Customize and manage Stimulsoft reports
The Stimulsoft report designer in Tekla PowerFab allows you to edit reports without the need to own a Crystal Reports application.
Before modifying existing reports it is worth considering creating a new user-defined report to work with to learn the basics of the editor. See Create user-defined reports for customizing.
For full documentation of the report editor, see Stimulsoft User Manual.
Open the report editor
-
On the drop-down menu,
select Reports.
-
Select filters and click Make
Report.
The Report Selection dialog box opens.
-
To open the report editor,
click Design.
Note: The button is enabled only if the report has been converted to Stimulsoft.
Modify report properties
There are two tabs with settings that are related to editing and designing reports.
-
On the Main tab, we recommend selecting
Show 'Insert' Tab.
-
On the Design tab, we recommend the following
options:
Show Headers: Displays report headers and footers
Show Rulers: Displays the ruler at the top of the design page
Show Order: Order is the sequence in which elements in a band are processed. The order of processing can affect results for items that rely on each other.
Show Grid: Turn grid on and off
Align to Grid: When selected, controls are automatically aligned to the nearest grid lines when they are moved.
Set up toolbox
-
Go to
For an example of how to modify group headers and footers, see Stimulsoft report group headers and footers.
Report panels
The three available report panels provide several tools for modifying reports.
-
When editing a report, go to
.
Properties
You can edit the properties for the currently selected item on the report. Each type of component has its own selection of properties that are available for editing.
In the settings for Properties, you can select between Basic, Standard, and Professional.
Dictionary
The Dictionary provides a tree-view control that provides access to the following:
- The data tables which are used to generate the report.
- The system and custom variables, to store custom data and calculations. See Stimulsoft report variables
- Functions, which are used for calculations and formatting of data.
Report tree
Report Tree allows you to navigate between the elements in a report. You can select report headers, groupings, and subreports. It can also be used to find any named elements in the report.
By default, Report Tree displays components and events. Components are elements in the report such as page headers, text fields, and labels. The events shown here are managed on the Events tab of the Report Tree panel.
The report tree in the image shows both components, such as Page 1 and PageHeaderBand1.
The Before Print event of the PageHeaderBand1 control also contains code. When you double-click the event, it opens the text editor for the event.