I'm trying to customize a report and in the list of available Data Fields in the Report Template Designer, I don't see the field I want. How do I add it?
The variables that are available as data fields for any given report are defined in the Report Template. If you are trying to create your own customized report using an already existing report as a starting point, and the fields that you want to include in your report are not available in the current report template field list, then you will need to create your report using a custom SQL statement, not the existing report template. You can create your custom SQL statement to pull out any of the fields from the Project Database that you wish to include in your report.
Reports generally gather data from various fields of tables in the Project Database to help users present the data they desire in an easy to read format. We include sample reports of a number of different basic types with the software, such as Bill Of Materials reports, point to point wire connection lists, Cable lists, PLC I/O lists, Job Costing reports, and several others. We try to include the data fields that most people would look for or have asked for in the stock reports. Knowing that many people will want to customize these reports to their own desired fashion, we also include in each stock template several data fields that users can use to customize these reports. We can’t include every field from the database because that would take a long time to process and be very slow, so we try to balance and include those fields most likely to be preferred for each type of report. We feel that the slight performance lag for pulling these extra fields in the stock reports is worth it to help out the number of users that make slight modifications to the existing reports and ease the process for them by having those fields already there. (So yes, you could make all reports run faster if you created your own custom ones to pull only the exact data fields you want and not any extras, but the speed difference may not be very noticeable for the effort.)
However, there will always be a case where someone wants a data field that is not already included in the stock Report Template.
The project database is open for anyone with the tools and experience to read and create their own queries to extract the desired data from any of the tables in the database. Users can use tools like Microsoft SQL Studio Manager ® to help create a custom SQL query.
Once you have a query that defines the data fields that you want to pull from the database, Select Electrical > Output > Report Template Designer.
In the Report Template Designer select File > New.
In the New Report Template dialog, select the radio button for Customized by SQL statement, and paste in your custom SQL statement.
Click OK.
Then you can start creating the template for your desired report using the data fields specified by your custom SQL statement.
Report Template Designer