Instance Properties - Text Value Generators

A fundamental use for instance properties is to provide unique information for individual component occurrences in an assembly. iPropWiz provides a flexible tool to assign unique property values to both Text and Number type properties. You can define any number of value generators and then assign them to specific property definitions in the Instance Properties Configuration Editor. Users can apply the generator to selected occurrences in the Instance Properties Property Editor to provide a unique property value for each occurrence.

A text value generator is the most flexible type of value generator. You can create simple to complex generators by combining fixed text, variable character formats, and variable number fields in any order.

Access: In the Instance Properties Configuration Editor, click the Text Value Generators button on the toolbar.

Manage Generators

You can create a new generator, edit the selected generator, or delete the selected generators with these tools.

Options

Click to open the Text Value Generator Options dialog.

Excluded Letters

Individual letter formats can be either upper or lower case. Enter the letters to exclude for both lower and upper case formats. Commonly excluded letters are provided by default.

Bracket Type

The variable portions of the Value Generator format are identified by enclosing them in brackets. This precludes showing these types of brackets in any fixed text in the format. If you need to show square brackets in your generated values, select a different bracket type to use as the variable format container.

Available Generators

All available text generators are summarized in the grid. Select a row and click the Edit button to make changes to the Value Generator. The name of a generator cannot be changed after it is first saved.

Generator Editor

When first created, you can edit the name of the generator, enter a description, and define the formats than make up the generator's output. On edit, the description and fields can be modified. Any number of formats can be combined to create the final value generator format. The generator formats are outlined in the following table. You can enter values in the various format fields and click the Add Format button to add the format to the end of the current text in the Full Format text box. Once you become comfortable with the various formats you can type the format directly in the Full Format text box.

When the generator increments to the next value, it starts with the right most variable format in the full format. Once that format reaches its end value, the next increment is applied to the format immediately to the left. All formats to the right of the newly incremented format are reset to their start value and incrementing again starts with the right most format. Once all formats reach their end value, the final value is output on each increment.

Fixed Text Field

Enter any text and click the Add Format button to insert the fixed text at the cursor position in the Full Format text box.

Letter Format

A letter format defines a range for a single letter character. As an example, the format [a-x] would provide an incremented set of single letters, starting with a, and ending at or before x (depending on the increment setting).

Letter Case	Click to toggle between upper and lower case letter formats.
Start Letter	Select the start letter for the format from the drop down list.
End Letter	Select the end letter for the format from the drop down list. If left blank, the end letter is set to z or Z.
Increment	Enter an increment value for the format. Each newly generated value is incremented by this value. If the increment is set to one, it is not included in the format description. For example, the letter format [a-x] with an increment of 3 would generate a, d, g, k ... ( this assumes that i is one of the excluded letters ).

Examples:

Basic: [a-g]

a through g, increment of one letter

Custom Increment: [B-D;2]

B and D only. Starts with B, next generated value is increment by 2 => D

Double letters: [A-B][a-c]

This is two letter formats that combine to generate incremented double letter values;

Aa, Ab, Ac, Ba, Bb, Bc

Number Format

A number format provides a range of numbers. You can control the number of characters in the output with the number format.

Number Format	Select the minimum number of numeric characters to display. Leading zeros are displayed if the number generated requires less characters. Generated numbers that require more characters to display are not affected.
Start Number	Enter the start number for the format
End Number	Enter the maximum number for the format.
Increment	Enter the integer increment value. If the increment is set to one it is not included in format description. See the example below for generating a incremented decimal value format.

Examples:

Basic: [1-7]	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Minimum Characters: [00:1-99]	01, 02, 03, 04, ... 97, 98, 99
Min characters exceeded: [0:1-12]	1, 2, 3, 4, ..., 9, 10, 11, 12
Custom Increment: [4-14;2]	4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14
Decimal Number: [1-2].[00:0-99]	This is two number formats separated by a fixed text format consisting of a period. This generates formated decimal values to two decimal places. 1.00, 1.01, 1.02, 1.03, ... 1.98, 1.99, 2.00, 2.01, 2.02, ... 2.97, 2.98, 2.99

Full Format

The Full Format text box contains the complete format of the text value generator. You are free to edit the text directly without using any of the format generators above. Each change to the text results in an evaluation of the full format. If the format is not valid a descriptive error is displayed below the text box. You are prevented from saving the text value generator if the full format cannot be validated.

Add Format

Click the Add Format button to the right of the fixed, text, or number format tools to add the format to the end of the current text in the Full Format text box. You can edit the position of the format in the Full Format text box by using Cut and Paste.

Values Preview

The Values preview list provides a preview of the values that will be generated from the current format defined in the Full Format text box. Use the preview to confirm the output of your text value generator.

Click the Refresh button to generate a list of values using the current full format.

Click the Clear button to erase the list of values.