Im looking at using SWCP3. Is it possible to have a seperate xml file for material type, which would allow multiple users to access an updated list of material descriptions?
The way I see it, each person would have their own xml file with default values, Designer, Engineer, and other user dependent fields already defaulted. Then when they choose a material, it will access a list that everyone would use.
Is this possible?
Any recommendations/suggestions welcome :)
I just got done customizing swCP3. I don't use the Material portions that come in the default package. I have a customized SW .sldmat file that I use and I simply make swCP3 display the $PRP string for materials and mass without allowing the user to edit it. If you used customized sldmat files then you can point individual seats of SW at the different files.
TOP,
Do you have more info on .sldmat file type? Is this something new in
2005? We are currenty using 2004.You don't have to know anything about the sldmat file other than it's location. However, I can tell you that it is really an xml file. As such you can view the contents in newer versions of Excel and Access. But changes are best done from SW. The .sldmat files are created and maintained from within SW (200X). SW can be told where to find the .sldmat files in TOOLS/OPTIONS/SYSTEM/FILE LOCATIONS. Scroll to materials. By default SW looks in a folder in the SW install directory under \lang\english\sldmaterials. You can have SW also look in network folders. It is this capability that can accomplish individualisation of your material files. Simply create a network folder called Designers, one called Engineers, etc. and point the SW installations to those directories as necessary. Since this is a registry setting you can copy your registry settings and pick out the lines that set this path, put them in a .reg file and customize the installations you have by running the .reg file.
Having said that changes to sldmat are best done from SW, it is possible to edit a sldmat file with a text editor. However, you are on your own to figure out the tags and the material data has to be in MKS units. One thing to watch for in creating or editing your own sldmat file is that the material ID appears to need to be sequential so that when you insert a material you must renumber all the following matid entries. The schema are found in data/xmlschema and from the looks of things SW used xml back to 2003.
The entries for various material properties follow the format used in Cosmos/M. DENS is the one you must have for the material to set the correct density for itself.
I haven't played around with ways to eliminate the texture, but doing so should get you a significant performance gain as textures can really kill an assembly even on a high end system.
Hope this helps. Let us know how it works out for you.
It isn't the things SW thinks you need that make SW powerful, but the things you can make it do to meet your needs. TOP 2005
You can download a free xml editor from MicroSoft here:
XML Notepad does drag and drop duplication but you will still have to fill in the data and get the ID numbers in sequence.
Hello all,
It is great to see swCP3 being honoured with a thread of its own!
Regarding SW Monkey's query, the answer is
*no*... There is no mechanism for having a common database for multiple users.Hopefully, this will be available in a future release. The vision is to allow swCP3 to be configured to access multiple databases for different CPs: XML files, text files, MySQL, MS SQL, MS Excel, SW's .sldmat file etc...
With regards,
Vinodh Kumar M.
When installed on a mapped network drive it seems to run. Whether I can run the addin from multiple users at one time remains to be seen. I tried linking to the XML file on a network drive with the program installed locally and that doesn't work.
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