Placeholder objects: Structure and Operation

Variables can be defined for placeholder objects.

A variable always begins with <, where the name of the variable is then attached, and ends with > (e.g., <Function text>). Because a placeholder object can contain multiple variables, this notation is necessary for limiting the individual variables that are placed behind one another. EPLAN then checks the entry and notifies you of any formatting errors.

If necessary, a number specifying the number of digits in square brackets is specified before the end character >. This is then the location where a line break is inserted (e.g., <Function text [24]>). One of two further options may be entered after the number of digits, separated by a comma (e.g., <Function text [24,1]>); this differentiates between the following types of line break:

Fixed line breaks after x characters (option "0"): After a defined number of characters, a line break is placed here if, for example, multiple related terms (entries) are to be separated from one another.
Line breaks after x characters with word-end recognition (option "1"): It is attempted in this case to place line breaks after a specified number of characters if a word-end is recognized.

Any characters can be entered before, after, and between variables (e.g., A<PLZH1>:<PLZH2>B). These characters are always accepted as they are entered, i.e., they are not replaced. In the example, if PLZH1 is replaced by 11 and PLZH2 by 22 then A11:22B is left over.

In order to be able to enter the characters < and > in the text you have to enter them twice. Only then can the variable differentiate them from the starting and ending character. You cannot enter these characters within the variable name.

Special characters should not be used in the variable names in the EPLAN Engineering Configuration. We recommend using letters and underscores as the first characters and then also numbers.

Layers are identified internally in the program via their ID number. The layer ID numbers can be used when allocating layers via placeholder objects, for example. With the standard layers, the ID number is part of the layer name. For example, the layer EPLAN100, Graphic.General has the ID number 100. ID numbers from 1000 upwards are assigned to user-defined layers. The ID number of a user-defined layer can be determined by exporting the layer configuration and searching the configuration file for the value of the entry A1426 for the layer concerned, e.g. A1426="1000".