Userdefined attributes in drawings

7.22 User-defined attributes in drawings
Many Tekla Structures dialog boxes contain user-defined attributes for various objects. The
definitions of a user-defined attribute are unique, which means that a user-defined attribute
cannot have different definitions for different object types.
In drawings, the user-defined attributes can be used in templates, Drawing List, and marks,
for example. The user-defined attributes defined in the drawing are displayed when you click
User-defined attributes in the drawing properties dialog box. You can show up to 20 userdefined attributes in the Drawing List. To check the ones that you have, click User-defined
attributes in a drawing properties dialog box.
To define new user-defined attributes, create your own objects.inp file in the company,
project or firm folder. After adding your own user-defined attributes, you need to use the
Diagnose & Change Attribute Definitions tool to update the definitions in the model. The
object.inp files are merged so that if there are user-defined attributes in any of the
files, they are displayed in the user interface. Tekla Structures merges the files in a way that
eliminates duplicate attributes. If Tekla Structures encounters the same attribute name in
different objects.inp files, the attribute from the first read objects.inp file will be
used.
Tekla Structures reads the objects.inp files from the following folders in the following
order:
1. model folder
2. company folder
3. project folder
4. firm folder
5. system folder
6. inp folder
In order to show the new user-defined attribute in Template Editor, you need to add it in a
customized contentattributes_userdefine.lst file and include the name of
the customized file in the contentattributes.lst file.
Make a copy of these modified files as the Tekla Structures installation always overwrites
these files.
See also Modifying automatic user-defined drawing attributes on page 516
Creating new user-defined drawing attributes on page 517
Adding user-defined attributes and template attributes in marks on page 480
What is displayed in the Drawing List on page 104
Switches for customizing print file names on page 293
Objects.inp properties
Modifying drawing settings
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User-defined attributes in drawings
Modifying automatic user-defined drawing attributes
To modify user-defined drawing attributes before creating a drawing:
1. Click Drawings & Reports --> Drawing Settings and select the drawing type.
2. Load the properties that you want to change.
3. Click User-defined attributes.
4. On the Workflow tab, enter project-specific information to be displayed in drawings and
in the Drawing List.
5. On the Parameters tab, enter a user-defined Comment for drawings, projects,
assemblies, parts, and so on.
6. Use the User field 1 to User field 8 on the Parameters tab to enter drawing-specific
information.
7. On the Title tab, select if you want to use project-specific or drawing-specific
information in the title block of the drawing.
When you click Use project settings, you cannot enter any information in the title block
fields.
8. If you selected Use drawing settings, the title block fields become available, and you can
enter the necessary data in the fields.
9. Click Save to save the drawing properties, then click OK and create the drawing.
•
You can control whether the modifications in user-defined attributes affect
all selected drawings in the Drawing List at the same time, even if the
drawings are of different types by using the advanced option
XS_DRAWING_UDAS_MODIFY_ALL_DRAWING_TYPES.
See also Customizing user-defined attributes
XS_DRAWING_UDAS_MODIFY_ALL_DRAWING_TYPES
Location of certain files in hidden folders
User-defined attributes in drawings on page 515
Creating new user-defined drawing attributes on page 517
Creating new user-defined drawing attributes
If you want to add a new line in the user-defined drawing attributes dialog box and a new
column in the Drawing List, you need to create your own objects.inp and add a new
Modifying drawing settings
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User-defined attributes in drawings
user-defined attribute there. You also need to do this if you want the user-defined attribute
to be available in the Template Editor.
Before you start, close Tekla Structures.
To create a new user-defined attribute:
1. Open the objects.inp file located in ..\ProgramData\Tekla Structures
\<version>\environments\common\inp.
2. Save the objects.inp file in your model, project or firm folder.
3. Delete all user-defined attribute definitions from the objects.inp file, except the
property definitions in the beginning of the file that describe the properties, and the
sections that define the new tab to different drawing types. Also leave one property
definition in section User-defined attributes for objects that you can use as a template
for the new property.
4. Enter the name of the tab page where you want the new user-defined attributes to be
located and the attribute properties.
Do not enter the names of the tab pages that come with the installation, use a new one
instead.
5. To show the user-defined attribute in the Drawing List and in the user-defined attributes
dialog box, set status_flag to yes.
6. Define the drawing types where you want to use the new tab containing the new userdefined attribute.
Modifying drawing settings
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User-defined attributes in drawings
7. Save and close the file.
8. Update the definitions of the user-defined attributes:
a. Click Tools --> Diagnose & Repair Model --> Diagnose & Change Attribute
Definitions .
The Diagnose & Change Attribute Definitions dialog box is displayed.
b. If there are conflicts between your objects.inp and the default
objects.inp, select the definition in the area on the right and click Change
current settings to selected objects.inp settings.
The definition of the user-defined attribute is updated in the model.
9. Select Drawings & Reports --> Drawing Settings and a drawing type.
In this example, select General Arrangement Drawing.
10. Click User-defined attributes.
Modifying drawing settings
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User-defined attributes in drawings