CAD Forum

Greetings. Is there a way to use a custom property to reference the "Bounding Box Area" property from a Sheetmetal Cut list?

edcoggins wrote: ↑Thu Apr 29, 2021 4:08 pm Greetings. Is there a way to use a custom property to reference the "Bounding Box Area" property from a Sheetmetal Cut list?
Pic1.png
Pic2.png

Works for me in 2018. I know that at one time SW had a glitch in it so try this. Go into the value/text expression and put a space right at the end right before the last " and enter that.

I know that prior to 2018 SP5 a lot of things would not evaluate in weldments but if you did the above it would magically fix itself.

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried putting a space in before .SLDPRT and after the last " without success. This is on SW2020 SP5.0.

The Cut List Properties can be added as notes to a drawing. Cutting and pasting the text from the note to the custom property didn't work either.

Are the 2 images posted from the same file? I noticed the last # in the file name is not same. If they are from the same file. Change the 8 to a 2 and see what happens.

Jaylin Hochstetler wrote: ↑Thu Apr 29, 2021 5:09 pm Are the 2 images posted from the same file? I noticed the last # in the file name is not same.
2021-04-29 17_07_35-Window.jpg
2021-04-29 17_06_22-Window.jpg
If they are from the same file. Change the 8 to a 2 and see what happens.

Good catch.

edcoggins wrote: ↑Thu Apr 29, 2021 4:08 pm Greetings. Is there a way to use a custom property to reference the "Bounding Box Area" property from a Sheetmetal Cut list?
Pic1.png
Pic2.png

A little bit of added explanation to the post of edcoggins above.

You can use any of the cutlist properties associated with the flat pattern.
These use $PRPWLD and the note must be attached to the flat pattern view (which doesn't have to be within the drawing's border).
This note is $PRPWLD:"Bounding Box Area" (without any added static text or other linked properties): Right-click the edge of the flat pattern's view and select Annotations>Cut List Properties: This creates a note of several $PRPWLD's (one per line), from which you may inspect and copy what you need:

Thanks for the feedback. The model name is now corrected but am still not getting a value for the custom property at the part level.

edcoggins wrote: ↑Fri Apr 30, 2021 8:26 am Thanks for the feedback. The model name is now corrected but am still not getting a value for the custom property at the part level.

Can you post the file so someone can see if it works on another system/version? Again I know that at one point this didn't work and then it was fixed....maybe they broke it again. I'm still on 2018 but also have access to 2020. I know it works on 2018, haven't tried it on 2020.

Here is the file.

A little more information on this problem. First, by creating a brand new part, Testpart2, a custom property linked to the Bounding Box Area can be created. See attachments Pic13 and Pic14. This helps on new parts created going forward. Second, using an older part yields an even stranger issue. This part is Testpart1 and see attachment Pic9. The current file name and the cut-list property filenames don't match (note Testpart1 vs U-D0080-002R). If Properties Summary tab is selected (see Pic10), the current file name updates to Testpart1 and when Cut List Summary tab is selected (see Pic11), the filename has changed to Testpart1. Selecting OK and then reviewing the cut list properties again, the old filename of U-D0080-002R appears again (see Pic13).
Any ideas what is going on with part Testpart1? It is attached as well. Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Your template dates from 2004, according to the primary plane properties. This may not be your problem, but it is known to cause weird issues with custom properties. Can you recreate the problem with a fresh template (2020)?
And no, I don't have an answer as to why Dassault hasn't fixed this yet....... It's bitten me more than once.

All of the templates are dated 2019 or higher. Attached is Testpart2 created in the last week or so and is behaving properly.

I opened your old part (test part1), deleted the cutlist (which recreates it) and it worked fine. Before delete: After delete:

edcoggins wrote: ↑Wed May 05, 2021 4:32 pm All of the templates are dated 2019 or higher. Attached is Testpart2 created in the last week or so and is behaving properly.

TestPart2.SLDPRT

Just to be clear, template age is determined by the version used to create it, not by the last saved version. Testpart2 is from a fresh template, coincidentally or otherwise.....

One trick to force a complete update of the cutlist is to RMB on the folder in the tree, and click delete. That fixed it for Testpart1, as far as I can tell.
EDIT: Jaylin types faster.

Thanks for the responses about deleting the cut list! I then promptly tried to link the Bounding Box Area property to a custom property which will not evaluate. See Pic15 below. Any thoughts on this issue?

Can someone confirm,
Does this only work on 2018 and above?
And it needs a newly created template?

ResidentAtLarge wrote: ↑Tue Nov 30, 2021 11:44 am Can someone confirm,
Does this only work on 2018 and above?
And it needs a newly created template?

Could you please elaborate what you're referring to?

Jaylin Hochstetler wrote: ↑Tue Nov 30, 2021 11:55 am Could you please elaborate what you're referring to?

My apologies for not being clear on that.
My question was about being able to link the cut-list properties(bounding box info) to the custom/config properties.
I am currently on 2017 and it seems that I am not able to do that.

ResidentAtLarge wrote: ↑Tue Nov 30, 2021 12:07 pm My apologies for not being clear on that.
My question was about being able to link the cut-list properties(bounding box info) to the custom/config properties.
I am currently on 2017 and it seems that I am not able to do that.

I am not sure when they added this feature. Maybe someone else knows when they added this feature... I am on 2021 SP4.1 and it works for me.

ResidentAtLarge wrote: ↑Tue Nov 30, 2021 12:07 pm My apologies for not being clear on that.
My question was about being able to link the cut-list properties(bounding box info) to the custom/config properties.
I am currently on 2017 and it seems that I am not able to do that.

I did a little bit more research and it appears like they added it in 2018.
http://help.solidworks.com/2018/english ... ements.htm

Jaylin Hochstetler wrote: ↑Tue Nov 30, 2021 12:54 pm I did a little bit more research and it appears like they added it in 2018.
http://help.solidworks.com/2018/english ... ements.htm

That was exactly what I was looking for. Thank you! I'm glad I didn't need to create a whole new thread for that.