Tag reference to material custom fields

[Samuel Derenboim]

Hi all and vectorworks team,

@Nikolay Zhelyazkov 

 

Firstly, latest update to tags was great! the bug that existing in graphic legends and tags where text was greater than 4.5 inches in width no longer disrupts spacing conditions between multiple dynamic text fields!!! Either way, thank you for that !!!!!!!!!!!! I will follow up with some discoveries regarding this a little later on...however I did want to ask :

 

As requested in this resource, was the ability to reference custom records in materials by any chance added? (see forum discussion at the bottom)

 

The reason I ask is because i can modify the custom record in a worksheet just fine using the record.field option when listing materials in the document - and it is freely modifiable!!!

Since the ability to create WS function in tags, how would I now add custom record for component 1, or component 2 that has a record 'custom record','custom field' attached to it?

 

What I've tried so far :

 

#WS_MatpropertybyName(ComponentMaterial(1),'Custom record.custom field')#

#WS_ObjectData(ComponentMaterial(1),'Custom Record','Custom Field')#

#WS_MaterialProperty(ComponentMaterial(1),'Customrecord','CustomField)#

 

 

 

Edited May 24 by Samuel Derenboim

[Nikolay Zhelyazkov]

Hello @Samuel Derenboim,

 

If you were able to get this done in a worksheet you should be able to just copy the formula from the worksheet and paste it in the data tag like this "#WS_<worksheet formula here>#" and then it should work the same way as in the worksheet.

 

Let me know if this is not the case.

 

Best Regards,

Nikolay Zhelyazkov

[Tom W.]

On 5/24/2024 at 10:13 PM, Samuel Derenboim said:

The reason I ask is because i can modify the custom record in a worksheet just fine using the record.field option when listing materials in the document - and it is freely modifiable!!!

 

On 5/27/2024 at 7:21 AM, Nikolay Zhelyazkov said:

If you were able to get this done in a worksheet you should be able to just copy the formula from the worksheet and paste it in the data tag like this "#WS_<worksheet formula here>#" and then it should work the same way as in the worksheet.

 

Let me know if this is not the case.

 

@Nikolay Zhelyazkov I think the issue is that you can run a database report on Materials generally (i.e. all the Materials in the file = in the Resource Manager) + return the Custom Fields but you can't return those custom fields if you're reporting on objects in the drawing. You can return all the 'General Info', 'Physical' + 'Construction' fields for Materials when reporting on objects but not the Custom Fields.

 

See request 2 here:

 

What I'd really like to be able to do is something like this:

 

=MATPROPERTYBYNAME(<material name>, <record name>, <field name>)

[Tom W.]

Ok got it I can return custom fields in reports + data tags using the formula =MATPROPERTYBYNAME(MATERIALNAME, '<record name>.<field name>')

Edited September 6 by Tom W.

[Pat Stanford]

Good find Tom.  But take a look at my warning about naming records.fields in the other thread.

[Tom W.]

3 minutes ago, Pat Stanford said:

Good find Tom.

 

It was actually a note at the bottom of one of the VW preformatted reports:

 

I have only the slimmest understanding of what's going on here - all I know is to be sure to write this stuff down when you discover it!