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.

Import Validation Tool

The tool can be downloaded from here
The Excel template can be downloaded from here
The layout of the tool can be seen as follows:

This tool includes features listed below:

• Validation of Materials and Formulas in CSV files.
• Automated validation of Materials and Formulas in Excel files.
• Detailed error description of invalid records.
• Generate blank Material and Formula template.
• Export valid data to CSV files from Excel files.

The list of error messages are listed below:

• Code missing or too long (maximum 25 characters)
• Name missing or too long (maximum 50 characters)
• Missing materials from formulas

Validate from CSV

Press ‘Choose File’ button and choose the CSV file you want to validate. First choose a Material file and the records will be automatically registered. If the materials are not valid then error messages will be displayed. If the materials are all valid then continue the operation pressing the ‘Choose File’ button again to choose the Formula file.

Valid records are displayed in the table ‘Valid Records’ and invalid records are displayed in the table ‘Invalid Records’. When going through the rows of Invalid Record table, you will be able to see the detailed error description underneath the same.

Validate from Excel

Click ‘Choose File’ button and choose the Excel file. This will check if all the records are valid. Valid records are displayed in the table ‘Valid Records’ and Invalid records are displayed in the table ‘Invalid Records’. When an invalid record is selected from the table, you will be able to see the detailed error description below the table.

When all the records are valid, it will ask you to save the Materials and Formulas to a CSV file. Press save to save them in your preferred directory.

Generate File

If you want to create a CSV file with the Materials and Formula file template, click ‘Generate File’ button and save them in your preferred directory.

Setting Dispense Parameters for a Material

 

When a material is attached to a dispense valve, the tolerance and pump settings associated with that valve are used to control the dispense performance.

The pump settings are HIGH and LOW pressure. HIGH pressure controls the pump speed in full flow and LOW pressure controls the pump speed in low flow and during spitting. If the HIGH setting is too high the dispenser may over dispense. If the setting is too low, the pump may stall and fail to pump any material.

Generally the HIGH setting should be greater than the LOW setting unless advised by a Rexson engineer.

The tolerance settings are UNDER, ALARM and %. % tolerance comes into effect on dispenses larger than 1 kg. % tolerance works the same for amounts above or below the requested amount and is usually set to 1%.

In smaller dispenses UNDER determines the largest amount that the dispensed amount can deviate below the requested amount and still be in tolerance. ALARM determines the largest amount that the dispensed amount can deviate above the requested amount and still be in tolerance. On a water based ink system, these settings are usually the same at 0.005 kg for colours and 0.020 kg for non-colour products. Some strong colours may require smaller tolerances of 0.002 kg.

If the UNDER tolerance is set to 0.020 kg, any request for less than 0.020 kg of material will be seen as in tolerance, so no material is dispensed. This is the correct behaviour for absolute tolerances.

To set the tolerances and pressures you will need a supervisor (level 3) or engineer/master (level 4) RFID key.

From the Main Menu go to Configuration

 

then Operations

From here you can view the settings for each dispense valve

Using the arrow buttons on the bottom right of the screen, select the valve number for the material you wish to adjust. The material name and code will be displayed next to the valve number.

Press the Pump/Tank button to change pump pressures.

After making changes press the Save button to save the settings and write them to the controller.

Press the Tolerance button to change tolerances

After making changes press the Save button to save the settings and write them to the controller.

Replacing the material on a dispense valve on CPC

 

If a material is retired and replaced with another material, it will be necessary to remove the original material from the dispense valve and assign a new material.

This guide assumes that the new material has been created on either CPM or CPC and has a code of NewMaterial. The material to be replaced has a code of OldMaterial.

Insert a Master Key (Level 3)

From the Main Menu press the Configuration button.

On the configuration page press the Operations button.

On the operations page use the arrows to scroll to the valve the old material is assigned to.

Press the de-assign valve button. You will prompted with a warning. Press yes. The assign material button will now appear. Press it to choose a new material.

When presented with the list of available manual materials, use the arrows to select the new material, the press the select button.

Your new material is now assigned to the valve.

Check your pressure and tolerance settings if the properties of the new material differ from the old material.

You may need to perform a material replacement in your formulas if the new material is to replace all uses of the old material. For instructions see this article.

ColorPoint Console 1.6 Recirculation Program Control

From CPC version 1.6 onwards the button to turn the main recirculation program on ColorPoint on or off has been moved from the recirculation settings page to the main configuration page along with an info panel on the configuration page showing the current recirculation state as shown above.

When the button was on the page for a particular pump's setting it was easy to confuse the use of the button as being only for that pump.

The new button indicates the recirculation state that pressing the button will achieve, e.g. "Recirc ► ON" will turn on recirculation when it is already off and "Recirc ► OFF" will turn it off when it is currently on.

How to alter Recirculation Parameters

 

1. Insert ‘Master’ Key
2. Select ‘Configuration’
3. Select ‘Operations’
4. Select Valve number to be altered
5. Select Recirculation
6. Adjust Pressure, if required (1 is the lowest pressure with 15 being the highest)
7. Adjust On time, if required (this is the period the pump operates for: 1-15 x 5 minutes)
8. Adjust Pause time, if required (Period of time delay between starting next pump)
9. Repeat for additional changes to pumps
10. Select save to confirm changes

To check changes

 

1. Select Materials
2. Tab down to required material
3. Select Vessel Contents
4. Select Recirc (Pump will run for 2 mins. and can be interrupted by selecting Recirc timer button.
5. Once alterations have been made and confirmed remove the Master key and return the Operator key

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.

How to Change out an empty supply vessel with CPC only

 

STEP ONE. 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 TWO. 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 ‘New vessel content weight’ box (box will now be red).
• Using the numeric keys (bottom of screen) enter the barrel/IBC net weight.
• Press ‘Save’

There is no real need to enter a batch number, because without a management system you won’t be able to trace the product.

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 a dispense you will need to press continue once you have returned to the dispense screen.

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.

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.

Exporting Data and Performing Backups on ColorPoint Console

 

This post applies mainly to standalone CPC dispensers.

 

There are two methods of saving your data from CPC. Use an export when you wish view the data exported, or change it and import it again. Use a backup when you want to be able to recover the whole system in event of a failure.

 

Exporting Data

To Export data you need to be a level 3 user.

From the Main Menu page go to:

• Configuration
• Import-Export

You will see a summary of the material and formula data on your system.

• Go to Export
• Select the items of data you wish to export. By default al data is exported.
• Press Export
• The data is saved to the Export USB drive in the \ExportFiles folder.
• The file name is [Console name]-[DateTime]-[type].csv,
  • e.g. CPC-14461-001-201102161559-formulation.csv
  • e.g. CPC-14461-001-201102161559-manualmaterial.csv
  • e.g. CPC-14461-001-201102161559-automaterial.csv

See the section "Accessing your data" for the next step.

 

Backups

A database backup is more comprehensive than an export. It contains details of your user accounts and their key codes, as well as any internal settings.All new ColorPoint Consoles have automatic backups scheduled on a daily basis. On some older systems this feature wasn't available. Please contact Rexson Support if you would like to check the status of automatic backups on your console.

To make a backup of your database you will need to be a level 3 user. Go to

• Configuration
• Backup/Restore

You will see a summary of the data on your system.

• Press Backup
• The backup will be stored on the Export USB drive in the \BackupFiles folder.
• The file name is ColorPoint_Full_Date_Time.bak
• If automatic backups are scheduled on your system there may be 7or more of these files, along with some other internal backups
  • The automatic backup system keeps the last 7 days backups in a rotation.

 

Accessing your Data

To access the data on the USB drive do the following:

• Switch off the console using the power button on the front of the panel.
• Open the side panel of the console cabinet. On hazardous systems this will cause the unit to lose pressure and will require purging afterwards.
• Locate the ColorPoint embedded controller, near the centre of the panel.
• 
• Locate the export USB drive on the left of the controller
  • On early models with 2 USB drives
    • this will be a white USB drive in the upper slot.
    • or a silver USB drive labelled "Export" in the upper slot
  • On later models with a single USB drive this is the only drive.
• Remove the USB drive and connect to your computer
• Copy the contents of ExportFiles and/or BackupFiles
• Replace the USB drive taking care to insert it the right way up.
• Close the cabinet and power on the console.

Adding a New Material on ColorPoint Console

 

This procedure only applies if you don’t have a management PC. To add new materials on systems with ColorPoint Manager see Create a new material on ColorPoint Manager

 

Adding a material direct to a valve

• Insert an ID key of level 2 or above.
• Press ‘Material’ on the Main Menu screen.
• Using the arrow keys scroll up or down to the valve number you wish to assign the material to. The selected valve number row will turn white.
• Press (bottom of screen).
• Press ‘Assign Colour’ (right of screen).
• Using arrow keys scroll up or down to the row you want. Then select the colour by pressing the keys at the bottom of the column your colour is in.
• Press top right.
• Press ‘Code’. The text field will change colour, from orange to red.
• Now you can enter the material code using the virtual keyboard. Using the same method you did when selecting the colour, scroll up and down the rows using the arrow function keys to the right of the keyboard. Once you have the correct row, you can select the character you require by pressing the key at the bottom of the column character is in.
• 
• Press ‘Name’. The text field will change colour, from orange to red.
• Enter the material name using the same method as you did to enter the code.
• Once complete press .

 

Adding a manual material

• Insert an ID key of level 2 or above.
• Press ‘Material’ (right of screen).
• Press ‘Manual Material’ at the bottom of the screen.
• Then follow the above procedure from Press .

 

Assigning a manual material to a valve

• Insert an ID key of level 3.
• Press ‘Configuration’ (top right of screen).
• Press ‘Operations’ (second from top on the right of screen).
• Use the arrow keys on the bottom right to scroll up and down to the valve number required. There are to hidden keys on the bottom row at the right that scroll up and down by 10 valves at a time to make navigation quicker.
• Press ‘Assign Material’ on the bottom left of the screen.
• Select a material from the list of manual material to assign to the valve.

Issue returns, materials and formulas on ColorPoint Manager

 

Returns are usually used at CPC by reworking into other formulas or issuing them directly to press. For convenience the returns may also be issued to press, booked against a job.

There are two ways of issuing items to a job. The first is job centric; find the job you are looking for, open it and use the ‘Issue to Job’ action. The second is better if you need to issue items across a number of jobs; open Tools | Issues | Issue to Job from the menu bar.

In the second option the job is selected from a drop down list allowing any job to be selected, in the first option the job selector is hidden as the job number is taken from the currently selected job.

The following details need to be selected or filed in to complete the issue:

1. Screen: the screen on the press that the item is being issued to.
2. Weight: the weight to be issued.
3. Date: the date and time of the issue, defaults to the current time.
4. Only show items that are part of this job: restricts the selection of items that may be issued to those that are already on the job items list. Un-ticking this option will allow you to book and formula to any screen and is not recommended unless you are certain it is required.
5. The item type that is being booked to the job:
1. Material: select a material and the material batch of the pack/barrel being used to supply it.
2. Formula: Select the formula code that is being issued. This is used with pre-made formulas, or formulas that are already held in stock.
3. Return: Select the required return from the list. The return stock will be debited with the weight issued.

Clicking ‘Reset’ will reset the form, clicking ‘Issue’ issue the selection and resets the form.

Receive and track stock on ColorPoint Manager

Once you have the raw materials defined on the system, the next step is to receive stock of these materials. The cost of a batch is set from the cost of the raw material at the time of the stock receipt. It is essential to do this before any dispensing takes place to ensure that all dispenses are automatically allocated to the correct batches. If this is not done, reconciling dispenses with material batches can become complicated.

Open the Stock receipt view:

1. Select the material to receive from the drop down list. Typing the first letter of the material will move the selection down the list to save scrolling on long lists.

2. Enter the number of packs or barrels to receive.

3. Enter the size of the packs or barrels. If you are receiving the same material in a number of different sized packs, enter the size of the most common pack here. You will be able to change it later.

4. Enter the supplier’s batch number for the materials. If more than one batch number is present in the delivery, enter the most commonly used on here. You will be able to change it later.

5. The date of the receipt will default to the current date and time. Change this if required. If you need to split a receipt across different dates, create a new receipt for each date required.

6. One batch per pack should be left ticked. If you really require all packs to be treated as a single pack please contact the support team to discuss this. This feature will be removed in a future version of CPM.

7. Consignment Stock assigns the consignment stock category to all of these packs if ticked. This is used in the stock valuation report to separate stock that is owned by the supplier from stock that is owned by the end user.

8. Create new batches is the default setting. Under this option you have the ability to adjust the batch numbers and weights of individual packs if required.

9. Add to existing batch will be removed in a future version of CPM. Use stock adjustments to increase the amount of stock received in and existing batch.

Save the batch. The form will be reset to receive the next batch.

As soon as stock batches are received they are available for selection on CPC. When refilling a tank, the batch can be selected from the material batches list.

All dispensed formulas take their traceability data from the stock batch that they were allocated to. This includes costing for use in the Job Costing Report. It is therefore essential that proper stock management is implemented if traceability or costing of product is important.

Track costs on ColorPoint Manager

Most users will want to track the cost of used ink on their systems. When costing is enabled it adds ‘cost’ attributes to materials, material batches and substrates. This enables the cost of materials used to be tracked historically. Your installation engineer can enable costing if it has not already been enabled during system set-up.

The cost attribute is no longer optional and is built into the entities that need it. There is no need to have custom attributes added to track costs on ColorPoint systems built running version 1.6 or higher of the ColorPoint software.

Create a new material on ColorPoint Manager

Open the materials list. The ‘Add New’ button is below the list on the left. This will open a new blank detail view for the material.

Fill in the details for the material as follows:

1. Code: a unique code to identify this material, up to 25 characters long. If you try to enter a code that has already been used or that is too long, you will see an error outline in red around the text box.
2. Name: a description of your material, up to 50 characters long.
3. Specific Gravity: on a metric system this defaults to 1kg/l (water). Change this if required.
4. Colour: choose a colour closest to the colour of your material. This provides a visual clue when working with lists of materials and does not need to be an exact match.
5. Is Non Dispense Material: this is an advanced feature, leave un-ticked. See Non-dispense materials for more details.
6. Categories: assign any categories you need.
7. Attributes: add any attributes required, cost is the most commonly used attribute. See Track costs for further details.
8. Files: add any files for supporting information e.g. an MSDS document.
9. Notes: it may be a good idea to make a note of why the material was added to the system for future reference.
10. Suppliers: add a supplier for the material. If no suppliers exist, you will be able to create a new one.
Save the material, and repeat for any other new materials. Once the materials have been added to the system you may need to assign them to valves on CPC. See the ColorPoint Console manual for further details.