KOMPAS-3D v24

Attribute is additional non-graphical data related to an object (or multiple objects) in a document or to the document itself.

Attributes may be used to search for objects as well as be processed by different applications (e. g. by BOM design module, by calculation programs etc.).

Attributes may store miscellaneous data related to an object (to an image or a document). Depending on nature of the data it might be more convenient to represent the data in some way or another, that is to employ one or another attribute structure.

In KOMPAS-3D, the attribute may have one of four structures:

•number,

•text string,

•table with constant number of rows,

•table with arbitrary number of rows.

The same structure can be used to provide different data, thus different attributes may have similar structure.

For example, one object may have several attribute-tables with varying number of rows and columns in each, containing different data on the object.

Information on the structure of an attribute (and also information on table parameters and cell contents for table attributes) is stored in the attribute type. Each attribute type has a name. Attribute types may be created by user and stored inside a document (in this case they are available only while working with this specific document) or inside external files *.lat — attribute type libraries (in this case they are available while working with any document).

General procedure of assigning an attribute to a drawing object or a document is as follows:

1.Specifying attribute type

2.Entering attribute value

Attribute value is the data stored in an attribute which has been assigned to an object. Values of the same attribute, which is assigned to different objects, may vary.

Thus, one might say that attributes are classes (or sections) of information about objects, while attribute values are the information itself which belongs to a certain class (or section). These values might be the same or might vary for different objects, as attribute descriptions (attribute types) are stored separately from object attributes (attribute values) themselves.