Dialog Structure identifier management

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Dialog Structure identifier management - <Project name>

In this dialog, all structure identifiers of an identifier block are shown in the order in which you defined or sorted them when creating them or in a previous sort.

Overview of the main dialog elements:

List of identifier blocks:

In the left area of this dialog, the identifier blocks determined in the project structure are displayed.

Tabs:

Structure identifier management displays the individual identifiers of the existing identifier blocks either in tree or list view. The tables of the List tab contain multiple columns with column headers that, among others, have the following meanings:

Structure description:

In each line containing a structure identifier, a descriptive text can be entered, in which a line break can be inserted using the key combination [Ctrl] + [Enter] (or the Line break popup menu item). The description field is a translatable property and can be displayed in lists and reports.

Original designation:

When renaming structure identifiers, this column shows the original designation.

Usage:

The number of times the structure identifier is used in the project can be shown in this column. Since these values are not stored, a "?" is entered in the column when the structure identifier editor is opened, until the function [Extras] > Check usage is called up.

Status:

In this column, an icon shows whether the structure identifier is free of errors. EPLAN checks, for instance, whether a change in designations of a structure identifier can lead to duplicated identifiers or to project pages with the same name.

Tip:

You can select the entire table by simply clicking in the Row column header.

Message description:

The status of the currently selected line is described in more detail in this field.

Toolbar:

Regardless of the currently selected type of identifier, the toolbar above the table contains, among other things, the following buttons:

Button	Meaning
(Find)	In the list view: Opens the Replace dialog, in which you can enter the character string to be searched for and, if necessary, text to replace it with. In the tree view: Opens the Search project structures dialog in which you enter the character string to be searched. Please note that only the current branch of the tree is taken into account during searching! You have to mark the entry "<Empty identifier>" in order to search through the complete tree.
(New)	In the list view: Inserts a new row above the current selection for a new structure identifier, and sets the Usage column to "No". Note that when new identifiers are specified, the project setting Conversion to upper-case (command path: File > Settings > Projects > "Project name" > Device > General) is used. In the tree view: Opens the New identifier dialog where you can generate a new identifier with predefined properties within the currently selected identifier block.

Button

Meaning

(Find)

In the list view: Opens the Replace dialog, in which you can enter the character string to be searched for and, if necessary, text to replace it with.
In the tree view: Opens the Search project structures dialog in which you enter the character string to be searched. Please note that only the current branch of the tree is taken into account during searching! You have to mark the entry "<Empty identifier>" in order to search through the complete tree.

(New)

In the list view: Inserts a new row above the current selection for a new structure identifier, and sets the Usage column to "No". Note that when new identifiers are specified, the project setting Conversion to upper-case (command path: File > Settings > Projects > "Project name" > Device > General) is used.
In the tree view: Opens the New identifier dialog where you can generate a new identifier with predefined properties within the currently selected identifier block.

Popup menu:

The popup menu provides - depending on the field type (e.g. date, integer, multilingual) - the following menu items that are, depending on the situation, available for influencing the table or editing the values in the fields. You can find an overview of these popup menu items in the section Popup menu items.

In addition, the following dialog-specific popup menu items are available:

Menu item	Meaning
Insert into list of search results	Checks the usage of the marked structure identifiers in the project and enters the found objects into the search results list.
Paste copied row (list only)	Inserts one or more copied rows, for example from Microsoft Excel.
Rename (tree only)	Allows for renaming the currently selected identifier.
Configure protection	Opens the dialog Configure protection in which you can view and edit the set change protection of the structure identifiers. Protected structure identifiers are identified by a preceding lock in the tree view. The lines of the protected structure identifiers are grayed out and cannot be edited in the list view.

Tip:

To facilitate recognition of protected structure identifiers in the list you can additionally use the dialog Configure representation to have the two properties Change protection and Change protection (hierarchical) displayed as columns.

[Extras]:

The [Extras] menu is only available in the List tab and offers the following menu items:

Menu item	Meaning
Check usage	Fills the fields in the Usage column with the current figures of how often each structure identifier is used in the project. Unused identifiers receive the entry "No". If a structure identifier is not used, but a sub-identifier exists, then the entry "*" is displayed.
Clean up all	Deletes all structure identifiers from the database which are no longer used in the project. If the usage has not been checked yet, the "?" characters in the Usage column are replaced by the current figures.
Find	Opens the Replace dialog, in which you can enter the character string to be searched for and, if necessary, text to replace it with. Please note that only the identifying and not the complete DT is taken into account when searching!
Import descriptions from pre-planning	Allows the (structure ) descriptions of structure segments from the pre-planning to be applied. Existing structure descriptions are overwritten. If the structure description for a structure identifier is not unique in the pre-planning, a message is displayed that the description cannot be applied.
Sort	Sorts the structure identifiers in accordance with the respective criterion of the selected submenu item. The new sort order is written to the database when the structure identifiers are updated (with [Apply] or [OK]); until that time this is only a temporary order. Since reordering has far-reaching consequences on page order, cross-references, and so on, a safety warning is displayed before writing to the database.

Notes:

The table layout is compatible with Microsoft Excel.
If no structure identifier is entered on a page with an available identifier block, or if an empty structure identifier is assigned to an identifier block, then an empty entry will be generated in the structure identifier database. In the structure identifier editor, such identifiers are marked with the text "<Empty identifier>" in the top hierarchy level of tree view or in the Designation cell of list view; this entry cannot be edited.