I've Googled the NG and still haven't found a satisfactory answer. Right-clicking a SW file gives access to SW custom props in a dialogue box, but I'd like to have a column in Win explorer show at least one of them, preferably "Description". That way, I can name the file with the Part Number "12345" and still see a verbal description "Bracket". The problem is the pre-defined props in Win Explorer don't match the ones is SW.
Any new ideas on this?
Art W.
I'm like you. I want to see the description in Windows Explorer. Here is the way I do it.
I found that Windows Explorer CAN show columns from the SW Summary tab information, instead of the Custom Property tab information. So, I used to simply do double entry for my description property. I would enter a description under the description custom property. And then I would copy and past it in the Title field on the Summary tab. Then I would show the title field as a column in Windows Explorer. I took it one step further and enter a basic project description in the Subject field and show that as well in W.E.
I have since found that a custom property can "link" to the information on the Summary tab (i.e. $PRP:"SW-Title"). So I changed my templates to have this link defaulted into the description custom property. This way I only have to enter the Title information on the Summary tab. This eliminates having to do double entry and the possibility of these two values not matching.
Linking the description custom property to the summary title information does have one drawback that I have found. I have recently been playing around with changing the tree display in assemblies to make it show the component descriptions. When the description property is linked, the description displayed in the assembly tree does not reflect the evaluated value. Instead it displays the link itself. I personally think this is a bug, or at best an oversight to the programmers.
There's one other weird thing about showing the Title and/or Subject columns in Windows Explorer. If the file is open in SW, the information will not be displayed. My guess is that this is a Windows thing.
Hope this helps...
Seth,
I've tried what you are suggesting on the properties of an assembly file, and I can't get anything to show up in either the "Title" or "Description" columns in Windows Explorer.
Any suggestions?
John H
John,
First, do you have the assembly open? For some reason, if it is open, it will not display the values in Window Explorer.
Second, The Description column in Windows Explorer will NOT show anything from a SW file. But the Title column should. The only columns that will show any information from a SW file are: Title Subject Author Category (but I'm not sure where it pulls this value from) Comments
The values for most of these (except for Category) can be entered at File>Properties>Summary tab, from within SW. They can also be entered by right clicking the file in Windows Explorer, Properties, Summary tab (same difference).
One thing I was pointing out in my previous post was that Custom Properties can be linked to the Summary Properties so you don't have double data entry.
"Seth Renigar" wrote in message news:9OXhg.15790$ snipped-for-privacy@tornado.southeast.rr.com...
That was the problem - how completely bizarre! I thought perhaps it would just not show it until you'd closed the file the first time, but it actually disappears whenever you open the file.
Thanks for the tip, though with these limitations, I'm not sure it's that useful. What I really need is Conisio......
Thanks, John H
Yeah. I don't really understand why it disappears like that. I still find it very useful though.
I only open files from Windows Explorer, for the most part. I rarely use the File>Open command. The Title/Subject columns in WE helps me locate what I need. Once its open, it doesn't help me anymore for it to display this information anyway.
But that's just the way I use it.
I got to the point of displaying SW summary properties on my own, but no further.
Clever idea! Followed your instructions and got this to work.
If SW would just allow notes in a drawing to link directly to Summary properties this step wouldn't be needed. But then a part/assembly would have to accept the Title summary property to display as a component description in the feature tree.
Looks like the only way to have everything work is the "double entry" method, with its risks....
Thanks, Seth. I have a much better understanding of what's going on now.
Notes CAN link to information from the Summary tab. When linking, you will see SW-Author, SW-Comments, SW-Keywords, SW-Subject, & SW-Title. These values come directly from the Summary tab.
The only reason I link a Description custom property to the Summary>Title information is that there are sooo many people that use a Description custom property. My way satisfies their needs as well as mine. Otherwise I wouldn't be using the Description custom property.
Not having the descriptions show up correctly in the assembly tree is not a big deal for me. My assemblies are not so big that I have to weed through a bunch of stuff to find what I want. Usually I simply highlight it in the graphics window and let the assembly tree auto-scroll to the part.
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