Select Design Template

To make a Design Template available for selection by a User, for incorporation (as a design instance) into a 3D model, the Design Template must be referenced from a Catalog Specification or from a Selection Table.

When a designer selects a catalog component via a Specification (SPEC), the application searches the Specification Selectors (SELEs) using a question/answer sequence, until a Specification Component (SPCO) is found which matches all of the specified design criteria. The catalog component selected is the one to which the Catalog Reference attribute (CATREF) of that SPCO points.

Following exactly the same principle, a SPCO can refer instead to a Design Template by setting its Template Reference attribute (TMPREF) to point to a TMPL.

The only differences are:

• The catalog component is stored in the Catalog DB, whereas the Design Template is stored in the Design DB.

• When a catalog component is selected, only the CATREF setting (or, more strictly, the SPRE setting) is stored in the design data. When a Design Template is selected, an instance of the Design Template is copied by the application into the design data, adding new elements into the design members list.

For example, using a Design Template for addition to a panel (in the form of a panel fitting), the hierarchy includes the following:

The SPREF of the PFIT leads to a SPCO which has its TMPREF pointing to the TMPL causing an instance of the TMPL to be copied below the PFIT, leading to: