When the user drags and drops an icon related to parametric part of ICMechanical, a dialog box will be showed. All the dialogs are organized in the same way. Starting from the top of the dialog, it’s possible to find a tab useful to select the name. Below these tabs, there are several icons that could be used to select the kind of component. All the controls under these icons are used to select the correct normative and the dimensions of the components.

These are the descriptions of all the controls.

‍

Top of the dialog

There are the buttons useful to control the placement of the component and a combo box used to select the Standard Rule.

1. Clicking this combo box the user can select the active standard rule.
2. This button is used to switch the state of TriBall. Usually, when a fastener is placed on the scene, the TriBall is switched on. In this way the user can immediately move the component in the right place. Clicking the button, the state of TriBall is toggled between on and off. The check button at the top on the right of the button controls the state of TriBall after the confirm of placement. If the button is checked and TriBall is active, TriBall will stay active, otherwise TriBall is disabled.
3. This button updates the component and it confirms the placement inside the scene.
4. This button updates the component and it closes the dialog box. When the dialog is closed, the state of TriBall is controlled by the buttons described before.
5. This button closes the dialog box and it terminates the command. If you haven’t confirmed the placement before, the current component will be deleted.
6. This button displays a dialog box containing information about the current tool.

‍

Settings

The items included in this box enable you to save the current setting of the component. This enables you to recall them quickly in future sessions. The buttons included in this section enable you to save, remove or apply any saved setting.

‍

Components

This section is composed by several tabs. These tabs enable you to select the type of component. Every tab contains a family of components. On the left side of this section there is a drop down button that is used to select the type of the component. Moving the cursor over the icons of the components, it’s displayed a tooltip which describes the component. As soon as a new component is selected, all the items in the dialog box will be updated in order to display the available standards and dimensions.

‍

Parameters

The central section of the dialog box contains the options useful to select the standard and the dimensions of the component. These parameters are: Standard Name, Component Type, Length and Material.

Standard Name Using this dialog box, the user can select the correct rule. When the user changes the rule, a label shows a full description about the component. Usually this description is placed at the bottom of the dialog box.

Type This combo box contains all the values related to the selected rule. When the user drags a component over another one (for example, if the user drags a nut over a screw), a check control named Auto will be shown. Using this toggle control, it’s possible that the nut inherits the screw dimensions.

Length This field is used to set the length for the components that use this field. This combo box contains the available lengths defined for this rule. When the length is free, (as in the Steel case) a text box will be showed instead of the combo box.

Thickness This field is used to set the thickness for the components that use this field. This combo box contains the available thickness defined for this rule.

Material Using this combo box, the user could select the code of the material related to the component.

‍

BOM Information

The lower section of the dialog contains the items useful to set the information related to the component. The section is divided in two parts: BOM Information and Custom Information.

BOM Information section contains all the items useful to set PartNumber and Description of the component. The available items are:

Usually the Name of the component is the same of the PartNumber. This combo box enable you to set the Name of component as the Description or Don’t change the current name.

This check button controls the enable state of the text item placed on the right. If this button is checked, any string placed in the text item will be used as prefix of the PartNumber.

This check button is used to control the “Included in the BOM” state of the component.

This combo box is used to control how the PartNumber and the Description will be managed. The available options are:

• Automatic - In this case PartNumber and Description are automatically generated reading the settings in the IPRO_BOM.ini file.
• Set By User - In this case the BOM Information are filled by the user.
• PartNumber Auto – Description by user - In this case the PartNumber is automatically generated. The Description is manually set by the user.
• PartNumber by User – Description Auto - In this case the PartNumber is manually set by the user. The Description will be automatically generated.

These text items contain the current BOM Information. Their state depends on the selection done on the Code Generation combo box.

Custom Information is a collection of information that you can add to the current component. When you click on the Custom Info tab, it is displayed a two column grid that enable you to see and to set information associated to the component.

Customizing the IPRO_BOM.ini it’s possible to create custom information automatically.

‍

Status bar

The status bar reports the description of the selected standard rule. If you click on description Library Data Manager starts to modify the description and the rules to create the bill of materials. Close to it, on the right, there is a button that enable you to edit the data file, launching the Library Data Manager…