Hi, in custom property tab, on existing files.
If I setup tab-builder to look at configuration properties, then I can't see custom properties.
If I setup tab-builder to look at custom properties, then I can't see configuration properties!
Any way to see custom and configuration properties in custom property tab?
In model:
In tab builder:
It's unfortunate that SW has a "Show in Custom Tab" & "Show in Configurations Tab" and unfortunate that they have one for Parts, One for Assemblies and One for Drawings.....
Should be one taking care of everything.. On of the biggest reasons I don't use Configurations without using a Design Tables..
John Stoltzfus wrote:
It's unfortunate that SW has a "Show in Custom Tab" & "Show in Configurations Tab" and unfortunate that they have one for Parts, One for Assemblies and One for Drawings.....
Should be one taking care of everything.. On of the biggest reasons I don't use Configurations without using a Design Tables..
I don't completely agree, John. We need to be able to control where the custom properties are written to in the models. Some properties are config specific (e.g. part number, material, finish, etc.), and others are general properties for the entire file (e.g. revision). And we don't want to write the same custom properties to both general and configurations.
However, I would like to use the same property tab for parts and assemblies, but not for drawings.
The only way that I can see to get around this is to label your Tab Builder entries appropriately (i.e., Custom property or config property), then set up either 1 property tab builder file for each or create multiple fields with both in one property tab builder file.
But in the end...I would stick with 1 or the other. Things get confusing when you start to use both, especially the way drawings hierarchy uses config properties first, then custom properties (i.e., if 2 properties have the same name and 1 is in custom and 1 is in config, then the drawing will always pick the config first).
Yes, creating multiple custom property files is something I was trying to avoid but might have to.
Two things:
-Creating multiple fields for both in one property tab builder file. I'm running in to issue it will not allow me to have same property more than once. Example, if I used property called 'NAME' in one textbox, it will not allow me to use 'NAME' in any other textbox, list, radio etc.
-You said stick to one or other. Problem is, we are fixing many old SW models that already have most info in Custom P and some in config. I have no control how the old ones were done but trying to speed up that process.
Thanks
Zack, you may need a macro to cleanup the duplicate custom property names between general and config properties.
Good points, Dan. Config properties "win" over general properties when the same property name exists in both places. You definitely want different property names and no overlaps between general and config properties.
Yes. That's easy, Zack. Simply add two items to the tab one refers to the general custom property and the other refers to the config property. My property tabs are setup this way for a few fields. For example, the drawing title is a general property, but the BOM description is a configuration property. Sometimes, I have a slightly different name in both fields.
I see what you're saying, making sure custom vs config properties don't have the same property names.
This makes sense going forward but unfortunately these rules have been broken for most of the parts made in the past by other designers which I'm having to clean up now.
Perhaps I need to look for a macro to clean up the old files as you suggested. I've spent so much time lately on Macros, it seems they are made to do certain tasks but usually don't do it quite right for our needs and code isn't my thing in macros.
One possibility to get around macros might be a design table, or maybe even a BOM table (or maybe not).
Nevermind about the BOM table. It won't work.
Good news about the property tab builder... you CAN have two fields on it that use the same property name, where one points to the general property and the other points to the config property. Check this out...
You could use that to 'cleanup' files.
Tom, which version of Solidworks are you using?
Those screen shots are from 2017 SP 3.0.
Ahh, ok. I remember having to "trick" the software into letting me have 2 different controls linked to 1 property. The trick was to make 1 with ALL CAPS and the other one without. The property tab builder would see them as different, but once they assigned their properties, Solidworks didn't see the difference.
Oh, that's different (and interesting). In this case, I didn't change the case, but I directed one to the general properties, and the other to the config properties. I only got a warning, but it seemed to let me continue and save.
The lower and upper case actually worked. Thank You.
Glad it worked.
In my case, the reason that I wanted two different controls linked to the same property was that I wanted a field that used the built in Material database to control the property field. However, there are times where I wanted that field overridden. So I added a radio button control to give the user the option to either select the material or type it in themselves.
The Select option showed the material database linked field and they would select it, which would assign that material to the "material" custom property.
However, if they wanted to type in their own material (lets say, because the material is a purchased component that they are modifying), then they select that radio button and the blank text field would show and would overwrite the material custom property with whatever they typed in.
Dan, the "List:" control allows you to select from a list in an external file (Excel/text) or a list, and you can allow custom values...
That doesn't do what you want?
No, I don't think so.....When you use a text box field in PTB and assign it the value of [SW-Material], then it automatically uses the Material Database and allows you to select the material for this part:
Which looks like this in the Custom Properties Tab:
Selecting the drop down arrow, gives you the material database selections:
However, I ALSO wanted to give the use the ability to add something custom to the material field on the drawing. This is because we frequently alter purchased items and I want the material field to have the vendor and item number.
So, Selecting the second radio button shows this:
Yes, this is a list control, and I have it pulling from a text file. This is to fill in some commonly used customs and also the user can fill in what they need if possible.
Both fields point to the same custom property. Whichever one is applied overwrites the last one.
Just using the LIST control will not allow you to get the Material database (as far as I know). So I needed both.
The alternative was to make 2 separate properties....but I didn't want to do that, as it could have caused confusion at the drawing level.
Oh, I see. I never tried accessing the material database from custom properties. I have to give that a try sometime.
We use a "MAKE FROM" and a "SOURCE" custom property for the purchased items that we modify. The material property then would just list the material in parenthesis as reference.
This doesn't work as this is exactly what I tried doing before. That warning it gave you, it means when the property tab is ran, SW will rename the property. In my case, it added the number '5' to my property. You will see it renamed next time you open it in property tab builder.
However, I tried Dan's idea in lower and upper case and it works.
Oh, I see. Thanks, Zack. I didn't notice that when I checked it. Oooh, that's a sneaky subtle detail they slipped in there.
Ahh, ok. I remember having to "trick" the software into letting me have 2 different controls linked to 1 property. The trick was to make 1 with ALL CAPS and the other one without. The property tab builder would see them as different, but once they assigned their properties, Solidworks didn't see the difference.