Changing the properties of a component, connection or type

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Properties are typically the system requirements that you define, or the results of ABACUS' evaluations. (When ABACUS performs its evaluations, it writes properties back to the file.) In other words, properties are the things you know about your system, or the things you are using ABACUS to find out.

To change the property value of a component, connection or type

1.Click on the component/connection/type (its properties will display in the Properties window to the right).

2.Click to highlight the property you want to change.

3.Type a new value.

Important

Also, many properties are defined using Standards. By changing a property within a Standard, you not only change the current object, you also change the master Standard (under Standards at the top of the tree). Before doing this, check what other components, connections or types are using the Standard, because the change may not be relevant to them - you can use the References window for this.

Tip

You can change a connection's properties from within the Components branch of the tree (and vice-versa). So, for instance, if you're looking at what connections are attached to a component, and you realise you have to change one, you can.

To add new properties to a component or connection (via the type)

Note

Properties can only be added to types and the components or connections of the type 'inherit' those properties.

1.Click on the type (its properties will display in the Properties window to the right).

2.Click on the Add button at the top of the Property window to add a row at the top of the property grid for the new property.

3.Add a Type for the new property.

4.Add a Name for the new property.

5.Add a Default value for the new property.

6.Add a Unit for the new property.

7.Set the Data Type for the new property.

Note

The Data Type field can be used to restrict the valid values that a property can have. That is; Text, Integer, Decimal, Date/Time, Boolean or List.

oA Text property is one that has an unlimited number of characters and essentially has no restrictions on the value. If the property value is a properly formed hyperlink (i.e. URLs need to start with one of 5 strings; http://, https://, ftp://, file: or \\ and any spaces should be entered with a '%20') then the link is clickable (via ctrl+click).

oAn Integer property must be a whole number either positive or negative and may contain a period, space, apostrophe or comma for digit grouping depending on the Project's Region settings from File | Project Options. The Region settings and the .Net Long.TryParse method is used to determine valid Integer values.

oA Decimal property can contain a period or comma for the decimal symbol and may contain a period, space, apostrophe or comma for digit grouping depending on the Project's Region settings from File | Project Options. The Region settings and the .Net Decimal.TryParse method is used to determine valid Decimal values.

oA Date/Time property allows either a Date part or a Time part or both. The Region settings and the .Net DateTime.TryParse method are primarily used to determine valid Date and/or Time values. However, the Date part if applicable requires at least the Day and Month (the Year will be assumed to be the current year), Month and Year or just Year parts to be valid. I.e. June or Q3 2010 are invalid. While it will differ with different regional settings, typically the Day, Month and Year parts can be separated with a space, comma, dash ('-') or forward slash ('/'). The Day part typically is an integer from 1 to 31. The Month part is typically an integer from 1 to 12, a valid 3 letter abbreviation for the months (e.g. Jan, Feb, Mar) or the full month name (e.g. January, February, March). The Year part is typically a 4 digit positive number but 1, 2 and 3 digit years are accepted according to the settings in Control Panel->Regional and Language Options->Regional Options->Customise (button)->Date->Calendar. Typically they are interpreted as follows; 0-29 is interpreted as 2000-2029, 30 to 99 as 1930-1999 and 100-999 as 100-999. Invalid dates such as 31 June 2010 and 31/9/2010 will be detected. The Time part if applicable requires an Hours and Minutes part and optionally a Seconds part. The Hours, Minutes and optional Seconds parts are typically separated with a colon (':') and the Seconds part can be specified with a decimal point ('.'). For further information on the valid formats please refer to the Remarks section on the .Net DateTime.TryParse method.

Tip

It is recommended to use at least the 3 letter month name format (i.e. "Jul" or "July") for date values rather than numerical formatting (i.e. "7" or "07") as these values will validate across the most regions depending on the Project's Region settings from File | Project Options. I.e. it is recommended to use "15 Jul 2010" rather than "15/7/2010" or "7/15/2010". With this example, "15/7/2010" would fail validation for 'English (United States)' and "7/15/2010" would fail for 'English (United Kingdom)', however "15 Jul 2010" would pass for both.

oA Boolean property can be either True or False. It is case insensitive so TRUE or FALSE can also be used however Yes, No, 1, 0 etc will all fail any property constraints.

oA List property allows a collection of pre-defined values such as Low | Medium | High or Retain | Refresh | Redesign | Retire and the range of values comes from the Unit field for the property either as comma or pipe '|' separated values. The property can be considered to be ordinal (as opposed to nominal, interval or ratio) because when used on charts and to colour elements on diagrams and 3Ds the values are treated simply in an ascending (or descending) order. That is values are plotted in ascending (or descending) order on chart axes or colour ranges.

8.The Data Type can be set to be Disabled, Warned or Enforced by right-clicking the Data Type field for any setting other than Text, which allows any characters so can't ever be incorrect.

9.Set the Required flag for the new property.

Note

The Required field can be used to indicate whether a value needs to be entered for the property. That is that it can't be blank or empty. False is the default and means the property can be empty or blank, True means that the property should have a value and can't be empty or blank. The Required can be set to be Disabled, Warned or Enforced by right-clicking the Required field if it has been set to True.

10.Set the Description for the property which is located at the bottom of the property window and edits for the currently selected property.

Note

By default a new property will have the description set to its name.

To filter the property rows

1.Click inside the text box marked with the <Filter Properties> text.

2.Enter the desired filter as text. Click here to see more information about using filters in ABACUS.

Note

Only one use of the NOT operator (or <>) can be used at the start of the properties toolwindow filter to invert the overall results that wish to be seen.

Tip

Text-based filtering in the properties toolwindow will not consider arithmetic operators as special keywords to improve number-based filtering operation results.

To add/change a supertype to an element type

A Super Type is a type that the element has inherited properties from. Unlike standards, super type properties are treated as though they are the types normal properties rather than be considered a "standard" property which causes different behaviour to occur in ABACUS' features such as various forms to include Standards or Simulators and how they operate with the properties.

1.Click on the component/connection type you wish to add a Super Type to.

2.Open the General properties tab.

3.Right-click the box area under super type and select the Change Type... context menu item.

4.Select your desired component/connection type as the super type and click OK.

Note

You can overwrite a Super Type's property and value for the child type inheriting it by creating a property of the same type and name or by right-clicking the property being inherited by the supertype and click the Override Property menu item. This will overwrite any of the super types, including its preceding supertypes properties, and will not be lost when the property is deleted on the supertype.

Note

When deleting Super Type properties, any types that inherit it (and their instances) will also lose that property, and affect the settings in your project associated with that property unless it is overwritten.