Description Custom Property Splitter (Macro)

Here's another one for the efficiency macro experts.

As do many companies, we used two Description Properties in the drawing
for our title block.

"Description" is the first line, and "Description 2" is the second
line.

All of our parts/assys also have these properties, as we use PDMWorks.
Great.

I would like to have the Title Block linked directly to the part/assy
file, and this is completely doable.

But, here's the rift: The Assy BOM only reads the "Description"
property. So if you 'split' the information between the Desc and Desc
2 props to fill in the title block, then the information in the BOM
table is incomplete.

Example:
In part, fill in Properties
"Description": Brkt, Mounting, N2
"Description 2": Valve Assy

So, if I have the Title Block linked to the two properties, it works
and looks good.

But, now I make an assy drawing and add the BOM: the description
reads: "Brkt, Mounting, N2" -- and that's it.

How do you all work with this?

What I'm trying to do is eliminate the need to have duplicate manual
entry of text between parts/assys and drawings -- this is error prone
and a time waster.

Here's a solution that could likely be done with a macro:

Enter FULL Description into part/assy "Description" field: Brkt,
Mounting, N2 Valve Assy -- this allows BOM to show full desc.

Now, run macro in Drawing. Macro takes the part/assy property
"Description" and splits it into two drawing props, "Description" and
"Description 2" for the title block.

The macro should be able to be adjusted (internally) for how many
characters make up the "Description", and should recognize that a comma
at the end of the line belongs in the first prop. It would then write
the remainder into "Description 2"

Any thoughts? Is this possible? Does anyone want to give it a try?

If I knew any programming I would do it myself but alas, I don't know
how to do this.

Thanks for the read,

Todd

 

Hi Todd

I have never used it till now, but it is possible using the Custom
Property Manager from http://www.kentcontract.com/swmacros.shtml

The Property Manager Macro lets you to enter the "Return Character"
within the description field. This makes the BOM description appear over
2 or more lines.

Jpeg example below
http://www.solidengineering.co.nz/images/2lines.jpg


Regards

John Layne

 

It may be possible to enter that character manualy -- someone who
remembers DOS better than I could possibly help.

 

Thanks John.

I remember a friend mentioning that to me. I'm hesitant to jump in and
use the Kent Contract tool out right though, as I'm trying to employ
the KISS principle here. Simple in that there's no time or approval to
introduce another tool or change process right now.

Your picture is close in concept to what we need, but it's not exactly
there.

I need the description to remain a single line in the BOM, but split
into two lines in my drawing title.

There must be a way to utilize the "Return Character" without a macro,
right?

If not, does anyone have a macro that just inserts the "Return
Character"?

Thanks,

Todd

 

Ok, how about this.

Create a property called Desc1 with the value "First part" (no quotes.)
Create a property called Desc2 with the value " and second part" (note the
space before the "and".)
Create a property called Description with the value $PRP:"DESC1"$PRP:"DESC2"

I tried it with a BOM and it properly pulls in the full description of
"First part and second part" as one line, while still letting you use the
two individual lines to propagate into your title block. You also don't
have to enter the info twice.

Is this what you are looking for?

WT

 

Wayne:

Yah know, I forgot that it's possible to use the properties in the
properties!

Yeah, that will do what I need it to do and it's relatively foolproof.

Thanks, this is the kind of KISS thinking that saves the time and
money.

Todd

 

Yup that's they way to do it, I would have thought of that too but I'm
not very bright!

John Layne

 

Brilliant, Wayne!

Thanks,
Devon T. Sowell
www.3-ddesignsolutions.com

 

Another approach:

We use the Excel BOM because of its versatility (and I wrote the APIs
before the SW BOM).
You could make two columns displaying Description and Description2.
Then clear the heading in Description2 and the line between the two.
The formating will be an isue but the content will be correct. And you
will not have to edit the properties in every single part you have.
Perhaps usefull for archived and rarely used projects.

Thomas

 

Thanks, Thomas.

Not too worried about the legacy work, as the description in the parts
was always written for the BOM.

The main issue was that people here have been entering the description
in the part (both in the correct field as well as the property summary
page as well as on the config page, and they are all different) as well
as on the drawing, and there are errors galore.

It'll be easier to have them do it only once and get it right.

I agree that there is some versatility to the Excel BOM, but it is
really a pain in the A$$! Here, they like to order the BOMs by part
number, and so if ANY changes to Description or Number is done you have
to reorder the BOM, and quite often the balloon numbers won't undate,
blah blah blah.

Anyway, If you take the time to set up the BOM templates for the new
BOM it works well, is predictable(somewhat), and looks OK. We haven't
started in on it full-time yet but I'm hoping too in the near future.

Todd

 

Guess I am more lucky here. First thing I did was making a company
property manager from scratch. It contains descriptions in 3 languages,
material, dimensions etc. But more importantly it interacts with a
database for drawing numbers (we dont use part numbers for each part)
and it creates drawings and - if appropriate - BOMs.
So people here find it the easiest to do it the right way. Also because
they can access properties whitout opening each specific part.
One more isue in Excel vs. SW BOM: SW is WAY to easy to modify manualy
in a drawing. I make various lists (all drawings needed, purchased
parts, purchase lists etc.) so this is important not to have a total
mess.
Reorder is only done by rearanging the assembly structure.
So I will stick with Excel-BOM as long as possible.

Thomas

 

Here I have been using my own properties macro to fill in the
Description and Description 2 collumns. I have a form and a textbox
for description that allows multiple lines. Then when the user presses
enter the single line description is applied to the description
property and the multiline description is assigned to Description 2.
This way the info is only typed in one place and the macro takes care
of the rest. Then on the templates the Title block description text is
the description 2 property and you know how the BOM thing works.

Just a note (the advantage to having my own custom Properties manager
is that I have it connect to our MRP system and query the part number
and propogate the description the material and the material description
plus allowing any of the properties to be multi-lined)

Corey

 

Here's an Update on my Progress....

Wayne's idea was initially a stroke of genius, Though I wasn't able to
use it exactly that way.

Using my already existing Description and Description 2 props I created
one which should be a combo of the two called BOMDESC. The value was:
$PRP:"Description" $PRP:"Description 2"

This worked well IN the part or assy that I used it in, meaning that it
displayed the combo of Description and Description 2 but did not work
in the BOM. For some reason, when the props come across into the BOM,
it doesn't understand them anymore. Again, this is with the SW BOM.

Every line of my description says:
$PRP:"Description" $PRP:"Description 2"

Bummer, I thought we hit a home run here.

COREY:

Your macro seems to do exactly what I'm looking for. Would you be
willing to share it?

Thanks,

Todd

 

Here's an Update on my Progress....

Wayne's idea was initially a stroke of genius, Though I wasn't able to
use it exactly that way.

Using my already existing Description and Description 2 props I created
one which should be a combo of the two called BOMDESC. The value was:
$PRP:"Description" $PRP:"Description 2"

This worked well IN the part or assy that I used it in, meaning that it
displayed the combo of Description and Description 2 but did not work
in the BOM. For some reason, when the props come across into the BOM,
it doesn't understand them anymore. Again, this is with the SW BOM.

Every line of my description says:
$PRP:"Description" $PRP:"Description 2"

Bummer, I thought we hit a home run here.

COREY:

Your macro seems to do exactly what I'm looking for. Would you be
willing to share it?

Thanks,

Todd

 

That's strange as when I tried it on a SW BOM it worked just fine. Try it
on a new part & drawing and with the names I used to see if you can repeat
my test and see if maybe you have a syntax error or something. I presume
you modified your BOM template to look at the property of BOMDESC rather
than the standard Description. There might possibly be an issue there.

WT

 

The same thing happened here. We are using SWX2004 sp3. I inserted a
comma and a space between the 2 properties so it is now $PRP:"Desc1",
$PRP:"Desc2" and the whole thing worked perfectly in the part file or
assy file's summary info property box. But only the formula showed up
in drawings, BOM, and our pdmworks entry.

stephen

 

Ok folks, good news & bad news.

I did some more testing and my system worked as I originally said. However,
I also realized a difference from others here in that I am on SW2005. When
I tried it in SW2004, it did not work. The combination works in a note if
done directly, but even telling the note to use the combined property
doesn't work. So in SW2004, neither the Excel BOM nor the SW BOM will
evaluate the combined property properly. (Isn't that a mouthful?)

But, the good news is that in SW2005, you can put spaces, commas, etc
between the property text and it will come through properly - you don't have
to put the spaces, etc. inside the individual properties.

WT

 

Wayne:

I wondered if it was something like that. I guess SolidWorks
recognized a need for this and implemented it into 2005. I'd like to
get us started on 2005 soon but with the new company buyout and all
that we're in a holding pattern. Thanks for the help though, in the
long run this is exactly what we'll do.

Todd

 

HEY COREY:

If you're out there, I'd like to discuss how you might be able to help
me out with this little issue. I need to implement this new format
next week and I'd like to do that as completely as possible. If you're
interested please drop me a line at:

tabrake@(diespammer)gmail.com

Thanks!!

Todd

 

I am sorry I have been out in the shop quite a bit this week and since
I am following the group through Google I haven't been as cought op on
it as I used to be. I replied to your personal e-mail, if you don't
receive it drop me another one.

Corey