Dynamic Component Attribute default Units

[mikeewilly]

Is there a way to define a default other than "text" for new custom attributes? I work primarily in "inches" and I'm getting REAL TIRED of having to set the units on every attribute I define.

Thanks,
Mike

[TIG]

I don't fully understand your issue if you define an attribute that is a 'length' it's a 'number' and it always defaults to 'inches' anyway - just as 'angles' are always in 'degrees'.
You can set your units and your displayed units separately too...
Why are you taking 'text' attributes...
See this example

[mikeewilly]

@tig said:

I don't fully understand your issue if you define an attribute that is a 'length' it's a 'number' and it always defaults to 'inches' anyway - just as 'angles' are always in 'degrees'.
You can set your units and your displayed units separately too...
Why are you taking 'text' attributes...
See this example

TIG,

The attributes I'm setting are custom attributes and they always default to text which sometime causes a problem when I set a LenX, LenY, or LenZ attribute equal to the Custom Attribute. Consequently, after defining them, I have to go into the screen you're showing and change the units to "inches". I would prefer to have all custom attributes default to inches.

Thanks,
Mike

[TIG]

You should be able to set custom_attributes to whatever units you want...
Change the attribute name to say 'myLenX' etc and see if that helps...
Post and example and we'll investigate it further...

[mikeewilly]

@tig said:

You should be able to set custom_attributes to whatever units you want...
Change the attribute name to say 'myLenX' etc and see if that helps...
Post and example and we'll investigate it further...

Hi TIG,

The problem is not being able to set the units after custom attribute definition. The problem is that it defaults to text. There are times I have to add a custom attribute to a number of components and it gets to be a pain to have to go in and change the units each and every time from "default: text" to "inches".

For instance. I have a dynamic cabinet door that initially had a "Rail_and_Stile" custom attribute that was set to "Parent!Rail_and_Stile" to denote the widths of the Rails and Stiles of the door. I came to a point in time when my overall design dictated that I had to have some doors that had 4 different rail and stile dimensions. One each for the top and bottom rail and one each for the right and left stile. Adding the 4 custom attributes to the door definition was no problem. Each variable was then set to "Parent!Right_Stile", "Parent!Top_Rail", etc. Four new definitions and in each case I had to change the units from "default: text" to "inches". All of which was no problem on the door.

The problem came when I had to add those custom attributes to each of the parents: 4 times 15 and in each case the units had to be changed from "default: text" to "inches".

It would have been nice to have the ability to set what I wanted the units to default to.

Cheers,
Mike