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File|Properties|Summary|Com##### (RANT)

File|Properties|Summary|Com##### (RANT)

File|Properties|Summary|Com##### (RANT)

(OP)
Open File|Properties|Summary|Comments.

What appears is a big text box, apparently equipped with a slider bar, nicely sized for, well, a summary of what an assembly is all about, what vendor drawings were used to produce it, warnings about gotchas, maybe even a revision history, whatever you'd like to include.

That's what it _appears_ to be.
It's not.

The field is apparently limited to a couple hundred characters.  Type a few paragraphs of text into it, click OK, save the file, and come back to the dialog.
The text has been truncated to about 1/3 the height of the text box.

I did it twice.

No warning is offered about the truncation; no indication whatsoever that the size of the field is limited; your stuff just goes into the bitbucket.

Not what I expect from professional software.
SW2009.4.1
 

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: File|Properties|Summary|Com##### (RANT)

Mike,

No help on your rant, but it sounds like you want to look into using the design binder/journal rather than the summary.

The design journal is a Word document that you access from the feature manager; I'd be surprised if there are any limitations on the size of the document.  File size might be an issue, however.

RE: File|Properties|Summary|Com##### (RANT)

Mike ... to be fair, the File > Properties > Summary is a Windows function (compare with any other program file).

Maybe SW could possibly have expanded the Summary ability, but the Design Binder/Journal function is much better.

RE: File|Properties|Summary|Com##### (RANT)

(OP)
Uh, Windows function?  I don't think so.

So I tested it.  If I fill the field with text, SW truncates it to 1023 characters.

If I put the same text in a .txt file, and look at File|Properties|Comments, well, Wordpad doesn't have that function, and neither does Notepad.

If I put text in the 'comments' field of a .txt file opened with MS Word and save it as .txt, the field gets truncated to 0 bytes. ... so the .txt file format doesn't support that field.

If I put text in the 'comments' field of a .txt file and then save it as a .doc file, close it and reopen it, the text is not truncated, at least not at 1023 characters and a few beyond.  So the .doc field does support the function, but I don't know what its limits are.

So the field is not maintained by the operating system, but by the application.  I don't have a problem with the size of the field being limited.  I DO have a problem with not getting ANY warning or indication that the limit has been exceeded.  E.g., a limited size text box, or just failing to repeat and show any characters entered after the field is full, or (I hope not) a beep.

See, you can enter, and edit, an amount of text in the text box that exceeds the amount that will be stored.  You shouldn't be able to do that.  User Interface Design 101.


Now, as suggested, I'll start using the Design Binder/ Journal, and I'll tell my friends.. but I remain annoyed at the amateur tracks in Solidworks.



 

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: File|Properties|Summary|Com##### (RANT)

Mike ... That's strange! On every file type I tried (.kmz, .txt, .sldprt, .doc, .ram, rtf) the text was truncated to 259 characters (including spaces).

Also strange, on my system Wordpad and Notepad files do have the Summary function.

RE: File|Properties|Summary|Com##### (RANT)

(OP)
Okay, I'm editing the Design Journal now.
It took half an hour of blind searching, and then looking in the Help system (which actually helped; one in a row) in order to make the Design Binder appear in the Feature Tree of the part drawing.


I'm using XP for a substrate.  
I'd much prefer just about any flavor of Linux.
 

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

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