Following on the heels of my complaint about not being able to use some advanced functionality in SolidWorks 2006, I have now successfully exported, modified (wholesale) and reimported data to allow me to specify the part numbers and part descriptions of Toolbox parts.
Before getting too far into it, Scott Baugh has published something approaching this tip (but more basic) on his Web site at the following link:
You've probably seen and wondered about this option to Edit Standards Data under Tools > Options > Data Options. Maybe you've looked at it and tried to get Help on the subject (not very helpful). Take a look at it now and you'll note that the list of Standards (like "Ansi Inch") in the left frame (Edit Data tab) all have plus signs that you can click on to expand the selection. Drill down to a kind of part that you might like to modify a bit to reflect a more useful part number or description (there are probably a lot of those). If you select the "All Configurations" tab then SolidWorks will generate and list all possible configurations (at least those that exist in the Standard database) in a matrix giving the data for those configurations (dimensions and configuration names included). If it's a large database like that for Socket Head Cap Screws it might take a while to generate the configurations so you can view it.
I'm actually not sure that these screens will allow you to alter the native Toolbox Standards databases included with SolidWorks Office (or better). I do know that you can alter COPIED Standards databases. SO FAR, I've only been able to do this modification with new (user) Standards data created FROM the Standards provided with SolidWorks Toolbox. To begin at the beginning, creating a new Standard is accomplished from the initial dialog box for Tools > Options > Data Options > Edit Standards Data. At the first screen that comes up you have to option to name a user-created Standard and to choose a normal Toolbox Standard to copy FROM. After creating this new Standard choose a Part type that you'd like to modify and drill down to it as above. Then select the "All Configurations" tab, also as above. You can modify this new data within some limits and making those changes does NOT (at least as far as I can tell) automatically CREATE configurations, which of course would increase the size of the Part files. You'll notice that there are Part Number and Part Description columns out the right side of the matrix, and you can fill those in for the configurations that you'd like to use. Again, this does not seem to automatically increase the size of the Part files associated with the Standard. You'll also note that there are Export and Import buttons at the bottom of the below the data matrix. These allow you to export to Excel format and re-import modified data. I've allusded to having had trouble in Importing that modified data, but the trick is (APPARENTLY) you cannot edit the Configuration Name. Perhaps you can add configurations (duplicate if necessary) and then delete the original configurations manually, but I'm not sure about that yet. There is an additional trick in that you must have a Part Number entry (and it must be a unique entry) for every Part Description. The part descriptions can be the same (e.g. "EXTERNAL RETAINING RING"). And you must not modify the information in the header of the spreadsheet. That modified spreadsheet must be exported FROM the exact Part data that you want to modify because the header info goes with it.
Anyone with more insight please DO post.
Mark Stapleton Watermark Design, LLC Charlotte, NC