempt should be made to modify this file as it has several safeguards to prevent such tampering. This function will also create an SSI_ETC:activitylog.txt file, but this is for your personal use only, and is not used by the software in any way.
When you invoke the Activity Log function, you will see a form prompting you for a description. This will allow you to enter a description for the activity period you are logging. This means that you can log usage as often as you like, with a different description for each period.
An activity log file looks something like this :
Software Activity Report
Host ID Start Date End Date Total Time Processing Time Activity aa0a1234 2001-11-10 2002-1-10 104:00.07 40:00.03 regular site usage aa0a1234 2002-1-10 2002-1-15 16:07.29 9:05.33 contract for client a aa0a1234 2002-1-15 2002-1-17 5:00.21 2:00.05 contract for client b aa0a1234 2002-1-17 2002-1-29 30:02.49 10:00.17 Totals 155:10.46 61:05.58
If you have more than one dongle, the activity log has a separate entry for each dongle.
There is no limit on how often you invoke this function. If you are a consultant being invoiced on your time, then you must forward the SSI_ETC:activitylog.sul file to your local Surpac office, so that they can decode it and invoice you accordingly.
It is recommended that you only use this function on one machine, so that all time periods intersect (that is, the start date on a line is exactly the same as the end date on the previous line). If you run this function on different machines, you will be creating multiple SSI_ETC:activitylog.sul files, all of which must be forwarded to GEOVIA. This creates extra work for you (and for GEOVIA) so it is easier to transport your sentinel to a single machine to generate your log file.