User Defined Attributes - Part 1 - What are User Defined Attributes (UDAs)?
2022
Tekla Structural Designer
2023
Tekla Structural Designer
2024
Tekla Structural Designer
2025
Tekla Structural Designer
2026
Tekla Structural Designer
Environment
Not environment-specific
Introduction
User Defined Attributes are a user customized property of elements and panels.In this Tekla User Assistance article we will look at how User Defined Attributes (UDA's) can improve our workflow in Tekla Structural Designer.
To achieve this we will open a pre-built model, create and assign some UDA's and use UDA grouping to help manage and assign revised properties. We will finish, by using them to help filter tabular data and reports.
We will do this by breaking the topic into six Tekla User Assistance Articles where each one follows on from the previous one so that we can build up our knowledge.
- User Defined Attributes - Part 1 - What are User Defined Attributes (UDAs)?
- User Defined Attributes - Part 2 - How do I create User Defined Attributes (UDAs)?
- User Defined Attributes - Part 3 - How do I attach a User Defined Attributes (UDAs) to an element or panel?
- User Defined Attributes - Part 4 - How do I use User Defined Attributes (UDAs) for Grouping?
- User Defined Attributes - Part 5 - How do I use User Defined Attributes (UDAs) as Report Filters?
- User Defined Attributes - Part 6 - How do I use User Defined Attributes (UDAs) in Tabular Report Filters?
Step 1. Open the model UDA Model Exercise.tsmd which is included as an attachment.
Note: The example model is a steel framed building, however, the concept applies equally to concrete models.
What are User Defined Attributes (UDA's)?
User Defined Attributes are a user customized property of elements and panels.This could be amongst other things;
- A Name to define things such as Notes, Finish, Specification etc.
- A Number to define things such as Class, Phase etc.
- A link to a file for another application
- An embedded file
As you can see from the above, the use is only limited by your imagination and your required/preferred workflow.
Step 2. Select an element or panel in the model and review the Properties window > UDA
A number of predefined UDA's exist in the software as a starting point as shown in the screenshot below.
Note: Name, Finish and Note are Custom Values, whereas Class and Phase are Value Lists (selected via a drop list). These will be discussed shortly.
Image
Now let's move on to the next article part;
User Defined Attributes - Part 2 - How do I create User Defined Attributes (UDAs)?
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