Hi Fred.
Another interestng thing that can be done with design tables is to use multiple sheets to drive the model depending on your given preference.
For example, one sheet could drive a part based on one set of parameters- for example, driving a brake tool definition from a set of part parameters, while a second sheet can drive them from tool parameters.
This method is also useful if you want to define configuration groups and want to group them by function, use, etc. Basically, whichever page you left as active in excel is the page that drives the model when you return from the editing.
I have done a few models with up to 3,000 confgurations and found this type of approach to work well. Alternately I have sometimes used a second sheet to create a "parameter table" which does an excel index & lookup to create concatenated part numbers, config names and descriptions from a "selection table".
You might also find the multiple sheet approach useful.
Regards,
SMA