Lesson 3 Create a bill of materials

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In this chapter we are going to create a bill of materials. Certain items in the bill of materials will be linked to a product group in Product Information Center. We also will demonstrate the automatic type number recognition.

Open MatStream Bill Of Materials

Select in the Start menu of windows: Program -> MatStream -> Bill Of Materials. Bill Of Materials will be opened. Follow the instructions on your screen for logging in and compression of the database.

Starting a new bill of materials

When we just have opened MatStream Bill Of Materials, then there is a new bill of materials present at your screen. So we can get started with adding data to it.

First we begin with adding an item to the bill of materials that is not linked to a product group in Product Information Center.

Add the following data to the first row of the bill of materials.
Item: '1', Description: 'Sub item of sample 1', Brand: 'Sample brand', Type number: 'Sub sample 1', Material: 'Stainless steel', Connection:'1/4" NPT',  Qty:'4'

Saving the bill of materials

1. Select Save in the File menu. A window will be displayed projects and bills of materials that are already present in the database.
2. First we create a new project. Select the button New project. Change the name of the new project folder to 'Sample project'.
3. Change if necessary the value of the field 'Document name' to 'Bill Of Materials 1'.
4. Select the button Save. This bill of materials will be saved in the project folder 'Sample project'.

Adding a product from Product Information Center.

1. Adding a product by recognition of the type number
   • Add the value 'Sample nr.1' to the field of the second row, in column Type number and press the <enter> button of your keyboard. Notice that when you leave the cell, the row is being completed with data of the product we have added before in Product Information Center.
   • While you are still on the second row, select Linked product information in the Edit menu. The window Product Data will be displayed with the data of the product we have added before in PIC. You see that the row is not only completed, the row is also linked with the product in PIC.
2. Drag a product from Product Information Center to the bill of materials
   • Open Product Information Center if you haven't done it already. You can do this from within MatStream Bill Of Materials by selecting Product Information Center in the Tools menu.
   • Select the Find button on the toolbar in Product Information Center. All the products of PIC are shown in the search results.
   • Select the sample product with type number '40 SERIES', by clicking the record selector once (the grey field on the left side of the row). The row is colored blue, indicating that it is selected.
   

   Typical example of a row

   or record selector
    

   • Click again on the record selector and keep the mouse button pressed. Start moving the mouse pointer towards the bill of materials. Drag the product to the third row on the bill of materials and release the mouse button. The product will be added to row in the bill of materials.
   • Select a cell on the third row of the bill of materials. Select Row properties in the Edit menu. The files that are attached to the product in PIC are shown. Double click on the file named '40x-2.pdf'. If you have Adobe® Acrobat Reader on your computer, the file will be opened.
   • Change the type number of the third row in the bill of materials to 'SS-44S6'. Double click the cell, or select the cell and press the  <F2> button on your keyboard, you can edit the cell data. After you have changed it press the <enter> button of your keyboard.
     Because the type number has changed, you get the question if you want to keep the link to PIC. Select 'Yes' to keep the link. Now you see that the text in the row is colored blue. This means that the row is linked to PIC, but the type numbers are not identical.
   • Change the value in de colomn Connection to '3/8" Swagelok'
3. Linking a row to a product in PIC
   • Drag the product with type number 'Sample nr 1' to the first row of the bill of materials. See Drag a product from Product Information Center to the bill of materials.
   • Because you have dragged the product to a row that was not empty, you'll get a question about how you want the product to be added. By default the option 'Link the selected item of this bill of materials to the copied product' is selected. Select the Ok button, the row will be linked to the product you have dragged from PIC.
   • Now you get the question if you want the value entered in the description column to be overwritten with the data saved in PIC. Select No to All. All the data on the first row will remain unchanged, but it will be linked. Now you see again that the text in the row is colored blue, because the row is linked to PIC, but the type numbers are not identical.

Select Save in the File menu to save the changes of this bill of materials.

Automatic type number recognition

In the previous example you have seen that when a type number exist in Product Information Center, it will be recognized and completed. The same thing happens when a type number from a previous bill of materials is recognized.
 

1. Select New in the File menu. A new bill of materials will be opened.
2. Type the value 'SS-44S6' in the column 'Type number' of the first row. This is the same type number as we have used in the previous bill of materials (you must have saved the previous bill of materials).
3. You see in with this example that the row is completed with data of the previous bill of materials. The row is again linked to the '40 SERIES' in PIC like the item in the previous bill of materials was.

This example shows that you only have to add product groups to Product Information Center. Every type number that will be added to a bill of materials and linked to a product group, will also be recognized, completed and linked.

Close the bill of materials. It is not necessary to save this bill of materials.

Add or edit columns

We will continue with the example bill of materials that has three items in it.
In this bill of materials the default columns are already present. Now we are going to add some columns to it.
 

1. Edit the Qty column.
   • Select the Qty column by clicking the column header.
   • Keep the mouse pointer on the column header and click the right mouse button. A popup menu will be displayed.
   • Select Column properties. A window will be displayed with the column properties.
   • Change the field Column header to 'Qty syst.1'
   • Select the Ok button to save the changes.
2. Adding a 'quantity' column.
   • Select the 'Qty syst.1' column. Click with the right mouse button on the column header. The popup menu will be displayed.
   • Select Insert new column from the popup menu. A new column will be added and the new column's properties are shown.
   • Change the field Column header to 'Qty syst.2' and select the Ok button.
3. Adding a total quantity column
   • Select the 'Qty syst.2' column and add another column right after this selected column.
   • We are going to change the field data of this column.
     • Select from the section Data field instead of 'Quantity' the value 'Qty Totals'
     • Change the Column header value to 'Total'
   • Select the Ok button.

   Now you can see that the column 'Total' is rendered grey. The values in this column are calculated and represent the total of all quantity columns in the bill of materials. You can not manually edit the values in this column. If necessary you can change the order of the columns by picking them up on the column header, and dragging it to the new position.
    

4. Adding a column with custom product properties
   We have added the properties 'Hight' and 'Width' to the example product in a previous chapter. These properties can also be shown in the bill of materials.
   
   • Add a new column to the bill of materials
   • Select the radio button Property field in the section Data field. The selection list with properties will be activated.
   • Select the property 'Height' in de selection list.
   • Select the Ok button to save the changes and close the form. 
   • You will get the question, if you want this column to be updated wit the property data. Select 'Yes'. The value 1000 [mm] will be added to the column.