KB166824088: ArtiosCAD - In the standard editions, why will a userfield in a customized database information dialog not retain its value

Question

Why will a userfield in a customized database information dialog not retain its value in the ArtiosCAD standard editions?

Answer

In ArtiosCAD Defaults, a user can create a customized template for Database Information dialog.

Defaults to set dialog:

In the Defaults dialog, navigate to Design defaults > Database to open the Database dialog.
Click the Use custom dialog definition file radio button.
Click the Customized... button to open the Control Layout Manager dialog.
Design your template by dragging controls from Controls tree to template area.

Now, in ArtiosCAD, navigate to Database > Information... menu to display Database Information dialog:

When creating a customized database dialog template, the user can place controls for any database userfield. There are three types of user fields:

Prompted
Calculated
Restricted.

If the user places a control for a calculated userfield, this control is read only in the dialog, because the value is calculated from the design and can't be changed. If the user places a control for a restricted userfield, this control will display the drop-down list of the allowable values for this userfield. If the user places a control for a prompted user field, this control is an edit box which allows the user to enter a value in the dialog. Since calculated user fields can't be changed in the dialog, from this point forward, the discussion will focus on the other two types of userfields.

When a user enters a value for a userfield in a customized database information dialog, this value may not be retained in a subsequently opened dialog because the userfield is actually not assigned to the design just yet.

The preferred way is to designate userfields as "required" using DataCenter Admin.

"Required" in this case means that the userfields will be added to a design automatically, which in turn means the user may immediately enter userfield values in the customized database information dialog. Userfields which have no specified values are not associated with the design in the database.

An alternative is to individually add userfields to a design from the database information dialog:

Click the Userfields... button to open the Set Userfields dialog.
In the dialog, click Add to open the Add Userfield dialog.
In this dialog select the userfield whose control has been added to the customized database information template, click OK to close the Add Userfield dialog.
From this point forward, the userfield is assigned to the design and values can be entered in the customized database information dialog.

To make this method work, you have to have Userfields... button in the Database Information dialog template. This button can be added in Defaults:

Article information
Applies to	ArtiosCAD 14.0.2 and older
Created	11-Mar-15
Last revised
Author	IVE
CW Number

Contents