【转帖】custom properties

yang686526

custom properties
hi all,
i was just wondering how people are adding and editing custom properties to their models and drawings. are you using purchased 3rd party addins, in-house macros, etc. i am currently upgrading our in-house macro to vb.net and i'm looking for some ideas on jazzing up the interface and also to add some new functionality. if possible, maybe some of you may be good enough to post a copy of the custom property editor that you are using or even a simple screenshot would suffice.
i have attached a screenshot of what the new interface may look like, no code as yet.
thanks,
declan.
click for full image
declan,
looks good. i have very simple needs so i just have a macro which creates the properties and then i use the built-in property editor. though i am thinking about making something a little more advanced.
did you consider making an addin and using the property manager? your users will love you (hope there are some good looking female human beings among them ;-) ).
jorn bjarning
cswp
cad & plm consultant
sw2008 sp5 / sw2009 sp2
hi jorn,
i had been thinking about using a property manager page but the main reason i have opted for this was because debugging is much easier to do since i can actually see my gui in the vb.net ide whereas the property manager page is a class so it is harder to debug/test since the gui doesn't actually exist until runtime.
i have tried a few basic things in the past, besides, i feel more confident using standard vb toolbox controls and designtime gui's. i want to read and write data to a sql server database and also to read some data from our mrp system. to do this through a pmp would probably totally go over my head and beyond my current weekend-programmer programming capabilities/knowledge.
unfortunately no females among our design team......... besides my wife and 2yr old daughter probably wouldn't approve. lol.
declan.
i like your interface and think it is best as a dialog box. if you have more information than can fit in a single property manager page and if the dialog box does not get in the way of the user using solidworks, then keep it in a dialog box.
wayne matus
texas engineering systems
the ui looks good. my opinion is don't use the property manager page if you can avoid it. it doesn't do as good of a job as handling custom properties.
i would never pay for a custom property manager. it is a waste of money when this is an api function that is so well documented with so many examples on how to do it.
the only thing i would do different from your screen shoot is remove approvals completely from the drawing. having initials typed in on a drawing has no legal value unless they are have been validated under the current legal requirements for electronic signatures. they are redundant to any real or electronic signatures in whatever plm or manual system you might have. just track the signatures though that process. at my company, we have only the originator's (drawn by) name and date fields, and it is not considered an approval field.
as far as the originator's date field, add a button that automatically pulls today's date and places that value in the field.
matt lorono
solidworks 2007 sp3.1
cad engineer/ecn analyst
declan, i have written several programs to enter/edit the custom properties fields over the last few years. below is the latest version. i have (3) programs running, the mcclellan custom properties editor, one specific for a customer, and a program to export bom information to an excel spreadsheet (our bom format). i placed them all into a tabbed form.
like you i am a weekend programmer so i would be embarrassed to post my code..lol. the code takes the file name and puts that information into the part number field (minus the extension), the user may then change the part number (this field allows the use to use any special characters not allowed by the os i.e. /\ *), the user then enters the description, upper level assembly #, everything else is in drop down lists. the original intent was for the program to read the combo box data from a common file on the network (so i could update it as needed) but, with us using more laptops and having people work from home this did not work well.
i also prefer to use vb.net to write programs since it is more user friendly (for my amateur programming skills). i have written a dozen programs for mcclellan over the past few years, some for solidworks automation, and programs for other tasks (mostly calculator type programs (calculate reel diameters, calculate machine required cycle rate (for the sales guys), etc.).
mike
precision m90
intel t7400 2.16 ghz 4mg l2
4gb ram
nvidia fx 2500m 512 mb
250 gb sata hdd
vista 64 business
solidworks 2008 sp 4.0ev 64bit
click for full image
fwiw...attached is a copy of our custom properties editor (macro). works great for us. we have to keep track of the last 4 revisions which is the reason for the multiple fields under revision control.
edited: 06/03/2008 at 06:43 pm by derek taylor
click for full image
originally posted by: matthew lorono
the ui looks good. my opinion is don't use the property manager page if you can avoid it. it doesn't do as good of a job as handling custom properties.
matthew,
why don't you like to use the property manager for this purpose? is it because there is not enough space?
jorn bjarning
cswp
cad & plm consultant
sw2008 sp5 / sw2009 sp2
we also have a in-house custom property macro. below is a screenshot. i see that some people have revision control on their custom property dialog. we are currently using the solidworks rev table. for those that use custom propertys with the rev table, how do you handle descriptions?
also, the way we handle custom props is to add them to the models then using the same macro we transfer the custom props from the model to the drawing. whenever a custom prop is revised in the model, the user has to make sure they run the macro in the drawing to update the custom props. is this how most people handle their custom props?
cswp
solidworks office professional 2008, sp 3.1
pc #1:
dell precision t3400, core2duo 2.33ghz, 4gb ram,
nvidia quadro fx 1700
pc #2:
dell precision 380, p4 3.80ghz, 2gb ram,
nvidia quadro fx 1400
edited: 06/04/2008 at 09:49 am by chris m
click for full image
originally posted by: chris m
also, the way we handle custom props is to add them to the models then using the same macro we transfer the custom props from the model to the drawing. whenever a custom prop is revised in the model, the user has to make sure they run the macro in the drawing to update the custom props. is this how most people handle their custom props?
chris,
why do you copy the properties to the drawing? why not just link to the model properties?
jorn bjarning
cswp
cad & plm consultant
sw2008 sp5 / sw2009 sp2
originally posted by: jorn bjarning
originally posted by: matthew lorono
the ui looks good. my opinion is don't use the property manager page if you can avoid it. it doesn't do as good of a job as handling custom properties.
matthew,
why don't you like to use the property manager for this purpose? is it because there is not enough space?
the property manager has limitations and is more clumsy than well designed api custom editor.
originally posted by: jorn bjarning
originally posted by: chris m
also, the way we handle custom props is to add them to the models then using the same macro we transfer the custom props from the model to the drawing. whenever a custom prop is revised in the model, the user has to make sure they run the macro in the drawing to update the custom props. is this how most people handle their custom props?
chris,
why do you copy the properties to the drawing? why not just link to the model properties?
linking model properties has limitations than can actually cause issues. there's other discussions about this on this board and eng-tips.com. i also wrote an article here (it touches most points, but not all):