Entity Data Source

Overview

The Data button opens the Entity Data Source view, which allows you to load any TilliT configuration or instance data into an Excel sheet. Once loaded, you can view, edit, and upload changes back to TilliT.

This replaces the Data button from the classic add-in and introduces a search, filter, and pagination step before loading.

Opening Entity Data Source

In the TilliT V2 ribbon tab, click the Data button.

The task pane will open showing any previously loaded data sources. If nothing is loaded, then the Add entity wizard will be shown.

Adding a Data Source

Click the Add button to open the wizard (if not already open)

Step 1: Select Category

The first step lets you find an entity by searching or browsing by category.

Searching: Type in the search box to find entities by name. Results show the entity name and its parent group.

Browsing by category: If you leave the search box empty, categories are shown with their groups. Each group shows how many entities it contains.

Step 2: Select Entity

After selecting a group, choose the specific entity you want to load.

Step 3: Filter (Optional)

You can optionally filter the data before it is loaded. Available filter fields depend on the selected entity.

Filters are not required — click Next to skip and load all records.

Step 4: Configure Options

Before loading, configure how the data will be placed into Excel:

• Sheet name — the name of the Excel sheet that will be created. Changing this allows you to load the same entity multiple times on different sheets.

• Records per page — how many rows to load at once (maximum 5,000). Use this when working with large data sets.

For entities that support extended data, additional checkboxes may appear:

• Include custom attributes as columns — adds attribute values as extra columns

• Include material properties as columns — adds material property values as extra columns

• Include tolerance values as columns — adds tolerance values as extra columns

Click Load Data to load the records into Excel.

Viewing Loaded Data

After loading, the data appears in a new sheet named after the entity (or the custom sheet name you provided). The task pane shows a card for each loaded data source.

Uploading Changes

After editing data in the Excel sheet, you can upload the changes back to TilliT. In the task pane, click the Save button on the corresponding data source card.

When uploading, only rows that have been modified since the last load or upload will be sent to TilliT. Unchanged rows are ignored.

Refreshing Data

To reload the data from TilliT (discarding local changes), click the Refresh button on the data source card.