Manufacturer Name Maximum Characters

[Anonymous]

We recently updated the catalog through the Microsoft database(default_cat.mdb).  We added some new manufacturers with longer names.  Using the Insert/Edit dialog, when we chose those manufacturers we have noticed they get cut off.  The manufacturer name maxs out at 24 characters.  Another issue is when we run a BOM report.  If we leave the manufacturers full name our part number(User 1) and description columns are blank.  If we shorten in the database to 24 characters everything works fine.  However, we need the full manufacturer name for Cadlink and our ERP system to create BOM information correctly. Thanks for any help.

[zalant · Accepted solution]

The built-in columns/fields have designated character lengths (field size). The Manufacturer column's happens to be 24, as you've discovered. Here is a link to our page which shows all of the pre-defined character widths. Also, here is a link to the page on best practices for customizing the catalog database. One of those is:

"Field Size. Do not change the field size for existing columns."