The Update Options panel on the Topology Import Options dialog is used to control the way in which the design is updated based on information in the spreadsheet. This panel can be accessed by clicking on one of the "Options..." buttons on the Main Topology Import Panel and then selecting the Update Options tab.
At the top of the Update Options panel are three radio buttons that are used to indicate the approach to take when importing objects into an existing design (the selected approach also dictates which fields are enabled on this panel).
When the first approach ("Update Existing Design Elements") is selected, then the checkboxes that appear in the lower two sections of this panel will be enabled (see example at left).
Update existing design elements with data from spreadsheet - when checkboxes in this section are selected, then those elements may be modified based on data in the spreadsheet.
Remove existing design elements if not listed in spreadsheet - when checkboxes in this section are selected, then those elements will be removed from the design if not included in the spreadsheet.
Note: only elements for which the corresponding columns have been selected can be updated.
Following are two Import naming options. The difference between object instances and duplicated objects is discussed in the topic Instances and Duplications. One difference between the "Duplicate Existing Design Elements" and "Duplicate Entire Import" options is that the former only modifies the imported object names when there is an existing object in the design with the same name. The "Duplicate Entire Import" option, on the other hand, will modify all object names based on tokens in the Duplication Options edit box. If, however, this edit box is left blank, then eXpress will append unique integers to all duplicate object names.
When the "Duplicate Existing Design Elements" appraoch is selected, then the fields in the Duplication Options section of this panel will be enabled (see example at right).
The Duplication Options allow the Analyst to select text to be appended/prepended to the imported object name if an object with this name already exists in the design. If the name still exists in the design, then a unique integer is appended to the object name.
Separate pre/appended text using a space - when selected, indicates that a space should be placed between the object name from the spreadsheet and the duplication string defined on this panel.
Append numbers to all duplicated elements - when selected, indicates that a unique integer will be appended to all duplicate object names.
Create duplicate nets for duplicated objects - indicates whether separate nets will be used to connect duplicate objects.
The "Duplicate Entire Import" options causes the entire import to be automatically performed multiple times. When this options is selected, an edit box appears, allowing the Analyst to enter the number of Additional Copies to be imported (see example at left).
When imports are duplicated, a different prefix or suffix can be added to the object abbreviations in each set of imported objects. To do this, the Analyst must 1) enter the different labels (separated by semicolons) in the Duplication Options edit box and 2) select the Multiple tokens in pre/appended text (semicolon delimited) checkbox.
When this feature is used, a different label will be added to the object abbreviations for each import. For instance, in the example at left, a total of four copies will be made of the objects defined in the spreadsheet file. The label "Front-Left" will be prepended to all object names in the first import. "Rear-Left" will be prepended to all object names in second import, and so on.
