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      <title>Expressions</title>
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      <div class="title_topic4" id="xps10_pagetitle">Expressions</div>
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      <p class="para_topic"> To define the expressions formula enter them manually or import them from another source, or create them with the Tools&rarr;Extract Expr option.</p>
      <p class="para_topic"> Another method for defining the expression formulas is to define an active range containing the expression names you want to extract from the part, then select Tools&rarr;Refresh Expr. This operation extracts the expressions from the active part that are assigned to the NX names defined in the spreadsheet Active Range. The cursor or active cell position does not affect this operation.</p>
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                  <p class="para_note_body">  If any of the expression cells in the spreadsheet Active Range are protected using the standard spreadsheet cell protection mechanisms, the contents will not be overwritten with the Refresh Expr operation.</p>
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      <p class="para_topic"> Also, if an NX expression name looks like a legitimate cell reference, such as P1, a leading underscore must be compressed so that the spreadsheet program will not confuse the NX name with a cell reference (i.e., P1 becomes _P1). When you select Extract Expr or Refresh Expr the conversion is automatic.</p>
      <p class="para_topic"> When you select Extract Expr, only the expressions of the current working part are extracted. You can view the same set of expressions by selecting Tools&rarr;Expressions in NX.</p>
      <p class="para_topic"> The Extract Expr operation not only loads the expressions to the spreadsheet and converts them to spreadsheet formulas, it also links the expression names to their corresponding expressions. It does this by assigning the expression name (as spreadsheet cell names) to the corresponding expressions. In the Column-wise Data Layout Example, if you selected Edit&rarr;Named Range... in the spreadsheet, you will see named ranges defined as:</p>
      <p class="para_topic"> Width=$B$2 Length=$B$3</p>
      <p class="para_topic"> $B$2 and $B$3 are the absolute references of Cell B2 and B3. Thus, when Xess encounters the formula, =Width*2, it checks the named range list and finds out &quot;Width&quot; is defined to cell B2. The spreadsheet can then go to cell B2 and retrieve the value.</p>
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