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Accessories

Accessories

An accessory is a Product that is often needed to properly configure or install another Product.  For example, a mount may need to be sold with a High Definition TV installation.  In this case there may be many mount options to choose from.  Once a Product is in the database it can be listed as an accessory to another Product.  So each time the parent Product is chosen, you could be prompted to select from a list of accessories that have been pre-assigned to the parent Product.  You may choose to set up the accessories in advance for Products you often quote.  However, accessory assignment can occur as needed during proposal generation.  Once you make an accessory assignment, SI 5 will store this assignment for future use.  Accessories may NOT include other Accessories.  In other words you cannot nest accessories.

Proper Accessory management will significantly improve design productivity and reduce errors.  For instance, once you find the proper mount for a display and associate it as an accessory to the display, you never have to look it up again.  However, keep in mind that Accessories cannot have Accessories, so this association can only go one level deep.

Adding Accessories to a Product from the MMPD Interface

To add an accessory to a Product, you have to be in the Product Properties.  You can do this on either the Product Explorer or Product Grid views within the MMPD interface.

Open the Product Properties form and click the Accessories tab.

File:Manage_My_Product_Data/Accessories/image001.jpg

Click [Add].  The Add Product form opens:

File:Manage_My_Product_Data/Accessories/image002.jpg

Use the filters to select the item you want to add as an Accessory then click [OK].  The selected Product will be listed as an Accessory:

File:Manage_My_Product_Data/Accessories/image003.jpg

The “Prompt” and “Recommend”  checkboxes determine whether the Accessory will add automatically or not to a Project when the “parent” Product is added:

File:Manage_My_Product_Data/Accessories/image004.jpg

Prompt and Recommend both checked: the “Include” checkbox will be pre-checked as shown in the first Product above

Prompt checked: the “Include” checkbox will not be pre-checked as shown in the second Product above

Neither checked: the Accessory adds automatically to the Project without prompting

The Edit link in the “Visualizations” column will open the Accessory Visualizations – Visio form:

File:Manage_My_Product_Data/Accessories/image005.png

When a “parent” Product is dragged from the Project DataMatrix (PDM) to a drawing page in Visio, shapes for the Accessories for that Product do not automatically drop on the drawing page.  This is because the “Hidden” column is checked by default for each drawing page type as shown above.  If you want certain Accessories to drop shapes automatically with the “parent” Product on certain drawing page types, uncheck the appropriate box.

lightbulb_50For the most part, you may not ever need to change the default Visualizations settings for Accessories. If you want a shape in Visio for an Accessory, simply drag it from the PDM

 

Adding an Accessory to a Product within a Project

If the Product is already in the PDM, double click the item to open the Product Properties form.  The remaining steps are exactly the same as when adding an Accessory within MMPD.

note_50Once you close the Product Properties for the Product, you will be prompted whether or not to update your Master Table database.  This prompt only applies to the “parent” Product, not the Accessories.

File:Manage_My_Product_Data/Accessories/image008.png

If you choose [Yes], you will then be prompted whether or not to update the Master Table for the “parent” Product with the Accessories you have added.  Choose [Yes] if you want the Accessories added to be a global change, [No] if you only want them as Accessories for the “parent” Product within that Project.

File:Manage_My_Product_Data/Accessories/image009.jpg

 

lightbulb_50Example:  You want to add a programming labor line item, interconnect cables, and a rack shelf to a processor as Accessories.  You want the programming Labor Line Item to add automatically, you want to prompt and recommend the interconnect cables, and prompt but not recommend the rack shelf since the processor won’t be rack mounted in every project.

1)    Open the Product Properties for a processor and click the Accessories tab:

File:Manage_My_Product_Data/Accessories/image010.jpg 

2)    Click the [Add] button.  The Add Product form will open:

File:Manage_My_Product_Data/Accessories/image011.jpg 

3)    Use the filters to select the Labor Product you wish to add click [OK].  The Product will display in the grid on the Accessories tab.  Uncheck the “Prompt” and “Recommend” checkboxes.

File:Manage_My_Product_Data/Accessories/image012.jpg

4)    Repeat steps 2-3 to add the remaining two Accessories.  For the interconnect cable don’t uncheck anything, for the rack shelf uncheck the “Recommend” checkbox.

File:Manage_My_Product_Data/Accessories/image013.jpg

5)    Add the Product to a Project.  The Add Accessories for Manufacturer form opens:

File:Manage_My_Product_Data/Accessories/image014.jpg

The Labor Product that did not have the “Prompt” box checked is not listed in the prompt box shown above and it will automatically add to the Project.  The “Include” box on this form is not pre-checked for the rack shelf because the “Recommend” box was unchecked.

Assigning Locations to Accessories

Accessories inherit the Location and Zone assigned to the “parent” Product.  See Assigning Locations and Zones for more information.

 

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