Max size of Design Table

I'm fairly new to Design Tables, so I'm wondering if someone knows a
workaround to the Excel maximum of 256 columns? I'm not so concerned with
having multiple configurations controlled by the Design Table, but rather in
trying to maintain some 300+ dimensions in orderly fashion (adjusting these
dims directly within the sketches can get confusing).

Thanks, Fred

 

Fred, although I don't have a solution for the 256 column limit
(obviously 2 to the 8th power, and hard-coded into the application) your
question does make me wonder about what you're doing and whether or not
you're going about things in an effective manner. Any single Part with
300 dimensions obviously is a fairly complex part. If it's NOT all that
complex, then something is wrong about how you're approaching the
design. Also, I have to wonder whether what you're doing is creating
something which would actually be better created as an assembly.

If indeed there are darn good reasons for having so many dimensions (and
of course that may very well be the case) then I'd have to ask whether
you can separate out the dimensions which may change as the design
evolves and which ones are likely to remain static. Also I would point
out that in double-clicking features and sketches to automatically add
the dimensional contents to the Design Table you DON'T need to maintain
the columns dictating Suppressed or Unsuppressed for features or
sketches which will always be unsuppressed. Just delete those columns,
and that should allow you some more room to include columns for
dimensions.

Hope that helps, although I sort of doubt it will.

Mark 'Sporky' Stapleton
Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

 

Also remember that you can drive some of your dimensions by Equations or by
linking dimensions that will always be equal. This takes some setup but
makes the design much easier to edit.

Corey

 

a possible suggestion to get around the 256 limitation is to add your dimensions to separate pages & make sheet 1 just the update page. So take all the dimensions you currently have & copy & paste them to sheet 2 & then delete the contents of sheet 1 & continue adding the rest of the dimensions you need to sheet 1. Then copy those dimensions to sheet 3.

Then anytime you wish to update your model you will modify values on sheet 2 & 3 -- then delete the contents of sheet 1. Then copy the contents of sheet2 onto sheet 1. Then close the design table, allowing the model to update 1/2 way. Then edit design table -- delete the contents of sheet 1 & copy the contents of sheet 3 to sheet 1. close the design table to allow for the rest of the model to update.

obviously you will have to turn off the bidirectionality option of your design table so that SW does not try to add dimensions to sheet 1 when go edit later... Another option might also be to use a little VB code to automate the process of the copy & paste & apply & repeat?

Only other option might be to use the excel link API offered for download on the subscription service login page under API. Then use it to read in the current dimensions into excel & by mapping those dimensions to rows instead of columns. This would work as an external design table excel file. I believe there are more rows than columns so this should get around your limitation too.

Hope this helps

Thanks,
Steve Tietz

I'm fairly new to Design Tables, so I'm wondering if someone knows a
workaround to the Excel maximum of 256 columns? I'm not so concerned with
having multiple configurations controlled by the Design Table, but rather in
trying to maintain some 300+ dimensions in orderly fashion (adjusting these
dims directly within the sketches can get confusing).

Thanks, Fred

 

Steve,
Thanks for your thoughtful response. Your idea of how to use multiple Excel
pages, especially with some type of macro, seems pretty straight forward.
Can you please expand on your "other option" ... I'm not familiar with "API"
or the subscription service you mention.

Thanks,
Fred
a possible suggestion to get around the 256 limitation is to add your
dimensions to separate pages & make sheet 1 just the update page. So take
all the dimensions you currently have & copy & paste them to sheet 2 & then
delete the contents of sheet 1 & continue adding the rest of the dimensions
you need to sheet 1. Then copy those dimensions to sheet 3.

Then anytime you wish to update your model you will modify values on sheet 2
& 3 -- then delete the contents of sheet 1. Then copy the contents of
sheet2 onto sheet 1. Then close the design table, allowing the model to
update 1/2 way. Then edit design table -- delete the contents of sheet 1 &
copy the contents of sheet 3 to sheet 1. close the design table to allow
for the rest of the model to update.

obviously you will have to turn off the bidirectionality option of your
design table so that SW does not try to add dimensions to sheet 1 when go
edit later... Another option might also be to use a little VB code to
automate the process of the copy & paste & apply & repeat?

Only other option might be to use the excel link API offered for download on
the subscription service login page under API. Then use it to read in the
current dimensions into excel & by mapping those dimensions to rows instead
of columns. This would work as an external design table excel file. I
believe there are more rows than columns so this should get around your
limitation too.

Hope this helps

Thanks,
Steve Tietz

I'm fairly new to Design Tables, so I'm wondering if someone knows a
workaround to the Excel maximum of 256 columns? I'm not so concerned with
having multiple configurations controlled by the Design Table, but rather in
trying to maintain some 300+ dimensions in orderly fashion (adjusting these
dims directly within the sketches can get confusing).

Thanks, Fred

 

Hi Fred.

Another interestng thing that can be done with design tables is to use
multiple sheets to drive the model depending on your given preference.

For example, one sheet could drive a part based on one set of
parameters- for example, driving a brake tool definition from a set of
part parameters, while a second sheet can drive them from tool
parameters.

This method is also useful if you want to define configuration groups
and want to group them by function, use, etc. Basically, whichever
page you left as active in excel is the page that drives the model
when you return from the editing.

I have done a few models with up to 3,000 confgurations and found this
type of approach to work well. Alternately I have sometimes used a
second sheet to create a "parameter table" which does an excel index &
lookup to create concatenated part numbers, config names and
descriptions from a "selection table".

You might also find the multiple sheet approach useful.

Regards,

SMA