ADDING MANY ROWS TO CONFIGURED PROPERTIES TABLE BY PASTING IN DATA

shawn_crocker

@lougallo
I found this implemented improvement request.  

ADD MULTIPLE ROWS TO CONFIGURED PART PROPERTIES

How does this work because when I paste in data from google sheets, it lays in the data that fits in the rows that exist but shows an message about the other data not get pasted in.  It is not adding more rows as needed.

romeograham

@shawn_crocker
Onshape doesn't currently create more rows in your example.

When pasting data back into a Configuration table, you must make sure that there are enough rows and columns to accept the pasted data.
Otherwise, Onshape throws the error, telling you it can't paste the data, because the cells don't exist.

Note also, that then pasting data back in, you want to select all of your data except the header row. Don't change the column order or add (or remove) columns when working with the data in your spreadsheet program, since Onshape will not recognize new or re-arranged columns.

NeilCooke

Works fine for me - the number of columns must be the same, then you must select the left most cell of a row that already exists and press Ctrl+V. You cannot paste into an empty row.

shawn_crocker

@romeograham
Thanks for responding.  My experience is consistent with yours.  If data being pasted has more rows than are already in the configured properties table, the message in the picture gets shown.  Onshape is not just adding the extra rows.  In my case, I would like to add 1000 plus rows to this table and clicking on the add new row button will take all day.  Especially once the rows reach the bottom of the screen as is seems each extra row takes onshape one or two seconds to process before you can click the button again.  @NeilCooke I always feel a little in awe of getting to speak with  the master of the beams feature. Haha!  But seriously, The behavior you have described does work for me when pasting data into a configuration list but not in the configured properties table.  I would have just created an improvement request.  But, it seems the sited implemented improvement request in my original question seems to clearly be talking about the configured properties table, I'm wondering what should be my next action?

michael_hudzik

I just ran into the same issue as @shawn_crocker. I have a configuration with 2,640 rows and I want to add a unique description to each row. I also do not want to have to click the + button this many times. 

@NeilCooke, I suggest having the ability to build smart strings in the metadata fields based on the configuration options somehow.

romeograham

I just checked this and it seems to work for me. The important bit of Neil's original post was "...You cannot paste into an empty row."

Also - make sure you don't try to paste into the Configuration Name column ( the first column).

Export the table once you've created all the columns you want, make your edits in your Spreadsheet of choice. Then, copy all the content except the first Row and the first column:

Then you paste into the R2C2 cell (the top leftmost cell that is NOT your titles or configuration names:

Seems to work nicely for me.

I still got the error message "Failed to paste data in a cell: Data to be pasted has too many rows to fit in the table and will be truncated. " But a quick check and the last row was correctly pasted.

@NeilCooke is it possible that the error message is, in fact, an error?

shawn_crocker

@Mike_Hudzik Here is a solution I have found.  It is an auto mouse clicker.  If you add enough rows to fill the page, you can set the clicker to click at 1 ms intervals the amount of rows you need.  Bit of a hack but it is way better then manually clicking in hundred of row is you need them. Its called op mouse click, free on the ms store.

rick_randall

If we have to click a thousand lines, so be it - but could you please include a line counter column, so we can keep track of where we are in the process.

Trying to scroll and count is just impossible to do after about 100 lines .Maybe as an "add configuration" option? - Or like whats on Excel.

shawn_crocker

@rick_randall
Did you see my comment on the program, "op mouse clicker"?  Its a free tool that can automatically click your mouse for you.  You can set it to click very fast like once every millisecond.  If you click fast enough on the add new row button, onshape sits there doing nothing until you stop clicking and then it adds in all the rows.  I commonly use it to add over 1000 rows to the configured properties table.  It would be nice for onshape to directly address this issue but, in the meantime, an auto mouse clicker does work pretty good.

rick_randall

@shawn_crocker, I will have to check into that mouse clicker, I think it's something I would definitely use. I have a simple bolt model, but it has hundreds of configurations, kind of like what you are saying, But I still wish they had a line count column - so you could navigate the list a little more efficiently. Just saying....Thought this would have been remedied by now.

Caden_Armstrong

I've created custom API solutions that solve this problem, so I have a bit of insight into at least the challenge of solving through a 3rd party solution.

One of the challenges is that each new row needs to represent a unique configuration. For a single table that is straight forward, but it becomes more complex when multiple tables and variables get involved. Are all combinations present? What about subsets of all possible configurations? Variables present a challenge because some people would do them as fixed, but others want ranges with a min/max/steps, etc. Everyone has a different way of determining what configurations should be represented in the table.

The second challenge is then generating that data. Once you have all those rows, you then need to fill in all the columns. Sometimes its straight forward, but most of the time it isn't. For solutions like these, I've found that the best solution is to just export an excel sheet and let the user use excel formulas to generate their part numbers, descriptions, SKUs, etc, and then just import it back into Onshape. The copy paste method only works if you have the rows in the same order in Onshape and in the excel sheet, and also has that size limit.

Im working on adding a tool to my app Renaissance for this, if anyone is interested in testing a beta, reach out and I can get you access.

shawn_crocker

@Caden_Armstrong
Editing the properties table is usually preferred for me also by using a spreadsheet.  For me, the most cumbersome part of it is what seems like it should be the simplest for onshape to address.  Getting the initial rows into the table so that I can paste my data into them.  If an api application had a simple input so you could enter 400, for example, hit enter and 400 rows were created, it would be really great.  What actually get put into the rows during creation, for me, is trivial.  I just want the rows so I can paste my data in.  Not sure why onshape can't just take a day for a developer and add a little number input beside the plus button so people can specify how many rows right within the table UI.

rick_randall

@shawn_crocker , Great idea for the plus button having input number (please make a ticket, and tell us where to vote) .

  Copying configured property tables to Excel was a game changer, and personally I'm OK with entering my own data, but we need a way to control how many lines we input in the configured property tables, and also numbered lines, so we can see where we are working (as I do a lot of jumping around in the table while working).

FYI - Excel hint for anyone: "concatenate" & "find and replace" really speeds up the work in Excel.

S1mon

Wouldn't it be better if pasting a spreadsheet in from elsewhere would just add the required number of rows and you didn't need to know the number? I would vote for that improvement.

[edit] It seems like @shawn_crocker already created the appropriate IR: https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/16586/adding-many-rows-to-configured-properties-table-by-pasting-in-data

shawn_crocker

@S1mon
Agreed.  That is how the list input tables function so it just seems natural the properties table should function the same way.  Thanks for voting.  @rick_randall, here is the improvement request I created back in 2021 in case you interested.  https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/16586/adding-many-rows-to-configured-properties-table-by-pasting-in-data#latest.

rick_randall

+1 on the vote, and I don't understand why this hasn't seen more traffic. Certainly there are others that would like this improvement.

Caden_Armstrong

https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/comment/105786#Comment_105786

I thought about this and saying "400 new rows please" doesn't quite work because in order to create rows the configuration needs to be valid. But I have something essentially the same. I've added a new tool to Renaissance that lets you essentially do that by generating combinations of configurations. If one is a variable, you can specify a range and step size. It can take a few minutes if you have a ton, but you don't need to baby sit it and Renaissance will send a notification email once its done.

You can try a free trial of Renaissance in the Onshape App store. If you have any questions please send me an email.
https://appstore.onshape.com/apps/Utilities/NDYJQNNF4DWNBG4O6QLFTN4UIPRDQ2B7ABZSFXQ%3D/description

shawn_crocker

Thanks @Caden_Armstrong. That tool looks really great!