Creating Lookup Fields in Bentley Substation Parts Manager

Question

Good Day 
 I am trying to edit the Access DB File for our Parts Catalog such that certain items like Part Type, Category and Discipline can be displayed as drop boxes with predefined entries. Its easy to replicate this on Microsoft Access but when i open the Bentley Substation Program it does not replicate as drop boxes.

Tani_S · Answer

Editing how Microsoft Access handles their dialog will not change how the dialog in Bentley Substation functions. You would have to edit the Substation dialog control and probably do some custom programming to achieve that sort of function. There is no built in way to add pre-populated drop downs to the dialog currently. You could look into having this done as a paid customization from the Bentley Professional Services group. 
 
 Typically, the parts database is not routinely edited by many users. Most companies have their Part Database set with company approved parts that they deploy to all users when they roll out the software. If new part numbers need to be created, it is typical to have a select few users who are tasked with doing so to help maintain company standards and avoid having every user doing their own thing. You can even prevent users from having access to the Parts Database Manager with Command Protection to prevent unwanted changes. That way it is limited to your chosen "librarians" who maintain your company standards. It is common to do this with Symbol Catalogs as well; limit creation of new symbols to just a few people to help maintain company standards.

Matt_P · Answer

Mohammad, there is an existing enhancement request (TFS 559751) for the ability to select Part_Type values from a pre-defined list in Parts Database Manager. I will append the other desired fields to this enhancement request and add your company to the requestor list. 
 Sarvesh, being able to select values from a list eliminates errors due to misspellings. This is important for certain fields such as Part_Type since certain functionality depends on specific values .