SolidWorks Custom Properties (Part = Drawing) ? ?

[evolDiesel]

I gotta think that just about every SolidWorks guy out there understands this plight and if a solution exists, please enlighten me. I will be forever grateful.

OK, a part has a description, and it's captured in the SolidWorks custom properties. Then you have a drawing. It also has a description that is captured in it's custom properties. And here comes the big question... how can we make the drawing custom property "description" parametric and populated by the part custom property "description"? Please realize I'm not refering to the title block. The title block employs a note linked to the part's custom property (we're good there).

Exta bonus points for a solution that doesn't not involve terms like "API", ".net", or "Macro". In other words, please tell me that Dassault has a way for us to acheieve this goal with the tools we already have in SolidWorks.

Thanks guys -

Jack Lapham
Engineering Systems Administrator (E20)
Leupold & Stevens, Inc.

http://www.leupold.com

Dell M6400 Covet
Intel Core 2 Duo T9800, 2.93GHz, 1066MHZ 6M L2 Cache
8.0GB, DDR3-1066 SDRAM, 2 DIMM
1GB nVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M (8.17.12.5896)
160GB Hard Drive 9.5MM 7200RPM FFS
W7x64 | sw-01: 55.92
SolidWorks 2010 x64 sp4.0
Enterprise PDM 2010 sp

 

[AnnaWood]

Yes.... API, macro, etc. Tools that are available in SolidWorks. Sorry that is the way it is.... Not what you wanted to hear.

Anna Wood
Core i7 EE965, FirePro V8700, 12 Gb RAM, OCZ Vertex 120 Gb SSD, Dell 3008WFP 30" Monitor
SW2010 SP2.1, Windows 7 x64

http://www.solidmuse.com

http://www.phxswug.com

 

[evolDiesel]

Wow... I am just blown away that such a common functionality, every-day sort of thing is solved by custom application.

BTW, I really enjoyed your live-build presentation at SolidWorks world in Feb.

Jack Lapham
Engineering Systems Administrator (E20)
Leupold & Stevens, Inc.

http://www.leupold.com

Dell M6400 Covet
Intel Core 2 Duo T9800, 2.93GHz, 1066MHZ 6M L2 Cache
8.0GB, DDR3-1066 SDRAM, 2 DIMM
1GB nVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M (8.17.12.5896)
160GB Hard Drive 9.5MM 7200RPM FFS
W7x64 | sw-01: 55.92
SolidWorks 2010 x64 sp4.0
Enterprise PDM 2010 sp

 

[rgrayclamps]

Hi, evolDiesel:

I did not see your points here. Custom properties of parts (or assemblies) have nothing to do custom proerties of their drawings. They are indpendent. It is upto you how to set them up.

Ultimately, it is your drawing documents that show these properties through your templates.

Best regards,

Alex

 

[evolDiesel]

Hi Alex,

If by "points" you mean "motivation", my motivation is that we use PDMWorks Enterprise, which shows the description of drawings in the form of searches and data cards. Otherwise, that drawing custom property ("description"), is not an outward facing entity and nobody cares about it.

I can already see it coming. I just don't want to admit it. I need to write up a quick API that will put $PRPSHEET:{Description}=$PRP:{Description} and then figure out what event will trigger it (or else make a hokey button... blehk).

- Jack

Jack Lapham
Engineering Systems Administrator (E20)
Leupold & Stevens, Inc.

http://www.leupold.com

Dell M6400 Covet
Intel Core 2 Duo T9800, 2.93GHz, 1066MHZ 6M L2 Cache
8.0GB, DDR3-1066 SDRAM, 2 DIMM
1GB nVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M (8.17.12.5896)
160GB Hard Drive 9.5MM 7200RPM FFS
W7x64 | sw-01: 55.92
SolidWorks 2010 x64 sp4.0
Enterprise PDM 2010 sp

 

[JMirisola]

Here's my question, why do you need the drawing's description to be filled in at all? The drawing is simply a derivative of a part or assembly. Why create an additional layer of management?

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
Design Manager/Senior Designer
M9 Defense
My Blog

 

[AnnaWood]

Unfortunately SW doesn't always work the way we like. This is one of those areas. If it is that important to you be sure to put in an enhancement request.

Anna Wood
Core i7 EE965, FirePro V8700, 12 Gb RAM, OCZ Vertex 120 Gb SSD, Dell 3008WFP 30" Monitor
SW2010 SP2.1, Windows 7 x64

http://www.solidmuse.com

http://www.phxswug.com

 

[evolDiesel]

Jeff,

Once again its our pdm system. We use description for searching. If its not populated a user may not find it.

As for enhancement Anna... Imagine this utopia... One file with tabs for the model, the drawing, design table, etc... but all housed in a single file, because as jeff said its a derivative.

Jack Lapham
Engineering Systems Administrator (E20)
Leupold & Stevens, Inc.

http://www.leupold.com

Dell M6400 Covet
Intel Core 2 Duo T9800, 2.93GHz, 1066MHZ 6M L2 Cache
8.0GB, DDR3-1066 SDRAM, 2 DIMM
1GB nVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M (8.17.12.5896)
160GB Hard Drive 9.5MM 7200RPM FFS
W7x64 | sw-01: 55.92
SolidWorks 2010 x64 sp4.0
Enterprise PDM 2010 sp

 

[rgrayclamps]

Hi, evolDiesel:

"We use description for searching."

What do you search with descriptions? Do you search part models (.sldprt), or assembly models (.sldasm), or drawing documents (.slddrw)?

These are three types of documents (objects) in SW. They have their own custom properties set by you.

Maybe, foundation of your PDM system is questionable.

Best regards,

Alex

 

[evolDiesel]

Alex,

We search ALL data in the vault. An engineer would like to see parts, assemblies, drawings, specs, work instructions, etc, relating to a given product or feature term found in the description.

Description for us (and all companies I've worked for) is the primary chunk of metadata we mine through in a search... Whether it be CAD files or ERP.

Of course if you are lucky or autistic enough to know a part number... U don't need description

Jack Lapham
Engineering Systems Administrator (E20)
Leupold & Stevens, Inc.

http://www.leupold.com

Dell M6400 Covet
Intel Core 2 Duo T9800, 2.93GHz, 1066MHZ 6M L2 Cache
8.0GB, DDR3-1066 SDRAM, 2 DIMM
1GB nVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M (8.17.12.5896)
160GB Hard Drive 9.5MM 7200RPM FFS
W7x64 | sw-01: 55.92
SolidWorks 2010 x64 sp4.0
Enterprise PDM 2010 sp

 

[evolDiesel]

Also, this is a good spirited discussion, however it's not really helping me. I was hoping there would be one other administrator out there that would chime in and say, "dood... that used to drive us crazy until we did this (amazingly clever technique or small chunk of api code)".

Oh well.. we will continue to copy/paste descriptions in the meantime

Jack Lapham
Engineering Systems Administrator (E20)
Leupold & Stevens, Inc.

http://www.leupold.com

Dell M6400 Covet
Intel Core 2 Duo T9800, 2.93GHz, 1066MHZ 6M L2 Cache
8.0GB, DDR3-1066 SDRAM, 2 DIMM
1GB nVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M (8.17.12.5896)
160GB Hard Drive 9.5MM 7200RPM FFS
W7x64 | sw-01: 55.92
SolidWorks 2010 x64 sp4.0
Enterprise PDM 2010 sp

 

[ctopher]

Jack,
Could you please list the specific data you are looking for? It may help us more to help you.

Chris
SolidWorks 10 SP4.0
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Try the macro linked by EEnd at

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=138421&page=3

 

[rgrayclamps]

Hi, evolDiesel:

Not many users experiece the same issue as you have.

My colleagues and I have been using our PDM for years, and we never had any issue like this.

What you need to realize is data redundancy in your system. As a database programmer, I can tell you that a good database in any PDM should not have any data redundancy (normalization in data).

A part (or an assembly) model and its drawing document are two sets of 3D math data to describe an item. What you need to do is to search the item, from which you can locate its model (*.sldprt or *.sldasm) or its drawing document (*.slddrw).

If you do that, you will no longer have the issue. But you probably won't be able or willing to make such a change.

I hope this answer your questions.

Good luck!

Alex

 

[JohnPi]

Jack,

Having both part and assembly configuration specific properties complicates what you are asking for. I think this might be why there isn't an automatic way to handle this in core SolidWorks.

With parts and assemblies, there are document and configuration specific properties. In drawings there are only document level properties.

It gets more complicated when you have a drawing that details multiple parts or assemblies.

All that being said, I've attached a VBA macro that I found on the SolidWorks forum. I added a minor modification to allow the user to cancel the macro if desired.

This macro, launched while a drawing is active, will copy the properties from the part or assembly referenced in View 1, to matching drawing properties. The custom properties that are copied are hardcoded in the macro, but can easily be changed.

This macro only copies the document level properties from the part/assembly into the drawing. It can also be used to edit the properties before copying. The modified properties then get pushed to the part/assy and drawing documents.

Perhaps this will help you.

 

[evolDiesel]

JohnPi,

Where is the attachment?

Also, I got with my VAR and apparently he has a slick solution we're going to play with today.

Utopia is in the sights

As for who gets the star, it will most likely be JohnPi if the macro yeilds some positive results.

I'm still dissapointed how this erupted into such a philosophical debate (i.e., all talk no tools).

Alex - I'm fully aware of system philosphies as they related to duplication, but if you are running SWX w/ Enterprise (not just any DB setup, but this in particular), you would know that the issue I'm talking about is driven by the nature of a solidworks drawing and its associated model being 2 unique files, each with their own properties like part number, description, revision. We need these to match. Yes, it makes sense to get rid of them (drawing) and only have it one place (model), but if we did that we would:

A) Never be able to find a drawing as it would no longer have a part number, desscription, revision, or other duplicate property info.

B) If we did "think" we found the correct drawing, we wouldn't really know b/c we can't identify it w/o that information.

I think the real solution is... since the drawing is derivation of the model, why can't it be an internal child in the model file (like a design journal or an excel design table)?

After talking with my VAR, he assured my plight is not new or original. Many users for many years have complained about it, and before PDM we handled it with (of course) custom apps.. but it has always been a strange band-aid fix leaving you wondering why are thinking about it in the first place.

Have a good holiday

Jack Lapham
Engineering Systems Administrator (E20)
Leupold & Stevens, Inc.

http://www.leupold.com

Dell M6400 Covet
Intel Core 2 Duo T9800, 2.93GHz, 1066MHZ 6M L2 Cache
8.0GB, DDR3-1066 SDRAM, 2 DIMM
1GB nVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M (8.17.12.5896)
160GB Hard Drive 9.5MM 7200RPM FFS
W7x64 | sw-01: 55.92
SolidWorks 2010 x64 sp4.0
Enterprise PDM 2010 sp

 

[rgrayclamps]

Hi, Jack:

I guess I do not have a solution for you.

But I still want to remind you that custom properties of a part model (*.sldprt) belongs to the part, and custom properties of the drawing of this part belongs to the drawing document (NOT to the part model document). They do not have relationship.

Also for your information, in conforming to ASME, ISO, and etc., in Solidworks, only drawing document can have Revision property. Solid models of parts and assemblies (*.sldprt and *.sldasm) have no revision properties.

Good luck!

Alex

 

[JohnPi]

Jack,

I tried uploading the macro I created using the Engineering.com website option.

I'll try again in this message.

- John

 

[fcsuper]

I don't think it's a limitation of EPDM. Drawings do not necessarily represent one part file. In fact, you can have drawings that don't reference any part file. In such situations, how would EPDM (or even the user) know which part file to pull from to get the values you want to see for your drawing in EPDM. Yes, it would be nice to have evaluated values show up, but that could potentially create a whole new series of problems.

There's several places to get macros that copy values. This is a good start:

http://sw.fcsuper.com

http://lennyworks.com

Or, you can add all these values from the start using EPDM Templates, so that everything is filled in when the documents are created.

Matt Lorono
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources & SolidWorks Legion

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/solidworks & http://twitter.com/fcsuper

 

[ShaggyPE]

I am not familiar with SolidWorks Enterprise PDM, but I am familiar with other Enterprise level pdm systems. It seems odd that if a .sldprt or .sldasm is found through a search, that it isn't a simple matter to locate and view the "related" drawing(s). Does the pdm system not know the documents are related? PTC Windchill does, and I am by no means an advocate of that system for SolidWorks users.

-Dustin
Professional Engineer
Pretty good with SolidWorks