About the Datum Feature Symbol Ribbon Tab

Datum Feature is a contextual ribbon tab that appears when you place a newly created or select an existing datum feature symbol instance. This tab lists all the defined properties of the selected datum feature symbol. You can use the commands available on this tab to modify the properties of the selected datum feature symbol.

The Datum Feature tab does not appear if you select more than one existing datum feature symbol instance.

The command in the Reference group enable you to control the references that you used to place the selected datum feature symbol.

When you click Reference, the References dialog box opens. It lists the details of references that were used to create the selected datum feature symbol. You can modify the references of the selected datum feature symbol.

The Reference commands are not accessible in Drawing mode.

The Label command enable you to specify a string identifier as a label that will appear within the datum feature symbol frame. You can use the following identifiers to specify the label for the datum feature symbol:

ASME Standards	ISO Standards
Combination of only capital letters. Numbers or special characters are not allowed.	Combination of only capital letters. Numbers or special characters are not allowed.
Must contain only one or two characters.	Any number of characters is allowed.
The letters I, O, and Q are not allowed.	The letters I, O, Q, and X are not allowed.

The identifier that you specify is validated, and the label appears highlighted if it is invalid. A tooltip provides you with the message, describing the detected syntactical or semantic incorrectness

The label must be composed from one or two capital letters in the range of A…Z. Any other label which does not match this requirement is considered as syntactically incorrect. A single letter labels using letters I, O and Q are also considered as syntactically incorrect.

In addition to the validation of the label, the uniqueness of the label is also checked in Part mode.

The commands in the Additional Text group enable you to specify additional text that appears along with the datum feature symbol instance. You can specify any alpha-numeric string with no limitations as the additional text.

The label for the datum feature symbol and the additional text that you specify, appear horizontally aligned to the screen. Click the Rotate text position option to change the position of the additional text around the frame of the datum feature symbol.

Commands in the Display group enable you to control the display style of the leader with which the datum feature symbol is attached to a geometry. You can select Straight or Elbow to specify the appearance of the leader.

You can also use the Display per ASME Y14.5m-1982 option, so that the datum feature symbol appears according to the ASME standard. When you select this check box, the elbow options are not available.

Commands in the Options group allow you to control the position of the model driven datum feature symbol shown in the drawing.

◦ Dependencies — This option is available only in Drawing mode. Enables you to determine the position of the model driven datum feature symbol.

▪ Placement Position — Specifies the position of the selected datum feature symbol as Driven by model.

▪ Attachment — Specifies the attachment point of the selected datum feature symbol as References driven by model or Attach point(s) driven by model.

◦ Designation — This option is disabled in Drawing mode. Allows you to designate annotation elements as control characteristics.

▪ Designate — Designates the annotation elements of the selected datum feature symbol as control characteristics when you select the Control Characteristics.