Release Notes

Introduction

The release notes provide brief and high-level descriptions of the new features of HaloCAD. Before installing HaloCAD, it is recommended to read the release notes to understand any current limitations or bugs that may apply to this version of the software.

Product Description

The HaloCAD for PLM solution integrates seamlessly with the PLM application, including the features of HaloCAD PROTECT and HaloCAD MONITOR, while utilizing Microsoft Purview Information Protection (MPIP), formerly Microsoft Information Protection (MIP), to provide Enterprise Digital Rights Management (EDRM) capabilities.

It provides access to MPIP-protected files, including label handling and privilege enforcement. Any file access actions, such as check-out or export, that may result in a download are intercepted by the HaloCAD for PLM solution, automatically protected based on predefined rules, and then delivered to the end user. Similarly, file access actions such as check-in or upload are intercepted and examined. If a protected file is detected, it is decrypted, and the unprotected file is returned to the PLM vault. For CAD users, the handling of CAD files remains seamless, as these processes occur entirely in the background. By applying MPIP labels, the solution ensures end-to-end security for CAD files, while all upload and download activities are continuously monitored and logged to provide complete traceability.

System Requirements

The following table of system requirements specifies the minimum and recommended technical specifications, including software and network resources, necessary to run the product.

Requirements

Supported Teamcenter applications for HaloCAD 

You are currently viewing the release notes for the current build. For previous versions, please refer to their respective release notes.

Teamcenter applications and HaloCAD component version

Prerequisites

Before installing the HaloCAD component, ensure that the following prerequisites are met:

1. An application of type Web is registered with Microsoft Entra ID.

2. An active Office 365 subscription is available.

3. Access to the recommended URLs is enabled.

4. TLS 1.2 or later is enabled on all client workstations to ensure secure communication.

For more information, refer to the Technical Reference Manual.

Code Quality and Security

Secude focuses on software quality and security. This is accomplished by adhering to and exceeding best practices in development, testing, and quality control. Secude has chosen SonarQube as the first building block for building and implementing a robust continuous code quality assurance (QA). SonarQube is a platform for static code analysis for continuous inspection of code quality. It performs automatic reviews of code to detect bugs, code smells, unit test coverage, and security issues in 29 programming languages.

SonarQube is utilized throughout the development process at Secude, and only the highest marks are accepted for a product to be released. It helps to regulate code quality from the beginning of development, find and repair issues promptly, and improve overall software stability.

Each build report can be found under its relevant version heading in this release notes.

Reliability Rating 

1. A = 0 Bugs

2. B = at least 1 Minor Bug

3. C = at least 1 Major Bug

4. D = at least 1 Critical Bug

5. E = at least 1 Blocker Bug

Security Rating

1. A = 0 Vulnerabilities

2. B = at least 1 Minor Vulnerability

3. C = at least 1 Major Vulnerability

4. D = at least 1 Critical Vulnerability

5. E = at least 1 Blocker Vulnerability

Security Review Rating 

The Security Review Rating is a letter grade based on the percentage of Reviewed (Fixed or Safe) Security Hotspots.

1. A = >= 80%

2. B = >= 70% and <80%

3. C = >= 50% and <70%

4. D = >= 30% and <50%

5. E = < 30%

Maintainability Rating 

A=0-0.05, B=0.06-0.1, C=0.11-0.20, D=0.21-0.5, E=0.51-1

The Maintainability Rating scale can be alternatively stated by saying that if the outstanding remediation cost is:

1. <=5% of the time that has already gone into the application, the rating is A

2. Between 6 to 10%, the rating is a B

3. Between 11 to 20%, the rating is a C

4. Between 21 to 50%, the rating is a D

5. Anything over 50% is an E

Build 2.8

This chapter provides an overview of the updates and quality insights included in this release. It covers the fixed issues, improvements, limitations, new features, and known issues, along with a summary of SonarQube’s key parameters to highlight code quality metrics and analysis results.

New Features

There are no new features to highlight in this release.

Improvements

This section lists improvements added to the current release.

1. Added support for Teamcenter 2506. HCADTCR-597

2. Added support for Teamcenter 2412.

Limitations

This section lists the limitations of the current release.

1. A text file downloaded from RAC is protected as expected. But if the Teamcenter server is set up with Windows encoding, such as cp-1252, then a text file downloaded from the client will be inserted with a Windows line break, causing the file to be corrupted and unreadable. Therefore, it is advised against protecting text files when such a setting is present in your Teamcenter server environment. Additionally, if a protected text file is downloaded and uploaded again into Teamcenter (via RAC), the file size is updated as “0". HCADTCR-88, HCADTCR-132

2. When HaloCAD is deployed in an environment, we recommend that the administrator restrict access to non-Proxy URLs by using a firewall or other network application. This is because, as HaloCAD is a proxy, non-proxied actual URLs will also be accessible, leading to data leakage. Therefore, we recommend restricting access.

Fixed Issues

This section provides a list of the fixed issues in the current release.

1. Fixed an issue where Item Revision details were not fetched and validated correctly. HCADTCR-580, HCADTCR-581

2. Fixed an issue where custom attribute exceptions occurred and updated the logic to fetch the actual property value instead of the display name. Previously, HaloCAD retrieved the display name (e.g., “Internal”), which varied based on the user and locale. HCADTCR-583

3. Fixed an issue where failover did not function as expected when the Primary HaloENGINE server was unavailable. The system now switches to the Secondary HaloENGINE server for encryption, and file downloads from Teamcenter are properly protected during failover scenarios. HCADTCR-599

4. Fixed an issue where FCC failed to start or function when the Secondary HaloENGINE server was unavailable or unreachable. When failover is configured, the system now starts and operates normally using the available Primary HaloENGINE server without depending on the Secondary server. HCADTCR-601

Known Issues

This section describes the known issues with the current release.

1. If an Office file is downloaded, the file gets protected, but the extension changes. For example, sample.docx > sample.doc. HCADTCR-127

2. If a Non-CAD/Non-office file is downloaded, the file gets protected as per the rule configured in HaloENGINE, but the extension is saved with native format (i.e., .txt, .jpg, .bmp) instead of .ptxt or .pfile. HCADTCR-35

3. An error message appears as “Error 1069: The Service did not start due to a logon failure” when you start the HaloENGINE Service. This is because the user who is running the service or a specific group that the user belongs to (e.g., "Administrators") is added to the Deny log on as a service policy (Local Security Policy > Security Settings > Local Policies > User Rights Assignment). To prevent such an error, make sure the user(s) or the group that the user belongs to who runs the Service does not exist in the group policy.  

Unsupported Versions

1. Support for Teamcenter 14.x is removed in this release.

2. Creo integration is no longer supported in this release.

Quality Gate Report

Please see the table below for a list of SonarQube's key parameters for this version. Refer to the "Code Quality and Security" section for more information on rating definitions.

Quality Gate report