Model parameters

External variables are usually widely used in the T-FLEX CAD documents for organizing parametric connection between assembly document and fragments, and also for organizing connection of the TFLEX CAD with other systems and applications.

For editing variables, marked as external, besides the variables editor, the command “M: Model Parameters” can be used:

In contrast to the variables editor, only those variables of the current document which are marked as external are displayed in this command. This command does not allow a user to create new variables. Thus, if there are no external variables in the drawing, the message “No external variables” is produced and the command is not called.

The kind of the dialog box used in this command depends on the attribute setting “Marked variable editor” in the command “ST: Set Document Parameters” (the tab “Preferences”). This attribute can assume one of the following settings:

●Internal Editor. Upon calling the command “М: Model Parameters”, the Variable Editor dialog box comes up for editing external variables, that looks similar to the normal variable editor window;

●Program. In this case, the appearance of the dialog box is defined by the external custom application;

●Pages. The user might have created a custom dialog box using interface elements (see the chapter “Control Elements. Creating User Defined Dialog Boxes”). In such a case, calling the command “М: Model Parameters” brings up this dialog box.

The command “M: Model Parameters” can be used for modeling the process of editing external variables of the fragment in an assembly. One more possible way of using this command – when too many expressions are specified in the current drawing. In this case it is possible to mark the variables on which the remaining variables depend as external ones, and, if necessary, modify their values in the external variables editor.

Upon changing the values of the external variables with the help of the command “М: Model parameters”, only constants can be used as admissible values of variables.

After completing the command, all variables are recalculated per the changes to the external variables, and the drawing is regenerated with the new parameters.