Creating a Table

You must first create a table that drives your component family. This table, which contains columns associated with the model parameters, can be a design table if you work with parts or a product table if you work with assemblies. For more information about design tables, see Knowledge Basics: Managing Relations: Design Tables. For more information about product tables, see Knowledge Basics: Creating and Managing Product Tables.

  1. Open Excel or a text editor.
    Note: The table can have a .xls or .txt format.
  2. In a new worksheet, enter the required data.
    Important:
    • Remember that the first column must be the identification column. As identification column, the first column of the table cannot contain duplicated values. In V5, a column "Part Number" was mandatory. Now the name of this column can be different from the part number: if the table contains a "Part Number" column, it is the identification column. If not, it is the first column.
    • If the identification of an item is changed when applying changes to the design table, it is managed as an item deletion and a new item is created. If some models were previously generated, they are stored in the database but not referenced by the component family any longer.
    • Column types are deduced:
      • first from the parameter type associated with the design table column if any,
      • then from the column content itself. A search is made on the most precise type depending on the content of the cells.

      For example, if you work with a column that contains values of length type, entering (String) in the column name has no effect because a unit is expected at this location, not a parameter type.

  3. Save your file and exit the app.