Update Custom Properties

You can schedule tasks to update custom properties in SOLIDWORKS documents. You can update custom properties in individual files or all files of a specified type within a folder.

You can specify one or more files or folders, but you cannot specify both files and folders in the same task.

Creating an Updated Custom Properties Task

To create an Update Custom Properties task:

  1. Click Update Custom Properties on the sidebar, or click Tasks > Update Custom Properties.
  2. In the dialog box, type a new title for the task or leave the default in Task title.
  3. Select the files or folders for which you want to update custom properties:
    • To select files:
      1. Under Task files or folders, click Add File.
      2. Select the types of files to update in Files of type.
      3. Browse to the file to update, then click Open.
      4. Repeat steps a, b, and c to select additional files.
    • To select folders:
      1. Under Task files or folders, click Add Folder.
      2. Browse to the folder that contains the files to update, then click OK.
      3. Under File Name or Type, click in the row that contains the folder you just added, then select the type of file to update.
      4. Repeat steps a, b, and c to select additional folders.
      5. If you do not want to include subfolders, clear Include subfolders.
      To delete a file or folder from the list, click its number in the leftmost column, then click Delete.

Scheduling the Task

To schedule the task:

  1. Under Task Schedule, set:
    Option Description
    Running mode Specifies how often the task runs. Select Once, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
    Start time  
    Start date  
  2. Optional: Click Advanced to change task options such as backup file location and time-out duration.
  3. Click Next.
  4. In the dialog box, specify the custom properties to add or modify.
  5. Click Finish.
    The task and its title, scheduled time, scheduled date, and status appear in the Tasks panel. The status of the task is Scheduled.
    To run a scheduled task, your computer must be on at the scheduled start time. The SOLIDWORKS Task Scheduler window does not need to be open. If your computer is off at the scheduled start time, the task runs when you turn your computer on.

    At the scheduled start time, the task begins. If the task acts on more than one file, a subtask is generated for each file. If you selected Backup task files in Task Options, a backup copy of each file is saved to a .zip file. Then the custom properties in each file are updated. When the task completes, the status changes to Completed.

    After the task completes, click Completed to see the SOLIDWORKS Task Scheduler Report.
    If your backup files include Unicode file paths, use an extraction application for zip files that supports UTF-8 encoding.
See SOLIDWORKS Help: Properties - Custom and Configuration Properties for more information on working with Custom Properties in SOLIDWORKS documents.

Specifying Custom Properties

You can add or modify custom properties in SOLIDWORKS documents.

To specify custom properties to add or modify:

  1. Click in the first row in the Name column.
  2. Select an existing custom property name from the list, or enter a name.

    Material, Weight, DrawnDate, MakeOrBuy, and CompanyName are examples of custom property names that are predefined in SOLIDWORKS documents.

    In a SOLIDWORKS part, assembly, or drawing document, click File > Properties > Custom to see the list of custom property names for that document. See SOLIDWORKS Help: Properties - Custom and Configuration Properties for more information on working with custom properties in SOLIDWORKS documents.

  3. For Type, select a custom property type (Text, Date, Number, Yes or no).
  4. For Value, enter a custom property value.
    Type Value
    Text Enter text.
    Date Enter a date in the mm/dd/yyyy format.
    Number Enter a numerical value.
    Yes or no Enter yes or no (not case sensitive).
  5. For Configuration, if the custom property affects configurations within the SOLIDWORKS document, enter the configuration name. Otherwise, leave the field blank.
  6. Click in the next row in the Name column, and repeat steps 2 through 5 for each custom property that you add or modify.
  7. Click Finish.
    The task appears in the Tasks panel. The status of the task is Scheduled.

    To run a scheduled task, your computer must be on at the scheduled start time. The SOLIDWORKS Task Scheduler window does not need to be open. If your computer is off at the scheduled start time, the task runs when you turn your computer on.

    At the scheduled start time, the task begins. If the task acts on more than one file, a subtask is generated for each file. If you selected Backup task files in Task Options, a backup copy of each file is saved to a .zip file. Then the custom properties in each file are updated. When the task completes, the status changes to Completed.

    If your backup files include Unicode file paths, use an extraction application for zip files that supports UTF-8 encoding.

  8. After the task completes, click Completed to see the SOLIDWORKS Task Scheduler Report.