How can I enable a new property to display in Insert Field, in ECAnnotation?

Hello everyone, I am having some difficulty trying to achieve what I thought would be a simple bit of customization. I am trying to enable a new property created in Class Editor, to appear in the default list of properties inside ECAnnotation.cel when I click the Insert Field button.

 

My stats:

I am using OpenPlant SS5, ProjectWise SS4, Class Editor, and a database accessible via data manager. Computer is Win7, 64bit.

 

 

My goal: 

To have a 3-line annotation which picks the following information from a piece of custom equipment:

 

   Equipment number [E20-TNK-103] …works

   Description 1 [PROCESS WATER] …works

   Description 2 [STORAGE TANK] …I need this - I faked it for the picture

                        

 This will used for labeling equipment on mechanical and piping layout drawings.

 

 

My problem:

I cannot see Description2 in ECAnnotation.cel when I select Insert Field. Selecting by Element Property only works for 1 kind of equipment, and I have multiple, which is why I cannot use insert field by Element Property. It will give me "####" for everything else.

 

 

Background:

To create the custom equipment, first I have to tell OpenPlant what kind of equipment it is going to be. I have multiple to chose from, and edited the picture to cut down the amount. In this example, I am creating a custom tank.


Anyone working on the project must select the equipment type from the list because this is the only way we can control the level symbology for equipment. If anyone knows a way to tell OpenPlant to keep elements on the same levels and colors as they were created with when making custom equipment, please let me know. Right now everything defaults to one level and color when a piece of equipment is created.

The equipment information is pulled from a database:

The NAME and DESCRIPTION property already in the OpenPlant3D schema. I have added a property called DESCRIPTION2 to the OpenPlant3D.01.04 schema, under “Equipment”, with a query to retrieve the text from the database. It is entered at the “Equipment” level, because only the entries below will have a second description line, while everything else, valves, motors, etc, only have 1 description line.


  

Both descriptions appear automatically when the user enters the equipment information in when creating the custom equipment.

So far so good! [Does anyone know how to move DESCRIPTION2 up in the list so they are closer together? I don’t understand the impact of priority, which I believe is supposed to control property positions?]

Now I have to insert the 3 properties with Insert Annotation in Manage Annotations, and this is where my problem is. I do not know how to add the DESCRIPTION2 property in Manage Annotations (ECAnnotation.cel). It does not appear by default when I select Insert Field.

If I use Insert Field by Element Properties, then I can select the equipment, and all of its properties are available to me. However, when I place an annotation in my drawing, I will only get DESCRIPTION2 on things that were made as "Tanks", because that is what I have set the custom equipment to be. If something is a pump, condenser, boiler, or anything else from the custom equipment pull down, I receive “####” instead of the proper text because somehow their description is different.

All of my equipment has a NAME, DESCRIPTION1 and DESCRIPTION2. How can I make DESCRIPTION2 available to me when I click the Insert Field button in ECAnnotation.cel? Is there a step that I am missing? Is it as simple as creating something in a dgnlib?

 

Thanks everyone,

Andre

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