Get Property Value From An External Data Source

The button in the Properties pane opens the Get Database Item dialog box used to define the database column linked to the custom property value.

When the button is in the clicked state the link is enabled and the property value is composed based on other custom properties. If automatically created value needs to be overridden user may click the button to break the link. Property box becomes enabled and the desired data can be entered. The button state is stored to SOLIDWORKS file.

In the Search conditions, you see the fields of the external data source that are linked to your Properties. However, the fields in the external data source associated to the Properties that has the Exclude from item search condition option selected in the Property Wizard's Database Options page does not appear in the Search conditions.

TIP: Enable/disable the automatic insertion of wildchars to the search conditions in the General User Options.

Search conditions

Search conditions contain Properties that uses the specific database search group and, that are not excluded from the item search conditions. Select the Exclude from item search condition option in the Database Options of the Property to exclude the specific Property from the search conditions.

NOTE: Database Item Search may be case sensitive. Case sensitivity of the database item search depends on the collation settings of an external database associated to the linked Properties.

	Executes the search.
	Clears all the search conditions.

Each field under the Search conditions can have free search string to be searched from an external data source. Note that checkbox has mixed value when it is not used as search condition i.e. checked and unchecked values will restrict search results.

The Database Item Search remembers the last used search conditions so, the search strings you have used on the previous search are pre-filled into the search conditions when you next time search items from the external data source.

Search string can be any kind of combination of alpha-numeric characters.

Close

Closes the Database Item Search dialog box without making any changes to the existing value of the Property.

Link

Creates a link between the selected row and the specific Property. When the custom property gets its value from the external data source with help of the link, the retrieved value cannot be modified by the user using the Properties pane. To maintain a link, CUSTOMTOOLS writes specified primary key value in the SOLIDWORKS file in order to locate file in the external data source table when needed. All buttons related to any other properties using the same Database search group goes to the disabled state once the link has been established from the custom property to an external data source. Disabling the buttons of other properties using the same Database search group prevents the unexpected overwriting of the linked values.

TIP: A link to the database item can be also created by double clicking the desired row in the Search results.

Remove link	Deletes previously created link between the custom property and the row located in an external data source.
Copy	Copies the value of selected row into the linked custom property field.

The Search results lists the matching rows from the external database based on the Search conditions.

Comboboxes reacts to the non-matching value by the following ways:

Editable combobox	The current value will be replaced with the one retrieved from the database.
Combobox	Clears the value in the related property and leaves it empty.