Product Assemblies are used to manually or automatically link top-level Products to their Child Products. Assemblies can be used to dynamically combine different Products into a single top-level Product (like combining all the binding and finishing options for a printing product), or to create complex “kit” Products (like an extruded sign made up of several fixed subcomponents) or to create all of the layers of an ADA sign.
Interface Design
In Product Setup
To create an assembly, navigate to the Product you would like to use as a “Container”. A Container is the top-level Product that you would like to add Child Products to for automatic inclusion. Check the “Is An Assembly Container” checkbox directly under the Product name. Once checked, an Assembly tab will be created in this Product. Select the Assembly tab and add Assembly Products by clicking the “Add” button. A popup will appear displaying all available Products. Select the desired Product and click the “Add” button to add it as an Assembly Child. A Product can be added multiple times and the popup frame will indicate the number of links to that the Product by displaying a number in parenthesis next to the Product name in the right pane.
To remove Assembly children, place a checkmark next to each item and click the Remove button.
Each assembly product can be included automatically, not included automatically, or included based on a formula (called an Inclusion Formula).
- Always- This option will automatically include the Child Product in this Assembly Container when in Order or Estimate Entry.
- Manual - This option will allow you to manually add this Child Product to the Assembly Container. It will display this Product in the Assembly Grid, but will not be included by default.
- Based on Formula - This option allows you to insert a formula to determine when this Child Product should be included. An example would be a simple Coroplast sign. If there was a checkbox on your Pricing Form that was “Include Stakes?”, when checked, you could have this Child Product (Step Stakes) automatically added to this order as a child, and if set up correctly, with the correct Quantity.
Assembly Children
Assembly Child Items have the ability to access the Variable Values of the Assembly Container product. This will allow the ability to include Child Products based on Variables set up in the Assembly Container. The ability to use any Variable values can also be applied to Part consumption formulas in the Child products.
In Line Item Options
You can specify whether to show the Assembly Tree only for line items that has a Product with assemblies or for all line items during Order/Estimate entry.
- Show Assembly Tree
- Always
- Only for Assembly Products
In Order/Estimate Entry
When viewing a line item with an Assembly Product in the popup pricing form, a tree shows in the left side. The tree displays the selected item as the top node and its Assembly children and child items beneath it. The assembly children will always show at the top of the tree in italics.
Additional child items can be added in the tree by clicking the “Add Child” button at the bottom of the tree.
Select a line item in the tree that you wish to add a child item to.
A list of available Products is displayed.
Select a Product and click the “OK” button. A new child item is created and displayed.
You can remove child items either by right-clicking and selecting “Delete” or clicking the “Delete Child” button at the bottom of the tree.
Overriding Inclusion Formulas
When creating a line item, all Assembly children are evaluated to determine whether to be included in the Assembly. The inclusion formula for each Assembly child can be overridden to always include it or not by checking it or removing the check in the tree.
Assemblies with overridden inclusion formulas show in red.
You can reset an Assembly child that has been overridden to use its default inclusion formula by right-clicking on the item in the tree and selecting Reset in the menu that appears.
Locking Assemblies
The Lock Assemblies checkbox will prevent the inclusion formulas for all child Assemblies from recomputing. All locked Assemblies will stay “as is” from the moment they are locked.
You can lock an Assembly and its Assembly children by selecting it in the tree and checking the “Lock Assemblies” at the bottom tree.
Locked assemblies show with a red 'X' image in the tree.
CFL Enhancements
New Functions (see CFL reference manual for details)
- IsAssembly : Boolean
- IsAssemblyChild : Boolean
- AssembledLocked : Boolean
Assembly Design
Considerations
- Assemblies can contain Assemblies.
Limitations
- The more Child items that you add, the slower the Product is going to take to load. It is best practice to keep the number of Child items to a minimum.