T-FLEX Parametric CAD. Fundamentals. 2D Design

Creating Dialog Box
At this step, we will compose the dialog box that will be used for
inserting the current drawing as a fragment. Each time when
assembling a drawing (model), the user will be getting a dialog
box containing standard Windows elements (input boxes, pulldown
lists, etc.), helping easily and quickly defining the
parameters of the fragment being assembled.
Creating such a dialog box is relatively simple. First, create a new
page to hold the control elements. To do this, lunch the command
“Draw|Control” and select the automenu option “Create
Dialog Page”.
Some of the controls (“Static Text”, “Group Box”) do not depend
on variables. When creating such elements, you define their
position and then enter their name. Such elements help creating a
clear dialog structure with necessary descriptions.
Other elements depend on variables. At creation, besides defining
their position, you need to specify the variable related to such
element. To input the parameters directly, you can use the items
“Edit Box” and “Combo Box”. The “Combo Box” is used when
the variable has a predefined list of values. In our example, all
variables that we input have lists of values; therefore, “Combo
Box” should be used for them.
Some variable can have only two determined values. To work
with these variables, it is convenient to use a “Yes/No” switch
element. When creating such an element, you define the variable
values for the cases when the switch is on and off.
When specifying the text displayed on controls, it is possible to
use variables. This will allow for changes in the text contens of
the dialog according to selected bolt’s parameters. For example,
in the dialog of our bolt, the text for one of the controls of the
type “Static text” is set in the following way: “Bolt
{$ispsp}М{dd}{$polesp}%%042{ll}{$klprsp}{$mmat}{$Pocrn
om} GOST 7795-70”.
Next, change the page size (this can be conveniently done by the
command “Customize|Page size”) to make its size equal to
the size of the dialog box. After that, start the editing mode of the
control elements and define the order of the control elements.
The order of the control elements determines their appearance in
the dialog box and their activation order when using the
key. It is recommended to place static text first, followed by the
control elements bound to the variables, in the order that provides
easy switching between them.
Similarly, we create the second page of the dialog of the
fragment’s parameters which will contain additional parameters
of the bolt.
Creating Libraries of Parametric Elements
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