New Report Template Form

The Report Template form lets you generate a new template to be used for equipment reports.

To open the New Report Template from select Utilities > Standard Reporting > Reports > Create from the main window drop-down.

Page Info Options

The options under Page Info on the menu at the top of the New/Modify Report Template form allow you to add information which is not specified in the body of the report. The options are:

Each option displays a form with a text pane. You type the information you want in the text pane. Each line of information is entered as an expression. For full information about expressions, see PML 1 Expressions.

A summary of the information you are most likely to need is given below.

Text must be entered in quotes. For example:

'Page number'

You can include variables in the expressions. Any PML variables can be used.

Variables must be preceded by one of the functions vtext, vval or vlog, which ensure late evaluation of the variables. For example, to show the page number on every page of the report, enter the following expression in the header or footer:

vtext !pageno

If you want to combine text and variables in the same expression (that is, on the same line, you must combine them using the text operator +. For example, if you want to number the pages with the format Page 1, Page 2 an so on, you should enter the following expression in the header or footer:

'Page ' + vtext !pageno

Selection Options

The Selection options on the New Report Template form are used as follows. These options may also be available to the user running a report.

Click the Hierarchy option.

Note: If you do not specify an element for the top of the hierarchy, the report will include all the databases in your current Multi-database, unless you have use the Volume or From options on the Hierarchy form.

The Hierarchy form will be displayed as follows:

This Hierarchy form is used to specify which part of the database hierarchy you want to report on.

The following methods are possible:

• You can specify that only parts of the database under given owning elements will be included. Specify an owning element by making it the current element and pressing Add CE. The element's name will be displayed in the text box. You can specify several owning elements. Remove an element from the list by highlighting it in the list and pressing Remove.

  When you press Apply on the form, the names of the elements will appear in the Hierarchy option on the New/Modify Report Template form.

  Note: Specifying elements using this option will override anything you specify in the Volume or From option.

• If you leave the Hierarchy option empty, you can specify a Volume, and report on elements Completely within or Partially within it. Selecting Completely within or Partially within option will display the Report Volume form.

  Note: Specifying a Volume will select elements from the whole MDB. The other From options cannot be used.

• If you leave the Hierarchy option empty and do not specify a Volume, you can use the From option. You can specify:

  MDB	which will select all elements in the database within the volume.
  Drawlist	which will select all elements in the Drawlist within the volume.
  Obstruction list	which will select all elements in the obstruction list within the volume.

System Command Option

The System Command text box on the New/Modify Report Template form allows you to give a system command that will be run when the report has been completed.

For example, you could use this option to send the report output to a printer, or to run a macro to process the report. The command is entered as an expression. For full information about expressions, see Introduction to Expressions, in the Software customization Reference Manual, but an example of how to enter a system command is given below.

To send the report output to a printer, enter:

'print' + vtext !filename

where:

print is an MS DOS command, which must be enclosed in quotes.

vtext is a function used for the late evaluation of variables.

!filename is a variable, which outputs the file named in the Filename field to the printer when the report is run.

With Option

The With option on the New/Modify Report Template form allows you to restrict the report to elements of the given type whose properties satisfy given conditions. Enter an Expression in the text box. For full information about expressions, see Introduction to Expressions, in the Software Customization Reference Manual, but a summary of the information you are most likely to need is given below.

The expression you enter here is going to be a combination of attributes or pseudo-attributes, logical operators and values.

For example, if you are reporting on Elbows (that is, you have entered ELBO) in the Type text box), you can restrict the report to Elbows with ABORE greater than 50 by entering:

ABORE GT 50

where ABORE is the attribute, GT is an operator meaning greater than, and 50 is the value. The operators you can use are:

• EQ equal to

• NE not equal to

• GT greater than

• GE greater than or equal to

• LE less than

• LT less than or equal to

You can specify more than one condition using the operators AND, OR and NOT. For example, to report on Elbows with ABORE greater than 50 but less than 100 by entering:

(ABORE GT 50) AND (ABORE LT 100)