One long-standing problem we have is the severe disconnect between the Compound Cells (PCS is too difficult, unpopular and has been in maintenance mode for more than half a decade?) we use for doors and the size of the door, as reported..
With the PCS paz doors, when a width/height parameter is changed, the door changes to suit. If the size is changed via the HUD dimensions, the size is updated in the Modify Element / Property panels accordingly. The sizes would also schedule properly.
With the doors as Compound Cells, you can change the width/height paramters without propagating the changes to the door object/geometry and vice versa. To make things worse, everything is presented to the user in the dialogs/ schedules as if the parameters were reporting correctly.
I wonder if there isn't a way to utilise the Family & Part's Components functionality to provide a 'reporting parameter' to be inserted / displayed in the Datagroup system?
- Define Part for the Perforator; with Components to report the Height and Width.
- User assigns the Perforator Part to the Perforator Shape defined as part of the Compound Cell creation process.
- User adds the Width and Height properties to the Catalog Type, assigns F&P: Component Name in the Parameter column.
- When the Compound Cell door is placed / modified / scheduled, the corresponding tool calls the F&P code to extract the properties and updates the corresponding properties. Thereby ensuring that the correct door sizes are reported.
In theory, the F&P system could be used to report the dimensional properties of any element within the Compound Cell. Hopefully, a relatively quick coding exercise. Presumably, the F&P Component stuff is old and mature code and its just a question of wrappers or what not?
