Products Tab

Defining Products

The Workflow definition of a product includes:

• The materials used for each part of the product
• The patterns to be cut from each of those materials
• Optional rotation settings for any patterns
• Workflow data matched to order form columns

Click on the Products Tab to see a list of products you have defined.

Your products and their definitions are located in the Products folder you specified in Setup.

Adding A New Product

To begin the process of adding a new product:

1. Fill in the Name and ID fields. The ID is a unique identifier. The Name is a more ‘user-friendly’ name. This is similar to the Material Library where a Material ID might be ‘276-001-A’ and the Name might be ‘Sunshine Stripes’.

2. Choose what column configuration of the order files to use, using the Configuration dropdown. If you use multiple column configurations (possibly for different parts of your company), make sure to select the correct one for this product.

3. Click Create to open the New Product Screen.

You can base a new product definition on another by selecting an existing product and pressing the Create Copy button. This will copy the material names and column configuration, but not the patterns. If you want to copy the patterns, check the Copy Patterns box.

Once you press the Create button, the New Product screen will appear.

Before continuing, you must upload any project files you want to use by clicking the Add Project Files button. This will open your projects folder that you set in Preferences. Select what patterns you want to use in this product.

When you click on a project file you will see all the patterns available in that file.

You can switch between text view and image view by pressing the Change View button. The button will change between two icons:

Adding Materials

When you define a product, you will give each material a functional name, such as top cover, bottom, side panels, accent panels, etc. These names reflect the functionality of the patterns you will place on this material. The specific material to be used for a product will come from the order form later.

Add a Material

Click the + button at the top of the materials column to add a material.

Renaming Materials

Each time you add a material, Workflow gives it a placeholder name such as Material1 or Material2. You can immediately replace the placeholder name with a functional name. If you prefer, add all the materials you’ll need for this product and then rename each one To rename the material, press the Rename Material button next to the x. Or Right-click on the material name.

Deleting Materials

To delete a material, click the x to remove it. This removes the material and all the patterns it contains.

Adding Patterns

Assigning Patterns to Materials

Click on the material you want to populate with patterns.

Next, on the left side, open the folder, then select the file that holds the patterns you want to add to this product and the selected material. Your patterns for any product may be located in a single file or they may be located in multiple files. You can change folders and open different files during the process, assigning all needed patterns to a material.

Drag and drop patterns from the currently selected file on the left to the Patterns area for the selected material on the right. Use Shift + Click or Ctrl + Click to select and drag several patterns at a time.

You can also add selected patterns by pressing the Add Selected to Material button.

To add all the patterns in that project, press the Add All to Material button.

A blue check by the pattern name will show that the pattern is assigned to the selected material. A clear check shows that the pattern has been assigned to another material. A pattern may be assigned to multiple materials.

You can see a visual representation of the pattern when you mouse over the pattern name that is assigned to a material.

Continue selecting materials on the right and dropping patterns on them until all the patterns needed are located on the correct materials for this product.

To remove any pattern from a material, mouse over the pattern name and click the x to delete.

**NOTE** To save a product definition, all materials must have at least one pattern on them.  If you have a material that doesn’t have any patterns on it, you must delete the material from that product definition before saving the definition.

Override Rotation Settings

Each pattern in a project file already has the following pattern properties assigned in PatternSmith.

Workflow will automatically replace the Quota and Material properties for each pattern when it reads your order form. The settings for Rotation Constraint and Copy Rotation will be preserved unless you intentionally have Workflow override these properties with values from your order form.  This can be done on a pattern by pattern basis or for all the patterns on a given material.

This is useful, for example, when a customer has an option of horizontal or vertical stripe orientation on a particular pattern. In that case, you would override that pattern’s rotation settings with a value from your order form. You would also need to change a pattern’s rotation constraint to No Rotation Allowed so it maintains its rotation during nesting.

In your order form, add one or more columns for rotation properties.

Setting Rotation For an Individual Pattern

If needed, you can override the initial rotation angle or rotation constraints for a pattern with data from the order form. After you’ve placed a pattern on a material, click the appropriate icons located on that pattern. If either rotation has been added to that pattern, the icon will remain. Click the x to remove the constraint.

Setting Rotation For a Material

You can also override the initial rotation angle or rotation constraints for all the patterns placed on a material. Click either Add Rotation Constraint to All Patterns for a rotational constraint, or Add Initial Copy Rotation to All Patterns for an initial copy rotation.

Once created, you can set the value to a Column Header, or set the rotation with the Default Value.

Matching Data To The Order File

The final step of the Product Definition process is to assign the columns in the order file to the data that Workflow needs.

On the right side, under Product Properties, you need to assign the column header to be used for each Property. Workflow will attempt to assign column headers automatically.

You can also use the Edit button on the ribbon to edit the Column Assignments.

All properties must be assigned to a column. When you save the Product, if all columns are not assigned, Workflow will open this window so that all properties can have a column assigned.

Finishing The Product

When you are done creating your Product, press the Done button.

If you want to edit a Product, click the Edit button.