7 Replies Latest reply on Jan 21, 2009 3:46 PM by Paul Lemke

    Property Tab Builder - Your opinion...

    Kevin Van Liere
    Kevin Van Liere Oct 30, 2008 9:18 PM
      I am looking at the new Property Tab Builder and have run into an issue that seems not uncommon. So I'd like to hear your opinion. Based on answers will decide how I implement an improvement to my product, the Template Wizard - but your answers will probably also be really helpful for other users. So here it is:

      I would prefer to have only one Property Tab (see attached image) so that when a user wants to enter properties they just click on the tab and start entering properties. Therefore, this property tab would start with a Document Type group box that allows the user to select between Part, Assembly, or Drawing. Depending on which is selected would determine the group box that has all of the Part properties in it, another group box that has all of the Assembly properties in it, and finally a group box that has the drawing properties in it. The problem I run into immediately is that you can't have two properties on the Property Tab that are the same. For example, a "Description" property in the Parts Group Box and "Description" property in the Assembly Group Box.

      So I can see two possible solutions:
      1) Common Properties are in their own Group Box (such as Description, Number, etc) and document type properties are in their own group box (material, finish for parts; drawn by, drawn date for drawings).

      2) Use multiple Property Tab files. One for parts, one for assemblies, etc. Doing it this way gives more flexibility for handling different types of parts (purchased parts, weldments, etc) that have different property needs. This has the downside that each time a user wants to enter properties they have to choose the property tab from a list before inspecting/adding/modifying values.

      What do you think? Are there other issues to consider?

      I've added a poll so that we can see what users prefer...

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        • Property Tab Builder - Your opinion...
          Anna Wood
          Anna Wood Oct 31, 2008 12:48 AM (in response to Kevin Van Liere)
          We want option 2, we have more types of custom properties files depending on the project we are working on then part, asm and drawing. I wish it were that easy.... :-)

          For those that work with many different customers, who all have different custom properties requirements, it is difficult to capture in one type of property tab.

          You will find that there is a limitation on how many radio buttons you can add for a given attribute. 3 is the maximum the system allows you to have with the SW property manager tab.

          There was a lot of discussion during Beta on how the property manager should work. Having multiple property tab files with a drop down list was just about the first on everyone's list for improvements to the new feature. That functionality was not included when the property manager was first rolled out to the users.

          Cheers,

            • Property Tab Builder - Your opinion...
              Adrian Velazquez
              Adrian Velazquez Oct 31, 2008 1:29 PM (in response to Anna Wood)
              Kevin,
              I'm also setting up multiple PropertyTabs just for our parts. Before we had more than 10 Part Document Templates, now we'll use one .prtdot and the rest are Property Tab Templates, see I realy don't see the hustle in picking from a list.

              Two other awsome reasons to use the Property Tabs.

              1)When using the List Input you can specify to look at a range in a excel file. Wow, that it self is worth using the property tabs, becuase we have tons of existing data from our AutoCad legacy on spreadsheets.

              2)Since now you can easily use Custom Properties Values in equations, I can actually set up my Property Tabs to be a user interface to Drive my models !

              Hope that was helpfull
            • Property Tab Builder - Your opinion...
              Rob Jensen
              Rob Jensen Oct 31, 2008 2:31 PM (in response to Kevin Van Liere)
              I've been trying this out also.

              I'm going to be using multiple property tab files I think. The only thing I'm a little worried about is other's going into the files and "tweaking" them. I wish you could deploy the property tab builder like COSMOS or any other addin and create groups of users that would get it.

              • Property Tab Builder - Your opinion...
                George Edwards
                George Edwards Jan 21, 2009 3:08 PM (in response to Kevin Van Liere)
                I would like the ability to either tab between "fields" or enter between them. Every time I want to add something I have to switch to the mouse, then back to the keyboard, back to the mouse...
                • Property Tab Builder - Your opinion...
                  Paul Lemke
                  Paul Lemke Jan 21, 2009 3:46 PM (in response to Kevin Van Liere)
                  I have setup property tabs for all three types of documents for SW and I also even setup an extra file for the parts so that I can put in "custom properties instead of default properties. Everything is working alright for me so far but there is one thing I would like and that for the default property file to load instead of asking me every time which one I want. I only need the custom properties file once in a long while compared to the default most often. they already have a "more properties" button on the bottom if I want to go back.

                  That said, Kevin, I don't understand why if something automatically selects the correct file you would want to have to do it manually? If you want to do it manually all you have to do is multiple files and it comes up with a combo box.

                  Of course this does require a bit more programming and they could have done a bit better by adding a wizard. The wizard i envision is one that would helped do the programming in property tab builder. Say if you have new part/assembly/drawing templates from a customer the wizard would scan the templates read off the property tabs and then in a table, REAL quick and easy, you would tell it order of properties(first, second, third... etc.), group (1,2,3, etc) and what type of input and voila a custom form! You would still of course have to go into the details and fill out custom excel tables and the like but it would allow you to get 75% of the way there.

                  I did like how M$ Access-ee it was from the beginning. Very simple to figure out but then again how many designers have M$ Access programming capabilities. Probably not so much easy.

                  I know this is early, being the first release and all, but does anyone know if there is an API language for the property editor?