Activating Designs

This article will detail how design activation works.

If the feature for Active Design Alternatives is enabled in the System Parameters for CableBuilder, designs with a status of “Active” cannot have changes made to any attribute that is designated as a primary attribute.

Primary attributes are defined by the user from the attribute settings, but should include, for example, attributes such as diameters, weights and costs.

It may be acceptable to change attributes such as descriptions and fields for information only, without the need to create a new version, so attributes such as this should not be set to be primary attributes.

All attributes that are set as primary attributes are set to read-only when the design is active, so they cannot be modified.

Prior to activating a design, it is recommended that the following checks are carried out:

1. Make sure all the necessary changes to the design have been made.

2. Check for unnecessary attribute locks. An attribute may be locked so that CableBuilder does not override the attribute value with a value that has been calculated automatically from its assigned formula. To make sure that attributes have not been locked unnecessarily, you can click on the “View Locked Values” button from the design menu. This will provide you with a list of locked attributes in the design.

3. Go to the top-level design (the finished product code) and click on the “Process Design Alternative” button in the design menu. This will ensure that all the attributes with formulas attached are recalculated, and the costs are revised.

Once you have made all of these checks, click on the “Activate Design Alternative” button to activate the design and all of its sub-designs.

If a modification is required, then a new version must be created; the attribute can then be changed.