Custom properties question

Completed

Hi everyone, quick question about custom properties.

Right now I have a few non-mathematical custom properties set at the takeoff level only (mostly for organizing reports). In most cases, I want every item in that takeoff to simply inherit those values.

I just want to confirm my understanding:

If I enable those same properties to be editable at the item level as well, will the takeoff-level value still act as the default, with the option to override it only on specific items when needed?

I’d like to avoid creating a bunch of extra work or losing the inheritance behavior unless I intentionally change something.

Thanks in advance.

Lorin Allred zzTakeoff46d 1h

Hey Luke 🙂

The current flow of inheritance is that if the property does not exist at the item level, it is automatically inherited down from the takeoff. If the property exists at the takeoff level and item level, the takeoff value does not inherit down unless the custom property is in mode "inherit", or you use a formula to pull it down.

I believe for your current use case, you would want to modify the custom property definition to have a default mode of "Inherit" at the item level, that way it will always pull from the takeoff, but it can be modified at the item level if needed.

Luke Olson 46d 0h

Thanks Lorin.

i want to add this functionality, but I’m a little afraid to break something and not notice.

inherit mode works great on custom properties, but I’ve noticed it will break if I select a different product in my list. Maybe I’m missing a setting though in custom properties?

Luke Olson 46d 0h

sorry just reread that I need to have default inherit and it will not break yeah?

Lorin Allred zzTakeoff46d 0h

Are you using "Products & Items" or "Items" in your custom property Applies To? If you are using products & items, you will need to make sure the custom property for your existing products are saved in "inherit" mode, and you will need to make sure the default mode "Inherit" applies to "Products & Items".

The reason why is that if you apply the custom property to "Products & Items", when you select a different product in your list, that property on your item gets overwritten with the value from the product.

One thing to note - the Default Mode that you set in your custom properties only applies to new items and products, so if you have any existing items/products, you will need to manually fix them to be in inherit mode, but any items created after should be good to go.

We are planning to add some tools to make this easier.

Luke Olson 46d 0h

I haven’t yet utilized products and items.

thanks this all makes sense to me

You must be logged in to post replies. If you don't have an account you can signup here.