Characteristics in the Power Editor
Last updated 6 August 2026
The Power Editor is a spreadsheet over the characteristics on the print. It is built for keying a hundred rows off a drawing without reaching for the mouse, so it behaves like a spreadsheet on purpose: a cursor, an edit mode, a selection, and a clipboard that talks to Excel.
The columns
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Label | The balloon number. |
| Type | Which of the six kinds this row is. |
| Nom. | Nominal size. |
| +/-Sym | A symmetric tolerance. |
| Bil -, Bil + | An unequal tolerance, entered as two numbers. |
| Lim -, Lim + | The finished-part limits. Derived from nominal and tolerance, or typed directly. |
| Method | How it is inspected. Picked from the shop library. |
| Class | Critical, Major, Minor or Reference. |
| Freq. | How often. Picked from the shop library. |
| Notes | Free text. |
| Ops | Which operations inspect it, and what each one does to it. |
The limit columns are drawn in blue because they are computed. The name box above the grid says what the cell under the cursor is, which matters on a row whose shape is not the one you last looked at.
The six kinds
| Kind | What the middle of the row becomes |
|---|---|
| Dimension | Nominal, tolerance and limits. The only kind the walk-back moves. |
| Thread | Spec, threads per inch, flank angle, and pitch diameter minimum and maximum. |
| GD&T | One cell holding a real feature control frame, built in the composer. |
| Basic | A nominal only, printed as a basic dimension. |
| Finish | A single maximum roughness, with a preferred-number ladder in either microinches or micrometers. |
| Notes | Free-text acceptance criteria, for anything that is judged rather than measured. |
A dimension whose class is Reference, or whose method is reference, prints as a reference dimension and stops walking. Threads do walk: a coat of plating on a thread flank moves pitch diameter, and by more than it moves a plain diameter.
Typing values
- A unit suffix converts as you type. Keying 12mm on an inch drawing makes that one characteristic metric without touching the rest of the plan.
- Fractions are understood: 1/16, 3/8, 1-1/2 and 1 1/2 all parse.
- Limits can be entered directly. Type 0.495 and 0.505 into the two limit cells with nominal and tolerance empty, and the nominal and the symmetric tolerance are worked out for you. It does not matter which limit you type first.
- On a select cell, typing the first letter picks the option: D, T, G, B, F and N are unique across the six kinds.
GD&T
The composer builds a real feature control frame rather than asking you to type one: characteristic symbol, a diameter modifier on the zone, the tolerance value, a material-condition modifier, and the datum references with modifiers of their own. It prints as notation on the control plan and on AS9102 Form 3.
Method, Class and Frequency
Method and frequency are chosen from your shop's library rather than typed. The dropdown filters as you type and the top match is highlighted, so keying three letters and pressing Enter is usually enough. Free text is refused deliberately: two spellings of the same gauge become two methods, and an auditor reading a control plan should not have to work out that they are the same thing.
Class is Critical, Major, Minor or Reference. Critical rows carry a red bar on the control plan.
Working on many rows at once
- Tick rows to get a bar offering Set Method, Set Frequency and Add to Op. Class is deliberately not offered in bulk: it is the field an auditor reads first.
- Select a range and copy it. The clipboard gets tab-separated text with a header row, which pastes straight into Excel or Sheets.
- Paste tab-separated text back in the same shape.
- Fill the cursor's column down over a selection.
- Rows are not all the same shape, so a rectangle over a mixed selection skips the cells that do not exist on a given kind rather than writing nonsense into them.
Undo
Undo and redo are on the toolbar and on Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z. The history keeps the last fifty steps per plan. A drag counts as one step rather than one per pixel.