Design Table Limitations - HELP!
Design Table Limitations - HELP!
(OP)
This one is giving me nightmares. Let me first briefly describe what I am doing. I am creating SW models of our machines which can be changed by entering variables in an excel spreadsheet. For example, we build some conveyors. There are 30 or so things that can change on the conveyor (examples being length, width, height...) The user will open a 'Master' Spreadsheet and enter these values. The DT's of all the parts in the assembly are linked back to this Spreadsheet. I then have a macro which opens all parts in the assy with a DT, opens the DT (allowing linked variables to update) and then closes the DT. It is all working very well for me. Until now that is.
Now I am working on a machine which is more complex and one of my Part DT's is looking like hitting over 250 variables. The limit of columns in excel is 256 which means I could be screwed as it will exceed the 256 cells in the DT that I can enter information.
What I would like to know is the following. Is there any way that solidworks can be set to read variables down the column in the DT instead of along the row as is normal. The limit of rows is huge in comparison to columns. Indeed is there any way I can put the DT variables on a 2nd or 3rd page and have the configuration continue reading them after if sheet 1 is full?
Alternatively, I will have to wait until Excel 2007 comes out (it promises 1600 columns).
Any help would be appreciated.
Niall
Now I am working on a machine which is more complex and one of my Part DT's is looking like hitting over 250 variables. The limit of columns in excel is 256 which means I could be screwed as it will exceed the 256 cells in the DT that I can enter information.
What I would like to know is the following. Is there any way that solidworks can be set to read variables down the column in the DT instead of along the row as is normal. The limit of rows is huge in comparison to columns. Indeed is there any way I can put the DT variables on a 2nd or 3rd page and have the configuration continue reading them after if sheet 1 is full?
Alternatively, I will have to wait until Excel 2007 comes out (it promises 1600 columns).
Any help would be appreciated.
Niall






RE: Design Table Limitations - HELP!
RE: Design Table Limitations - HELP!
RE: Design Table Limitations - HELP!
Need to Scott Baughs feedback here as he's done this and ran into the same excel limitation. He'd probably have some good advice on how to work around it.
Jason
UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2005 SP5.0 on WinXP SP2
SolidWorks 2006 SP3.3 on WinXP SP2
RE: Design Table Limitations - HELP!
RE: Design Table Limitations - HELP!
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091
RE: Design Table Limitations - HELP!
RE: Design Table Limitations - HELP!
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091
RE: Design Table Limitations - HELP!
Stefan Hamminga
EngIT Solutions
CSWP/Mechanical designer/AI student
RE: Design Table Limitations - HELP!
Stefan - The mates should either 'break' or suppress. Either way they should not result in errors and when the part is unsupressed again they should return to their normal state.
RE: Design Table Limitations - HELP!
Stefan Hamminga
EngIT Solutions
CSWP/Mechanical designer/AI student
RE: Design Table Limitations - HELP!
We may have similar problems. We build Partition walls that can very in Height and Width. We too are working with large assemblies with many different configuration. What we ended up doing was separating them into separate files for each type of Product, rather then suppressing a few things for each product. Most of our products are similar within one line, and it would have been nice to have them all in just a few files, but they got to be just too large for excel to handle. I'm not sure if this is applicable in your situation, but maybe it will help.
I was also hoping you could help me with a problem we are having with Updating Design tables. It sounds like you have solved our problem exactly with what you have done for updating design tables for both parts and assemblies. I hate to start a thread circle here but here is the link to the thread I just started to get some help.
http://www
If you could send me some information on how you setup your system I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!
RE: Design Table Limitations - HELP!
Dave
RE: Design Table Limitations - HELP!
Also using Equations might help reduce the number of DT columns required.
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091
RE: Design Table Limitations - HELP!
I have 288 unique dimensions describing the root, tip, chord lengths and angles of attack for a wind turbine blade. All these values are calculated from an Excel sheet that I made and it would be nice to port them straight into a design table.
Dave
RE: Design Table Limitations - HELP!
RE: Design Table Limitations - HELP!
Dave
RE: Design Table Limitations - HELP!