Create a unique product ID

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BRAD HENDRICKS: In this video, we

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are going to cover the importance of the product ID,

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why it must be a unique number, and how the product ID and map

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prod can help your company.

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In our last video, we created our product list in Excel

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and copied it to our Edit Product List table.

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There are no guidelines to the formatting of this ID.

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Some use the order number.

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You will run into duplicates just using the order number

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and will have to modify when that happens.

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Some use Harrison HBH codes.

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We do our company letters followed by an item number

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and then a product number--

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or my favorite would be using a combination like this.

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That way, just by looking at it, you

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would know you made it, because it has your company letters.

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The second part, you would know the manufacturer.

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Then you come up with a system, for example,

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where 07 is a gate valve, 02 is cast iron,

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and the order number.

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This is entirely up to you.

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What does using a unique product ID do?

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It allows your item to access an additional database

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of information called Prod Info.

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You access your Prod Info file through the Product Information

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Editor.

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If you click on your Windows Start button,

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navigate to your Fabrication folders, and the year

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of the version that you are using,

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you will see the Product Information Editor.

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And then select which configuration

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to use, and select OK.

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Let's see how the product ID and the Product Information Editor,

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also known as Map Prod, tie together.

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For this example, I have built a blank database,

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and added our gate valve and our check valve.

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Let's just put all the sizes of the gate valve into a model

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by selecting Control-Shift-Right click.

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Tick off all product sizes.

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Click on the 3D Viewer, and you can

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see all the sizes of the valve.

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Let's look at a BOM report.

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You can see in the description that it says Gate Valve.

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That's because it's pulling from the file name.

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And we all know that if you have this gate valve spread

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throughout many of your services and you

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don't like the name, to change it,

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it will break that button in every service you

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have this gate valve.

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So how can we get our reports to report

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like we want without having to go through the hassle of fixing

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every service because we've broke it

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from changing a file name?

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Let me show you.

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Let's pull up our Product Information Editor.

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Because it's a blank database, I don't have anything in it.

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But we need to create a table in Excel

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that has these column headers.

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Then we need to start filling out each column with the data,

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starting with our ID.

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Go ahead and highlight the table.

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Copy it.

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Go to our Project Information Editor.

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Right click on or below the green line.

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Select Paste.

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You'll see over here on the right side, Data Contains Field

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Names.

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Make sure that box is checked.

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And you'll be able to see between the Field

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and the Use, between the two, do they all line up?

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And if you built your table right,

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they should, and you just select OK.

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Now we have them in our Product Information Editor.

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Close it.

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Save it.

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In [INAUDIBLE],, you must close the model.

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Open it back up.

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If you're using CAD, you must actually

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close CAD completely down and open it

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back up in order for [INAUDIBLE] and CAD

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to be looking now at the Product Information Editor.

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So now let's go into that BOM report.

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Here's that source name.

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That's where it's getting Gate Valve from.

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Let's take that out.

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Go ahead and select Item Product Description.

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So everything with product is pulling from the Product

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Information Editor.

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Put that in its place.

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Change the column width, because it's going to be wider.

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When we view the BOM, you can see

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it has the Description that we want.

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I'm hoping you're seeing the possibilities of how

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you can change your reporting very easily.

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For instance, if you don't like the way

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it's reporting the sizes, you want the tick marks.

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You can go to your Prod Info.

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Make sure the size has the tick marks.

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Change out your size so that it pulls from the Prod Info file.

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Now it has the tick marks.

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Another benefit to using the Prod Info file is this

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is where you can add your costing codes.

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You do that by going to Edit, Show Suppliers, File,

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New Supplier, and we start adding them.

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Once that's completed, we can go back to our spreadsheet.

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Add the headers.

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Add our costing codes.

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Copy.

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Come back to our Prod Info file.

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Right click on or below the green line.

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Paste.

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Data Contains Field Names-- make sure that box is checked,

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and then make sure they line up between the Field and the Use.

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And when they do, you click OK.

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Now your costing codes are attached to the ID number.

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Close the Prod Info file.

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Click Yes to save it.

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You can see there are many benefits for a unique product

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ID in the Prod Info file that will make for better modeling.