Specifications

The Bill of materials command allows to obtain various data extracts and printings. The easiest and fastest way to receive a specification is to select one of templates and to directly print it. There are several pre-designed templates to choose from, and they are used to obtain various specifications. Depending on the selected template, CADprofi performs filtering of selected objects. For instance, when user selects specifications for symbols, CADprofi will select only symbols.

Each template provides different data that can be printed in tabular layouts. All needed data are available on the left side of the dialog window. Columns that will be printed are located on the right side of the dialog window. It is possible to select data to the list of printed columns as well as to change the column sequence. BOM can be printed in both horizontal (landscape) and vertical (portrait) mode. For horizontal (landscape) mode, user can select more columns.

Select type of BOM– a list that contains pre-design templates. User can adapt the Objects, symbols and lines CADprofi template to his own needs. Definition of this template is located in the C:\ProgramData\Cadprofi\20XX.x\Common\Extract\Extrac.utc file. In this file it is possible to names of attributes and additional data that is used in BOMs. Futher information can be found in comments in the mentioned file.

Available columns – list of attributes, which values can be used in the printed table. The list is dependant on the chosen type of BOM.

Printed columns – list of attributes that will be included in the columns of the printed table. This list can be later edited by the user.

Up, Down – allows user to specify the positions order on the list of printed columns. The Printed columns list can also organize by drag and drop function.

Summing data – enable/disable the creation of a collective bill of materials with summing data of used identical objects. It is also possible to include the line length, ducts area, fittings data etc. in the summing data.

Sort – enable/disable data sorting on printings. Data can be sorted in the next dialog window that contains the initial printing preview.

Skip special symbols – enable/disable the inclusion of blocks that haven't got the NAME attribute or the ones for which the NAME attribute doesn’t have any value. Also in BOMs, blocks that are used to describe the drawing (slope symbols, number of core electric wires etc.), are not included.

Landscape print – enable/disable the creation of horizontal (landscape) printings.

Header of a company – enable/disable the printing of the header of a company on the first page of BOM. The data needed for the header and the company logo are being defined in the next dialog window that contains the initial printing preview.

Ordinal number on print – enable/disable the addition of the column with the order number.

Next – confirms the selected options and proceeds to the selection of objects on the viewport. To select them, user can use all kind of methods in the CAD program. The application itself will filter objects according to the chosen template. Thanks to this instead of selecting single objects, it’s possible to indicate an area with two points.

In addition to obtaining bill of materials from the current drawing, it is also possible to create BOMs for projects that contain several drawings. In order to create such a specification, user should make a temporary file in which data from all drawings will be saved. Afterwards, this file can be printed as a collective BOM.

In order to create a file with temporary data, user should press the Save data button. Afterwards user should specify the file, in which the data will be saved. If user specifies an existing file then the data will be added to the data that already exists. To create a collective data it is necessary to run the Bill of materials command in each drawing, and to select the same template and save the data to the same file. To print the data from the temporary file, user can use the Open data button.

The temporary file has got a csv format structure, therefore this file can be used to export data for example to a spreadsheet.

In this data window it is possible to sort the data, set the column width that will be used for printing and delete any rows or columns or hide unnecessary data.

To sort the data, user should click on the title of the desired column. Clicking again will reverse the sort order. User can sort multiple columns. In this case, user should first sort columns with the lowest sort priority.

To specify the column width, user should set the cursor between the columns (in the header). Cursor will change into a double-headed arrow that will allow to change the width by dragging. In this way it is possible to completely hide selected columns. This option is useful to hide empty columns or columns that are not needed for printings.

In the preview window user should specify the printing title. It is also possible to define the printing header such as: contact details and company logo.

Csv export – allows to instantly export the data into a csv file, which can be loaded into applications such as MS Excel, Open Office or others.

Draw – is used to create graphical legends and for automatic filling of specification tables.

Remove – allows to delete rows that contain data. It is also possible to delete data by pressing the Delete button.

It is possible to directly print the document on a chosen printer or to export the data to various formats (xls, txt, rtf, pdf, html, xml and many more).

A useful option is a possibility to print the first page of specification on another printer than other pages. This option can be used to print the first page that contain the company logo on a color printer and other pages on a monochrome printer.

When user exports data it is possible to specify the export parameters such as only export the data, or export data with used formatting style.

Hint

Printing preview can be saved in files with an LL extension. To view these files, user can use the "LLview11.exe" program, which is located on the disk, in the CADprofi main folder (e.g. "C:\ProgramData\Cadprofi\20XX.x").

Direct printing is not available in some 64bit CAD programs.

Printing specification

1. Run the Bill of materials command.

2. Choose a template from the list of available templates in order to determine the BOM type.

3. (Optional) Add or delete a position in the Printed columns panel.

4. (Optional) Choose the printing option for specification.

5. Click the Next button.

6. Select objects from the drawing that you would like to include in the specification. Confirm by pressing the right mouse button or the Enter key.

7. (Optional) Change settings in the Data window.

8. Click the Print button.

9. In the newly opened Printing options window in the Export medium card select the printer type that you would like to use.

10. (Optional) Change settings in the Printing options.

11. Click the Start button to begin printing.

Data export (Excel)

1. Run the Bill of materials command.

2. Choose a template from the list of available templates in order to determine the BOM type.

3. (Optional) Add or delete a position in the Printed columns panel.

4. (Optional) Choose the printing option for specification.

5. Click the Next button.

6. Select objects from the drawing that you would like to include in the specification. Confirm by pressing the right mouse button or the Enter key.

7. (Optional) Change settings in the Data window.

8. Click the Print button.

9. In the newly opened Printing options window in the Export medium card expand the list Directly to… and select Microsoft Excel Format.

10. (Optional) Click the Options button and go the Result card. It disables the Export data only from objects table option to save formatting.

11. (Optional) Change settings in the Printing options.

12. Click the Start button to begin the data export.