Rename dimension label in content builder

[g-eaux]

Hi,

designing custom mvpart in content builder,

i often make mistkes becuase of denomination mismatch between the name of dimesnion gave by manufacturer,

and the label in the content builder.

for exemple, i've a flange with 3 caracteristics dimensions, D1, D2 and e

content builder will names tahem bdyD1, bdyD2 en lenght1

and bdyD1 should be equal to D2, bdyD2 should be equal to D1.

for a simple fitting as this flange, i can create my dimension in order to match D1 = bdyD1,

but when the part is more complicated, it's impossible.

What i can do is to put the manufacturer label in the description, but unfortunaly,

only labels are copied when you copy/paste table line to excel.

i also haven't found a way to change the order of the column of the table,

so for a part with many dimension, it can be very difficult to build a correct table of values.

are the any tricks i have to know ?

thanks,

Gérald

[Keith.Brown]

Hi Gérald,

Content Builder does not allow you to change the name of a dimension.  Instead what you must do is create a new model parameter and assign the dimension length to that parameter.

In regards to the order of the model parameters, once you create them you cannot change their order.  This is true for any of the model parameters that you create.   I believe this is because the parameter lives in both the actual model and in the xml file used to store the data associated with the part.   However, if you create a custom data parameter/property then that parameter/property only exists in the xml file and you can manipulate it any way that you want.   The attributes that you will have to change in the xml file are the index and the id.  Additionally you will need to change the order of the properties in the xml file.  When AutoCAD MEP displays the custom properties it does not order them based on their index number.  Instead it orders them based on the first one that it finds in the file.  For instance, it is possible to have the index 2 custom property appear before index 1.  When displaying the part in AutoCAD MEP in the parametric part wizard it will display the property with an index of 2 first.  To get the index 1 property to display first in a column then you just need to clip the property from the xml file and then reinsert it into the file above the index 2 property.

In my testing for the mvpartadd screen it will always display the lower index first.  This is not true for the parametric part wizard.  It will display the first custom property it finds regardless of the index number.

Note:  please back up your xml file before you change anything in it.  Getting it wrong will make your part unusable.

[g-eaux]

hi and thanks for the reply,

what you says is just what i was wondering ...

looking to the xml contents, i saw there was neither a relation with their order in the xml and the index number for the  display order in Content Builder.

This problem slows down content production, and when you have a doubt on a device dimension,

months after they 've been created,

make a verification can be very hard ...

regards,

Gérald