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Combination Editor |
The Combination Editor is used to add and edit the Property combinations. The combinations are used to combine multiple Property values together to create a new one. The combinations could be used e.g. in the filenaming rules to generate more specific names for your SOLIDWORKS documents.
| Name | Name of the combination. |
| Properties | A list of the Properties available for the combination. Double click the desired CusotmProperty to insert it into the combination's Format String or, you can also drag and drop the desired property from the Properties list, into the Format String box. |
| Format String | Specifies the format string of the combination. The format string defines the display order of values of Properties and you can also add different separators between the values. |
| Show preceding separator for empty field | Replaces the empty Property values with a precending separator. |
| Generate only when all properties have a value | Select this option to generate the combination value only if all of its' parts have a value. |
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TIP: You can also drag-and-drop the available Properties from the Properties list into the Format String box. |
CUSTOMTOOLS Property Combinations could be defined for models, drawing and cut-list items. A scope the combination is created for, determines also the Property scopes available for the combination's Format String. Please refer to the following table to see what scopes of Properties are available by the combination types:
| Property Scopes | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Combination Type | Usable With | Model | Part | Assembly | Drawing | Cut-List Item |
| Model Combination | SOLIDWORKS Parts and Assemblies | • | • | • | ||
| Drawing Combination | SOLIDWORKS Drawings | • | ||||
| Weldment Combination | Cut List Items | • | ||||
When you add the Properties into the Format String box, the following menu associated to the property inserted appear:
| Precending Chars | Determines the amount of characters from the beginning of the Property value to be retrieved to the Combination. |
| Trailing Chars | Determines the amount of characters from the end of the Property value to be retrieved to the Combination. |
| Remove First Chars | Determines the amount of the first characters to be excluded from the Property value to be retrieved to the Combination. |
| Remove Last Chars | Determines the amount of the last characters to be excluded from the Property value to be retrieved to the Combination. |
Click 
to add the project specific values into the combination:
| Project number | Retrieves the project identifier into the combination. |
| Project name | Retrieves the project name into the combination. |
| Project path for models | Retrieves the project specific models saving path into the combination. |
| Project path for drawings | Retrieves the project specific drawings saving path into the combination. |
| Parent project number | Retrieves the parent project identifier into the combination. |
| Parent project name | Retrieves the parent project name into the combination. |
| Remove n characters from left | Select the Remove n characters from left option to exclude characters from the left side end of the combination value. The amount of characters selected are excluded from the result once the combination value is generated based on the Format string. |
| Remove n characters from right | Select the Remove n characters from right option to exclude characters from the right side end of the combination value. The amount of characters selected are excluded from the result once the combination value is generated based on the Format string. |
| Or Else |
Evaluate the Property values which are on the left side of the Or Else attribute. The combination value is taken from the first part of the combination that has a value assigned.
Example 1: The format string is typed as [item][revision]{STOP}[DrawnBy]{STOP}[Description1]. So the format string in the Combination editor looks similar like shown in the following picture: 
The user has assigned values into the [desc2] and [desc1] properties. In this case, the combination value is taken from the [desc2] property because it is the first part of the combination that has a value. Example 2: The format string is the same one used in the Example 1. Let's assume that the user has now assigned values into the [item], [revision] and [desc1]. In that case, the result is the combination of values assigned to the [item] and [revision] properties. |
Project values used as a parts of the combination are retrieved from the project where the document belongs to. If the document does not belong to any project, the project specific values in the combination are empty. The empty values could be replaced with a precending separator by selecting the Show preceding separator for empty field option.
CUSTOMTOOLS combinations are used to combine several Properties together. Properties that belong to the different property scopes, are color coded in the Format string box so that you can recognize the parts of the format string easier. The following colors are used to identify the blobs:
| Model property | |
| Cut-List property | |
| Drawing property | |
| Pre-defined function | |
| Invalid item |
If you get the invalid item blob into the format string of your combination, please ensure that the item selected in the format string exist and also check the spelling of the format string item names.
You can use the arithmetic operations to make different calculations based on the Property values added into the Format string box. The calculations in Property Combinations follows the normal calculation order based on the common math rules.
| Example: | You can create a combination of the dimension values to calculate the surface area. To do that, create a combination which Format string is <[dim1]*[dim2]>. |
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NOTE: The mathematical sentences having the arithmetic operations in the combinations should be surrounded by the less-than (<) and greater-than (>) characters. |