Creating, editing parameter templates and their components

You can choose to edit a parameter template to add or remove selection types; or to add, remove or alter the values of selection entries within selection types.

To create, edit a parameter template

1. On the Tools menu, click Parameter Templates.

The Manage Parameter Templates dialog box appears.

2. Consider your situation:

• To begin creating a new parameter template, click New.
• To edit an existing parameter template, select the template, and then click Edit.

IMPORTANT: The Edit button is available only if no project is opened whose drawing use the template.

The Edit Parameter Template dialog box appears.

NOTE: If you are creating a new parameter template, the dialog box will be empty.

Creating selection types

3. To begin editing the selection types and their entries, click the Selection Types tab.
4. To create a selection type, under the Selection Types list, click Add, and then, in the field that opens, type in a name for the new selection type.
5. Proceed with creating a selection type entry:

• Ensure that in the Selection Types list you have selected the type to which you want to create entries.
• Below the right-hand side table, click Add.
• In the list's Name field, type a name for the entry.
• In the Expression field, type a value for the entry.
• (Optional) In Description, type a brief note about what the selection entry does. NOTE: The text you type here will appear as a tooltip when later you point to the selection type in the program's Parameters tab.
• (Optional) In Languages, click to add your own translations for the selection type. When you use a design frame to extract parameter data and then create a print drawing, this description will appear in the print drawing instead of the numeric value you see in Expression here. Note that in this situation, EngView displays the translation that matches the current user interface language.

6. (Optional) To create more selection type entries, repeat Steps ii–v for each of them.

Creating functions

By editing functions, you can:

• Edit multiple resizable designs simultaneously. If the expression of a parameter uses a function, editing that function in the parameter template automatically affects the parameter value. By extension, if multiple resizable designs use the same function, editing the function in the parameter template automatically applies to all the resizable structures.
• Store complex expressions in a way that prevents the need to type them each time you need them in the expression of a parameter.

7. Click the Functions tab.

8. Click Add.

The Create Function dialog box appears.

Declaration (Name) Sets the name (declaration) of the function. It consists of a name and, most often, one argument, in brackets. The arguments must be parts of the expression of the function. When you use the function in the expression of a parameter, you should substitute the "original" argument name with a "real" parameter from the resizable design (see the example below).

Expression The program uses the expression to calculate the value when the function's value is used in the expression of a parameter.

The expression of a function may include mathematical formulas and/or functions such as IF, SWITCH or other previously defined functions. These must precede the one you are creating/editing in the Functions tab.

GOOD PRACTICE TIP: It is best if the expression of a function includes all the arguments defined in its (declaration) name.

Min Bound The minimal value the function may calculate to. 'No bound' appears when nothing has been specified for this property.

Max Bound The maximum value the function may calculate to. 'No bound' appears when nothing has been specified for this property.

Description A description of the function — for example, what is does, how to use it, or similar.

9. In Declaration and Expression, enter the relevant data.
10. (Optional) In Min Bound and Max Bound, enter, respectively, the two values that define the value range in which the function may be calculated.
11. (Optional) In Description, enter some text describing the function or its purpose.
12. Click OK.

Example: Let us consider the following situation. In the pictured structure, the height of a tongue depends on the thickness of the material and is computed according to the formula 1.5*material thickness.

This is a very popular type of locking which you can find in a host of designs. That is why it pays to make it a rule in a function which we then will use in resizable structures.

Let the function's declaration be THDC(a); the expression: 1.5*a

Later you can use it in the expression of the parameter that controls the height of the tongue in the design:

Notice that when the function is used in the expression of a parameter, the argument is the function that extracts the current material thickness of the project.

Creating default parameters

In drafting resizable designs, you might want to have routinely used parameters — for example, for width, height and length — handy for each new project and thus save yourself the effort of creating them each time you begin a new project. These parameters can be set in the parameter template of the material you are working with. Then, each time you start a resizable design from this material, you can load the parameters and then use them by simply changing their expressions.

NOTE ON PARAMETER PRESENCE: When you start a resizable design project, the template parameters are not loaded. If you have started a project, have created your own parameters and need the default ones, you can append them. In this case, note that only the ones you have not created so far will be uploaded. For example, if you have created a parameter H (for height) yourself, have set an expression for it and then append the default template parameters, the parameter H from the pre-defined template set will not be loaded and the parameter you created earlier will be used.

13. Click the Parameters tab.

14. To add a parameter, click Add, and then, in the dialog box that appears, create the selection or expression parameter that you want to make default ones.
15. After you have added the parameters that you need, click OK.
16. When you have finished with the editing of selection types, selection entries and functions, click OK.

You are back in the Manage Parameter Templates dialog box.

17. To adopt the changes, click OK.