Unified Property Panel

OpenBuildings Designer replaces the placement and modification dialogs used in previous editions. It allows you to use the same dialog to set properties when an element is placed and when you modify its properties later.

The Unified Property Panel provides a common location where you can select Catalog Items or set property values as you place and modify OpenBuildings Designer components.

It works in combination with the Contextual Tab for each tool. Placement options, such as justification and offsets, are set on the ribbon while element properties are set in the property panel.

When the Modify Properties tool is activated and an element is selected, the Property Panel is updated with the selected item's properties, and a contextual tab opens a Modification tab containing common tools, manipulation tools, and placement options specific to the item being placed.

Features of the Unified Property Panel

The Property Panel is broken down in into multiple areas:

• Catalog Type Selector - for tools that use multiple catalog types (Place Object, User Defined Walls, etc)
• Catalog Item Selector - Used to select catalog items for placement.
  • Catalog items can be searched for by name or sorted by type or alphabetically.
  • Items can be grouped by a property value
  • Items can be shown with or without their thumbnail previews
  • Can be resized to show multiple columns and/or rows by dragging the lower right or lower left corner
  • Can be detached and kept open as an independent dialog using the "float" command in the upper right of the selector.
  • The most recently used items will be visible at the top of the selector
  • Groups can be collapsed using the arrow icon at the right edge of each header
• Catalog tools - Used to manage component catalogs during placement by opening DataGroup tools/utilities, including tools for saving changes to catalogs, adding new catalog items, and refreshing catalog data.
• Preview
  
  • Zoom in/out
  • Pan
  • Rotate view
• Properties List - Used to set catalog item parameters and properties prior to placement.
  • Properties can be searched for by name
  • Properties can be sorted by category or alphabetically.
• Description - the box at the bottom of the dialog, shows additional information about the property that is currently highlighted.
• Customization - The order and grouping of the Property Panel's Property list can be customized by manipulating the catalog type and item definitions via the Catalog Editor. See the Catalog Editor documentation for more details.