The User-Defined Tables and Fields Editor, when opened, is already populated by the software with a set of custom fields for each Item Type displayed in the Custom Defined Fields tab > Item Types pane. The following procedure explains how you can edit these fields to define the values you require.
If you have upgraded from previous versions of Smart Instrumentation you could see
next to a Custom Field name. This indicates that two or more plants in the domain
use the same custom field, for example Cable UDF 001, with different headers, captions, custom field names, or permissible number of characters
for the field. This is because in previous versions of the software UDFs were assigned
per plant, now they are assigned per Domain so only one name is required. It is important
that you fix these inconsistencies before continuing to work with your user defined
tables and fields. For more information on inconsistencies, see Upgrade User Defined Tables and Fields from Versions Prior to 2016.
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In the Administration Module >Domain Administration, do one of the following:
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Click
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From the main menu click Activities > User Defined Tables and Fields Editor.
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Use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+ E.
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In the Custom Defined Fields tab, expand the Item Type category where you want your custom field to be.
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Select a custom field from the available fields.
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In the Definition Pane, in the Custom field name field type the name for your custom field. This is the name displayed by the software whenever you use this custom field.
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In the Number of characters field, type the maximum number of characters you want to allow for this field.
When creating a custom field (UDF) for instrument numbers, it is important that you define a maximum length for the field (up to a maximum of 30 characters). If the custom field is used in an EDE without a defined maximum length, the instrument number is displayed exponentially and not as entered in the database. For example, if you enter a value of 12345678911234567891123456789 in the custom field without defining a maximum number of characters, once it is saved to the database it is displayed in the EDE as 1.23456789112346E+28.
The Number of Characters field for certain UDFs are not available in the User-Defined Tables and Field Editor. The number of characters permissible in these specific UDFs is dependent on the physical space allocated to them in your database.
The specific fields are as follows;
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Process Data fields – Process Data UDF 91 to Process Data UDF 134.
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Instrument > Custom Fields
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Instrument Numeric UDF 01 to Instrument Numeric UDF 06 – You can set up to a maximum of 10 characters. These fields can only be of type integer (whole numbers, no decimals).
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Instrument Numeric UDF 07 to Instrument Numeric UDF 10 – You cannot set a number of characters for these fields, this is determined by the software. The software also allows for two decimal places after the point.
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From the Field Type select list, select String, Numeric, Date, or Select List. If you select, Select List, for more information see: Assign a Select List to a User Defined Field.
Only those field types applicable to the selected item type are displayed.
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Clear or select the Visible check box, to hide or display in the software the custom field.
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Clear or select the Read-only check box, to make the custom field a read-only field in the software.
The Read-only check box is available only if you have selected Visible.
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Click Save All.
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Certain fields in the Definition pane are read-only and only contain values when relevant.
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The Section Name field is relevant only for Process Data UDFs and the value displayed is not editable.