You can group table data into categories based on a model property or a user-defined property. This is useful for keeping like items together on a single table page, which otherwise may be scattered among many table sheets.
On the Groups tab, you can:
Use the Group by list to select a model property or a user-defined property for which you want to organize data into groups.
Use the top section—Table groups—to name a group and to assign data to it based on any criteria you choose.
Use the bottom section—Group header—to define the heading text and formatting for each group you define.
You define one or more table groups in the Table groups section on the Groups tab. The information you enter in the Table groups section does not appear in the table placed on the sheet. Rather, it names the groups and assigns values by which the data rows are allocated to the groups.
The properties that you can select to group the data by are the same properties that appear as columns on the Columns tab or on the Data tab. The columns are predefined in the model or user-defined.
The columns themselves can be shown or hidden in the table. This feature allows you to create a user-defined column containing metadata that you want to use to group information, yet you can prevent the column from appearing in the table placed on the drawing.
Items are included in a group based on a value that matches data in the column selected to group by.
You also can define a group without assigning a value to it. This is how you create a default group.
For a detailed example for a parts list using custom properties, see Group data in a table.
Your table can have one default group. You can use the default group to contain all of the unassigned data items in the table. You can sort items in the default group.
A group can be defined as a default group by not entering a string in the Value column.
Leftover, unassigned table data items that do not fall into any group (defined value or no value), are added to the end of a table, appearing after all of the grouped items.
When you enable table groups, you must define a minimum of one group.
A new row is inserted automatically into the table grid when you enter a name in the Name column and then press Tab or Enter. You can delete a row by selecting the blank cell at the start of the row and pressing the Delete key.
When you place a table on the sheet, the table groups are listed in the same order that the table group names are ordered in the Table groups section of the Groups tab. You can change the order of the table groups using the Move Up and Move Down buttons.
You define one or more group headings in the Group header section on the Groups tab. You can use the Group Header check box in the Table groups section to control whether individual group headings are displayed on the table sheet when the table is placed.
You can use the Insert Rows button to specify how many blank rows you want the group header to consume. Inserting more than one row can provide white space above and below the heading within the table.
The column headers displayed in the Group header section represent the order of the columns that are shown in the table. These are provided as reference, so that you can type the group heading text in the same position within the table that you want it to appear. All of the data rows that match the Value assigned to the group appear under the rows you allocate for the group heading.