Preliminary Planning

It is essential that you think very carefully about the geometry and parameterization of the required template before you create anything. It is particularly important to consider the relationship between the item for which you are designing the template and the way in which it is intended to be used in a design.

A simple sketch of the intended configuration before you begin can save much wasted effort at a later stage. Decide the dataset properties, including their DKEYs and default values, at this stage, and write them on the sketch so that you can remember them when you set up the parameterization rules. The sketches in Defining the Template Properties (the kickplate example) and Building up a Design from Subsidiary Parts (the equipment example) illustrate the principle.

This practice is the same as you would adopt when designing catalogue components. The difference is that the catalogue geometry immediately reflects the results of parametric expressions, so that errors are obvious, whereas template rules may fail if there are errors in the rules, but you may not see this until they are used in a design.