I have bee trying to find a way to get everything about a single piece of sheet metal to be a single choice. For example, If I have an existing design that is 12 gauge carbon steel, and I need to edit that to 1/8" aluminum. I want that change to be a single choice.

This is impossible to do, but attached is the closest I can get in SW 2017.

Here are the list of details I desire to make a single choice:

1. Bend radius

2. K factor

3. Thickness

4. Material description to be displayed in part draft

5. Material number to be displayed in part draft

6. Material properties so that the weight is correct, and the on screen visual representation allow the user to know what material is being used.

Here are the road blocks:

The bend radius cant be a global variable before any bend are added to a part, so only the gauge table can spec a bend radius before the part has a model.

The gauge table can't have any custom data, can't be used in configurations, and can't link to material data.

No custom fields can be added to material properties.

So the path of least resistance becomes picking two things: I pick a configuration and a cauge. The gauge handles R, T, K. the configuration handles material properties, material description, and material number.

Attached is the sheet file with configurations.

Anybody have idea's for improvements?

The end goal would be to make editing the editing the sheet's properties a single choice. Better yet, to edit 20 sheet's in an assembly at one time. IE edit an entire weldment from 12 gauge carbon to 1/8" aluminum.