CAD Forum

jcapriotti wrote: ↑Fri Oct 22, 2021 5:06 pm We put what we need in the Name. I'm guessing the search is not looking at the XML, just the tree structure at run-time which is why its not seeing the other properties such as description. FWIW, Inventor did find it so its searching for more than just the name although not every property. Solid Edge had no search option.

123-456789 Aluminum 1/8" Tread Plate

berg_lauritz wrote: ↑Mon Oct 25, 2021 9:05 am So if you call out the material it would say:

Code: Select all

123-456789 Aluminum 1/8" Tread Plate

?

It's just that we already have 'correct' Material number that we would like to use, because the shop floor uses it. It's actually more work for them to look it up all the time.

berg_lauritz wrote: ↑Fri Oct 22, 2021 12:56 pm So....
We upgraded yesterday to SolidWorks 2021 and now we will finally be able to link the materials to a gauge table & with this to the thickness (FINALLY!).
Also we are finally able to search for materials in the database - or so we thought:

SolidWorks only allows to search for the TITLE of the material, but not for the description. Which does not help us a lot, because we do not want to name our materials "[material#]-[description]". I cannot believe honestly, that they only allow to search for the title within an .XML file.

LIKE... COME ON!

The goal is to have the correct Material in there, that is used on the floor (a.k.a. the material #) or a material group that can easily be identified (i.e LEATHER (of no specific color)). This is so that we only have to enter this material once and not show the description with it all the time. Plus it would show on the BOM correctly for everybody.

How do you deal with this? Do you search outside of SolidWorks for the material number & assign it then through your own?
Is there a tool, that will let you search properly for the material?
How do you deal with this problem?
Do you just make folders with the description in it? i.e. alum. -> angle -> 9 -> 6 -> .25 -> [material#]
This way you can search for it at least....

JSculley wrote: ↑Mon Oct 25, 2021 2:26 pm I whipped up an add-in that will let you search for text in the material name or description. The basic building blocks are in place but I 'm curious on how you would like it to work. Would you prefer a tree structure that narrows itself down as you type your search terms like the current name search does? The problem with that is that if the tree lists just material names and a description matches, it might not be obvious that it's a correct match. Another option is to simply have a search form that then lists the results in a tabular form showing name, description, etc and then you could select from the list to apply the material.

berg_lauritz wrote: ↑Tue Oct 26, 2021 4:59 pm If we could search for a description - that would solve almost all of our problems! Is it within Solidworks?

JSculley wrote: ↑Tue Oct 26, 2021 5:24 pm I haven't given up on that approach entirely but I suspect it isn't doable.

JSculley wrote: ↑Tue Oct 26, 2021 7:31 pm Actually it is quite doable. I just needed to read the API docs more carefully. Edit Material now brings up this dialog:

image.png

And search results look like this:

image.png

So...progress.

berg_lauritz wrote: ↑Wed Oct 27, 2021 10:10 am Is this on GIT? Which language are you writing it in? C#?
Man, I wish I could help you with this. It looks VERY promising!

JSculley wrote: ↑Wed Oct 27, 2021 10:26 am It is C#. I've got the dialog all working correctly. Next is to pass the info back to SOLIDWORKS to apply the material. I have to do a little more work to differentiate between applying to part/bodies and to handle applying to current config/all configs/selected configs. I'll probably add another button to the form that works exactly like the one in the SW dialog:

image.png

Also, storing some of the state between subsequent calls so that it remembers dialog size, selected libraries, etc...

bnemec wrote: ↑Thu Dec 02, 2021 1:32 pm I've been getting pressure to do something with our materials "DB". As the list grows and is not sorted people are not finding the correct material or asking for existing material to be added. If it would be possible to work together I'll do what I can.

AlexLachance wrote: ↑Fri Jul 08, 2022 10:34 am I don't know if it's possible, but perhaps you should rename your topic title to reflect your add-in's capacities rather then have it be the question that caused you to create this. You could also add to your original post the link to the Prerelease. so that it is "easier" to find, if this ever picks up a lot of attention.

bnemec wrote: ↑Thu Dec 02, 2021 1:32 pm I've been getting pressure to do something with our materials "DB". As the list grows and is not sorted people are not finding the correct material or asking for existing material to be added. If it would be possible to work together I'll do what I can.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Xml.Linq;

namespace Material_Database_Sorter
{
    internal class Program
    {
        static void Main()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Please type the URL or your Material Database:");
            string myURL = Console.ReadLine().Trim();
            if (File.Exists(myURL))
            {
                SortXmlNodes(myURL);
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("File does not exist");
            }
        }
        static void SortXmlNodes(string docUrl)
        {
            var xDoc = XDocument.Load(docUrl);
            var parent = xDoc.Elements().FirstOrDefault();
            var comparer = StringComparer.Create(System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentCulture, true);
            var sortedNodes = parent.Elements().OrderBy(node => node.Name.LocalName, comparer);

            parent.ReplaceNodes(sortedNodes);

            foreach (var node in sortedNodes)
            {
                if (node.Name.LocalName == "classification")
                {
                    var sortedChildren = node.Elements().OrderBy(element => element.Attribute("name").Value, comparer);
                    node.ReplaceNodes(sortedChildren);
                }
            }

            string newFileName = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop), "Sorted_" + Path.GetFileName(docUrl));
            xDoc.Save(newFileName);
        }
    }
}