Reporting On Low Stock Levels

To be able to create a report and be warned when a material is low on stock, a material attribute is needed.

Creating the minimum stock level attribute

To be able to create a low stock attribute, you must be an administrator, Go to Admin | Configuration | Edit Attributes as shown below.

Choose the material type as the entity type by using the drop down box.

Click add new to add a new attribute.





Change the name of the new attribute to Minimum stock level, change the group to Stock, change the type to Decimal Number, tick the show in list box and change the unit hint to kg so the new attribute should look like this:





Click save to save the new attribute. To have more detailed information on attributes, click here.

Setting the Minimum stock level for materials

Click on materials as shown below:





Right click on column headings and select Minimum stock level to display this attribute in the material list.





















Right click on the material you want to change the low stock level and select open.

Click add attribute.







Select Minimum stock level and click the right arrow and close the dialog box with the small cross in the top right corner of the dialog box.

Enter the minimum stock level in the minimum stock level box.






Click save to save the minimum stock level.

Creating A Potential Stock Report

Click on reports and select Potential Stock Report (all materials).

This is a report on the stock of all materials. Materials highlighted on red are below the minimum stock level as shown below.

Creating Custom Attributes

 

ColorPoint has built in fields for many common data requirements, e.g. material cost, job run lengths. Sometimes you may need to attach additional data to an entity in ColorPoint that isn’t part of the main application. To do this you need to use attributes.

What is an Attribute?

An attribute is a piece of custom data that you can attach to any of the main data entities in ColorPoint. The entities that we can define attributes for are: Material, Formula, Design, Job, Return, Dispense, Supplier, Customer, Address, Contact, Cylinder, Downtime Event, Machine, Substrate, Material Batch, VOC Area, VOC Type, and Campaign.

Creating an Attribute

To create an attribute, you must be an administrator. Go to Admin | Configuration | Edit Attributes as shown below.

Select the entity you are adding the attribute to.

The existing attributes for your entity will be shown.

Click “Add New” to create a new attribute. The following fields are available:

• Name – The display name of the attribute
• Group – A selection from predefined group names. You can define new groups if required. All attributes in the same group will be displayed together.
• Type – To enable validation of data entered into attributes, the type is specified. Types available are:
• Text – Any text
• Whole Number – Only whole numbers, e.g. 1, 2, 3
• Decimal Number – e.g. 1.234
• True/False
• Date
• Email
• There are a few more types used internally with special meaning.
• Optional – If this attribute is added, whether it can be left blank or not. If it is not optional, the user will not be allowed to save a record without entering a valid value.
• Protected – Only users with permission may edit this attribute.
• Filterable – Can this attribute be used in the filter panel. Enabling filterable on a large number of attributes may impact performance.
• Shown in list – Is the attribute shown in the main list as a column.
• Priority – Where the attribute is displayed on the entry page.
• Unit Hint – An optional unit that shows next to the attribute when you enter data to hint to the user what value they are entering.

As an example, we will create a new attribute on Materials, called SAP Code.

The name is SAP Code. The Group is “General”. The Type is Text. It is not optional (must be entered), and not protected. It is Filterable and Shown in list.

Using Attributes

Below you can see the SAP Code in use.

The SAP Code is a first class data member and can be filtered as shown below.

Enabling Local Formula Editing on CPC

 

When CPC is used along with CPM, the local editing controls are disabled. This allows the formula database to be controller from CPM providing a better editing experience for the user.

When CPC is used stand alone, it is possible to accidentally disable local editing if the user has a master key.

To enable local editing again, go to Configuration:

Then System:

Then check the CP Manager setting:

When local editing is disabled, there is a tick, as above.

When local editing is enabled, there is a cross, as below:

If this setting is disabled and you have a CPM installation, all database synchronisation will stop. It is therefore not recommended to disable this setting unless you are instructed to do so by a member of Rexson support.

If you have a standalone console and you cannot see the editing controls on the formulations screen, as below:

Then the CP Manager setting will be incorrectly set, and needs to be disabled.

Finishing Stock Batches

When a tank of raw material is used up and the weight falls to zero (or below), ColorPoint Manager highlights the batch in red. This is a hint to the user to check the status of the stock and if appropriate, to finish the batch to prevent it from being used again.

Finishing the batch also keeps the Stock Overview tidy, showing only batches that are actually useful. To finish a batch, or a selection of batches, select the items from the list and right-click. Choose Finish from the contextual menu that opens.

If the Finish menu item is greyed out, this means there is a batch in your selection that is still allocated to a dispense valve. In this case, the normal refill procedure should be carried out first before finishing the batch.

Why Have Our Batch Numbers Changed?

Some customers have noticed on newly updated software that the format of the Dispense/Return Batch Number has changed.

The old format was Dyydddxxx:

• D – batch number type: dispense
• yy – year
• ddd – day of year (1 – 365)
• xxx – dispense number for the day

The new format is DyyddNxxx

• D – batch number type: dispense
• yy – year
• dd – day of year using 0-9 and A-I
• N – dispenser number.
• xxx – dispense number for the day

This new format allows us to support multiple dispensers on a single installation of ColorPoint Manager by identifying the originating dispenser in the batch number. It also does not increase the length of the batch number. This is important where we print the batch number on labels as a barcode.

Finding infrequently used formulas and making them obsolete.

As time goes by most sites tend to find they have an ever increasing number of formulas which can become quite difficult to manage effectively and can make searching for specific formulas more difficult.  ColorPoint provides the ability to mitigate this problem by making formulas obsolete which removes them from search results while still allowing them to be viewed and re-introduced if necessary.  Sometimes it can be hard to decide which formulas should be made obsolete and time consuming to make a large number of formulas that can’t be selected in a single search obsolete.

The solution

ColorPoint Manager contains an administrative level feature that shows which formulas have not been used since a given date and allows you to make them obsolete all at once.  This feature can be launched by going to Admin menu and selecting ‘Obsolete unused formulas’

From here you will be presented with a textbox the date you want to use to define which formulas you consider to be obsolete.  By default we say that if a formula hasn’t been used in the 2 years before today then there’s a good chance you might not need it in the immediate future either.  You can of course adjust this date to increase or decrease the number of formulas being made obsolete.  Pressing the ‘Find Formulas’ button will start the process of looking for formulas which haven’t been used in the specified time frame.  This step may take a moment depending on the number of formulas on the system but you can see progress as it goes and cancel the operation at any point.

Why are designs there?

When you make a formula obsolete it means that you can no longer create jobs from any design that contains a formula which is obsolete, so the designs box shows you which designs will be made obsolete as a result of the selected formulas being made obsolete.  If there is a design that you know you will be using in the near future then if you un-tick it then the formulas it contains will also be automatically un-ticked as well.  Similarly formulas can also be un-ticked directly if you know you will need them soon.
Once you have selected the appropriate formulas and designs are ready to proceed, you simply press the ‘Make Obsolete’ button which will show you a confirmation dialogue asking you if you wish to continue.  The process of making formulas and designs obsolete may take a little while depending on how many items are being processed.

How do I get them back?

If it turns out that you do need to use one of the formulas you made obsolete then reintroducing them is a simple process.  On the formula page select ‘Include’ from the obsolete drop down in the filter panel which will include all obsolete formulas in the search results.

Once you have found the formula you want to use simply double click it and then select ‘Re-introduce Formula’ from the menu on the left hand side. 

This procedure can also be used to re-introduce designs that are obsolete.  If a design you wish to re-introduce contains obsolete formulas you can open the formula easily by right clicking them from the design’s items screen and choosing ‘Open’.

How often do I need to do this?

How often you need to run this will depend on how many formulas you create and whether the formulas you create are often re-used or not.  We generally recommend having no more than 1000 non-obsolete formulas on the system at any given time but if you’re under this number it may still be a good idea to check ever year or so simply to make the number of formulas more manageable.

what if need more than 1000 non-obsolete formulas?

While it is possible that you may need more than 1000 non-obsolete formulas on your system you may be surprised at how few formulas you’re using on a regular basis.  Even if you are using a large variety of formulas only formulas that you haven’t used in years will be suggested so the screen will not suggest making anything obsolete if you’ve used it recently.

Backup Methods

There are numerous options for archiving backups from CPM to external systems. Please contact Rexson with any details needed to set up your preferred solution.

External Drive

The simplest method is to plug in an external hard disk or flash drive. A script is available to automatically mirror the content of C:\SqlBackup\CPM to your external drive.

Pushed from ColorPoint

The system backups are run daily on CPM and the last 7 are kept. The backup script has a command to copy these files to a network folder every day after the backup runs. To enable this all we need to do is set the folder location in an environment variable. The script automatically removes older backups from the network folder, so you may want to copy out the most recent once a week for long term storage if needed.

Please advise Rexson of the backup location either as a UNC path (e.g. \\server\folder-for-backups) or as a mapped drive (e.g. X:\folder-for-backups). As long as the user running the scheduled task for the backup has permission to write to this location, the backups will take place automatically.

Pulled by a task on your Network

If the previous method is not suitable for your infrastructure then backups can be retrieved directly from CPM. The folder C:\SqlBackup is shared. The CPM sub-folder contains automated backups and CPM-User contains user initiated ad hoc backups. The local user account CustomerAdmin can be used for authentication.

An sshd server runs on CPM. This can be configured to allow SFTP access to the backups. 

Other Methods

Backups may also be sent from CPM via FTP/SFTP by Rexson Agent. This is a paid add on.

Delete Items From The Dispense Queue

The dispense queue holds dispense requests for the user. These requests can be dispensed in the order they were added to the queue, or the operator may choose to dispense the requests in any order.


When a dispense completes and the operator presses the "Next" button one of two things will happen. If there are any further dispense requests in the queue, the next item in the queue will be presented to be dispensed. If there are no further items in the queue, the operator will be shown either the job list or formulation list, depending on the source of the last dispense.


Sometimes items may be added to the queue that are no longer needed. In this case there are two ways to remove them.

Removal via ColorPoint Console

On the dispense page the queue button shows how many items are currently in the queue and provides access to the queue page.


Press the View Queue button.

In the dispense queue page navigate to the items you wish to delete and then press the delete button. If you want to empty the queue completely, keep pressing the delete button until you are returned to the job or formulation list. This ensures that all items, even the item at position 0 (currently selected on the dispense page) are removed.

Removal via ColorPoint Manager

In ColorPoint Manager open the Dispense Queue using the button on the tool bar.


The delete button can be used to remove individual items from the queue. Note that the item currently selected to dispense is shown as on the head and cannot be deleted remotely. To delete this item always use the delete button on the console.

How to Change out an empty supply vessel with CPM

 

Step One - Stock Receipt

• Click ‘Stock Receipt’ on the tool bar.
• Click the drop down arrow in the ‘Material’ box.
• Click the material you have received.
• Tab down to ‘Number of Packs’. This is the number of barrels/IBC’s you have received.
• Enter the number of packs.
• Tab down to ‘Pack Size’. This is the net weight of the product in the barrel/IBC.
• Tab down to ‘Batch Number’.
• Enter batch number.
• Press ‘Save’ bottom right of screen.
• Repeat process if necessary.

Once stock receipt data has been completed, the information will automatically be shared with the console.

 

STEP TWO - Changing supply vessel

• Press the ‘E’ stop on the console. Locate the empty supply vessel and turn the air supply ball valve off at the pump in question.
• Have the new supply vessel (Barrel/IBC) at hand.
• Remove the caps from the new supply vessel.
• Remove the ‘return tube from the empty supply vessel and place it in the new supply vessel.
• Remove the suction tube from the empty supply vessel and place it in the new supply vessel.
• Remove the empty supply vessel.
• Push the new supply vessel in place.

If your system has cam locks and ball valves please close the valve before removing tubes/hoses.

NOTE: When removing the return and suction tubes from the empty supply vessel be aware that there will be product residue in/on the tube, so be careful not to spill any product on you or the floor.

 

STEP Three - Enter data

• Enter RFID key.
• Press ‘Materials’ (right of screen)
• Press ‘Vessel Contents’ (Bottom of screen).
• Using arrow keys (bottom right) high light the vessel/material you wish to replenish.
• Press ‘Refill’ (right of screen).
• Press the tab on the right of the ‘Batch’ box.
• A batch list will appear. Using arrow keys (bottom right) High light the batch you want.

NOTE: This batch number must match up with the batch number on the Vessel you are about to place on the pump system.

• Press ‘Select’ (top right).

The screen will change back to the ‘Enter refilled vessel weight when full’. You will notice that the batch number has changed and that you have a new vessel content weight. You will also see that you have an option to ‘Top-up with remnant weight’. This will default to ‘No’. Unless you wish to pour the remnants into the new supply vessel, leave the option as ‘No’ and press save.

• Press ‘Save’

Once you have pressed ‘save’ the ‘Supply vessel contents’ screen will appear.

At this point pull the ‘E’ stop out and re-energise the console by pressing the green power button (top left of the console screen).

• Whilst still on the ‘Supply Vessel Contents’ screen press ‘Recirc’
• Go to the pump station and turn the air supply on to the pump.
• Pump will come on and recirculate the new supply vessel contents for 2 minutes.

This will mix the product and help its fluidity, as the product has been standing for a time without any movement.

If you are part way the through dispensing, you will need to press continue once you have returned to the dispense screen.

Changing a Formulation on ColorPoint Manager

 

When you have made a correction to a formulation, typically on press by adding more of a pigment or another new pigment you can update the formula to reflect this change.

From the menu bar choose Tools | Change Formulation.

In the Change Formulation panel select the formula you will be changing from the drop down list.

Enter the weight of the original dispense you are going to change. This will populate the panel with the weights of the raw materials used.

Now adjust the formula for the quantities added. In this case 0.1kg of 9448 Blue was added by double clicking on the quantity in the added column for the material. The formula is recalculated to reflect this change.

Next 0.05kg of another Red was added. This material was not in the original formulation but is needed to correct the colour.

The formula is recalculated to reflect this change after the Add button is clicked. The change can be made permanent by clicking on the Save button.

Material Replacement

Occasionally it is sometimes necessary to replace all usages of a material within a formula with a new material that is replacing it.  Rather than having to edit all the formulas which contain this material manually ColorPoint Manager contains a material replacement function which allows you to replace a material in either all or selected formulas.

BEFORE YOU START

Before you use the material replacement screen we very strongly advise you to make sure you have a back up of the manager database.  Material replacements cannot be undone so it is important to have a back up you can go back to if you make a mistake.  For more about backing up and making sure you have back ups available please see the entry Backing up your data.  It is also advisable to save any unsaved changes and close any formula windows you may have open.

SAMPLE REPLACEMENT

For this example we will replace a material with the code ‘old’ with a material with the code ‘new’.  First we open up the material replacement screen by selecting ‘Replace Material’ from the Tools menu of ColorPoint Manager.


Next you need to decide whether you wish to replace the material in all formulas or just selected formulas.  As you can see from the screenshot below, the default option is to replace the material in all formulas but if you select the ‘Replace this material in the following formulas’ option you can un-check the formulas where you do not want the selected material to be replaced.


Next you should decide which of the following options you wish to use when replacing the material, as you can see all options are turned on by default.


There are 3 options that you can turn on or off depending on how you want the material to be replaced. The first option ‘Reapportion formulas after replacement’ reapportions formulas back to 100 parts if the total does not equal 100 parts after the material replacement.  This should be kept checked unless your formulas do not total 100 parts. 

The next option ‘Combine Materials’ determines what to do if the material you are replacing the old material with is already present in the formula. When this option is ticked it will add the old materials parts to the existing material.  When it is not checked it will add the new material as separate item (i.e. if that material was in the formula once before it will be put in twice).  This item should only be unchecked if there are some formulas that deliberately contain the same material twice.

The option ‘Replace material in returns’ is very important if you use returns on your site. If this option is not checked then the console will not suggest using any return that contains the old material with the formulas containing the new material.  If the old material and the new material can be used together then you should leave this box checked.

ONE TO ONE REPLACEMENT

For this example we will do a straight one to one replacement of the old material with the new material as this is the most common form of replacement.  Replacing a material with multiple materials will be dealt with in a separate post in the future.  Simple replacement is already the default option so all we need to do is select the replacement material from the drop down and set the material replacement percentage.


The material percentage figure represents how strong the new material is in comparison to old material.  In this example I’m using 100% which means that the new material is the same strength as the old material i.e. if a formula contains the old material at 50 parts it will replace it with the new material at 50 parts.  If for example, the new material is twice as strong as the old material and you only need to use half as much of it then if you set the material percentage to 50 then if the old material uses 50 parts the new material will be added with 25 parts.  At this point all you need to is double check that the correct options and materials are selected and press the ‘Replace’ button and confirm the replacement.

IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG

If you’ve made a mistake when replacing a material or didn’t get the result you wanted then it may still be possible to effectively undo those changes depending on what they were and how your formulas are set up.  If this isn’t the case then it is best to contact Rexson Systems directly and we will either fix the problem or restore from your latest backup.

Backing up your data

 

Data backups are often overlooked. It is vital that you make regular backups of your data to protect against virus infection, hard disk failure and computer theft. All three of these have happened to some our customers at some point.

What do I need to backup?

At a minimum, you need to take a regular backup of the ColorPoint Manager database. the CPM database backup is found in C:\SqlBackup\CPM\. Backing up the most recent file to a USB flash drive ensures that we can recover your system in the event of failure or theft.

The files are date stamped and rotated by the backup scheduler. There should normally be 7 backups named ColorPoint.Manager_Full_date_time.bak. If your computer was switched off when a backup was meant to run (03:00) there may be one or more missing. Ideally you want these backups to be made every day, so if needed contact Rexson support to have the scheduled time changed.

If you look in the backup folder and there are no backups, or the newest ColorPoint Manager backup is older than 1 week old (date format yyyymmdd, e.g. 20110331) please contact Rexson support immediately.

What else should I backup?

If you have other software installed on the ColorPoint Manager PC, e.g. spectrophotometer software, Word, Excel, it will be important to backup those documents too. It is beyond the scope of this article to tell you how to back up the other data on your system. Please check with your IT department and spectrophotometer manufacturer for guidelines on what to backup.

If in doubt it is worth using an external hard disk and using the Windows backup program to perform a full system backup on a regular basis too. As long as the hard disk is as large as, or larger than the hard disk on the PC you will be able to make a full backup.

ColorPoint Manager Reporting

 

Dispense Summary

The dispense summary can be run over a range of dispenses to provide counts and totals as follows:

Dispense count, total press returns issued, neat ink weight, return issue weight, number of dispenses with returns in them, weight of dispensed returns, weight of returns as % of dispensed weight.

 

Simple Formula Sheet

The simple formula sheet provides a simple way to get your formulas into an excel spread sheet for analysis. The report gives the composition of all selected formulas.

 

Job Costing

The job costing report gives a detailed analysis of all inks and returns issued and created in a job. The report can be expanded to include individual materials used. Substrate costs and run length statistics are also taken into account.

 

Simple Design Sheet

The simple design sheet provides a simple way of analysing the coverage and usage factors of multiple designs simultaneously.

 

Design Sheet (Design Estimation)

The design sheet provides a method of creating estimations without having to create a job first. Simply enter the run length required and, provided all of you costing, coverage and usage factors are accurate, you will have an estimation for that design.

 

Usage Reports (Material, Formula, Material Usage By Date)

The material and formula usage reports break down the dispensing history by month. The Material Usage by Date report does the same but allows for custom date ranges to be used where months ends or reporting periods do not correspond to calendar months.

 

Returns Report

The returns report shows the current return stock, with formula code, weight, cost, strength and date created for each return. Scrapped returns are not shown.

 

Return Usage Report

The return usage report allows you to view and compare the creation and use of returns over a number of consecutive periods. The periods supported are, Monthly, Weekly and Custom. Monthly and weekly work to calendar periods. Custom uses the entered date range as a whole and does not split over calendar boundaries.

 

Stock Report

The stock report gives and overview of the total stock levels of each selected material.

 

Stock Valuation Report

The stock valuation report gives a more detailed view of the stock situation. Tick “Include materials with no weight” to see items that have zero or less than zero stock. Tick “Include obsolete materials” to see stock of materials that have been obsoleted and are no longer available for use.

 

Material Batch List

The material batch list gives a more detailed view of the materials in stock. The material batch and serial number details are displayed along with the usable weight of each batch. Finished batches are not shown.

Material Types on ColorPoint

 

One of the subjects that seems to cause a lot of confusion with more advanced use of ColorPoint is the difference between the various types of base materials on the system.

Here is a brief explanation along with some examples of where you might use them.

 

Auto dispense Material

The auto dispense material is the most commonly used on ColorPoint. It refers to a material that is attached to a dispense valve and can be dispensed as required without any operator intervention. When a formula is being dispensed and an auto dispense material is required, the requested amount will be dispensed and then it moves along to the next item in the formula automatically.

The size of a ColorPoint system dictates how many auto dispense materials are supported on that system. An 18 has a maximum of 18 auto materials, and so on. If an Auto Dispense Material is deleted or unassigned from a valve, it appears as a Manual Add Material.

 

Manual Add Material

The manual add material is a material that will be requested by the dispenser when required in a formula, but it is not attached to a dispense valve and so cannot be added automatically. The operator must pull out the scale and manually pour the requested amount into the dispense vessel using the indicator lights to tell him when to stop.

To ensure your dispensing operation is as efficient as possible, it is best practice to make your most frequently dispensed items auto materials. When all dispense valves are allocated, the remaining materials will be manual add materials. Generally due to the quantity, manual materials are added to the formula last therefore appearing at the end of the dispense order.

 

Non-Dispense Materials

Non dispense materials often cause the most confusion. These are materials that are part of the formula, but will not be weighed by the dispenser at all. when a non-dispense material is requested in a formula, the dispenser marks it as fully dispensed at the requested weight and skips to the next item in the formula.

There are two common scenarios for this type of material:

1. The material cannot be added at the dispenser and must be added elsewhere in the process.
2. The material is part of a larger batch and is acting as a placeholder.

 

Non-Dispense Material Added Elsewhere

In this case the dispense vessel will be used to add the non-dispense material so the capacity/overflow checks are carried out taking the requested weight of non-dispense material into account. So a 20kg dispense that contains 10kg of dispensed material and 10kg of non-dispensed material would give an overflow warning if an 18kg vessel was placed on the scale. The dispense completes with 10kg in the dispense vessel which is then taken to another part of the process where the other additives are added.

 

Non-Dispense Material As Placeholder

In this case the dispenser is only dispensing the pigment part of a batch. The non-dispense material will never be added to the dispense vessel and the capacity/overflow checks on take the actual dispensed materials into account. This allows an operator to request the pigment based on the batch size without calculating how much pigment is required. Consider that a batch of 2000kg of product is being produced, but the pigment portion is only 0.95% of the total batch. The operator requests a dispense of 2000kg, but only places a 20kg vessel on the scale. The capacity/overflow check passes as the non-dispense material is excluded from the check. 19kg of pigment is dispensed into the dispense vessel.

 

Limitations

A single dispenser cannot operate in both of the modes described above simultaneously. The setting that defines the mode of operation for non-dispense materials is set by Rexson personnel and cannot be altered by the end user.

Operating on Selected List Items on ColorPoint Manager

 

Another powerful tool is right-clicking on a selected item or items. Whenever a list is displayed it is possible to right-click on a selection to perform related actions.

Removing Categories

In the following example three materials have been tagged with a custom category ‘To Reformulate’ to identify items I need to work on. I have now finished with the task and want to remove the category. I do this selecting the items I want to change by holding down the ‘Ctrl’ key and clicking each item in turn. Right-clicking on the selection produces the menu shown below.

Clicking on ‘Remove Category’ produces the following tool providing a list of available categories to remove:

Clicking ‘Ok’ removes the categories from the selection.

Send to Dispense Queue

Any material or formula may be sent directly to the dispense queue on CPC by right-clicking and selecting ‘Send to dispense queue…’

The screen area is disabled and a dialogue box appears requesting details of the required dispense:

After entering the weight required, and adjusting the number of repetitions clicking ‘Ok’ adds the request to the end of the queue.

Create Job

Designs are templates for new jobs. To create a job choose the design, right-click and select ‘Create Job’. This opens a new job, prefilled with the details of the chosen design and ready to be given a unique job number and run length. Once created the values provided by the design may be overridden if required.

Job Lifecycle

Release Job

This releases a job for dispensing.

Un-release Job

This is used to stop a job from being used, generally when changes need to be made to the job. If changes are made to a job without un-releasing and releasing again, the changes will be ignored by CPC.

Complete Job

Mark a job as complete. This removes the job from the active job list, removes it from the CPC job list and indicates that no further work will be done on this job.

Other Actions

The following is a list of other actions that may be invoked by right-clicking on either a single item or a selection.

Open

This opens an item for editing. This has the same result as double-clicking on it.

Delete

An item may be deleted if it is not referenced anywhere. The delete option will appear disabled if this is not true.

Report

This provides a list of available reports for the item. The contents of the list will vary depending on the options enabled in your installation.

Scrap Return

When a return is below a usable weight, or otherwise unfit for further use it may be marked as scrapped. This prevents it from being used in remixing on CPC and being displayed on the list of returns.

Finish (Material Batch)

When a material batch is below a usable weight, or is otherwise unusable it may be marked as finished. This prevents it from being assigned when refilling a tank on CPC. Note: this will not remove the batch from CPC if it is currently assigned. To do this, refill the tank on CPC selecting a new batch.

Filtering and the Filter Panel on ColorPoint Manager

 

The filter panel is one of the most powerful parts of CPM. Using the various search fields it is possible to narrow down a large list of items to a small selection making it easy to find individual items.

Basic Filtering

To display the filter panel click the ‘Filter’ button on the navigation toolbar:

Here is a list of materials, unfiltered:

Typing ‘m’ into the code entry area of the filter panel filters the list to any codes that contain the letter m, in upper or lower case anywhere in the code:

This has removed the entry ‘BN1’ from the list.

Expanding the search further to filter on items containing ‘m1’ results in the following list:

Reverse Filtering

Changing the search type from ‘Like’ to ‘Not Like’ reverses the search, showing only items that do not contain an ‘m’.

Exact Matches

Changing the search type from ‘Like’ to ‘=’ changes the result to an exact match only.

Matching Ranges

Finally, a range of items may be searched by entering the starting search, in this case ‘a’, pressing the ‘To’ button and then entering the ending search. Please note the search excludes the last item in the search range, so that searching ‘a’ to ‘c’ gives items beginning with ‘a’ and ‘b’, but not c.

Checking the Exclude box reverse the search and removes these items from the results:

The same principles apply to searching across date ranges, price ranges and dispense weight ranges.