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How to configure SolidWorks Custom Properties

One of the most important attributes of a document are the properties (metadata) defined within the File/Properties dialog box. These properties are referred to as metadata.

Metadata can be used by SolidWorks® software and other downstream applications to define attributes that help describe and define the document. An example would be drawing formats. If the custom properties were setup and defined, the drawing format can read these values and automatically complete the drawing format.

The Properties dialog box

The custom property values are defined within the File/Properties dialog box. This dialog box has a couple of tabs. The first tab is the summary page which displays the statistics about the file (i.e., created by, last saved date, and last saved by) as well as additional general fields. The other two tabs are for custom properties. The Configuration Specific tab allows custom properties to be defined based on the active configuration. These are the custom properties as they are defined by you the user.

Two under-utilized fields within the Summary tab are the keywords and comments fields. The Keywords field can be used to define searchable attributes for a type of document. For example, a document could be described using some common descriptors like weldment or it could be defined by product line or model. Other applications could use this information to search the documents. The comment field can be used to define notes or comments that are saved as metadata.

Figure 1 – Properties (Summary)

Figure 2 shows the custom properties page. This is a grid control used to define and edit the custom properties for the document. One important note here is that these properties are document specific. This means they are controlled by the document (part, assembly, and drawing) templates. Accurately defining templates is a key to using custom properties. If they are pre-defined within the template, they do not need to be added to each document. This saves time and ensures they are consistent on every document.

To define a setting, pick the field within the grid on the Property Name cell, select the value from the pull-down list, set the type and value. After the value has been defined, select in another cell or press the Tab key and the property will be evaluated. Another method of defining the custom properties within a template will be described below.

Note that if a type of date is used, the value entered must be a valid date. Do not enter a date that may be valid but not accurate. One suggestion is to make the default 1/1/9999. This is a valid date but is fairly obvious that it needs to change.

Figure 2– Properties

Defining the values

The values displayed on the Property Name pull-down menu on the Custom tab can be defined based on your requirements. It is good practice to only show what needs to be defined. If a property will not be used, remove it from the list.

These values are read from the properties.txt file. By default, this file is located in the <install directory>\lang\<selected language directory. For example, if SolidWorks was installed in the C:\Program Files\SolidWorks2005 directory and English was the installed language, the file would be in the C:\Program Files\SolidWorks2005\lang\english directory.

This file is used to display the list of properties that can be defined. It does not assign the custom property automatically to the document. If existing property values are already assigned, they are not removed by this feature. The purpose of this function is to allow the list to be customized to limit the choices displayed to ones which may be applicable. This is a text file that can be edited using Notepad. Each line defines a property name.

The location of the properties.txt can also be defined to a new location. It is a good practice to move the file to a common location that can be shared with other users within your company. Any file that you customize where the location can be defined via the File Locations dialog should be kept outside of the SolidWorks install directory.

To set the location of the custom property file, go to Tools/Options dialog box and select File Locations , the select Custom Property File from the Show folders for: drop-down menu. Then add the location of the properties.txt file.

Configurations specific values

Figure 3 shows the Configuration Specific tab. This allows for custom properties values to be defined and changed based on a configuration within the document. The example show in Figure 3 would have a couple of configurations that allow for different finishes to be defined.

Figure 3 – Properties dialog box showing Summary and Custom tabs

Pre-defining the values

As previously mentioned, the best way to ensure the documents have consistent custom properties is to define a template that contains the desired values.

If the custom properties are already defined within a document template, the document created from those templates should already contain the property values. The user only needs to edit the value, not add the property name and type.

Conclusion

Metadata can be a valuable asset for SolidWorks documents. By setting up and sharing the properties.txt file, defining document templates to setup these values and defining drawing formats using these values, you and your organization can better leverage this capability.

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