Schemes are used in CET to apply options to collections of symbols. It's a quick and easy way to make a bulk change to objects in a drawing.

The scheme system in CET has existed for a very long time and has undergone many rounds of polishing. Before the introduction of the Scheme Builder in Catalogue Creator, the only way to get a scheme system up and running for an extension was by writing code. This clearly wasn't the ideal solution for a lot of developers and catalogue creators. This meant that catalogue creators had little to no control over the scheme, and developers had to write a lot of code to tie their scheme systems to a catalogue back-end.

The Scheme Builder in Catalogue Creator was introduced with the intention of making the process of creating a data-driven scheme as simple as possible.

Catalogue Creators can now use the Scheme Builder to create a scheme design (.pslayout). A scheme design contains tabs, sections, and entries alongside useful information like the name of the scheme, as well as an icon that best represents the scheme.

A scheme design with 5 tabs, 2 sections, and an entry in each section.

The output can then be used in two different ways:

1. It can be embedded into a Component Tab via the Component Tab Creator before being published to users.
2. It can be shipped together with the catalogue db3 file. If it's a simple scheme that doesn't require any modification, the programmer can embed it directly into an extension by writing a few lines of code. If it's a complicated scheme that needs to be accompanied by more specific behavior, then the programmer can retrieve the scheme, make modifications to the scheme design and apply behaviors, before embedding it into the extension.

Overview of Features 

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Proceed to the next article to learn how to set-up a catalogue scheme.