When you have completed your metamodel customizations by creating the appropriate definitions, you must add them to the user props file definition.
To create a user props file definition
1 Perform one of these actions:
•In the Explorer, right-click the Definitions group, and then select New Definition.
•Click Dictionary > New Definition.
2 Select User Props File, and then specify a name for it.
3 Add the user definition types that you have created in the appropriate order.
Note When selecting a rename number, there are 300 user-provided definitions that can be used for customization. The user-provided definitions are named User 1 through User 300. These definitions can be used to “rename” a symbol, definition or diagram type.
Each user defined definition has a property called UserProp Rename Number. In this property, you can specify a number which can be used to “rename” a definition, for example “User 10" to the User Symbol Type called “Book”. By specifying a UserProp Rename Number, you can control the output of the generated User Props file with the same rename numbers as any existing types in a production encyclopedia. Then you can import the generated User Props file into the production encyclopedia without breaking the name-value matches.
When generating a User props file, you can also specify the Starting Rename Number for the user defined definition, diagram, and symbol types. If there is no starting number specified then the default is set to 1.
4 In the Explorer, right-click the User Props File definition instance that you want to turn into a USRPROPS.TXT file, and then click Generate User Prop. Specify the directory and name of the file (normally USRPROPS.TXT) that you want to generate.
5 Optionally, you can load the USRPROPS.TXT into the open encyclopedia’s Files table and reopen the encyclopedia by clicking Yes to the message, “Do you want to load the currently generated UsrProps to the currently loaded Encyclopedia?”.
When selecting Don’t ask me again always load the generated UsrProp file to the loaded Encyclopedia, the following occurs in the encyclopedia:
•The existing usrprops file, if any, is copied as Usrprops_orig.txt.
•The newly generated usrprop file is imported in the files table as USRPROPS.TXT.
•The encyclopedia is reloaded.
After the USRPROPS.TXT file has loaded, you can continue to edit the user defined definitions or import the USRPROPS.TXT file to your production encyclopedia.
If the generated usrprops file does not parse correctly and the encyclopedia cannot be loaded, the following occurs:
•The USRPROPS.TXT file is deleted.
•The usrprop_orig.txt is copied as USRPROPS.TXT file.
•The usrprop_orig.txt is deleted.
•The encyclopedia continues to load with the previously used USRPROPS.TXT file.
When using the Auto-load option, there is also the risk of breaking any type name/number combinations in the metamodel encyclopedia. To avoid any breaks in the encyclopedia, perform these actions:
•Do not populate the encyclopedia with a significant amount of data. If breaks do occur it will not be of any consequence.
•The “Always load” option is used to identify any changes that might need to be made to the definitions.
If changes are necessary, you can modify your definitions, and then regenerate the USRPROPS.TXT file. When you are satisfied with these changes, import this new USRPROPS.TXT file into your production encyclopedia.
After you have created new diagram, definition, or symbol types, you can create a metamodel diagram for them: see Creating a metamodel diagram.
