Menu

The toolbar consists of features/shortcuts that will be handy throughout your catalogue creation process. Like most file menus, this menu allows users to create new documents, open existing ones, revert, save and save as another file format.

New: Creating a blank project. If you have any project opened previously, clicking New will only add another project file to the Catalogue Creator. The shortcut key would be <Ctrl-N>.

Open: Open a previously saved project (.XML /. DB3). If you open a project file that was previously loaded to the Catalogue Creator, the project will be reloaded. The shortcut key would be <Ctrl-O>.

Revert: Revert all changes of the current project to the before save state, shortcut key would be <Ctrl-R>.

Close: Close current project in Catalogue Creator.

Close All: Close all active projects in Catalogue Creator.

Save: Save changes to the current project, shortcut key would be <Ctrl-S>.

Save As: Save the current project file as another file format or another file name. The shortcut key would be <Ctrl-Shift-S>.

Save All: Save all projects at once, the shortcut key is <Ctrl-Alt-Shift-S>.

Export To SIF (BETA): Exports the currently active project’s into a SIF format. More details here.

Convert * cm3D file(s) to cmSym (BETA): Automatically updates to cmSym format by creating a new project file that ends with *_cmSym, updates all file formats in the new project file and generating cmSym symbols in the same symbols directory.

Shortcut: Shows the recently opened/saved project in sequence. When hover, the full path of the saved project is saved to is shown. Clicking on the file in this area means opening the project in Catalogue Creator.

Creator Control Panel: In the Control Panel you can make general settings that will affect your work with projects in Catalogue Creator.

Close Creator: An exit option to close Catalogue Creator.

Switch menu

The switching menu allows users to switch between opened projects in Catalogue Creator. The gray out file indicated the currently active project and clicking on any of the files allows the user to switch the currently active project.

Tools

The tools menu combines all the useful tool that is helpful in creating a project.

• Model Lab: A tool to convert CAD model to/from our internal CET 3D format (.cm3D) and to perform minor doctoring to the model. More details here.
• Model Batch converter: A tool to convert CAD models to/from our internal CET 3D format (.cm3D) in batch, more details here.
• Material Explorer: The Material Explorer is a built-in tool for browsing and viewing gMaterials in CET. Create your material library by dragging the materials from the Material Explorer to Material spreadsheet in Materials card in Catalogue Creator. More details of Material Explorer here.
• Navigator: A tool to acts like a separate window to Catalogue Creator, and displays the mapping information in a tree level. It is extremely useful in linking symbols, layers, features, connectors materials and previews images to products. Switching from card to card is not needed as the tool opens side by side with the creator.
  • Level –  Level setting here shows the product catalogue, products, features and material’s collections as stated in each card’s spreadsheet. Information linking can be done here instead of the Geometry tab and the linked information is updated instantaneously in the tool.  The Product Catalogues level shows the Table of Contents of selected catalogue as shown in Product Catalogue card, the Products level shows the full list of products collection defined in Products card’s products spreadsheet. The Features level shows the full list of features collection defined in Features card’s features spreadsheet, the Connectors level shows the connector collection defined in Geometry card and lastly the Material level shows the full list of materials collection defined in Materials card’s materials spreadsheet.
  • Show – Works more or less like a filter and sort to show only things you want to see. Enabling the Products (Symbol: P) shows only the product created the active project,  the Material Applications (Symbol: M, S) filter shows material and layers information of the project, the External References (Symbols: E, N) filter shows the External Reference type information used throughout the whole project. The type is referring to preview images or cm3D symbols/models. Enabling the External Reference Keys (Symbol: EKey) filter shows the External Reference Key used in the project. The Features (Symbol: F) filter shows all the features created in the Features library. The Options (Symbol: O) filer shows the options information created in Features of the project. Note that without showing features, you will not see options in the tool too. Lastly, the Connectors filter (Symbol: C) shows the connector's information of the project.

• Use Export resources to export language(s) used in the active catalogue project into a different document, i.e. Excel or OFDA XML format. Translate and update the languages in the Excel or OFDA XML, then re-import the translated language(s) back into the Catalogue Creator using the Import resources option. Make sure all the languages you wish to support are added to the project before exporting. Note that manually adding a new language column in the Excel file does not work.
  

  

  Example of exported resources to an XML file.

  

  Example of exported resources in an excel file.

  Reset Dialogs: Resets the preference of the following dialog when you check the “Do not show the message again”.

The pop-up dialogs when you use the <F5> refresh key and when you drag and drop a file outside of the resource directories.

Conversion Tools

Automatically detects the number of readable cm3D used in a project (including cm3D used in feature options) and offers to convert them into cmSym.

A new project file with ‘_cmsym’ prefix and products linking to the created cmsym will be created and will be loaded in the Catalogue Creator. A message will prompt to inform the user before loading.

Undo/Redo

Undo and redo the action made in Catalogue Creator.