Creating a Number Counter

Explanation

Use this activity to create a number counter, which can either generate numbers for a specific booking list or generate numbers to be used directly for a new document. A number counter can be used to group documents in a specific project or similar documents. 

Prerequisites

If you want to be able to use the number counter, advanced number generation must be enabled by setting the NUMBER_GENERATOR default value to ADVANCED in Document Basic/Document Default Values tab. The value in the Number Counter ID1 field should be configured for the document class that will use the number counter. 

System Effects

As a result of this activity, a new number counter will be created and ready to be used for creating a new document or for creating a booking list.

Window

Document Basic

Related Window Descriptions

Document Basic
Document Basic/Number Counter

Procedure

To create a number counter:

  1. Open the Document Basic window and click the Number Counter tab.
  2. Click New.
  3. Enter a value in the ID1 field. This might be the name of a specific project or a specific type of drawings.
  4. Enter a value in the ID2 field. If you plan to use only one number counter for the project or drawing type, enter a hyphen (-) as the value. If you plan to have subprojects or something similar, you might want to use this ID2 field to reflect this. If you do not know what to enter, enter a hyphen (-). 
  5. Enter a starting value in the Start Value field. This number should be 1 or higher
  6. Enter a value for the Length Shown field. The value 0 (zero) means that the number will use as much space as it needs. Using a value larger than this will cause the system to prefix the number with zeros if the number has less characters than the value you enter here. 
  7. Optionally, enter a prefix to be added before the generated numbers.
  8. Optionally, enter a suffix to be added after the number.
  9. Enter a description in the Description field.
  10. Click Save.

To delete a number counter:

  1. Remove any booking lists that use the number counter. You cannot delete number counters if there are booking lists that use the number counter for generating numbers or if the number counter has been assigned for a document class for generating numbers.
  2. Delete the number counter.
  3. Save the record.