STILL trying to sort, Can dimensions be text??

[tmox]

I can't believe that SW will only allow sketch data as variables for Propery Manager.This wouldn't even be an issue in Inventor as you could sort by ANYTHING.
I have a very large table of Mil-Spec parts. Of those half are readily available from commercial vendors, the others require long lead times. So when i select a component from the property manager i would like one of the variables to be "VENDOR". Since only sketch variables can be used.......can i force a dimension to be text? Something like D1@Sketch1 = "OurSupplier", or is possible to write an equation like, if(d1@sketch1=1,"oursupplier","milpart")?
i have lots of library parts that i would like to sort by something other than a numerical value.
When i talked to our SW rep, they said, "Hey, that would be a good idea...".
No, REALLY?

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

I'm confused! When I access the Property Manager (top left corner next to the Feature Manager) in an assy, all I see are mates and no way to search them.

Can you show an image of what you refer to as the Property Manager?

Have you tried using the SolidWorks Search function (top right corner)? It has keyword search filters. (See attached)

Also, have you looked at using the Tagger utility from SolidWorks Labs?

http://labs.solidworks.com/Products/Product.aspx?name=tagger

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Look up search in the Help > Index.

Search Command Syntax
A colon and space separate keywords from the values to be searched for. The syntax is:

<string>

<keyword or custom property>:<value>

Keywords
The following keywords are available:

Filename
Feature
Created
DocType
Block
Author
Number
Layer
Owner
Description
Sheet
Project
Configuration
Sketch
Note
Reference
Attribute
Table
Material
Modified

The format for Modified and Created is that specified on the local computer (mm/dd/yyyy or dd/mm/yyyy, for example).

Any custom property can be a keyword. For example, if a SolidWorks document contains custom property Customer, a search can be Customer: ACME.

The following operators are supported:

Wildcard. * (asterisk)

Quotation Marks. " " (for exact term, including spaces)

Spaces for compound strings. (implicit AND)

 

[tmox]

sorry.
i am referring to the configuration property manager under the configuration tab. It is an option when right clicking on the filename.
I have 1500 configurations in this file. When i insert the part into an assembly from the design library....i can sort by body size(numerical value), male thread size (numerical value), female thread size (numerical value), length (numerical value),and finally by material which is contained in the configuration name. (Once i have done the first four selections i end up with 4 configurations to choose from.)
I would like to be able to sort by material as well, but, it is the same problem.
I guess i could add a vendor code to the config name but it is already pretty long. " part, part size, female thread, male thread x length - material,(and now)vendor code". all this times 1500.
if i pull a PEM fastener out of the toolbox i can select type and material. HOW DO THEY DO THAT!!!!!!!!!that's what i want to do. How are they able to sort configurations by something other than a numerical value??