Alan Cooper Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 I like the custom attributes in FormZ and the ability to use the attribute painter, while it can maintain existing basic attributes instead of painting those as well, so basic part names are retained. This is very good. What isn't good is that there are no attributes at the group level. Example: If I have a door consisting of 2 stiles, 2 rails and a centre panel in a group called door1, there are different processes which need to be done to each part: some parts need to be grooved, some jointed, but the panel only needs to be cut. Custom attributes can assist to manage processes and costs of each part, but some processes, like final trimming to size needs to be applied not to the individual parts but to the group of parts after assembly of the joints. If I click on the group and set attributes for it, it sets the attributes for each individual part within the group. I consider this to be a bug. If I wanted that to happen, there are other ways to achieve it, like unlocking the group first and setting attributes with the parts selected, or by using attribute painter. It is good that we can set attribute fields and values for objects within groups and components, but we also need groups to appear under their own heading in the information management csv output, so those operations or features (attribute fields and values) applicable only to the complete group or component rather than their contents, are displayed in their own right. As it stands the system is incomplete, but frustratingly, as far as I can make out, only by this small exclusion, and expect [though I am not a programmer] it would only require a few lines of code, mainly copy and paste from what is already happening in the program to sort it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 Hi Alan, Thanks for your suggestions, we will see if this can be added for the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cooper Posted December 31, 2015 Author Share Posted December 31, 2015 Thank you Tech. I think that in the meantime, as a temporary work-around it may be possible to hold 'group' custom attribute information in a line, rectangle or similar object on a unique 'group attributes' layer. I'll see how that goes with my workflow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cooper Posted December 31, 2015 Author Share Posted December 31, 2015 Have I been expecting too much from the custom attributes facility? What I see as a problem is the fact that if you make an adjustment like add a new field, a message pops up to say custom attribute info in all projects will be reset as a result. What actually happens is the old info is saved as Your Attributes Name 1 and retains the values as a copy, and the Your Attributes Name resets, with zero values to all fields. I am surprised that all fields get reset and it is not possible to simply add a field or remove one, with all other information retained. Wouldn't be so bad if attributes could be imported from another set, but I think it could be messy, especially between one project and another, and where components are concerned, so think the custom attributes in its current form has more limited use than what I first imagined so a bit disappointed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Hi Alan, After some extensive testing, we have been able to inconsistently reproduce the error message on certain machines and we have seen custom attributes of an object reset after adding fields in new projects. Thanks for your report, we will get this corrected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cooper Posted January 4, 2016 Author Share Posted January 4, 2016 Tech, ah, so it was a fault.....ok, that is good it will be fixed. I didn't even realise it was an error message. I wouldn't mind if we could control instead from an external spreadsheet, like open office or csv file, maybe that would even give us better control and ability to make global or local changes more easily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.