As we’ve been exploring how to build a better electrical parts library in SOLIDWORKS Electrical, we’ve looked at set up of libraries, classification and how to import external or custom data. Having all your project-specific or company-specific data in one place helps you speed up your design process and also makes it easier to have access to all your part details. But how do you stay in control of who views or edits your libraries? How can you keep them organized? In part three of this series, we walk through the steps to relocate data within libraries, delete certain data and manage access permissions.
>> Read the previous part of this series- Building Your Electrical Parts Library: Importing
Using the Library Manager in SOLIDWORKS Electrical
When a user is creating a design in SOLIDWORKS Electrical it is important to have your library organized for the sake of efficiency. Libraries will naturally grow and change over time, so it can be helpful to know how to relocate data. Inside a Library manager, you can select an individual piece of data or a group of data and change the library or classification.
Once you have your data set selected you will want to right-click and then click on Properties.
Once the Properties window opens you can change both the library and classification or just one of them depending on how you would like to organize your data. The user can also change the classification by choosing a set of data then dragging and dropping it into the desired classification in the classification tree.
Deleting Data from Your Libraries
It is good practice to keep more data rather than less, for example, keeping all the default data and libraries that come with the software when you purchase it. Even if a user doesn’t plan to use it, it’s usually better to re-organize the data “out of the way” because once it’s deleted, it’s permanently removed. To recover data, the user would need to re-insert data using the electrical content portal, manual entry, import or unarchive environment.
Whether you are going to delete an entire classification, library or specific pieces of data the steps are very similar. You will go into your desired library and choose which data you would like to remove. Once data is selected you can right-click and choose to delete by using the delete icon or striking the delete key on the keyboard.
Setting Permissions in SOLIDWORKS Electrical
Once you have the necessary data added and you have set up your classification and libraries to your liking, it is important to manage who is adding and removing data. SOLIDWORKS Electrical has a feature called Admin rights and this enables the user to set up restrictions to functions of the tool. The user can restrict access to profiles, so they don’t have the ability to make edits to the libraries. To set this up, you will click on the Tools tab in the ribbon menu. You will then click on the Interface configuration icon and then click on the Rights management tab. You will then check the box that is in the User rights management field. If this is your first time using this feature you will need to create an admin user. You can then click on Manage user rights.
A User rights manager window will open, and this is where you can add extra profiles, groups and users. You will also see an icon toward the top of this window that says Feature grid. Click on this icon and a list of SOLIDWORKS Electrical features will be displayed.
By unchecking the box you are not giving that certain profile access to a feature within the tool. Unchecking all the boxes within the library section will restrict access to the library features for that profile.
By managing your libraries, you will keep all users to the same design standard. It is just as important to manage your libraries as it is to add to it.
Watch our on-demand webinar for a more detailed walk through of the various ways to manage your library as explained throughout this article.
>> Read the first part of this series: Building Your Electrical Parts Library- Classifications
>> Read the previous part of this series: Building Your Electrical Parts Library- Importing
