Section 1-1: Introduction. Welcome to the Structural Material Manager software system! We thank you for choosing our software, whether you have purchased the full system or are evaluating the demonstration version.

This release of the software package is Version 11.3, the 31^st edition of the system since it was first released in 1985. At the time of this writing, Structural Material Manager is installed in over 1,200 locations!

Regardless of version number or operating system, all releases in this series have been designed with a common goal in mind: to help steel professionals - fabricators, suppliers, estimators and detailers - manage structural steel material lists. Typical uses include producing job estimates, bills of material, length-cutting and plate-cutting lists as well as shipping tickets. It saves time and increases accuracy by automatically doing the following work:

∙ Weighs all steel, stainless and aluminum items. This is one of the most basic system capabilities, yet in and of itself eliminates hours of tedious manual calculations.

∙ Computes surface areas of items for cleaning and painting estimates, and even uses these figures to calculate the actual gallons of paint and primer needed.

∙ Prints a Production-Control history as a complete shipping status report or just a shortage report. At a glance, you are able to tell which items shipped, when they shipped and how many still need to go!

∙ Sorts items into proper order by size (material type, section size, length and grade) or by piece mark (whether by major marks only or by all piece marks).

∙ Nests lineal items into available stock lengths for an optimal cut, whether from in-house inventory, your supplier's stock or the best combination of both.

∙ Nests plates into available stock plates, providing an actual pictorial layout that represents the optimal cutting pattern!

∙ Prints adhesive item labels based on the Sorted List, Nested List, Master Shipper or Shipping Ticket.

If you're currently doing these operations by hand, we think you'll find this system to be an incredibly powerful tool.

Thanks again for choosing our software. We eagerly look forward to assisting you in getting the most out of it!

Section 1-2: About this Manual. This manual describes operation of Structural Material Manager from initial setup, through entry of structural material items, sorting and nesting of material, to final printing of the material. No, it does not read like a good novel, and yes, it is rather dry. Still, it is necessary reading for anyone who intends to use the system effectively. So please bear with us and read the manual before trying to use the system. In this way, maximum benefit will be obtained with a minimum of difficulty.

Much effort has gone into making this manual as concise and easy to read as possible. Accordingly, computer jargon has been kept to a bare minimum. The reader is assumed to have a background in structural steel matters, but is also assumed to be a novice where computers are concerned. All computer-related operations are thus explicitly described in step by step instructions. Computer-literate readers will probably feel their intelligence has been insulted, but the fact is that the vast majority of Structural Material Manager users relatively little computer expertise.

This User’s Guide is available both in an electronic format and as a printed book. Some users may wonder why we’ve gone to the expense of a printed manual in this electronic age. It is true that electronic documentation systems have some distinct advantages: they can be updated instantly in order to make corrections or add new material, they are searchable and are much less costly than paper books. However, despite the strengths of electronic media, paper remains popular! Paper is portable, and Structural Material Manager users seem most comfortable with it. The predicted “paperless office” simply has not yet arrived. We’ve thus decided to retain printed documentation for the foreseeable future while also providing the User's Guide in the system's Help menu in two electronic formats: PDF (Portable Document Format) and HTML (HyperText Markup Language). Any user with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader program installed on the PC can view the PDF version, and anyone with a Web browser such as Internet Explorer or Netscape can view the HTML version. The bottom line: by providing both paper and electronic documentation, E.J.E. Industries is allowing the strengths of each medium to be exploited while giving users freedom to choose the information source they prefer.

Some users may not have access to the printed version of this book. They may have received only a software CD without any accompanying printed materials. Perhaps their system was downloaded from the Internet rather than being received via a physical shipment, or maybe the printed manual was simply misplaced. The PDF format mentioned above is "printer-friendly" in that it retains good formatting regardless of which printer you are using, so such users can easily print their own copy of the User's Guide from within Acrobat Reader.

This chapter presents some general information concerning Structural Material Manager . Although the subjects discussed here are those that are generally skipped over in favor of more interesting topics, they are nonetheless important. Please take a few minutes to read this material and we will begin discussing actual system capabilities in the next chapter.

Section 1-3: Software Support. Lifetime technical support is included with your purchase. This service is free; there are never any annual renewal fees! We are definitely a customer-oriented company that always strives to support you to the best of our ability.

All we ask before providing technical support is that you please consult this User’s Guide first. If, after reading this guide, you experience difficulty with any aspect of system operation, please feel free to contact us for assistance.

To speak with a representative, call us at (724) 228-8841. Representatives are available 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.

E.J.E. Industries is proud to also provide support via our very own Internet site. The Internet site allows you to download software patches or upgrades in a matter of minutes.

Section 1-4: Disclaimer. Although this software has undergone thorough testing, no claims pertaining to program accuracy or suitability for any particular purpose are made. This system is thus sold strictly on an "AS-IS" basis. E.J.E. Industries, Inc. will not be held responsible for any consequential or incidental damages arising from the use, misuse or inability to use this software system. An understanding of this disclaimer is the sole basis upon which this program is provided. If you find these terms unacceptable, please return the package immediately for a full refund.

Section 1-5: Warranty. The original purchaser may return the system for a full refund within thirty (30) days if not completely satisfied.

All CDs supplied with this software system are warranted against defects for a period of ninety (90) days from the date your package is received.

Structural Material Manager’s security locks are backed by an unconditional lifetime warranty. In the rare event that one of our software locks becomes defective due to internal failure, a replacement is supplied at no charge. If failure is due to lightning strikes, flooding, accidental physical breakage, etc., there is only a $50.00 nominal charge for the replacement.

If a security lock fails within ninety (90) days from the date your package is received, E.J.E. Industries will cover the shipping costs both to and from your location. After that time, you will be responsible for shipping charges in both directions.

Section 1-6: Software Replacement Policy. If, after the limited warranty has expired, a CD becomes damaged, replacement copies are available at a charge of $10.00 plus shipping. This $10.00 fee also applies if you have lost your original CD.

It is important to note that replacement CD’s are available for a period of up to one year from the time a certain software version has been discontinued. After that, you may have to upgrade to the most recent version in order to purchase a replacement CD. For example, Version 10.1 was discontinued on October 21, 2008. Replacement Version 10.1 CD’s were thus guaranteed to be available until at least October 20, 2009 after which a Version 10.1 customer would have to upgrade to the current system if they needed a replacement CD.

Section 1-7: Program Errors. Please be aware that during the development of a software system as broad in scope as Structural Material Manager, there is always the possibility of a few errors going undetected. The system has undergone rigorous in-house testing, augmented with additional testing by an independent group of structural steel fabricators, in an effort to locate and correct as many errors as possible before release. However, if any errors are found during program operation or in the instructions, they may be reported to E.J.E. Industries and will be promptly corrected.

Section 1-8: Program Upgrade Policy. As corrections and/or improvements are made to the system, all original purchasers will be notified that a program upgrade is available. Purchasers may elect to receive the upgrade by submitting payment in the amount specified in the upgrade notice. Your investment is thus protected by having access to free or inexpensive upgrades as new program versions are released.

There are two different types of upgrades: maintenance releases and improvements to the existing system.

Maintenance releases are included with your purchase as part of our free technical support policy; they are provided at no charge via E.J.E. Industries’ Internet Web Site. These patches simply correct minor errors in the system and usually do not add any new features. See Section 3-9: Downloading Patches from the Internet for more information.

When improvements are made to the existing system, or options are added, upgrades may be purchased and are guaranteed to never exceed $149.95 per registered user.

Section 1-9: Hardware Requirements. Structural Material Manager Version 11.3 runs on any Windows 98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008 or Windows 7.

A Pentium processor at 1 GHz is considered the slowest processor that will yield adequate performance.

Structural Material Manager's Material Entry Screen is designed for a screen resolution of at least 1024 x 768. At this minimum resolution of 1024 x 768, a horizontal scrollbar appears on the Material Entry Screen, and it must be slid with the mouse to reveal some of the item fields. Increasing the resolution - say to 1280 x 1024 - will bring more fields into view, and less scrollbar use is thus required. At extremely high resolutions, the scrollbar does not appear at all, and every item field is in view at all times. Note that Structural Material Manager can actually be used with resolutions less than the suggested minimum of 1024 x 768 (perhaps 800 x 600), but scrollbar use will be excessive.

Memory (RAM) requirements are not important, as any machine capable of running 32-bit Windows will have adequate memory for this application.

Structural Material Manager supports two different types of printers. The first type is the printer that is used for generating the system’s normal reports. The second one is the printer used for printing adhesive labels that serve as item-identification tags.

Let’s first discuss the report printer. Any ink-jet or laser printer using cut-sheet paper can be utilized as the report printer. Dot-matrix printers have, of course, been displaced by ink-jet and laser printers in most cases but can still be utilized for printing Structural Material Manager’s reports. Since Structural Material Manager prints via Windows print drivers, it is not at all important as to whether your printer connects through the parallel port, Universal Serial Bus (USB) port or via a network.

Whereas the report printer can be a laser, ink-jet or dot-matrix model, the adhesive label printer must be a dot-matrix unit, as laser and ink-jet printers are simply unacceptable for the task . Since the adhesive labels are only 4" wide, the 15" wide-carriage dot-matrix printers offer no benefit over their 9" narrow-carriage counterparts for label printing, but either type can be used. Of course, if you do not wish to print item-identification tags, there is no need to have a dot-matrix printer; users who do wish to print such labels should also refer to Chapter 19: Adhesive Item Labels for more printer information.

Section 2-1: Introduction. This chapter provides a broad overview of Structural Material Manager 's operation. Its purpose is to familiarize first-time users with the basics so that specific details may later be better understood. The topics discussed here are only briefly summarized; these and many others are covered in greater depth in their respective sections of this manual.

Section 2-2: Summary of Menu Functions. The main functions of Structural Material Manager are conveniently controlled from pull-down menus. To help familiarize you with Structural Material Manager’s capabilities, this section lists each menu heading as well as the items listed beneath it. Here are the most important menu options:

Print Report (Unsorted-Estimating, Sorted-Estimating, Shipping-Estimating or Master Shipper-Estimating)

Print Report (Shipping List, Master Shipper, Shipping Ticket, Status Report or Shortage Report; some of these can be sent to labels)

Section 2-3: Entry of Structural Material Items. Structural material items are entered into the system via the computer's keyboard. Items may be entered for the following material types: W, S, M, HP, WT, ST, MT, C and MC Shapes, Plates, Checkered Plates, Bar Grating, Bars, Angles, Square and Rectangular Tubes, Round Tubes, Rods, Rebar, Pipes, Bolts and Miscellaneous Items.

Items are entered one "field" at a time. A W-Shape, for instance, is composed of the following fields: Piece Mark, Quantity, Depth, Weight, Length, Grade, Mill Mark, Camber, Remarks, Sequence, Camber, Material Price, Shop Hours and Field Hours. Of these fields, only the Quantity, Depth, Weight and Length must be entered; the other fields are optional.

Dimensions are entered in a very natural scheme. For example, a length of 5'-6 13/16 is entered exactly as such, without need for any cumbersome entry codes or decimal conversions. If your drawings express 5'-6 13/16 as 66 13/16", this can be entered directly when using the inches mode. Metric dimensions are also supported, so 5'-6 13/16 could also be entered as approximately 1697 MM.

An editing feature allows items to be modified at any time during entry. This allows a part of an item, such as the Piece Mark, to be easily modified without having to retype the entire line. Adding items to a list, editing them and deleting them can all be done conveniently from the same screen.

Section 2-4: Material Sorting. The sorting process arranges the material list in order such that larger items appear before smaller ones. The specific criteria used to determine which items are larger than others depends upon the specific material type being sorted.

Any identical items found in the material list are combined into one item, and their quantities are totaled. For example, if two identical entries have quantities of 10 and 15, they will be combined into one entry with a quantity of 25.

Structural Material Manager keeps jobs in sorted order by size by automatically sorting them “behind the scenes.” This automatic sorting process does not affect the order of the original unsorted material list; instead, it makes a properly ordered copy of it. This is useful since it allows later changes to be made to the unsorted list with the items in their original sequence. If, however, the unsorted items are required to be actually sorted, as is the case when the system is being used for inventory, the user may instruct the sorting module to physically sort the material list.

It should be noted that both sorting methods described above result in the same sorted printout; the difference between the methods is not noticed until the material list is viewed on the screen for further entry or editing of items. If only the normal, automatic sorting method is used, the items will appear on the screen in the order they were entered, but the second sorting method will cause the items to be listed on the screen in sorted order.

In addition to the sorting method described above which bases sorting decisions on material type and size, Structural Material Manager also offers two types of sort based on piece mark. One such sort rearranges the material list based on all piece marks whether they represent major shipping marks or minor detail marks. The other variety is a more complex sort that takes into account whether a mark is major or minor mark; it sorts the list based on major marks only and “carries” the detail marks along with their respective assemblies in the sorted listing.

Section 2-5: Material Nesting. One of the systems more interesting functions is that of nesting (some people refer to this as "multing"). This involves running large numbers of combinations on the material list to determine the most efficient way to cut items from available stocks. By determining the most efficient cutting pattern automatically, the incredible manual labor usually required to do this is eliminated, and costs associated with wasted material are drastically reduced.

The nesting feature is actually comprised of two different modules: the Length-Nesting Module and the Plate-Nesting Module. The Length-Nesting Module handles one-dimensional nesting by processing all lineal items, namely, all Beams, Channels, Bars, Angles, Tubes, Rods, Rebar and Pipes. The Plate-Nesting module operates in a two-dimensional fashion and is thus able to process Plates, Checkered Plates and Bar Grating

Available stock lengths and stock sheet sizes may be specified by user. Since the user has control over these parameters, as opposed to having rigid pre-set values, the resulting cutting pattern is guaranteed to always utilize stock sizes that are known to actually be available at the time the nest is performed.

In addition to stock size information, the user is also able to specify the cut width (or "kerf") to leave between adjacent items cut from a stock. This allows the system to account for the width of a saw blade, flame cut, etc. and adjust the cutting pattern accordingly. For example, a 20'-0 stock will not be permitted to be cut in half to yield two 10'-0 items if the cut width between the items is larger than 0", such as 1/8".

Please note that nesting has no effect on the order of the unsorted material list. A nested printout is available, but you are still free to edit the material list on-screen in its original unsorted order.

Section 2-6: Inventory Tie-In. The Length-Nesting Module is able to access your in-house inventory, as well as your supplier's stock list, as a source of stock lengths. Please note that this feature applies only to lineal items, as the Plate-Nesting Module always accesses supplier stock rather than in-house inventory.

In order to give maximum flexibility based on your specific inventory needs, the Length-Nesting Module can perform the following five different types of nests:

1. Nest material using up to nine different standard stock lengths, assuming unlimited quantities of each length are available. A different set of stock lengths can be specified for each material type, so you can instruct the system that 16'-0 and 21'-0 stocks are available for Pipes while 20'-0, 40'-0, 55'-0 and 60'-0 sections (all hypothetical, of course) are available for the WT sections. Mode #1 of nesting is ideal for the fabricator that does not wish to nest into any in-house inventory and does not know (or care) what specific stock the supplier has.

2. Nest into your in-house inventory only. This mode is generally used by steel warehouses; it accounts for the exact lengths and quantities you have in stock for each material type and description and considers that stock to be the only available source for stock lengths. Fabricators wishing to nest only into in-house inventory will also find this mode of nesting useful.

3. Use only your supplier's stock. This type of nest is intended for the fabricator that knows what quantities and lengths the supplier has in stock, but does not want to use any in-house stock.

4. Utilize your in-house inventory as best as possible, then resort to using your supplier's stock. This mode is ideal for the fabricator who has some sort of in-house inventory, whether it is a large stock or just a few remnants, and wants to use that stock before nesting into the supplier's specific stock. This mode can be thought of as a mix of mode #2 and mode #3.

5. Nest into in-house inventory until no further in-house stocks can be used, then nest the remaining list items into unlimited quantities of standard stock lengths. This mode is basically mode #4 with the exception that the supplier's exact stock is unknown; it can also be considered a combination of mode #1 and mode #2.

When nesting into any in-house inventory (modes #2, #4 and #5 above), the system can automatically remove from inventory any stocks that were utilized and add back "drops" (the remnants) that exceed a certain length that you specify. This allows it to maintain a "perpetual" inventory list without need for manually deleting utilized stocks and entering resulting remnants.

One important time-saving aspect of having the in-house inventory stored in Structural Material Manager is that total dollar value figures can be quickly generated whenever they are needed for accounting purposes. Most companies need such inventory tallies yearly, quarterly or even monthly. These totals can now be generated in minutes rather than the hours that manual methods sometimes require.

Section 2-7: Material Printouts and Adhesive Labels. The following types of printouts of the material list are available:

1. Unsorted Report. This report lists the items in the exact order they were entered into the system.

2. Unsorted-Estimating List. This printout is an expanded form of the Unsorted List; it tallies the total material prices, shop hours and field hours for a job. The summary can provide such figures as total paint and primer requirements, welding electrode costs, etc.

3. Shipping List. The piece mark sequence of the unsorted material list is used to group fabricated assemblies together on this printout. Because the system can interpret which marks are shipping marks on main members and which marks belong to detail items, the report provides a total weight for each separate assembly. This report can be produced in a "Master Shipper" format, in which case only main members with shipping marks are shown (detail items are omitted), but total assembly weights still include the weight of all items.

4. Shipping Ticket. This report serves as a Loading List and is a specialized form of the Shipping List. Whereas the Shipping List shows all items for a particular job, the Shipping Ticket only lists items and quantities that were selected for shipping on a particular date. The system even keeps a running tally of the current truck weight as you enter piece marks and quantities that are to be shipped!

5. Production-Control Status report. As Shipping Tickets are printed, the Production-Control Module keeps track of quantities and dates for each item shipped. This information is then available on the Status Report, allowing the user to know at a glance when a certain item was shipped and what percentage of the job has already been shipped. An abbreviated form of this report, known as a Shortage Report, only lists items and quantities that have not yet shipped.

6. Shipping-Estimating List. This report provides all information presented on the Shipping List, but also provides a total material cost for each fabricated member.

7. Sorted Report. It lists the items sorted from large to small within material types and groups similar items together.

8. Sorted-Estimating List. This printout is essentially the same as the Unsorted Estimating List, except the items are presented in sorted order.

9. Nested List. This report, essentially a "Cut List", shows items that are to be cut from a single stock for optimum efficiency. For lineal items processed by the Length-Nesting Module, a listing of the items is provided. Likewise, two-dimensional items processed by the Plate-Nesting Module are presented in a list, but an actual pictorial layout is also provided to augment this listing. A summary of all stocks required to cut the list is provided; it indicates not only the stock used and the resulting drop, but also whether the stock came from in-house inventory or your supplier's inventory.

The printouts provide such values as single item weight, line weight, total material type weight, total job weight, total job price, total job shop hours, total job field hours, etc. Surface areas, along with total paint and primer requirements, are also supplied on most of the reports. The specific values that appear on each report are discussed in each report's specific section of this manual.

This section has provided an overview of Structural Material Manager’s printouts. Some of these (the Sorted List, Nested List, Master Shipper and Shipping Ticket) can also be printed as sets of adhesive labels rather than normal reports. The labels contain such information as piece mark, length, weight, project name and contract number; they are applied directly to the steel and resist weathering. See Chapter 19: Adhesive Item Labels for more information.

Section 2-8: Sequencing. Structural Material Manager supports sequences which allow you to break a large job into manageable sections. Some fabricators refer to sequences as “zones,” “divisions,” or “phases.” Regardless of the terminology that you prefer, the sequencing feature permits you to enter a large project in its entirety and later extract only the sequences you wish to fabricate, ship, etc. at a certain time.

Section 2-9: External Data Interface. The External Data Interface is a very useful tool for companies that already have their material lists stored in another software system. This interface allows such users to import those jobs into Structural Material Manager and eliminates any need for retyping the list.

One of the most common uses for the External Data Interface is to import jobs from CAD systems. Below is an alphabetical list of the systems that support Structural Material Manager (where the company name is different from the name of the CAD package it produces, both names are provided):

Tekla Structures (formerly XSteel, by Tekla, Inc.), 770/424-8666, http://www.tekla.com

No custom programming is needed to import items from these CAD packages. Custom programming can be used, however, if you’d like to import bills of material from other CAD systems.

In addition to importing data supplied by CAD systems, the External Data Interface can also be used to both import and export ASCII-delimited files. This allows Structural Material Manager to communicate with spreadsheet, database and other types of programs.

No matter what software system your bills of material may be stored in, the bottom line is this: don’t retype items! Let the External Data Interface eliminate such wasteful redundancy.

Section 3-1: Introduction. Now that the required preliminary information was covered in Chapter 1, and an overview of system operation has been presented in Chapter 2, this chapter describes the steps necessary to set up the system for actual operation.

If you’re evaluating a demo rather than installing the full system, you probably only need to read up though Section 3-4 of this chapter. Proceed directly to Chapter 4 at that time, as sections beyond 3-4 are not critical to getting the demo up and running.

Section 3-2: Instructional Notation. The instructions in this manual follow some basic notations. The first of these involves underlining; any underlined letters or words are what you are to type at the keyboard. All underlined information must be typed exactly as it appears in the instructions.

One exception to the above note concerning underlining occurs if you are viewing this User’s Guide in a PDF format using Adobe Acrobat reader. In that particular viewer, “hyperlinks” to e-mail addresses and Web site addresses appear in blue with a black underlined Links to pages in the Table of Contents are also blue with black underlines. Let the blue color be your clue that such underlined text represents a hyperlink rather than something that you are type. Neither readers of the printed book nor those viewing it in a Web browser via HTML need to be concerned with this issue.

Another notation used is [Enter]. This is simply a prompt for you to hit the Enter key. Some computers may use a Return key instead of Enter; they are identical in their function.

As an example of the two basic notations described above, suppose you are instructed to type A:Setup [Enter]. This is accomplished by typing A:Setup and hitting the Enter key.

The Tab key is commonly used to move between fields in a Windows programs. The notation [Tab] means that you should hit the Tab key. So, if you are instructed to type a Piece Mark of 1B1 [Tab], you would type 1B1 before hitting Tab.

Shift-Tab moves between fields just like Tab except that Shift-Tab causes a move back to the previous field instead of forward to the next. So, notation of 12 [Shift-Tab] means type 12 before holding the Shift key and hitting Tab to move one field backwards.

Some common Windows terminology will be used freely. The terms “click” and “left-click” both mean to click the left mouse button once while the mouse pointer is positioned on the desired object. “Double-click” means to rapidly click the left mouse button twice without moving the mouse between clicks. Windows also makes extensive use of a “right-click” command which requires you to click the right mouse button once.

Certain areas of Structural Material Manager allow multiple selections. This is a Windows feature in which multiple items in a list can be selected by holding either the Shift or Ctrl key down while the mouse is dragged or the keyboard arrow keys are pressed. The Shift key is utilized when the selected items are adjacent in the list, that is, for a continuous selection. Ctrl is to be held down instead of Shift to select multiple items when those items are not adjacent in a list (this is a non-contiguous selection). So, in places in which the Structural Material Manager documentation refers to making multiple selections, it is referring to selections made while the Shift or Ctrl is pressed.

A vertical bar will be used to separate items when you are asked to click on several items. For example, if presented with the command Start | Programs | Windows Explorer, you would first left-click the Start button, then the Programs folder and finally the Windows Explorer item.

Of course, most Windows users are already familiar with the terms and notations described above, but they are reviewed here for the sake of completeness.

Section 3-3: Installing the System. It is now time to actually install the software on your computer.

Most users, and probably all those evaluating a demo, will be installing on a single-user computer. They may follow this section's instructions as-is. If you are installing on a network, please review the notes in Section 3-7: Network Setup before proceeding.

The same instructions will be used whether you are installing the system for the first time, are upgrading from an earlier version of the system, or are loading a maintenance release. The system will automatically detect which version of the Structural Material Manager system, if any, is installed. It then acts accordingly to perform either an upgrade or a complete installation.

Users that have owned the software for a number of years and now wish to load Version 11.3 on a new computer might have a collection of old Structural Material Manager diskettes and/or CDs. You only need to load your most recent CD; there is no need to load all previous versions in order of release date. So, don’t bother loading say a Version 11.0 system before 11.3. Likewise, there is no need to load 11.3b before 11.3c.

Installation steps will now be presented. You may already have Structural Material Manager's Setup program running, perhaps because you accessed these directions from within the Setup program rather than in printed form. If that is the case, then you can skips Steps A through E which deal with invoking the Setup program, and proceed directly to Step F. Only if the Setup program is not already running should you begin with Step A.

A) Structural Material Manager is supplied on a single CD. Insert the CD in your PC’s CD-ROM drive at this time.

B) On many PC’s, the “auto-run” feature will cause Structural Material Manager’s Setup utility to start soon after you insert the CD. If this occurs on your PC, simply skip Step C, and proceed to Step D at this time.

C) Only if the Structural Material Manager Setup utility did not automatically appear will you have to invoke it manually. If this proves necessary, right-click (not left-click) the Start button at the Windows desktop to display a pop-up menu. Left-click on the Explore option that appears in that menu. Once Windows Explorer opens, click the My Computer icon and then click the icon that corresponds to the CD-ROM drive in which you placed the Structural Material Manager CD. The contents of the CD should be displayed; double-click the SetupSMM item to run it.

D) Some versions of Windows may display the “Open File - Security Warning” dialog. It reports that "The publisher could not be verified. Are you sure you want to run this software?" If this appears, it is important that you click Run rather than Cancel.

E) Depending on which version of Windows you are running, the "User Account Control" dialog sometimes appears. It may state that "An unidentified program wants access to your computer." If this dialog appears, you should click "Allow. I trust this program. I know where it’s from or I've used it before."

F) Structural Material Manager’s Setup utility is actually used for installing not only the application itself, but also “helper applications.” One such application is Adobe Acrobat Reader. If the PC on which you have installed Structural Material Manager does not already have the latest version of Acrobat Reader installed, click the “Install Acrobat Reader” button, as the Acrobat Reader program is required for viewing some of Structural Material Manager’s built-in documentation. If you are installing from an Internet-supplied download rather than from a CD, Acrobat Reader’s installer won’t be available since its presence would greatly increase download times; you can download it from our Web site at

H) Click on the type of installation you wish to perform. Most users will be doing a complete installation to either a local hard drive or a network drive, and that option is indeed the default.

If you already have the system loaded on a network server, you might want to select the second option. That choice causes the system to install just those components that are needed to access an existing system across the network. See Section 3-7: Network Setup for more information on this option.

I) Use the drop-down list to select the drive onto which you wish to install Structural Material Manager.

J) Choose whether shortcuts should be placed on the Windows Desktop and/or in the Start Menu. You can select neither of these, just one or both, but it is recommended that you keep at least one of the options checked.

K) A box contains the name that will be used to label the shortcuts. The default is nearly always a good choice, but you may wish to customize this name if you want to maintain shortcuts to multiple Structural Material Manager systems. For instance, if you have the system installed on both Drive C: and Drive D:, you might want to specify a name of “SMM Drive C” for the C: installation and “SMM Drive D” for the D: installation. Note that Windows does not permit certain characters in shortcut names, and the colon (“:”) is one of these illegal characters; this is why the names “SMM Drive C” and “SMM Drive D” have been suggested as examples rather than “SMM C:” or “SMM D:”.

M) If the system detects that it is being installed over an older, existing Structural Material Manager system, you will receive a warning message. Installing over an older system is not at all a problem; the system simply informs you as to what is happening so you can make sure that other network users are not accessing Structural Material Manager during installation, verify that you want to upgrade the old Structural Material Manager system to the current version, etc. The messages vary depending on the individual situation, so read the message (if any) carefully, and respond by clicking the appropriate button.

N) The computer now begins copying programs to the hard drive. Since the programs are stored in compressed form, they must be expanded as they are copied. This can take a few minutes on slower computers.

O) Once the system reports that installation is complete, you can click the Ok button to return to the Setup program’s main screen.

P) Demo users (as opposed to full-system users) may skip this step, and proceed to the next one at this time.

If this is the first time Structural Material Manager has been installed on this computer, or if you are upgrading from an earlier version of Structural Material Manager, it is necessary to install “lock drivers.” These drivers are software components that coordinate the interaction of Windows with the Structural Material Manager’s hardware security locks. There is no need to install these drivers if you are loading a maintenance release in which the numeric part of the version has stayed the same and only the letter has changed (i.e., loading Version 11.3b over Version 11.3a), as the most recent drivers are probably installed already.

If you do need to install lock drivers, please refer to Section 3-6 at this time. Once the drivers are installed, please return to this point in the directions.

Q) Simply click Exit in main setup screen’s File menu once you have installed Structural Material Manager and any desired related components. IMPORTANT: as Structural Material Manager's setup program closes, Windows Vista and newer operating systems may pop up a Program Compatibility Assistant dialog that warns that the program might not have installed correctly. If it does appear, be sure to click "This program installed correctly." DO NOT click "Reinstall using recommended settings."

Section 3-4: Running the System. The following instructions describe the steps necessary to run Structural Material Manager.

If you placed Structural Material Manager on a desktop shortcut, just make sure the desktop is visible, and double-click on the “Structural Material Manager” shortcut. If you opted to place the system in the Windows Start Menu, then just click on the Start button, click on the Programs folder, and click on the “Structural Material Manager” shortcut.

If and only if you did not create a shortcut to Structural Material Manager, you will have to launch the system by running C:\EJE\SMM.Exe. If the system is loaded on some drive other than C:, be sure to substitute the actual drive letter in place of C: in this example. You can run the system in this fashion either from the Start | Run dialog or from within Windows Explorer.

If an "Open File - Security Warning" dialog appears and states that "The publisher could not be verified. Are you sure you want to run this software?," simply click Run. Such a dialog may appear with newer versions of Windows. You may also see it with slightly older Windows versions such as XP if all of the operating system’s Microsoft-supplied updates have been installed.

If your system is a demonstration version rather than the full package, you will be presented with a User ID Code the first time that Structural Material Manager is run. That code is supplied to E.J.E. Industries, Inc. which will, in turn, provide a corresponding Demo Activation Code. The Demo Activation Code is the key that unlocks your demo by providing an electronic “coupon” worth 25 reports from the full system. If you are evaluating a demo, you should refer to Section 6-2: Demo “Coupon” for more details on how your demo system operates and how it differs from a full system.

Please proceed to the next section for information on installing the security lock.

Section 3-5: Installing the Security Lock. If and only if you have actually purchased the Structural Material Manager system, your package has been provided with a special security lock. No such device is needed for the demonstration version, so demo recipients need not follow the steps in this section, but they may wish to read a bit about the reasons why the full version of Structural Material Manager employs security locks.

From 1985 through 1990, Structural Material Manager had no copy protection. During this time, E.J.E. Industries was actually receiving tech support calls from companies that never purchased the software! Since E.J.E.Industries' software support policy grants free, lifetime support to the purchasers of our software, support calls from companies with "bootleg" copies posed a real dilemma. In 1991, the decision was finally made to protect all new systems. This decision has proven to benefit both E.J.E. Industries and the end-user.

If we did not lock our software system, we would have to raise the price significantly, thus "hiding" the cost of extra users by incorporating them into the base price. We think you'll agree that a customer with only a few users should not pay the exact same price as a client running Structural Material Manager on 20 stations!

As we mentioned earlier, our software began as an un-locked system, and "bootleg" copies were making their rounds. Such copies, which violate federal copyright laws, were quite often taken by ex-employees to their new jobs. To see the real impact of this, imagine for a moment that you paid for Structural Material Manager, and a former employee then began using it for his new employer: your competitor. Suddenly, your hard-earned estimating and production tool has become a weapon against you!

Another way that you as the end-user benefit from our software protection is that E.J.E. Industries is guaranteed to receive continuing revenues as more and more companies begin to use this system. This assures sufficient funds for further software development, and further development translates into better and better software for you.

You are free to load the system on as many computers as you wish, but it will only run if the security lock is attached. Some users simply move the lock to whichever computer they need at a given time, while others choose to purchase extra locks.

If you would like to invest in additional locks, they can be obtained for $595.00 each. We always maintain a large inventory of locks, so your order can usually be on its way to you the same day the order is placed. Once you receive your new lock, all Structural Material Manager modules that you already have licensed on existing PC's will now be accessible on an additional PC; there is no need to re-purchase the Main System or any optional modules such as Length-Nesting, Estimating, etc.

Our software security locks are backed by an unconditional lifetime warranty which includes not only defective units but even lightning strikes and accidental physical breakage. See Section 1-5: Warranty for more information.

Network users must install a security lock on every workstation that will access Structural Material Manager. There is no need to install a lock on the server, however, if the server will simply host the Structural Material Manager system without being used to actually run the system. Stated another way, if a user will actually sit at the server and execute the program, then a lock is needed there; if users will only access the server’s Structural Material Manager system from other network workstations, the server does not need a lock.

Please note that E.J.E. Industries utilizes four different types of security locks, and the lock color and labeling can be used differentiate the units. Here are the possibilities:

2. Black; arrow-shaped label is white with either E.J.E. Industries printed in blue or Glenco Engineering in black

4. Black accented with two purple, curved stripes; E.J.E. Industries is engraved on the back

It does not matter which color lock you have, as each performs the same function of informing the Structural Material Manager software system that you are a licensed user.

The purple lock as well as the black one with purple accent stripes connect via the USB (Universal Serial Bus) port whereas the off-white lock and the black one with the arrow-shaped label both connect to the computer’s parallel printer port. Most locks issued from 1991 through 2004 were intended for the parallel port. By 2005, almost all new lock shipments were purple locks in the USB format, as the once-commonplace parallel printer port began to disappear as a standard feature in many brands of new computers. In mid-2007, the black USB lock with purple accent stripes became the standard-issue unit; it is electronically identical to its purple predecessor but uses a smaller, stronger case.

It is common for a USB device to require that its software driver be installed under Windows before the device itself is attached to the computer. The USB locks follow this convention and should not be installed until you have followed the directions in Section 3-6: Installing the Lock Drivers. So, if you have a USB lock, please proceed to Section 3-6 at this time.

It does not matter whether the lock drivers are loaded before or after a parallel-port lock is connected to the computer. We’ll thus devote the rest of this section to the task of attaching such locks to the parallel port.

Once again, if your security lock is the USB style, leave it disconnected from the computer for now, and proceed to Section 3-6 for driver installation directions.

Before proceeding with installation of the parallel-port lock, please note these important facts:

∙ The lock is to be installed on the computer's printer port, which is located at the back of the computer. It is not possible to connect it to the back of the printer.

∙ Neither the lock nor its software driver will interfere with normal operation of your other software packages. There is thus no need to remove the lock before printing from other applications.

∙ A parallel printer port is required; nearly every computer used to have one, but they have become much less common in recent years. This can be identified as a port on back of the computer with 25 holes (not 25 pins).

∙ If a parallel printer is already attached, the parallel printer port's holes will be covered by the printer cable connector.

∙ Even though a parallel printer port is required on the computer in order to utilize the parallel-port lock, there is no need to have a parallel printer connected to the lock. Your computer might not even have a local printer connected (often the case with notebook PCs or with computers that print across the network to shared printers), but you can still have the parallel-port lock plugged into your computer’s parallel port. Another common scenario is to have the parallel-port lock lock connected to the PC’s parallel printer port, but to use a USB printer that does not connect in any way to the lock. Although the parallel-port locks use the computer’s parallel printer port as a source of power and communication, they do not in any way rely on having a connected printer.

Assuming your computer does indeed have a parallel printer port, you may install the lock as follows:

A) If you have a parallel printer, disconnect its cable where it connects to the back of the computer. Some cables will simply pull out, but most will have two screws that must be loosened first. Note that you are not required to remove the cable from the back of the printer, only the back of the computer. If you do not have a printer connected to the computer, this step can be skipped since, as mentioned earlier, it is not mandatory that a printer be attached; the lock will function properly even without a printer cable leading from the back of it.

B) Plug the security lock into the computer's port from which you just removed the printer cable, or, if you do not have a printer attached to the computer, locate the parallel printer port. The device can only be installed one way, so there is no need to be concerned about having any connections reversed. Just keep the following points in mind:

One end of the lock has pins, and the other has holes. The end with pins gets inserted into the computer's printer port. Do not insert the lock backwards in order to make it fit the wrong port, which in most cases would be a serial communications port rather than a parallel printer port.

The port's shape resembles the letter "D", and it is thus known as a "D" connector. Simply make sure that the wide end of the lock is matched to the wide end of the port, and the lock will slide in easily.

The lock's two retaining screws should be lightly tightened to secure the device to the computer's printer port.

C) If you removed a printer cable in Step A above, plug the loose end of the printer cable into the open end of the security lock. If your printer cable has two retaining screws, lightly tighten them to assure a good connection.

The parallel-port lock will be automatically detected on any parallel printer port, whether it is LPT1, LPT2 or LPT3. There is no need to inform the system as to which printer port is being used with the lock.

You may already have one or more parallel-port security locks that are used with other software applications. Different vendors refer to these by different names such as sentinels, dongles, keys, etc. Regardless of the name used by the vendor, as long as the unit is a software security device that attaches to the computer’s parallel printer port, it will be similar in function to Structural Material Manager’s parallel-port security locks. You should have no problem in simply “daisy-chaining” Structural Material Manager’s lock with the other devices, that is, plugging one into the other. Once this is done, test each application to make sure it recognizes the presence of its particular security device. If any application acts as if its device is missing although it is actually installed, try re-arranging the order of the devices until all applications function properly.

Now that the parallel-port lock has been installed using the directions in this section, you may have to install the lock’s software driver. Please proceed to Section 3-6: Installing the Lock Drivers, to determine whether you need to do this.

Section 3-6: Installing the Lock Drivers. Structural Material Manager makes use of software known as “lock drivers.” The drivers are comprised of software that coordinates the interaction between Structural Material Manager’s security lock and the Windows operating system.

Demo recipients can skip this section. Demo packages do not utilize hardware security locks and thus have no need for lock driver software.

A common misconception is that a lock driver is a hardware device. For instance, customers will sometimes mention that “the lock driver has been installed on the computer.” Actually, the lock is the physical security device, i.e., hardware, whereas the lock driver is the software that provides Windows operating system support for the lock.

Structural Material Manager’s off-white parallel-port lock and both types of USB lock all use one type of software driver, and the black, parallel-port lock with the arrow-shaped label uses a different driver. It may seem odd that the off-white, parallel-port lock uses the same driver as the USB-style locks, but this is indeed the case. The black lock with the arrow-shaped label is of a totally different design and requires its own driver.

Generally, lock drivers only need installed when you install Structural Material Manager on a machine for the first time or when you upgrade it from one major version to another. If you are simply loading a maintenance release in which the numeric part of the version has stayed the same and only the letter has changed (i.e., loading Version 11.3b over Version 11.3a), the lock drivers on the PC are probably current and will not need re-installed.

It is mentioned in Section 3-7: Network Setup that Structural Material Manager’s setup program should be run on each network PC that will be used to access Structural Material Manager. One of the primary reasons for this is that it is the setup program that is used to install lock drivers. If you bypass the setup program, and simply create a shortcut to Structural Material Manager across the network, there is a good chance that the security lock will not be recognized since the drivers were not installed.

Under Windows 98 and Windows Me, the lock drivers can be installed by any user. Under Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008 and Windows 7, however, installation of any driver requires administrative privileges from a network security standpoint. Thus, Structural Material Manager’s setup program will be able to install lock drivers under Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008 and Windows 7 only if the user that is currently logged on to the system has administrative rights.

A) If you are using Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008 or Windows 7, make sure you have administrative privileges. This is critical in loading drivers under these operating systems.

B) Launch Structural Material Manager’s Setup program from the CD on which the program is distributed. If you were referred to this section while following the system installation directions in Section 3-3, then the Setup utility probably already up and running. If not, run it now by following the first three steps (A, B and C) in Section 3-3.

C) One panel of the Setup program’s screen is dedicated to lock driver installation. Regardless of which type of lock you have, click the “Install Main Driver” button that appears in that panel.

You will be presented with a message requesting that you should remove any “USB Sentinels” before proceeding. “USB Sentinels” are Structural Material Manager’s USB security locks (purple or black with purple accent stripes). You can safely ignore the warning if your Structural Material Manager lock is one of the parallel printer port types. E.J.E. Industries utilizes security locks that connect via the parallel port in nearly all cases; we currently issue locks that connect through the USB port only in those rare cases in which a PC has no parallel port. If you do happen to have a USB lock - whether from Structural Material Manager or some other program - be sure to remove it now.

The Sentinel Protection Installer will now be launched. Just follow the on-screen prompts until installation is finished. You won't have to worry about selecting very many specific options in this program, as the defaults will usually be the correct choices. Thus, just click Next or Ok to move trough the setup screens as options are presented. For instance, if upgrading over a previously-installed driver version is the appropriate course of action, the "Upgrade" option is what you should choose, but that will most likely be the default anyway. Similarly, the "Complete" option should typically be chosen rather than "Repair / Modify," but once again that is probably going to be the default option. If your PC has a Windows Firewall running, the installer will ask if it may modify the firewall settings, and it is very important that you allow it to do so. If you are presented with a license agreement, choose the "Accept" option. At some point you'll be able to click the "Install" button to finish the installation.

Note that it may be necessary to re-start your PC at one or more points during the installation; do so as directed by the setup program.

D) No further steps are needed if you have an off-white parallel-port lock or a USB lock, as the driver installed above is all that is needed for those two lock styles. If, however, if your security lock is black, you’ll now need to install an additional driver. If installation of the first driver required re-starting your PC, then Structural Material Manager’s setup program is probably no longer running and will need to be started again so you can gain access to its lock driver setup functions; launch the Setup program again if necessary. When the Setup utility is once again visible, click its “Install Additional Driver” button. Follow all screen prompts to carry out installation of the driver.

Once the lock driver software has been installed, it is finally safe to connect the USB style of security lock. If your lock is the parallel-port type, it does not matter whether you connect the lock before or after the drivers are installed, but it is indeed critical that USB locks are not connected until now. So, if you do have the USB style of lock, connect it at this time to any free USB port. If your PC’s case is designed such that its front-panel USB ports stick straight out rather than being angled upward, and your PC is on the floor in a foot-traffic area, inserting the USB lock on the front might invite damage as people walk by; try to use a rear-mounted USB port in such cases. Once the USB lock is connected, the presence of the lock driver software you already installed will allow Windows to automatically identify and activate the lock.

In a network environment in which the Structural Material Manager software is loaded on a server, the server itself only needs lock drivers installed if there is actually a lock is attached to the server. If the machine is simply acting as the central file-sharing point from which other network PC’s access Structural Material Manager, and no lock is attached to a parallel or USB port of the server, then there is no need to load lock drivers on that machine. The basic rule-of-thumb is simple: if you physically installed a lock on the server, load the drivers; if no lock will be attached to this computer, skip the lock driver installation.

Let’s close this section by presenting some troubleshooting tips in case installing the lock drivers have not allowed Structural Material Manager to properly detect the lock. Here are some hints in case you have difficulty:

∙ Shutting down and re-starting the system can sometimes help. Close all programs including Structural Material Manager, and shut down (don’t just restart) the PC as well as the printer (only if the printer is connected directly to the PC; don’t bother powering down a network printer). Wait 10 seconds before switching the PC and printer back on, and try Structural Material Manager again.

∙ If cycling the system’s power did not help, try removing and re-installing the lock drivers. After launching the appropriate lock driver setup program (whether for all locks or just black locks) from Structural Material Manager’s Setup program, select the Remove option for the driver. After it has been successfully removed, repeat the procedure, but select the Install option. This often helps. A key point to keep in mind, however, is that the USB lock should be unplugged before uninstalling its driver and be reconnected after re-installing the driver.

∙ Visiting our Web site at http://www.ejeindustries.com/support assures you access to the very latest drivers. These drivers may be more recent than the ones on your program CD. Downloading and installing the desired drivers from this site will solve most lock problems.

∙ If you can successfully open a job in Structural Material Manager after clicking File | Open, the lock is being properly detected.

Section 3-7: Network Setup. This section presents some notes on installing Structural Material Manager on a network. Structural Material Manager runs properly on the following 32-bit networks: Windows 98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008 and Windows 7. Some users will also be using Novell Netware; that does not present a problem as long as it is being used in conjunction with the aforementioned Windows operating systems.

Since anyone attempting to install on a network is assumed to be fairly computer-literate, we'll deviate from the "no-jargon" rule and get right to the point in this section. If you are a computer novice installing on a stand-alone PC, please don't be intimidated by this information! Computer professionals love this sort of lingo, but you are free to simply skip this information.

If you have any doubt as to your ability to carry out the instructions in this section, it is recommended that you enlist the aid of a computer professional before attempting to install this or any other software on a network.

When Structural Material Manager first became network-compatible in 1990, users had to indicate when ordering the software whether they needed the stand-alone or network version. Please note that ALL Structural Material Manager systems since the 1998 release of Version 6.0 are automatically network-ready. There is no need to request a special network edition of the package. Any network workstation that is equipped with a software security lock will be able to run Structural Material Manager properly on the network; the necessary file-locking duties will be handled automatically.

The basic premise behind networking Structural Material Manager is that the system is loaded on one PC, and other user’s systems access both program and data files from that location.

Structural Material Manager expects to be run in an X:\EJE directory, that is, an EJE directory off the root of one of your local or network hard drives from C: through Z:. Do not try to move Structural Material Manager to any directory other than \EJE. The system automatically installs to \EJE and assumes that it is being invoked in that directory. Other directory names are not supported, and manually moving the system to another directory will not permit Structural Material Manager to operate properly.

One way to assure that the system runs in an X:\EJE directory is to map a network drive such as Drive F: to the server’s shared hard drive where Structural Material Manager resides, and Structural Material Manager will simply be invoked from the mapped drive. Consider the case of a Windows server which has Structural Material Manager loaded on Drive C:; a network workstation might map Drive J: as a network drive corresponding to the server’s Drive C:, and Structural Material Manager would be invoked from the workstation’s J:\EJE directory. The program file J:\EJE\SMM.Exe could then be executed in order to run the system across the network. It is important that the network user has full access rights to the server’s entire Drive C: in this example. This is the simplest method of installing the system on a network, and it is recommended that this technique be used whenever possible.

You cannot obtain proper Structural Material Manager operation if you make the \EJE directory shareable on the server, and have a network workstation map a drive to that shared directory. As an example, assume that Structural Material Manager is loaded in the \EJE directory of Drive C: of the server, and a network client maps Drive H: to correspond to the server’s C:\EJE directory. This will not work. Such a mapping does not produce an H:\EJE directory that is required for proper operation but rather, it appears to Structural Material Manager as it if is running in the root of Drive H:.

One reason you might wish to map a drive such as H: to the server’s \EJE directory rather than the server’s entire drive is security. In some environments, granting read-write privileges to all of the server’s Drive C:, for instance, could put sensitive data at risk. Thus, mapping Drive H: to the server’s C:\EJE directory, for example, would let you grant full access rights to C:\EJE without compromising security for the rest of the drive. As discussed in the preceding paragraph, this won’t work. There is, however, an acceptable work-around as follows:

A) Manually create a folder on the server’s Drive C: that will be used to hold the \EJE folder. You are not creating the \EJE folder at this time but, rather, are simply providing a place in which it can later be created. This folder could be called EJE_DRIVE, JOES_EJE_SYSTEM, etc., and it can be located anywhere on the server (it does not necessarily have to be in the root). We’ll assume for this example that you’ve called it EJE_DRIVE.

B) Make the new folder shareable, as full read-write privileges will be needed by the workstation that accesses it.

C) At the workstation, map a drive such as H: to the EJE_DRIVE folder. From the workstation’s perspective, the folder appears as H:\, and this is the key in obtaining proper Structural Material Manager operation via this technique.

D) Install the system at the workstation onto Drive H:. The setup program will create an H:\EJE directory from the workstation’s perspective, and “behind the scenes” this will correspond to an actual server directory of perhaps C:\SomeDir\EJE_DRIVE\EJE. The appropriate shortcuts referencing H:\EJE\SMM.Exe will automatically be built on the workstation.

Note that in Step D above, the system had to be installed at the workstation rather than the server so the setup program could view the target directory as H:\EJE rather than C:\SomeDir\EJE_DRIVE\EJE. Having to install at the workstation rather than the server is a restriction inherent in using the technique of mapping a workstation’s network drive to one of the server’s folders rather than one of its hard drives. Another restriction that results from the use of this technique is that you cannot run Structural Material Manager at the server, even as a test, because it does not detect the proper X:\EJE home directory; all execution will have to be done from workstations.

When you are mapping a workstation’s network drive to a server’s hard drive, Drive H: to C:, for instance, it does not matter whether you install at the workstation or the server. If you run the setup program at the workstation, install to Drive H: in this example. If the installation is done at the server, you’d install to Drive C: in this example. This flexibility is one reason that the users are encouraged to use drive-to-drive mappings rather than drive-to-folder mappings whenever security is not a concern.

Regardless of which mapping technique you choose, note that there are really only two operations that must be performed at the server. First, you need to make the appropriate drive or folder shareable. Second, you need to set the appropriate user access privileges. Once this is done, all other tasks, such as the actual running of the Structural Material Manager setup program, can be done at the workstations.

Note that different network users can access Structural Material Manager using different drive mappings. It is not a problem if one user has his or her workstation mapping Drive F: to the server’s Drive C: while another user maps Drive H: to the server’s Drive C:. These users can simultaneously access the system in their F:\EJE and H:\EJE directories, respectively.

UNC paths to Structural Material Manager are not supported in shortcuts; drive and path designations are required. Suppose you manually create a shortcut to Structural Material Manager that invokes SMM.Exe with syntax such as \\Server\Drive\EJE\SMM.Exe. When the program executes, it attempts to determine the drive from which it was launched, but \\Server\Drive, of course, does not provide the expected drive letter from C: through Z: It is generally best to use the system’s setup program at the workstation, as that assures you that the proper shortcuts will automatically be built. If you have reason to manually create a shortcut, make sure that the “Target” value is in the form of X:\EJE\SMM.Exe and that the “Start In” value is similar to “X:\EJE”.

The Network Supervisor must give each user full access rights to the \EJE directory and its subordinate directories. Anything less than full rights would cause the system to crash during certain internal file- and directory-handling operations! To avoid such problems, Structural Material Manager runs some tests “behind the scenes” to see whether full access rights exist, and it shuts down after displaying an appropriate message if full rights are not detected.

Granting full access rights under older Windows operating systems was fairly straightforward. However, with the advent of newer Windows versions such as XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008 and Windows 7, the subject of file access permissions has become a bit more complex. These operating systems allow much finer or “granular” control of permissions than was formerly possible, and this can lead to cases in which some users can successfully access Structural Material Manager across the network while others are denied access. E.J.E. Industries has posted a technical support bulletin at http://www.ejeindustries.com/support/permissions that should prove helpful if you encounter problems related to access rights.

It is not possible to load Structural Material Manager locally on the network workstations and allow those installations to access a common data set stored elsewhere on a server. Some systems allow this sort of arrangement, but Structural Material Manager assumes that all network users are accessing both program and data files from the same server location. Because of this, there is no need to load Structural Material Manager onto the local hard drives of individual network workstations; just load the system onto the server (whether at the server itself or from one of the workstations), and workstations will access both program files and data files via the network.

In keeping with above discussion, the Setup program contains an option for installing just those components needed in order to run an existing system across the network. You might use the normal, full installation on just the server, and then perform the network-client style of installation on each workstation that will access the server’s Structural Material Manager system. When you select the network-client option, the only drives that are shown are the network drives, so be sure to have the workstation’s drive mappings in place before invoking the setup utility. Such an installation builds the proper shortcuts and configures the local PC to run Structural Material Manager, but it does not actually load the software again. Use this setup option rather than just creating shortcuts manually at each workstation. If you bypass the setup program, you also bypass system configuration! Also, only by running the setup program at each station can you guarantee that the lock drivers are loaded for each machine (see Section 3-6: Installing the Lock Drivers).

If some users would like to have local copies of Structural Material Manager available, there is no harm in loading on a workstation’s local drive as well as the server. In cases where individual workstations do indeed have local copies of Structural Material Manager loaded, the user can use the local system by invoking it from the local drive (such as C:\EJE\SMM.Exe) while being able to access the server’s system by using a network drive (such as F:\EJE\SMM.Exe). It is sometimes convenient to let users employ a local copy of the system for work that does not have to be shared with others, while inventory lists and projects being worked on by multiple people are best kept on the network.

Section 3-8: Network Printing. Versions 7.1 and earlier of Structural Material Manager printed through an MS-DOS print-engine and thus required the user to “capture” a printer port in order to print to a network printer. The system now prints via the Windows print drivers, so any network printer can be used by simply selecting it from the drop-down list of available printers in Structural Material Manager’s print dialogs.

If you intend to print to a network printer rather than a local one, no special setup steps are needed in Structural Material Manager since, as mentioned above, the system utilizes Windows print drivers. Before printing to a network printer, however, you may wish to verify that you can print to the desired network printer through some other Windows application (perhaps Microsoft Word, Excel, etc.). This will guarantee that printer sharing is already working properly.

The fact that Structural Material Manager makes use of Windows print drivers not only allows users to conveniently access network printers, but it also makes it simple for different network users to access their own local printers. Supposing Structural Material Manager is loaded on the network server and is accessed from many workstations, there is no problem with some of those users printing to shared network printers while others print to their own, local printers. The system automatically keeps track of which printer - whether network or local - was last used by a particular user and automatically restores the appropriate printer driver settings the next time that user requests a printout (see Section 12-12: Automatic Saving of Printer Driver Settings for more details).

Section 3-9: Downloading Patches from the Internet. As free Structural Material Manager maintenance releases are made available, they can be downloaded at no charge from the E.J.E. Industries Internet site. Note that this applies to “patches” to your current version rather than feature-adding upgrades. A free patch changes only the letter part of the software version identifier, for instance, 11.3a changes to 11.3b. Major upgrades in which the version number also changes (perhaps 11.3 becomes 11.4) are not free and are thus not provided on the Web site.

Visit http://www.ejeindustries.com/support for directions on downloading patches. You might want to add that site to your Internet browser’s list of “bookmarks” or “favorites.”

You should periodically visit our Internet site’s support page to see what the latest release is. By comparing the latest release with the one displayed on your Structural Material Manager title-screen (also available under Structural Material Manager’s Help | About option), you can determine whether a new system should be downloaded.

Section 3-10: Removing the System from your Hard Drive. If you ever need to remove Structural Material Manager from your hard drive, this can be easily done through Windows Explorer. Here are the steps to follow:

A) At the Windows desktop, launch Windows Explorer with Start | Programs | Windows Explorer.

B) Find the \EJE folder on the appropriate hard drive, and right-click it. A pop-up menu appears.

D) When asked whether the contents of \EJE can be moved to the recycle bin, click on Yes.

The directions above explained how to remove from your computer any files associated with Structural Material Manager. The following information shows how to remove any Structural Material Manager shortcuts you may have created in Windows.

If you have a Structural Material Manager shortcut on your desktop, remove it as follows:

A) At the Windows desktop, locate the Structural Material Manager icon. Right-click on this icon, and a menu containing the item “Delete” appears.

If you have placed a shortcut to Structural Material Manager in your Start Menu, it may be removed by following these steps:

A) At the Windows desktop, right-click on the Start button. A menu with “Open” at the top will appear

D) Find the Structural Material Manager icon. Right-click on this icon, and a menu containing the item “Delete” appears.

Section 4-1: Introduction. The largest part of operating Structural Material Manager is actually entering the material items at the keyboard. E.J.E. Industries has gone to great lengths to make entry as painless as possible, even for non-typists.

A sample material list is entered over the course of this manual. Basic material entry will be covered in this chapter, and only a few time-saving techniques being presented. Chapter 5 will then cover the finer points of material entry and explain many features intended to make the entry process faster and easier.

Section 4-2: The Sample Material List. A total of 23 items will be entered as our sample material list. This list contains examples from all general classes of the material types supported. It will later be used to demonstrate operations such as sorting, nesting, etc. The sample list is shown below with the items in the order they will be entered into the system:

Section 4-3: Opening and Closing Jobs. Once you have started the system as described in Section 3-4 and moved beyond the title screen, Structural Material Manager’s main window appears. It is now time to open a job.

The Open Job dialog automatically appears if you have just launched the program. To access the Open Job dialog manually at a later time, select the Open Job item in the File menu.

Related jobs are organized into folders. You’ll generally create a folder to hold all jobs for a particular client, or, in the case of a large job, perhaps an entire folder will be dedicated to one job. Existing folders are listed in a box when you select the Open Job function, and you are free to either choose one of them or to create a new one.

For the purpose entering the sample material list presented in this chapter, as well as entering any other jobs you might create while learning to use the system, it is probably best to create a folder called “Learning Examples.” If you’ve not already created such a folder, click on the Create New Folder button, type Learning Examples, and click the Create button. If you’ve already created a Learning Examples or similar folder, just select it from the drop-down list at this time.

Now that the folder has been selected, it is time to specify a job. Just as was the case with selecting a folder, you may choose an existing job or create a new one. Assuming you are entering the sample material list, type a job name such as “Sample List.” The system now informs you that the job does not yet exist, and it asks whether you want to create it; click the Yes button. You are then asked to choose a dimension system of standard feet and inches, inches only or millimeters. For the purposes of this sample material list, just click the Ok button in order to choose the default system of feet and inches. The inches and millimeters formats will be discussed in a later chapter.

Of course, if you’ve already created a job, you may just select it from the list. Double-click it to open it immediately. If you prefer to select the job name with a single-click, you’ll also have to click the Open button.

If you already have a job open and would like to close it, the File | Close Current Job menu item can be used to accomplish this. Note that exiting Structural Material Manager automatically closes the currently-open job, so there is no need to close it before selecting File | Exit. Likewise, opening another job automatically closes the currently-open one.

Some users familiar with word processors, spreadsheets and other common applications might wonder whether a job has to be “saved” before closing it. That is true with such programs, as they keep data in the computer’s memory and don’t commit it to the hard drive until you explicitly save the file. Structural Material Manager, however, automatically writes the material list to the hard drive. One instance in which this happens is when the list contains new items or changes to existing ones, and you initiate a sub-function such as closing the job, opening another job, sorting or nesting the material, printing a report, etc.; changes are automatically saved before the sub-function is carried out. Automatic saving also is done after a certain number of changes have been made to the list. Yet another automatic save is performed when only a few changes have been made to the list, but more than a certain amount of time has elapsed since the last save. So, whether lots of items are being entered in a short time-frame, or just a few changes are being made over a long one, Structural Material Manager’s auto-save mechanism will automatically record list entries and edits. There is thus no need for the system to ever ask whether you want to save changes before closing a job.

Section 4-4: The Material Entry Screen. Two Material Entry Screens are available: the modern one using a Windows-based Graphical User Interface (GUI) and an older DOS-based screen. Both ultimately serve the exact same function, but they do so in dramatically different ways.

The modern GUI version of the entry screen is available any time a job is open; there is no need to invoke it through any sort of menu option. The DOS-based screen - which will probably be accessed only by veteran Structural Material Manager users who have grown accustomed to it over the years - can be displayed by clicking Material List | Enter / Edit Material with Classic Entry Screen.

Users of the DOS-based Classic Entry Screen may have to configure their systems to show the old DOS-based entry screen in a full-screen format rather than a small window. Information on that configuration can be found at www.ejeindustries.com/support/dosscreen.html. No such configuration changes are needed for Structural Material Manager’s modern, Windows-based entry screen.

All further information in this User’s Guide relates to the GUI version of the Material Entry Screen. For information on using the classic DOS-based version, refer to User’s Guides from Structural Material Manager Versions 10.1 or earlier.

At the top of the Material Entry Screen, you will notice the main menu for selecting sub-functions such as sorting, nesting, etc. Just below this menu is a group of buttons, and beneath those buttons is the material list itself. Under the material list, buttons exist for each material type - W Shape, Plate, Angle, etc.

By default, new items get added at the end of the material list, and all previous items are scrolled up to make room for them. As you will later see in Chapter 5, the group of (3) radio buttons located to the left of the different material type buttons offers other possibilities so you can insert new items at any point in the list rather than just at the end.

When a new job is first used there are, of course, no items available to display on the Material Entry Screen. The screen thus starts off with the middle portion completely blank and fills as items are entered. However, when a previous job is opened, the Material Entry Screen begins by displaying the latest entries for that file, or essentially the end portion of the material list. This is a great convenience because it allows the user to see exactly where material entry left off for that job’s previous entry session.

A vertical scrollbar appears at the right edge of the material list if there are more items than can be displayed at once. That scrollbar allows you to easily use your mouse to view different portions of the list.

Depending on your computer’s screen resolution, a horizontal scrollbar may appear beneath the material list. If it is present, then your screen resolution is not high enough for Structural Material Manager to be able to show all item fields from Piece Mark on the far left through Sequence on the extreme right. Some fields towards the right side of the screen - usually Price Unit, Shop Hours, Field Hours and Sequence - will be partially or completely out of view. In that case, just slide the horizontal scrollbar with your mouse to choose which fields are in view at any given time.

Section 4-5: Field Structure of Item Entries. Items are considered to be composed of many different "fields" of information. Here is a list of the fields that may be entered:

The Description field is listed above as one field, but it is actually composed of between one and three fields such as Diameter for Rods, Depth and Weight for Beams and Channels or Leg 1, Leg 2 and Thickness for Angles.

Not all fields exist for every item. For instance, Camber does not apply to any material type except Beams and Channels. Also, many fields are completely optional.

Section 4-6: Selecting a Material Type. Before any item fields can be entered, you must select a material type. By knowing in advance which type you intend to enter, Structural Material Manager is able to ask you only for fields that apply to that type.

Material types are spelled out in full when possible, i.e., “W Shape” rather than just “W,” but there are times at which Structural Material Manager must abbreviate them due to space constraints. The table below lists these abbreviations and their corresponding types:

Abbreviation	Corresponding Material Type
W, S, M, HP	W, S, M and HP Shape Beams
WT, ST, MT	Tees formed from W, S and M Shape Beams
C, MC	Channels and Miscellaneous Channels
PL	Plates
CP	Checkered Plates
BG	Bar Grating
B	Bars (i.e., "Flats")
L	Angles
TS	Square and Rectangular Tubes
TR	Round Tubes
P	Pipes
R	Rods (i.e., "Rounds")
RB	Rebar
SB	Shop Bolts
MISC.	Miscellaneous Items (for items not directly supported by the system)
MAIN	Main Members (such as a shipping heading "T1 TRUSS")

When using the material type buttons at the Material Entry Screen, you’ll see most material type names in their full form. Exceptions are “Square and Rectangular Tube” which is abbreviated as “Sq. / Rect. Tube” and “Miscellaneous Item” which is are very naturally abbreviated as “Misc. Item.” So, the abbreviations in the table above don’t really come into play when clicking a material type button. However, after the item of the corresponding type is entered and appears in the material list, you’ll see the abbreviations in use.

Any material type can be selected clicking its corresponding button with the mouse. Some of the material type buttons have underlined letters, and these buttons have keyboard shortcuts associated with them so you can quickly select them without using the mouse. For example, note that “W Shape” appears on the button for entering a new W Shape. The underlined “W” indicates that the Alt-W key combination - made by holding down the Alt key and then striking W - lets you add a new W Shape without ever clicking the W Shape button. Most time-saving techniques are covered in Chapter 5, but this particular one will be used in this chapter as well.

Whichever material type button is currently “focused” has an outline around it. That means you can just hit Enter to immediately select that particular button.

You are able to move between material type buttons with the Tab key and Shift-Tab key combination. Each Tab keystroke moves one material type forward, and each Shift-Tab key combination moves one type backwards. Supposing the Plate button has an outline and is thus focused, hitting Tab once will make the Checkered Plate button have focus. Hitting Shift-Tab when Checkered Plate has the focus would move focus back to the Plate button.

Our first item is 6 Channels 10 x 30 x 8'-9 3/4, Piece Mark "1C1." Click the C Shape button, or hit Alt-C. The system then knows you will be entering a Channel and brings up an entry dialog. The actual entry of this Channel will be performed in the next section.

Section 4-7: Entry of Steel Beams and Channels. We’ll now enter the Piece Mark field. Before we actually type a mark, a word is in order concerning the difference between capital letters and lower-case letters where Piece Marks are concerned. Capital letters are used for “major marks” that correspond to major assembly items, and lower-case letters are used for “minor marks” corresponding to detail items. The distinction is important when using Structural Material Manager’s Production-Control Module for shipping purposes. Chapter 8: Production-Control gives much more information on this subject, but all you need to be concerned with during material entry is that you are careful to use the same case (upper or lower) as shown in Section 4-2's sample material list if you intend to later experiment with any of the system’s shipping features.

Type 1C1 [Tab] to specify our first item’s Piece Mark, noting that the “C” is capitalized. Remember, the 1C1 [Tab] notation means to type 1C1 and then hit the Tab key. The system has accepted that Piece Mark and - because the Tab key was hit to move to the next field - the cursor is now in the Quantity field. Type 6 [Tab]. Next, enter the Depth by typing 10 [Tab]. The Weight is to be entered by typing 30 [Tab]. Now enter the length by typing 8-9 3/4. Please note that the length is typed exactly as you would expect it to be without any need for decimal conversions.

The item has now been completely entered; all that must now be done is to tell the system that you are finished and want to add the item to material list. A few ways exist for doing this. The fastest way to do so is to hit the Insert key. Only slighter slower is to use the Alt-O key combination: hold down Alt, and hit O to “click” the Ok button without ever reaching for the mouse. The slowest way to complete the entry is to click the Ok button with the mouse; it has the exact same effect as hitting Insert or Alt-O but requires you to reach for the mouse.

Just as Tab was used to move forward to the next field, it is worth noting that Shift-Tab moves back to the previous field. So, if the cursor is in the Quantity field, and you hold Shift and hit Tab, the cursor will move to the previous field: Piece Mark. Tabbing forward and Shift-Tabbing backwards are standard Windows keystrokes.

Before the Material Entry Screen was converted to a Graphical User Interface under Windows, Structural Material Manager had a DOS-based screen at which the Enter key was used to move to each new field. Veteran Structural Material Manager users are thus in the habit of hitting Enter rather than Tab after each field. Structural Material Manager still accepts the Enter key to mean “move to the next field” so that such users can continue entering material this way. Some new users, too, may even appreciate the fact that Enter moves to the next field, as this seems to be more intuitive for some people than reaching for the Tab key. Let there be no misunderstanding: Tab is the official way of doing this, and Enter is an unofficial alternative. In practice, the two have nearly the same function with one notable difference: Tab can be used to move past the Material Entry Screen’s Ok and Cancel buttons in a “wrap around” effect in which you move from the last entry field to the first. Enter, however, will automatically “click” the Ok button if it is ever hit while the Ok button has the input focus; there is thus no way to move beyond the Ok button with Enter. As long as you are not trying to wrap around from the last field to the first, Tab and Enter can be thought of as being equivalent at the Material Entry Screen. All further documentation will instruct you to hit Tab after typing item field, but feel free to substitute Enter if you are more comfortable with it.

Section 4-8: Steel Bar-Size Channels. Small channels, often referred to as bar-size channels or simply as bar-channels, are not normally designated in the same Depth x Weight format presented in the previous section. In order to enter such items into Structural Material Manager, you simply need to convert the description to a corresponding Depth x Weight format.

As an example of converting a bar-size channel description to Depth x Weight format, consider the size 2 1/2" x 5/8" x 3/16" at 2.27 pounds per foot. Since the depth is 2 1/2", it is converted to decimal form as 2.5. The weight per foot is taken directly from the given figure of 2.27. Note that the 5/8" and 3/16" parts of the description, which represent the flange width and web thickness, respectively, are disregarded.

Although no sample bar-size channel will actually be entered, the above example should adequately demonstrate the required entry method.

Section 4-9: Stainless and Aluminum Beams and Channels. The same system discussed in the previous section on entering steel bar-size channels also applies to stainless and aluminum structurals. All stainless beam and channel descriptions are simply converted to a corresponding Depth x Weight format.

All stainless and aluminum beams are entered under the "S" Beam category, which represents "Standard" Beams. Likewise, all corresponding tee's are entered under the "ST" category.

Some stainless and aluminum beams and channels have weights that are designated to 3 decimal places. Since Structural Material Manager accepts a maximum of 2 decimal places, rounding to 2 decimal places is required. Specifically, "4/5" rounding is to be used. This type of rounding stipulates that the digit in the second decimal place remains the same if the third place contains a 4 or less; if the third place contains a 5 or higher, the digit in the second place is rounded up by 1.

Some rounding examples: 3.135 rounds to 3.14, 1.597 rounds to 1.60 and 2.331 rounds to 2.33.

If an item weight must be rounded for entry, all further weight calculations will indeed be based on this rounded value.

While we won't actually enter a sample stainless or aluminum beam or channel, let's consider an example that requires rounding. Suppose an entry must be made for an aluminum beam 3" x 0.349", with flange width 2.509" and weight per foot 2.591. The 0.349 (the web thickness) and the 2.509 can both be disregarded, as the system is expecting entry in a Depth x Weight format. The depth would be quite naturally entered as 3 or 3.0, but the weight per foot requires rounding. Since only 2 decimal places are permitted, the weight would be rounded to 2.59 for entry purposes.

Section 4-10: Canadian WWF and WRF Sections. Canadian users will appreciate the fact that Welded Wide Flange and Welded Reduced Flange items are supported. These items, commonly designated as WWF and WRF, are both entered under the W Shape category.

Please note that Imperial measure rather than metric must be used to specify the Depth x Weight format for WWF and WRF shapes.

No "tees" can be formed from these items by specifying the WT material type; only tees formed from true W, S, and M Shapes are supported.

Section 4-11: Error Checking of Entries. When you attempt to add an item to the material list, the system checks that item for entry errors. If errors are found, a descriptive message is shown, and you may then correct the error(s).

In entering the next item from the sample material list, we will deliberately make an entry mistake to demonstrate the system's error-checking capabilities.

The next item is 6 W Shapes, 14 x 30 x 15'-11, Remark: No Paint, Piece Mark "4B1". Begin entering the item by clicking the W Shape button or simply hitting Alt-W.

Type a Piece Mark of 4B1 [Tab]. Remember from the Piece Mark information presented at the beginning of Section 4-10 that the capital “B” here designates this as a “major mark” for shipping purposes.

The beam Depth is 14, but we will now type 11 [Tab] for the Depth field to purposely make an error. By deliberately entering the wrong depth, we’ll soon be able to see an example of Structural Material Manager’s intensive error-checking.

At this point, the cursor is in the Grade field for which we intend to leave accept the default value for this particular item. We need to skip over the Grade to get to the Remarks field. Either of two methods can be used: hit Tab again to move to Remarks, or click in the Remarks field using the mouse. Of course, a quick hit of Tab is most efficient. Regardless of how you get to the Remarks field, type No Paint once you are there.

The item is finished, so hit Insert or Alt-O. The system immediately responds that the item description is invalid, which we of course deliberately caused. This is because there is no actual W 11 x 30 in production, and the system detects this when that size can not be found in its list of valid sizes. Close the error message dialog by clicking its Ok button. In order to correct the mistake, we need to move to the Depth field; do so either by hitting Shift-Tab several times or clicking in the Depth field. Change the Depth from 12 to 14 to correct the mistake, and hit Insert or Alt-O to add the item to the material list.

Section 4-12: Instant Erasing of Item Fields (demonstrates Angle entry). When you use Tab or Shift-Tab to move into a field that already contains data, the text in that field is automatically selected. Since it is selected, the first regular keystroke you hit instantly erases the field. This saves you the trouble of having to backspace over the existing data when making changes. “Regular” keystroke in this context means a letter, number or character other than one of the arrow or editing keys. In demonstrating this, we will enter a sample Angle.

Angles are always supposed to have Leg #1 be larger than Leg #2 if they are unequal. Our system gives a bit of flexibility in this regard, as it will automatically switch the order of the Legs if you happen to enter them backwards. Accordingly, if we had entered the last example as a 6 x 8 rather than an 8 x 6, it still would appear on-screen as an 8 x 6.

The next item from our sample material list is 24 Angles, 3 x 3 x 1/4 x 0'-9, Piece Mark "a4", Remark “Square 2 Ends”. Select the Angles for entry by either clicking the Angle button or hitting Alt-L. Note that “L” is commonly used as an abbreviation for Angle in the steel industry, and this is why the keyboard shortcut is Alt-L rather than Alt-A as someone not familiar with steel might suppose. Type the Piece Mark as a “minor mark” using lower-case letters by typing a4 [Tab]. Type 3 [Tab] for the Quantity field (a deliberate mistake; we really need 24 Angles), 3 [Tab] for Leg 1, 3 [Tab] for Leg 2, 1/4 [Tab] for the thickness and 0-9 [Tab] for the Length. Next, skip over the Grade field and move to the Remarks field; do this either by hitting Tab or by clicking the mouse in the Remarks field. Type Square 2 Ends as the Remarks field.

The cursor is still in the Remarks field, but what we actually want is to go back to the Quantity field to change it from 3 to 24. As mentioned earlier, Tab moves forward through the fields, and Shift-Tab moves backwards. A wrap-around effect exists so that if you hit Tab when in the last item field and then a couple of more times to move past the Material Entry Screen’s Ok and Cancel buttons the first field will be selected. Likewise, Shift-Tabbing from the first field eventually causes the last field to be selected. It’s about the same number of fields to get from the Remarks field to the Quantity field whether you Tab forward or Shift-Tab backwards, so the choice is yours; use either method to get to the Quantity.

When the cursor arrives in the Quantity field, notice that the existing 3 is selected. Type 24 which is what we really intended the Quantity to be, and the 3 gets erased without any effort on your part. No backspacing or deleting is needed. After making the change, hit Insert or Alt-O to add the item to the list.

It is important to note that fields do not automatically become selected when you focus them with a single click of the mouse. However, a double-click of the mouse does have that effect. So, whereas we used Tab or Shift-Tab to get to the Quantity field and automatically select that field’s contents, double-clicking the Quantity field would have achieved the same goal.

Section 4-13: Aborting an Item Entry. What if you begin entering an item but then decide you don't really want to keep it? It is a simple matter to correct this, and we will now demonstrate just that.

Click the Plate button, or hit Alt-P. The system now asks for a Piece Mark; type TEST.

At this point let's assume that this entry is a mistake and that we were really supposed to enter another type of item, perhaps an Angle or Round Tube, rather than a Plate. Just click the Cancel button, and the entire entry is discarded.

Section 4-14: Material Grades (demonstrates Plate entry). In entering the first few items, we have ignored the Grade field. There was no harm in doing this, as the system assumes a certain grade for each material type if we do not change it. As you can probably imagine, not having to enter a Grade field for each item can save a great deal of entry time!

Three pre-defined sets of default grades are available: United States, Canadian and Multi-Cert. The defaults for each category are summarized in the table below:

Material Type	Default U.S. Grade	Default Canadian Grade	Default Multi-Cert Grade
Square/Rectangular Tubes	A500	W50	A500
Round Tubes	A513	W50	A513
Rebar	A615	G60	A615
Pipes	A53	A53	A53
Bar Grating	A569	A569	A569
Bolts	A325	A325	A325
All others	A36	W44	A992

As you can see, the U.S. assumption is A36 for most types, and for the Canadian grades it is W44. Multi-Cert grades are the same as the U.S. grades except A992 replaces A36.

In addition to the U.S., Canadian and Multi-Cert default grades that are pre-defined, a fourth category consisting of user-defined grades is available. This feature permits the user to specify the default grade for each and every material type. For instance, if all Plate entries are known to be of A588 material, the default grade for Plates can be changed to A588. The next chapter - Chapter 5 - discusses the manner in which U.S., Canadian or user-defined default grades are selected. This chapter - Chapter 4 - will proceed under the assumption that the U.S. default grades (which are active when the system is shipped from E.J.E. Industries) are still in effect.

Technically speaking, Structural Material Manager considers a valid grade to be up to 4 digits with an optional letter A though Z in front of those digits. Thus, Z9999 is the highest number that can be entered as a Grade.

Since the optional letter is a prefix rather than a suffix, a grade such as 44W must be specified as W44. This point is definitely of interest to Canadian users, as they frequently encounter grade 44W as well other grades that traditionally are specified with some sort of suffix instead of a prefix. Simply move such suffixes to the front of the grade for use with this system.

If a Grade field is entered without the optional letter in front of it, an "A" will automatically be assumed. Once again, this is an effort to reduce typing time. So, if 572 is entered as a grade, it will automatically become A572 without any need for typing the "A." An exception to this is if the value corresponds to an aluminum grade, no letter will be automatically added. Thus, if 6015 is entered, it will not become A6015.

Now for another exception. Although the system normally assumes that an "A" is to be placed in front of the Grade field if no letter is specified, it will assume an "S" if the number is a stainless steel grade. These grades include 201, 202, 205, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 308, 309, 310, 314, 316, 317, 321, 329, 330, 347, 348, 384, 403, 405, 409, 410, 414, 416, 420, 422, 429, 430, 431, 434, 436, 440, 442 and 446. An "S" will be assumed as a prefix before these values if no other letter is specified.

All letters used as prefixes in the Material Grade field are assumed to be upper-case ("A", "B", "C", etc.). If the prefix is entered in lower-case ("a", "b", "c", etc.), it will automatically be converted to upper-case.

Does all this sound a little complicated? Maybe at first it seems a bit overwhelming, but in actual practice it works quite naturally and reduces typing time.

Let's put this default grade information to use in entering our next sample item, 12 Plates, 3/8 x 9 3/16 x 2'-0 3/4, Grade A588. Click Plate or hit Alt-P to specify that a new Plate will be entered. A minor Piece Mark is to be specified by typing p4 [Tab]; be sure to use a lower-case “p.” Type 12 [Tab], 3/8 [Tab], 9 3/16 [Tab] and 2-0 3/4 [Tab].

All fields have now been entered except the Grade. This field is currently assumed to be A36, but we need A588. Type 588, but don’t put an “A” in front of it. Now hit Insert or Alt-O to save the item. As the item appears in the list on the Material Entry Screen, note that the grade of 588 has a prefix of "A." We could have typed it manually, but why bother since the system will assume it automatically?

We have just entered a sample Plate. It is worth noting at this point that Section 5-18: Conversion from Plates to Bars and Section 5-19: Conversion from Bars to Plates provide information on switching items back and forth between Plates and Bars.

Section 4-15: Entry of Bar Grating. When entering Bar Grating, the first field you are prompted for is the bearing bar depth or height. This is the height of the bearing bar as you view the Bar Grating item from the side. The bearing bar width or thickness is the other dimension that describes the bearing bar. There is no need to enter the cross rod or cross bar size, as Structural Material Manager already knows the cross rod or cross bar size from internal “look-up” tables once the bearing bar depth and width are specified. The next field that must be entered for Bar Grating items is the mesh type such as 19-W-4, 15-W-2, etc. that describes how closely bearing bars are placed center-to-center as well as how closely cross rods or cross bars are placed center-to-center. The Bar Grating width must also be specified, and it is the overall width of the item.

Examples of Bar Grating items are 3/4 x 1/8 x 24 19-W-4, 1 x 1/8 x 36 19-W-2, 1 1/4 x 3/16 x 24 19-W-4, etc. These examples illustrate the bearing bar dimensions, overall width and mesh type described above.

The bar grating mesh type is displayed on the entry screen and material printouts only if there is enough room for it to be shown. This compromise is necessary because the bearing bar size, overall Bar Grating width and the mesh type together make for an extremely long description. In most cases, there is room to display the mesh type. However, if the Bar Grating description is too long to permit this, the mesh type is considered to be of the lowest priority and will not be shown. The bearing bar size and the Bar Grating overall width are always displayed.

The dashes that are commonly seen in mesh types such as 19-W-4, 15-W-2, are removed by Structural Material Manager in the interest of conserving space. So, 19-W-4 appears in this system as 19W4.

Let’s now actually enter a sample Bar Grating item, 1 1/4" x 1/8" x 24" x 10'-0 with mesh-type 19-W-4 and quantity 1. Select Bar Grating by clicking that material type button or by hitting Alt-G (where the shortcut “G” stands for Grating). Type BG1 [Tab] using capital letters to enter this Piece Mark as a major mark. Next, type 1 [Tab] for the Quantity field, 1 1/4 [Tab] as the bearing bar depth or height, 1/8 [Tab] as the bearing bar width or thickness. Using either the mouse or keyboard, choose 19W4 from the drop-down Mesh Type list, and hit Tab to move into the Width field. Type 24 [Tab] for the overall width. Now type 10 as the item length. Finally, hit Insert or Alt-O to add this item to the list.

Section 4-16: Gauge Thicknesses (demonstrates Bar entry). Most thickness dimensions entered into Structural Material Manager are in inches. A thickness of 3/4", for instance, would be entered as simply 3/4. However, gauge thicknesses are also valid for Plates, Checkered Plates, Bars and Tubes.

We will now enter a Bar with a gauge thickness. The next item in the sample material list is 8 Bars, 6" x 12 GA x 2'-10 1/2. Click on the Bar button or hit Alt-B to select this material type. No Piece Mark needs entered, so hit Tab to leave that field blank. Now type 8 [Tab] as the Quantity field.

Now for a small point of confusion: the system is now asking for the Bar Width, not the Thickness field as some of you might expect. Actually, standard A.I.S.C. Bar nomenclature uses a Bar format of Width x Thickness, but even many steel catalogs list dimensions as Thickness x Width. We have chosen to follow the A.I.S.C. designation here, so some of you may have to adjust to entering Bars in this format. Type 6 [Tab] as the Width.

Now we will enter the gauge value. Type 12G [Tab]. Note that the "G" lets the system know that you mean 12 Gauge rather than 12 inches.

Type 2-10 ½ as the length, and hit Insert or Alt-O to add the item to the material list.

It is critical that you enter an item as a Bar if you intend it to be a Bar, and as a Plate if you intend it to be a Plate. The system allows you to edit all item fields within an item, but an item's material type cannot be changed once the item is entered (Chapter 5 presents details of editing and deleting items). So, if you enter a list of material as Plate and later decide that it should be designated instead as Bar, then it is not possible to change the type of each item from Plate to Bar. In this example scenario, each Plate item would have to be deleted and re-entered as Bar. It may seem of little consequence whether an item is considered to be a Plate or a Bar, but the Nesting Module makes an important distinction: Bars are lineal items to be cut from stock lengths and Plates are square or rectangular items to be cut from stock sheets. Chapter 10 describes the Nesting Module in detail, but all you need to know for now is that Plates and Bars, which intuitively seem fairly similar, are "apples and oranges" as far as the Nesting Module is concerned.

Note that Bar widths of up to 24" are acceptable. Any item over 24" wide should be entered as Plate.

If you ever need to convert one or more items back and forth between Plates and Bars, refer to the information presented in Section 5-18: Conversion from Plates to Bars and Section 5-19: Conversion from Bars to Plates.

Section 4-17: Entry of Square and Rectangular Tubes. The entry format for Square and Rectangular Tubes is identical to that of Angles except the first two description fields are referred to as Faces rather than Legs.

Type “TS” is used to designate Square and Rectangular Tubes as opposed to type “TR” which you will soon learn refers to Round Tubes.

Let's enter the next item from the sample material list, 5 Square Tubes, 3 ½ x 3 ½ x 5/16 x 6'-0. Either hit Alt-T or click the Sq./Rect. Tube button, and skip over the Piece Mark field by hitting Tab. Type 5 [Tab], 3 ½ [Tab], 3 ½ [Tab], 5/16 [Tab] and 6. Hit Insert or Alt-O to finish the entry.

Just as the case with Angles with unequal Legs, Tubes with unequal Faces should list the larger Face first. For instance, TS 6 x 4 x ½ is proper whereas TX 4 x 6 x ½ is not. Structural Material Manager will automatically switch the order for you if you accidentally specify the smaller Face first.

Section 4-18: Entry of Square and Rectangular HSS. Structural tubes are often referred to as HSS, which stands for Hollow Structural Section. HSS is available in square, rectangular and round sizes. It is the square and rectangular types with which we are concerned here, as these items can be entered as type TS that was described in the previous section.

HSS is often specified in a metric format in Canada, but the metric designations really correspond to Imperial items. It is the Imperial designations that must be used to enter the items into Structural Material Manager, so be sure to specify inches and fractions rather than millimeters.

It is important to note that decimal representations of inches must be avoided. For instance, a metric rectangular HSS item of 254 x 152 x 11 is listed in the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction handbook as corresponding to Imperial size 10 x 6 x 0.438. This would be entered as 10 x 6 x 7/16 with 7/16 replacing the handbook’s 0.438 value.

Section 4-19: Entry of Round Tubes. Round tubes descriptions consist of an outside diameter and a wall thickness, and the material type is designated as type “TR.”

What is special about Round Tubes in contrast to other material types supported by Structural Material Manager is that decimal diameters and decimal wall thicknesses can be specified! Also, many fractions can be entered in 32nds, whereas 16ths are the smallest fractional increments supported for other material types. These deviations are necessary because of the various ways Round Tube dimensions are commonly specified: decimal inches, gauge sizes and fractions containing 32nds, all in addition to the usual fractions involving 16ths that are commonly used in designating other material types.

Three examples of Round Tube sizes are 1 x 15GA, 2 x 0.244 and 7.99 x 1/4. Note in these examples that the outside diameter and wall thickness don’t necessarily have to use the same type of designation, even within a single item’s description. For instance, the outside diameter might be specified with fractions while the wall thickness uses a decimal value, or vice-versa.

Our next line in the sample material list consists of 2 Round Tubes, 1 3/4 Diameter, 0.341 wall X 3'-0. Select Round Tubes by clicking that material type’s button, and skip the Piece Mark field by hitting Tab. Type 2 [Tab] as the quantity. The description is specified by typing 1 3/4 [Tab] and .341 [Tab]. Simply type 3 for the Length field, and hit Insert or Alt-O.

Section 4-20: Entry of Canadian Round HSS. Round Tube, covered in the previous section, can be used to enter Round Hollow Structural Sections - or Round HSS for short - commonly used in Canada.

Most, but not all, of the underlying items correspond to Imperial items which can have their dimensions entered in Imperial using inches and fractions rather than decimals. As an example, a metric Round HSS size 141 x 4.8 is listed in the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction handbook as corresponding to Imperial size 5.562 x 0.188; this would be entered as 9/16 x 3/16 using inches and fractions.

There are some Round HSS sizes with diameters and thicknesses that can’t be expressed in inches and fractions, such as 1.05, 1.315, 1.66, etc. It is acceptable to enter these dimensions in decimal inches as long as there is no Imperial equivalent that can be expressed in inches and fractions. For instance, Round HSS 33 x 2.5 corresponds to Imperial dimensions 1.315 x 0.100. You may enter this as such, since neither the diameter nor the wall thickness can be expressed in inches and fractions. However, HSS 48 X 4.8 is listed in the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction handbook as 1.9 x 0.188 in Imperial measure; the 1.9 diameter cannot be expressed in inches and fractions, so enter it as 1.9; the 0.188 is really 3/16 reported to three decimals as 0.188 rather than its exact value of 0.1875, so enter this part as 3/16.

The above information can be summarized by this general rule for entering Round HSS: If you can enter a value in inches and fractions, do so, keeping in mind that some figures DO correspond to fractions even though rounding to 3 decimal places in the CISC handbook may make it seem as if they do not. When you can’t express a number in inches and fractions, try decimal inches.

Section 4-21: Entry of Rods. Rod entry is very simple because there is one only description field needed: the Diameter field.

We'll now enter 5 Rods, 1 1/2" Diameter x 3'-0. Click the Rod button, or hit Alt-R. Skip over the Piece Mark with a single hit of the Tab key. Now type 5 [Tab], 1 ½ [Tab] and 3. Hit Insert or Alt-O, and the item will be added to the material list.

Section 4-22: Entry of Rebar. Non-typists will enjoy entering Rebar since it requires very little keyboard work. This is because there is only one description field, the Diameter, and since this field only has 12 possible sizes, the system can simply list them and have you select the size you want.

Consider the next example item of 3 Rebars, #3 x 2'-0. Click the Rebar button, hit Tab to skip over the Piece Mark field, and type 3 [Tab] for the Quantity field. The possible sizes are loaded into a drop-down box; "#3" is needed, so this size can be chosen with the mouse or keyboard. Tab into the Length field, and type 2. Hit Insert or Alt-O to finish the entry.

Section 4-23: Entry of Pipes. Pipe descriptions consist of a Diameter and a Strength. The Diameter is entered in inches, and the strength is easily selected by simply selecting the proper one from a list.

We will now enter 3 Pipes, 4" Schedule 40, 6'-0. Start by clicking the Pipe button or by hitting Alt-i. Note that this keyboard shortcut of Alt-i is one that does not start with the first letter of the word Pipe but, rather, the second letter. After using Tab to move past the Piece Mark field, type 3 [Tab] and 4 [Tab].

The system now lists available Pipe Strengths. You'll notice the first three "Std.", "XS" and "XXS" are different from the others; they represent "STANDARD", "EXTRA-STRONG" and "DOUBLE-EXTRA-STRONG", respectively. The remaining strengths are Schedules, such as 40 and 80. Schedule 40 is needed here, so select it with the mouse or keyboard.

Section 4-24: Entry of Bolts. Bolts are very simple to enter in much the same format as Rebar: there's only one description field and it can be quickly selected from a list.

Let's add 18 Bolts, 7/8" Diameter A307, 0'-2 ½ to the material list. Click the Shop Bolt button, and hit Tab to skip over the Piece Mark. Type 18 [Tab] as the Quantity field.

The Bolt Diameter of 7/8 can now be selected with the mouse or keyboard. Hit Tab after selecting the proper size. Now type -2 ½ noting that no leading "0" is needed to indicate that there are no feet in this length. Hit Insert or Alt-O to finish the Bolt entry.

Section 4-25: Entry of Miscellaneous Items. Miscellaneous Items are essentially a catch-all material type for items that are not directly supported by the system, such as Guy Wire, Crane Rail, etc. These items are just like any others, except they have a "free-style" Description field and do not have a Remarks field.

The next example in the sample material list is 2 Crane Rails, 39'-0, 85 pounds per foot. Click the Misc. Item button. Hit Tab to skip past the Piece Mark field, and type 2 [Tab] as the Quantity. Next, type Crane Rails [Tab]. Type the length as 39 and hit Tab. You are now prompted for the weight of this item; respond with 3315, which is 39'-0 multiplied by 85 pounds per foot since this example item is assumed to be an 85-pound-per-foot crane rail. Hit Insert or Alt-O to add the Miscellaneous Item to the list.

Note that up to 24 characters may be entered as a Miscellaneous Item Description field. Also, you should be aware of the fact that the Length, Grade and Weight fields are completely optional for these items.

Section 4-26: Entry of Main Members. The Main Member material type is intended for placing shipping headings in a list. These items have Piece Mark, Quantity, Heading and Price fields.

Note that the Piece Mark field must always contain capital letters; no lower-case letters are accepted. This is necessary because of the manner in which the Shipping Lists operate; this is explained in detail in Chapter 8: Production-Control.

Main members are useful for a type of estimating called "Unit Pricing." This type of estimating is described in Chapter 9: The Estimating Module.

We will now enter a sample Main Member of "F1 1 FRAME ASSEMBLY." Click the Main Member button. Next, type F1 [Tab] and 1 [Tab]. Type FRAME ASSEMBLY, and hit Insert or Alt-O to complete the entry.

Section 4-27: Exiting from the Material Entry Screen. There is no real need to exit from the Material Entry Screen, as it basically serves as Structural Material Manager’s main Window now appears. If you wish, however, you can select File | Close to close the current job; this disables the Material Entry Screen until another job is opened.

Section 4-28: Exiting from the System. If you plan to continue in this manual at some other time instead of going directly on to Chapter 5, you may wish to exit from the system. To do this, simply select the Exit item in the File menu.

Section 5-1: Introduction. Chapter 4 presented a lot of basic information to teach you how to enter items into Structural Material Manager. In many cases, there were faster ways the material could have been entered, but we did not want to overwhelm you with the "tricks of the trade" before the basics had been mastered.

This chapter first discusses inserting, editing and deleting items and then goes on to show you many ways to reduce entry time. While some of these concepts may seem trivial in that each may save only one or two keystrokes per entry, this can really add up to a significant time savings with a long material list.

We’ll assume here that you have Structural Material Manager up and running, have re-opened the sample job as discussed in Section 4-3: Opening and Closing Jobs.

Section 5-2: Inserting Items in the List. All items entered up to this point have been added to the end of the list. It is also possible to insert new items in the middle of the list rather than just add them to the end.

To the left of the various material type buttons, the Material Entry Screen shows a list of (3) radio buttons that provide these options:

Since any new item is always added relative to the current selection, you must be able to move the list up and down to make that selection and thus change the point in the list where the item will be inserted. The up-arrow, down-arrow, PAGE UP, PAGE DOWN, HOME and END keys all move the list. Here is a summary of their actions:

Key	Action
Up-Arrow	Moves one item closer to the first item in the list.
Down-Arrow	Moves one item closer to the last item in the list.
Page Up	Moves one screen closer to the first item in the list.
Page Down	Moves one screen closer to the last item in the list.
Home	Jumps instantly to the beginning of the list.
End	Jumps instantly to the end of the list.

Experiment with these six keys at this time to get a feel for the types of list movements they cause. In order to use these keys, you may first have to click the mouse somewhere inside the material list display. That provides the list with what is referred to as “input focus” in Windows parlance, and it simply means that among all the various parts of the Material Entry Screen, it is the material list display itself that is ready to accept keystrokes. If the selected items in the material list appear in a dark blue background, then the list already has input focus and is ready to accept keystrokes. If, however, the selection appears gray, a click in the list is needed to focus it.

Let's insert 1 W Shape, 12 x 58 x 10'-0 as the second item in the list; that is, we only want one item to be above it. Before we insert the item, the list must be properly positioned. First, focus the list as per the discussion above; just click the mouse somewhere in the list. Once the list has input focus, one way to get to the second item position is to click HOME and then the hit down-arrow. Now you'll notice that the 2^nd material item is highlighted; it is the selected item relative to which list additions will be positioned.

For purposes of this example, click the radio button corresponding to “Insert above currently-selected item(s).”

Select the W Shapes for entry by clicking the W Shape button or hitting Alt-W. Skip the Piece Mark field with the Tab key, and type 1 [Tab], 12 [Tab], 58 [Tab], 10. Hit Insert or Alt-O, and notice that the item has been inserted as the second one in the list.

Astute readers may have noticed that a slightly faster technique could have been used to make the new item become the 2^nd one in the list, and we’ll use it now in entering 5 Channels, 10 x 30 x 10'-9 7/16. Focus the list with a single click, and hit Home as we did before. This time, however, do not bother hitting the down arrow; just leave the 1^st item selected. Click the radio button corresponding for the “Insert below currently-selected item(s)” option. Select the Channels for entry by clicking the C Shape button or hitting Atl-C. Skip over the Piece Mark field by hitting Tab, and type 5 [Tab], 10 [Tab] and 30 [Tab]. Type 10-9 7/16, and hit Insert or Alt-O to add the Channel to the list. Note that it has become the 2^nd item in the list.

For purposes of the sample material list being entered over the course of Chapter 4 and Chapter 5, please click the “Add to end of list” radio button at this time. That will cancel the “Insert above currently-selected item(s)” setting we just used and guarantee that further sample items will be added at the bottom of the material list.

One final word is in order concerning your ability to insert above the current selection, below the current selection, or at the end of the list. Inserting at the end of the list is intuitive; you always know where the item will be added. When there is only one selected item, inserting above the current selection and inserting below it are also intuitive. However, what if multiple items are selected, and you are inserting above or below the current selection? Where will the new item be inserted? Here’s how ths works: if you are inserting above the current selection, the new item will be placed above the topmost item in the current selection. When inserting below the current selection, the new item gets inserted below the bottommost item in the current selection. So, if you stop and think about, even these cases really are intuitive.

Section 5-3: Editing Items. Structural Material Manager allows you to easily edit items without retyping them. Let's edit one of the sample material list items that was previously entered: 5 Rods, 1 1/2" Diameter x 3'-0. The Quantity field will be changed from 5 to 6.

Perhaps the quickest way to bring up an item for editing is to double-click it in the material list. The material line is which we are interested is 5 Rods, 1 1/2" Diameter x 3'-0. Double-click the line at this time.

Notice that the edit dialog is exactly like the dialog at which new items are added to the list with one important exception: the data fields already contain the information for the item that is being edited.

Double-click the Quantity field. The double-click instantly selects the 5 contained in that field, so as you type 6 as the new value, the 5 is replaced. Hit Insert or Alt-O to save your changes to this item.

As mentioned, double-clicking an item is probably the easiest way to edit it. However, other techniques can also be used. You could right-click the desired item and then select Edit Selected Item from the pop-up menu that appears. Another way is to select the item and then click the Edit Selected Item button at the lower left corner of the Material Entry Screen. The final method is to select the item, and hit the F2 key; the F2 key is provided for veteran Structural Material Manager users who are used to that keystroke from earlier editions of the software.

Structural Material Manager supports the concept of multiple selections in that more than one material list item can be selected at once, even if those items are not adjacent in the list. While this powerful feature is useful for operations covered later in this chapter, such as copying multiple items to the clipboard or deleting more than one item at a time, it does not help with editing. You can only edit one item at a time. Double-clicking a multiple selection to invoke the edit mode makes that selection revert to a single-item selection, and only the item immediately beneath the mouse pointer is edited. If you right-click a multiple selection, you’ll notice that the “Edit Selected Item” option is disabled in the pop-up menu.

There is no way to edit an item’s material type. That is “fixed” at the time the item is added to the material list and cannot be changed later. Supposing you want to change a Plate to a Bar, for example, you would add a new Bar entry and then delete the original Plate item. Item deletions are covered in the next section.

Section 5-4: Deleting Items. You will sometimes need to delete items from the material list. We will now delete the item 5 C Shapes, 10 x 30 x 10'-9 7/16. One way to delete it is to locate it in the material list, click it once with the mouse to select it, right click it with the mouse, and select the Delete Selected Item(s) option in the pop-up menu. You are of course asked for confirmation before any items are deleted.

A pop-up menu was used in the preceding paragraph to select the Delete option, and that is a fairly efficient way to get the job done since you can select the item with the mouse and then immediately right-click the item while still holding the mouse. However, there are other ways to delete items assuming you’ve already made the selection. For instance, you can simply hit Delete on the keyboard. Another way is to click Structural Material Manager’s Delete Selected Item(s) button which is located at the lower left corner of the Material Entry Screen. Hitting the F3 key also deletes items; this is a throwback to earlier Structural Material Manager versions and is still supported since literally thousands of thousands of Structural Material Manager users have grown accustomed to that keystroke over the years.

Although the entry screen allows you to edit only one item at a time, multiple deletions can be performed simultaneously. Since true multiple selections are supported - not just simple "range" selections in which all the selected lines are contiguous - you can select perhaps the 5th, 11th and 99th items and then delete them all from the list at once.

Perhaps not all Windows users know how to make multiple selections. While the subject of making multiple selections under Windows is not directly related to deleting items, this knowledge will certainly help you efficiently delete them.

Multiple selections involve the concepts of Shift-clicking and Ctrl-clicking. What this means is that you make an initial selection with the keyboard or mouse, press and hold either Shift or Ctrl, and continue selecting items. Shift or Ctrl is released when you are done making the selection. Shift-clicking is used to select a continuous range of items, and Ctrl-clicking allows you to select multiple, non-contiguous items.

Note that Ctrl-clicking an item toggles its selected state. That is, if the item is already selected, and you Ctrl-click it, it will now be deselected. The reverse is also true. So, Ctrl-clicking is a very powerful technique when making multiple selections.

Suppose you want to delete the majority of items in a list. It probably makes the most sense to first select the entire list, and later deselect certain items. There are several ways to select all items in the list. After clicking with the mouse anywhere in the material list to give the list “input focus,” you can hit Ctrl-A to select all items. Another way is to right-click anywhere in the list, and choose the Select All Items item in the pop-up menu. Yet another way is to click Structural Material Manager’s Select All Items button located just above the material list. Regardless of how you select the entire list, you can then use the technique of Ctrl-clicking to deselect certain items that are to remain in the material list. Invoke the “Delete Selected Item(s)” function using the method of your choice when you are done making the selection.

If you are not familiar with the concepts of Shift-clicking and Ctrl-clicking, go ahead and experiment with any Structural Material Manager material list. Of course you don’t need to actually carry out the deletion of the items, but try some different selections.

Section 5-5: Repeatedly Entering Items of the Same Type. Any time you enter an item of a certain material type, that material type’s button becomes “focused.” That means that you can simply hit Enter to add another item of that type to the list. There is no need to click the material type’s button to use it successively.

For example, suppose you are entering a list solely containing Angles without any other material types. Click the Angle button or hit Alt-L to bring up the Add New Angle dialog. After you add that first Angle to the list, the Angle button has the input focus by default, and hitting Enter immediately brings up the Add New Angle dialog again. After each Angle is added, just hit Enter again to bring up the dialog for the next one.

This tip leads to a small time savings per item, and it can really add up over the course of a long material list comprised mostly of one material type. Given a list of mixed types, it is not beneficial.

Section 5-6: Cut, Copy and Paste Operations with the Clipboard. Clipboard operations for Cut, Copy and Paste are available. These functions are not intended for transferring data from other applications such as word processors and spreadsheets to Structural Material Manager. Rather, they are used for manipulating material lines within a Structural Material Manager job or even between different jobs.

In order to make full use of cut, copy and paste operations, you need to understand how multiple selections work under Windows. That info was presented as an aside in a previous section on deleting items.

Let’s discuss the Copy to Clipboard function first. With some items selected in the material list, you can click the Copy Selected Item(s) to Clipboard button, right-click the selection and click the Copy Selected Item(s) to Clipboard pop-up menu item, or simply hit Ctrl-C. Any of these methods will achieve the same result, and you can then paste the clipboard item(s) into the list.

Cutting can be done with the Ctrl-X shortcut, by clicking the Cut Selected Item(s) to Clipboard button or by right-clicking the list and choosing Cut Selected Item(s) to Clipboard in the pop-up menu. Cutting to the clipboard differs from copying to it in that the items are deleted from the material list as they are cut from it.

Since cutting deletes items, this of course leads to the possibility of items being lost if you cut them and forget to paste them back into the list, but Structural Material Manager goes to great lengths to protect you against such a mistake. The system knows when the clipboard contains cut items that have not yet been pasted back into the material list. If such cut items are on the clipboard, you will be warned before doing any further cut or copy operations, as each time you cut or copy items to the clipboard, the existing clipboard contents are replaced by the new item(s). The warning dialog will protect you not only in this case but also if you try to exit Structural Material Manager while cut items that have not yet been pasted are still on the clipboard.

Pasting is done by clicking the Paste Clipboard at Insertion Point button, or you can use the Ctrl-V key combination. It is important to click the radio button corresponding to “Insert above currently-selected item(s),” “Insert below currently-selected item(s),” or “Add to end of list” before you paste the items, as those radio buttons determine where in the material list the items will be pasted.

When a single item is on the clipboard, a Paste operation always brings up the usual Add New Item dialog. That dialog appears with the item fields pre-loaded with the values from the clipboard item. In this way, you can make changes to one or more of the fields if you care to, or simply hit Insert or Alt-O to quickly paste the item into the list as-is.

If two or more items are on the clipboard, Structural Material Manager will ask whether you want to review each one before it is pasted or if you prefer to automatically paste all of the items into the list without review.

A paste operation does not clear the contents of the clipboard. Once items are on the clipboard, they can be pasted as many times as you like without having to re-cut or re-copy them to the clipboard. The items will remain on the clipboard until some other items are cut or copied to it or until you exit Structural Material Manager.

The clipboard contents are lost when you exit the Structural Material Manager program but not when you simply close a job or open a new one. The fact that Structural Material Manager maintains the item clipboard between jobs can be very useful. For instance, suppose you open a job and cut or copy the 3rd, 9th and 12th material line to the clipboard; you can then paste those lines somewhere within that job or open a different job into which the items can be pasted.

Section 5-7: Using the Copy to Clipboard Feature for Repetitive Lists. An earlier section discussed the situation of repeatedly entering items of the same type (perhaps all W Shapes). This section concerns lists that have a lot of items that are basically identical but have different Quantity and/or Length fields; not only are they of the same material type, but their descriptions and most other fields remain consistent.

The “Copy to Clipboard” feature presented in the last section elegantly handles this case, as it allows you to make the last item entered serve as a starting point for the next item to be entered. This means you only need to edit the field or fields that is/are different in each subsequent item instead of constantly retyping the entire item.

Let’s assume that 6 Channels, 10 x 30 x 8'-9 3/4, Piece Mark "1C1" was the last item entered and that a lot of similar C 10 x 30 items are being entered. Click the 6 Channels, 10 x 30 x 8'-9 3/4, Piece Mark "1C1" item once to select it. Now, click the Copy Selected Item(s) to Clipboard button. Click Paste at Insertion Point, and the Add New C Shape dialog comes up with the data fields pre-loaded for the copied Channel. Delete the 1C1 Piece Mark, hit Tab to get into the Quantity field, and type 19 [Tab]. Hit Tab twice more to move the Length field, and type 6-8 7/16 before hitting Insert or Alt-O. Notice that the item has been added to the list as a slightly modified copy of the previous one.

We’ll stop there after adding one slightly modified copy of the item. However, we could just as easily keep pasting more copies since the original item remains on the clipboard even after it - or a modified copy of it - has been pasted into the list.

We just used the Copy to Clipboard feature to get a copy of the last item entered. Of course, the same technique applies not only to the last-entered item but for items that were previously inserted anywhere in the list. For instance, 1 W Shape, 12 x 58 x 10'-0 is an item that was entered earlier in the sample material list. Find that item in the list, and click it once to select it. Click Copy Selected Item(s) to Clipboard, and then click Paste at Insertion Point. Immediately hit Insert or Alt-O to accept this new item as-is, and we have another copy of 1 W Shape, 12 x 58 x 10'-0 in the list. Although we chose to make an identical copy of the item in this example, keep in mind that you could easily make changes to the item before inserting it as was done in the previous example.

Section 5-8: Copying Items by Piece Mark to Clipboard. While the Copy Selected Item(s) to Clipboard function is useful when you need a copy of an item that you can easily locate in the material list, Copy by Piece Mark to Clipboard is better suited to cases where you need a copy of an item with a certain piece mark.

Let's now try this feature. One way to do so is to click the Copy by Piece Mark button which is located in the Clipboard Operations group of buttons. Another way is to right-click the material list and then select the Copy by Piece Mark to Clipboard option that appears in the pop-up menu. Users who are familiar with the classic keystrokes of older Structural Material Manager systems will glad to know that the F6 key can also be used as a shortcut to the Copy by Piece Mark function.

Regardless of which way you chose to invoke the Copy by Piece Mark function, you are prompted to enter a piece mark. Type a4 which is the piece mark of one of the items in our sample material list. Hit Enter or click the Ok button, and the system immediately copies the a4 item to the clipboard. A confirmation message that item a4 is now available on the clipboard appears; hit Enter or click the Ok button to clear the message. Next, click Paste at Insertion Point, and the Add New Item dialog appears with all of the a4 item’s fields pre-loaded. The information from that item can then be changed or used as-is. We will change the Quantity field from 24 to 1 before inserting the copied item in the list, so hit Tab once to move from the Piece Mark field to the Quantity field. Type 1, and hit Insert or Alt-O to accept the item.

In cases where the same mark appears more than once in a list, this feature will retrieve the occurrence of the Piece Mark that is closest to the top of the material list (in other words, the first one found).

Blank search marks are not permitted. If a blank search mark is specified, the system will simply ask you to enter the mark again.

Section 5-9: Quickly Selecting Items in a Drop-Down List. Structural Material Manager allows you to simply select information from a drop-down list when feasible. This applies when specifying:

Many users will undoubtedly use the mouse to make selections in such drop-down lists. However, reaching for the mouse interrupts typing and wastes a lot of time. Structural Material Manager has thus been carefully designed so that typists who prefer to use the mouse only when necessary can quickly make drop-down list selections using the keyboard.

The idea is to use the Tab key to move into the drop-down list from the entry field before it, make your list selection with the up- and down-arrows, and hit Tab to move out of the drop-down list and into the next field. This eliminates times that would have been wasted in switching between the keyboard and mouse!

The next item that will be entered from the sample material list is 2 Rebars, #7 x 3'-4. Go ahead and select the Rebar type for entry by clicking the Rebar button. Skip the Piece Mark field by hitting Tab, and type 2 [Tab].

Here you are faced with a drop-down list for quick entry. Experiment with the up- and down-arrow keys to see what happens, but don’t reach for the mouse. Use the arrow keys to scroll to 7, and hit Tab to move to the Length field.

Section 5-10: Quicker Methods of Entering Lengths. There are a several short-cuts that can be taken when entering lengths that will help to save keystrokes.

Either the apostrophe (') or the dash (-) in a length is actually optional. Although both of these characters may be entered, only one is really needed to denote the end of the feet part of a length. You generally will want to use just the dash rather than the apostrophe, as it can be easily hit on the computer's numeric keypad.

Another time-savings occurs when you must enter a whole-number length such as 10'-0. You do not need to type the "'-0" part of that entry; although 10'-0 or 10-0 could be specified, just typing 10 is much quicker.

When a length contains only inches, there is no need to type "0'-" to indicate the absence of feet. For example, a Bolt length of 2 1/2" could be entered as 0'-2 ½ or 0-2 1/2, but -2 ½ is a faster alternative.

Section 5-11: Saving One Keystroke on Each Item. In all item-entry examples, including those presented in the previous chapter, we have hit the Tab key after every item field except the last one. For instance, if a certain sample W Shape requires Piece Mark, Quantity, Depth, Weight and Length fields to be entered, we hit Tab after typing each of the Piece Mark, Quantity, Depth and Weight fields but not after typing the Length.

There is no problem with hitting Tab after the last item field you type, and doing so might almost come naturally as you get into the habit of hitting it after all the preceding fields. However, to do so does waste one keystroke for each item and should be avoided.

Consider the next sample material list item of 2 W Shapes, 10 x 54 x 3'-0. Click the W Shape button, and skip over the Piece Mark field by hitting Tab. Type 2 [Tab], 10 [Tab] and 54 [Tab]. Next, type 3 as the Length field, but do not hit Tab. Just hit Insert or Alt-O, and note that the item is accepted without need for hitting Tab at the last field.

Section 5-12: Changing Default Material Grades. As mentioned in Chapter 4, four sets of possible default grades exist: U.S. defaults, Canadian defaults, Multi-Cert defaults and user-defined defaults. This section explains how the default grade set is changed.

Before proceeding, you may wish to refer back to Chapter 4 briefly. That chapter contains a section that discusses the composition of a legal grade field as well as many technicalities concerning material grades.

The following steps demonstrate the manner in which the default grades are changed:

A) Open a job, and click the Set Default Grades button which is located just above the material list. All material types and their corresponding default grades are instantly listed.

B) Notice the buttons at the right side of the dialog; they are labeled “Load U.S. Defaults,” “Load Canadian Defaults,” and “Load Multi-Cert Defaults.” Clicking any of these buttons will immediately institute the corresponding set of grades.

C) Whereas the buttons described above change the default grades for all material types at once, you are also free to modify the defaults for individual types as well. Simply click on the grade you wish to change, and type the grade that should become the default for this type.

D) When ready to quit changing grades, click Ok. Any changes you have made to the default grades will now apply to this particular job. Even if you exit completely from the system and delay further entry of items for this job until another day, the new defaults will automatically apply to this job.

E) If you did not change any grades, clicking Ok in the previous step would instantly cause the Material Entry Screen to be displayed. If, however, you did make some changes, then you are asked whether these changes should apply system-wide. As already noted, the changes automatically apply to this particular job, but this prompt is asking whether you also want them to apply to all other jobs that do not already have existing customized defaults. If you respond by clicking No, the scope of the changes is limited to only this job. Clicking Yes causes other jobs to receive these changes as well, but only those jobs for which a user has not explicitly made default grade changes in the past. The fact that existing custom defaults will not be overwritten is an important one, as it gives you the freedom to answer "yes" to this question without fear of destroying defaults that may have previously been painstakingly set up for some other job.

Section 5-13: Repeating the Previous Entry. Some material lists involve line after line of similar items. When entering such lists, Structural Material Manager’s Repeat Previous Entry function should be used. While not effective if the list is somewhat random - say a W Shape followed by a Plate followed by an Angle - the Repeat Previous Entry function can be quite a time saver if the list has perhaps 10 Angles one after another. It causes a new entry to be started, and the previous entry is used as a template for the new one.

The Repeat Previous Entry function can be invoked in any one of (3) ways. The first way is to click the Repeat Previous Entry button; it appears right after the Main Member material type’s button. Another way is to right-click the material list display and then select Repeat Previous Entry from the pop-up menu that appears. The final way is throwback to Structural Material Manager’s earlier days and is provided as a convenience to veteran users familiar with the system’s classic keystrokes: simply hit the F5 key.

Suppose you edit an item. Once the edit is complete, that edited item is the one remembered by the Repeat Previous Entry function.

The Repeat Previous Entry function is of course only available if you have entered or edited at least one item since the Structural Material Manager application was opened. As soon as you have done an entry or edit, the function is enabled, and it stays so until the Structural Material Manager is closed. That is true even if you close the current job and open a new one. As long as Structural Material Manager was not shut down in between closing one job and opening another, the Repeat Previous Entry function will remain available. As you begin working in the new job, the last entry or edit done in the job that was just closed is the one that will be remembered.

The Copy by Piece Mark function is covered elsewhere in this chapter. Copy by Piece Mark uses Structural Material Manager’s internal clipboard and thus affects the clipboard’s contents. In contrast, the Repeat Previous Entry function presented in this section does not rely on the clipboard and does not alter its contents in any way.

Section 5-14: Generating Instant Fractions. Although fractions such as 13/16 can be entered manually, Structural Material Manager actually provides a way to generate any fraction from 1/16 through 15/16 instantly from the function keys. Here is a table of the function keys and their corresponding fractions:

Key Combination	Instant Fraction
Shift-F1	1/16
Shift-F2	1/8
Shift-F3	3/16
Shift-F4	1/4
Shift-F5	5/16
Shift-F6	3/8
Shift-F7	7/16
Shift-F8	1/2
Shift-F9	9/16
Shift-F10	5/8
Shift-F11	11/16
Shift-F12	3/4
Ctrl-F3	13/16
Ctrl-F4	7/8
Ctrl-F5	15/16

As you might have noticed, the number of the function key corresponds to the number of 16ths in the fraction. For example, Shift-F3 produces 3/16. This takes a bit of mental conversion when dealing with fractions that are not expressed directly in 16ths, such as ½ which is the same as 8/16 and is thus produced by Shift-F8.

Since PC-compatible computers have 12 function keys rather than 15, there are not enough function keys to cover the full range of fractions from 1/16 through 15/16. Accordingly, fractions larger than 3/4 begin with the Ctrl key instead of the Shift key. Thus, Ctrl-F3 produces 13/16.

Although not shown in the table above, Ctrl-F1 produces 11/16, and Ctrl-F2 produces 3/4. Since these two key combinations duplicate the functionality of Shift-F1 and Shift-F2, respectively, they will probably receive little use. They can be utilized if you wish and are mentioned here for the sake of completeness.

Not only is the fraction itself produced by the instant fraction keys, but a leading space is also generated. That is, pressing Shift-F11 is the really the equivalent of hitting the spacebar followed by 11/16. The leading space is useful in cases in which the fraction follows a whole number, say in 5 3/4, for example. Sticking with that example, you just hit 5 followed by Shift-F12 to produce the entire 5 3/4 value including the space between the 5 and 3/4.

If you are used to thinking of ½ as actually being 8/16, this feature will be a tremendous time-saver and will probably become second-nature to you. If this whole discussion sounds confusing, you can do one of two things: 1) pretend you never read this and don't worry about it, or 2) place a "cheat-sheet" near the function keys to act as a reference as to which key produces which fraction.

Section 5-15: User-Defined Function Keys. This system has a special feature that allows the key-combinations Alt-F1 through Alt-F12 to be defined by the user. Up to 15 characters may be specified for each of these keys. The result is that a large string of letters and/or digits may be entered at once by simply holding down the Alt key and hitting a key from F1 to F12.

The ability to give these normally-blank keys your own custom values can be a great time saver in cases where a material list contains many items with identical fields. For instance, suppose that many items in a given list have the same Remarks field of "Galvanized." This note could be consolidated onto the Alt-F1 key combination; after that, holding down Alt and hitting F1 would produce the entire word "Galvanized."

Whenever a new job is created, the Alt-F1 through Alt-F12 key combinations are blank; they take on values only when the user defines them. Use the following procedure to re-define the Alt-F1 through Alt-F12 key combinations:

A) Open a job, and click the Material List | Define Alt-Function Keys menu items.

B) The User-Defined Function Keys dialog lists key combinations Alt-F1 through Alt-F12 on the in a column on the left and their corresponding values in the right-hand column. If the key combination is currently blank, “(no value assigned)” is listed. You can assign a new value by simply clicking on the existing value with a single click of the mouse and typing the new text. As mentioned earlier, up to 15 characters can be specified.

C) After making all changes, click Ok to close the User-Defined Function Keys dialog. As the dialog closes, the key values are stored internally with the currently-open job’s information. This allows those same values to be automatically loaded the next time the job is opened, thus eliminating any need for redefining the keys every time a previous job is used.

Section 5-16: Decimal Lengths and Widths. The Length field for all items and the Width field for Plates, Checkered Plates, Bar Grating and Bars can optionally be entered using a decimal format. If that is done, rounding to the nearest sixteenth of an inch will be done for English / Imperial jobs, and rounding to the nearest millimeter will occur for metric jobs. See Chapter 16: Inches and Metric Dimension Formats for information concerning the different dimension systems that Structural Material Manager supports.

"4/5" rounding is the traditional rounding scheme with which most of us are familiar, and it is used to round decimal Lengths and Widths. It rounds a digit upward if the number to its left is 5 or higher; the digit is left unchanged if the number to its left is 4 or lower.

Rounding is completely straightforward for metric jobs, as the millimeters simply round to nearest whole number. For example, a Length of 35.6756 rounds to 36 mm in a metric job.

A bit of explanation is in order concerning decimal rounding for jobs that express lengths in feet, inches and fractions or just inches and fractions. The important concept to consider for those jobs is that rounding is done after conversion to sixteenths of an inch, and it is done to the nearest sixteenth. Consider a decimal Length of 35.6756 feet. That converts internally to 6849.7152 sixteenths which then rounds to 6850 sixteenths yielding 35'-8 1/8 as the final length.

That same 35.6756 decimal entry should now be examined as a Length in an inches and fractions job. Here 35.6756 inches equates to 570.8096 sixteenths. The rounded value of 571 sixteenths is then used to arrive at a final Length of 35 11/16".

Decimal support is provided merely as an entry convenience for the Length and Width fields. The decimal entry is not actually stored internally by Structural Material Manager. Only the rounded equivalent is maintained, and it is that value - not the original decimal entry - that will appear both at the material entry screen and on material reports.

Section 5-17: Support for Digital Plan Measures. When estimating steel jobs, you are typically working off of printed drawings and are not provided with CAD files. Without access to such CAD files, you cannot simply use Structural Material Manager's optional External Data Interface to import the bills of material needed for the estimate.

Any item lengths that appear on the drawings can of course be typed into Structural Material Manager as-is. In lieu of having CAD files that can be imported, hand-entering printed lengths is the quickest and most accurate way to input them.

Whereas some lengths appear on plans, it is usually the case that not all of the lengths that you need are actually printed on the drawings. Unknown lengths thus must be approximated based on measurements made on the scaled drawings.

Some companies make digital plan measures that make it easy to determine unknown lengths from drawings. These are rolling tools that are used by selecting a scale factor to match the plan and rolling the tool along the distance to be measured. Although an LCD display built right into the device shows the measured length, a far more effective way to work is with an optional PC interface kit that sends that length to the current input area of any Windows application. In terms of using such a tool with Structural Material Manager, you would have the material entry screen ready to input the Length field (i.e., the Length field would be "focused" with the blinking cursor located there) before rolling the digital measure. The measurement sent by the device then appears in Structural Material Manager's Length field.

Digital plan measures typically send values in a decimal format (such as 7.5625) rather than the more traditional format of feet, inches and fractions (such as 7'-6 3/4 in keeping with this 7.5625 example). That is no problem, as Structural Material Manager can accept lengths in either format. Section 5-16 discusses the manner in which Structural Material Manager rounds decimal length values to the nearest sixteenth of an inch for English / Imperial jobs or the nearest millimeter for metric jobs.

Calculated Industries (http://www.calculated.com) makes the Scale Master II in both standalone and PC-connected versions. Their Scale Master II PC Combo Kit (Model # 6325, list price $149.95) comes with both the Scale Master II plan measure and the necessary components to wire it to your PC's USB port.

Scalex Corporation (http://www.scalex.com) produces digital measuring tools known as PlanWheel and Scale-Link. More so than a standalone PlanWheel, their Scale-Link USB2 kit (list price $124.95) is the combo that would be of interest to many Structural Material Manager users since it includes both a digital measure and the components needed to wire it to your PC via a USB port. They even make a $200-$300 version of the Scale-Link that interfaces to your PC wirelessly.

E.J.E. Industries, Inc. is in no way related to Calculated Industries or Scalex and earns no commissions from them. We merely refer you to these third parties because their digital plan measures are able to be effectively used in conjunction with the E.J.E. Industries Structural Material Manager system.

Section 5-18: Conversion from Plates to Bars. Material lists sometimes specify items as Plates that would be better treated as Bars instead. This has ramifications when nesting and ordering material. For instance, if the list specifies an item as Plate, that item will be cut from sheet stock by the Plate-Nesting Module. If you actually intend the item to be cut from a stock length by the Length-Nesting Module, then that item must be considered as a Bar instead of a Plate. Structural Material Manager contains a "Convert Plates to Bars" function that allows you to easily make the change.

The "Convert Plates to Bars" function is selected at the Material Entry Screen. With a job open and its items displayed at that screen, click the Material List menu in order to find the "Convert Plates to Bars" function.

A maximum width for conversion to Bar can be specified so that Plates that are too wide to be considered Bars are automatically left as Plates. That maximum width is referred to as the Threshold Width, and it defaults to 12" for English jobs or 305 mm for metric jobs. Those defaults serve nicely since most users want items 12" wide and less to be considered as Bars, but you are of course free to override the defaults. Plates with widths less than or equal to your specified Threshold Width are converted to Bars, and other Plates are left as-is.

Radio buttons at the "Convert Plates to Bars" dialog allow you to tell the system whether it should perform the conversion on the entire material list or just the currently-selected items. If you intend to apply the conversion only to selected items, it is important that you make that selection before invoking the "Convert Plates to Bars" function.

Multiple item selections are supported in Structural Material Manager, and they can be very powerful when used in conjunction with the "Convert Plates to Bars" function. If you are not familiar with how to make multiple selections using the Shift and Ctrl keys, please refer to Section 3-2: Instructional Notation which briefly covers the required techniques.

Don't worry if a multiple item selection includes non-Plate and non-Bar items such as W Shapes, Angles, Rods, etc. Those items which obviously have no bearing on the "Convert Plates to Bars" function will simply be ignored as if they were not even selected. This feature makes it much easier to build a multiple item selection since you do not have to bother painstakingly de-selecting non-Plate and non-Bar items.

Section 5-19: Conversion from Bars to Plates. A reciprocal function to "Convert Plates to Bars" covered in the previous section also exists: "Convert Bars to Plates." This feature works in much the same manner as "Convert Plates to Bars" except that the Threshold Width is treated differently. When converting Plates to Bars, any items less than or equal to the specified Threshold Width are converted. When converting Bars to Plates, items greater than or equal to the Threshold Width get converted.

It is uncommon for material lists to accidentally specify material items as Bars that would be better treated as Plates instead. Normally, if an item is specified as a Bar, it should indeed be a Bar. You may then wonder why the "Convert Bars to Plates" function even exists. The answer is that the function serves mainly as a way to quickly reverse any unintended effects of the corresponding "Convert Plates to Bars" function. Suppose that you accidentally used "Convert Plates to Bars" to convert all Plates less than or equal to a Threshold Width of 15" when you actually intended to use a Threshold Width of 12". No problem: simply tell the "Convert Bars to Plates" function to convert all Bars with widths greater than or equal to 12 1/16".

Note that default Threshold Width is 12 1/16" for English jobs or 306 mm for metric jobs when converting from Bars to Plates. The system deliberately uses defaults very slightly larger than the 12" and 305 mm defaults that apply when converting in the opposite direction.

Section 6-1: Introduction. Various material printouts are available in such forms as unsorted, shipping, sorted, estimating, nested, etc. The Unsorted Report is the only one that will actually be printed in this chapter, but all general information concerning this printout also applies to other reports which will be printed in their respective chapters.

Some printouts are also available on adhesive labels rather than paper. For instance, Sorted Reports, Nested Reports, Master Shippers and Shipping Tickets can all be directed to special adhesive labels that adhere well to steel. A discussion of those particular varieties of labels can be found in their respective chapters of the book (Chapter 7 for the sorted labels, Chapter 8 for the Master Shipper and Shipping Ticket labels and Chapter 10 for the nested labels). Adhesive labels are covered in more detail in Chapter 19: Adhesive Item Labels.

Section 6-2: Demo "Coupon". Owners of the complete Structural Material Manager system should proceed to Section 6-3 at this time, as this section applies only to demonstration versions.

Each demo system is permitted to produce 25 reports from Structural Material Manager. As long as less than 25 reports have been produced, the demo system is absolutely identical to the complete software package. This enables demo recipients to get a "hands-on" test-drive of the system.

The ability of the demo to give access to the full system until 25 reports have been produced is due to the fact that, upon the successful entry of a Demo Activation Code, a demo system receives an electronic "coupon" worth 25 reports. Every time another report is generated, whether it is printed to the screen or paper, the number of uses remaining on the coupon is reduced by one.

Once the last report is printed, the system will no longer allow jobs to be opened. The demo is essentially useless at this point, but since 25 reports were generated, the user should have received an adequate demonstration in order to make a purchasing decision.

A common misconception is that reports from other systems, such as word processors, spreadsheets, etc., count toward the 25-report allotment. This is not true; only Structural Material Manager printouts are counted.

Another misunderstanding involves the number of pages in a given report. Regardless of how many pages are produced in a particular printout, it will count as only one report.

During printing, demo users will see an extra prompt that full-system customers will not notice. This special prompt simply informs you as to how many reports the demo has generated and how many remain.

Section 6-3: Availability of Printouts. Unsorted Lists are available at all times for any job that contains at least one material item. This is true even after the job has been sorted or nested, as these processes do not disturb the unsorted listing.

A Shipping List is available at any time, provided that the list contains the proper piece-mark sequence described in Section 8-2: Shipping List Format or Section 8-17: Alternate Shipping Mark Scheme.

Sorted printouts are always available since Structural Material Manager automatically sorts all jobs. A Nested List, however, is available only if the user has previously processed the job with the Nesting | Nest Material function.

Note that if a job is altered in any way by the Material List | Enter / Edit Material function, the nested copy of the job is automatically erased. Consequently, a Nested List will not be available until the file is re-nested. See Section 10-20: Automatic Erasure of Nested Files for more information.

Section 6-4: Printout Title-Blocks. Title-block information is provided at the top of each printout page. This heading contains the following information that cannot be changed:

The following information also appears in each title-block; you may change it as desired:

By default, a complete title-block will appear on each page. As is discussed in Chapter 12: Printout Options, you may also choose to print a complete heading only on the first page and an abbreviated heading on all pages thereafter.

Section 6-5: Unsorted Printout Format. One of the main purposes of the unsorted printout is to provide an effective means of checking material entries. For this reason, the items on the unsorted printout are listed in the exact order they were entered. The only case in which this does not hold true is when the user has specified that the sorting program should physically rearrange the unsorted material list; the unsorted printout then actually lists the items in sorted order (refer to Section 7-5: Sorting Modes for details).

The unsorted printout provides both single weights and line total weights for each item printed. A summary of all total material type weights is provided at the end of the printout. This summary also lists a total item count for each material type, which is the sum of all quantity fields entered for items of that type. The last value provided in the summary is an approximate total job weight.

Section 6-6: Printing the Unsorted List. We’ll now print an actually material list. The exact prompts and options vary between the different types of reports, but printing an Unsorted List should give a good overview of the process:

B) Next, select Material List | Print Unsorted List. A dialog appears at which you can specify different printout options.

C) If you so desire, enter a contract number, project name and remarks. These will be retained from printout to printout for this job so there is no need to specify them more than once.

D) The default date is the one obtained from your computer’s clock, so it is generally acceptable as-is. If you wish to change it, however, do so at this time.

E) Reports are expected to ultimately go to the printer. However, it is often convenient to first view the report on-screen rather than on paper. If you do decide to choose the screen as the printout destination, Section 12-2: Printing to the Screen will show you how to move around the screen to view the printout. Chapter 12 also discusses the option of directing the report to a text file rather than the printer or screen.

F) Click on the Rounding Options button if you wish to change the manner in which material weights are rounded. If you change any of these options rather than selecting the defaults, see Section 14-8: Material Weight Rounding Options for more information.

H) If you chose the screen or a text file as the destination, the report is now sent to the appropriate location. If, however, you chose the printer as the destination, the standard Windows Print Dialog now appears. You can use it to select the desired printer, specify the number of copies to print, etc. By clicking the dialog’s Properties button, you can access the Printer Setup Dialog to select printer features such as paper source, portrait or landscape orientation, print quality as well as any other features supported by the printer. Click the Print Dialog’s Ok button when you have finished making changes and are ready to begin printing.

Since this is the first time printout instructions have been presented, extra detail has been included in the steps. All further printout instructions that occur in later chapters will be slightly less specific in regard to printing to the screen, specifying the number of copies, etc. Rather, future printout instructions will concentrate mainly on the features that are unique to that particular type of report.

Section 7-1: Introduction. One of the primary functions of this system is to sort a randomly ordered material list into proper sequence and to combine duplicate items. Some sorts are done by material type and size while others are based on item piece marks.

This chapter discusses the criteria used by the system for both the sorting and combining operations. At the end of the chapter, the sample material list will be printed as a Sorted List. Please note that sorted results can be printed not only in report form, but also as a set of adhesive labels intended to serve as item identification tags.

You’ll probably never have to explicitly sort a job by type and size, as such Sorted Reports are automatically available for each job without having to go through a separate sorting process. See Section 7-5: Sorting Modes for more details.

Section 7-2: Sorting by Type and Size. The most common type of sort is by material type and size. It is this method of sorting that always determines how the Sorted Report will be formatted.

In a sort by type and size, the system bases its sorting decisions on the assumption that each item field has a certain level of "sorting priority" or significance in relation to other fields. The Material Type field has the highest sorting priority, so Plates, for instance, will always appear before Checkered Plates. If two items have the same Material Type field, the system then looks at lower-priority fields. For example, since a Description field has a higher priority than a Length field, two a W Shape 12 x 58 x 20'-0 will appear

before a W Shape 10 x 54 x 40'-0 in the sorted listing even though the W 10 x 54 has a longer length.

It is rather obvious that the Description field should have a priority that is exceeded only by that of the Material Type field since the items are to be arranged by size. For other fields, however, it may be helpful to consider two items that have just one different field and are otherwise identical.

As an example, suppose that two Angle entries have the same Description of 4" x 4" x ½”, but the Length fields are different. In this case, the Angle with the larger Length field appears first in the sorted listing. Likewise, two Plates with the same Description and Length fields, but having different Material Grades, appear with the Plate of the higher Material Grade first. The Camber field must also be taken into consideration when sorting Beams and Channels: two items that are the same in all respects but Camber are arranged with the item of higher Camber listed first.

Please note that the Description field which is second only to Material Type in sorting priority can itself be composed of multiple parts that each have their own level of priority. For instance, an Angle's Thickness field has a higher sorting priority than Leg 1; Leg 1 has a higher priority than Leg 2. The exact priorities of course vary from one material type to another, but each allows for logical sorting and grouping of the items.

Miscellaneous Items are sorted alpha-numerically, as they have a free-style description field that can be comprised of any letters, numbers and other characters you choose.

Section 7-3: Sorting by Piece Mark. As discussed in the previous section, material lists can be sorted by type and size, and it is that type of sort that always determines the format of the Sorted Report.

Material lists can also be sorted by piece mark. Sorting by piece mark has no effect on the format of the Sorted Report but, rather, re-arranges the order of the items as they will appear the next time you view the job for material entry / editing. So, if you sort a job by piece mark, the next Sorted Report you print will look no different than if you had not carried out the sort. The next time the job is viewed on the Material Entry Screen, however, the items will appear sorted by piece mark.

Sorting by piece mark is always a “physical” sort since it permanently alters the order of the job such that there is no way to return to the material list’s original, unsorted order. See Section 7-5: Sorting Modes for a discussion of physical sorting.

Two types of piece mark sorts are available: sorting by all piece marks or sorting by major marks only. An understanding of the piece mark concepts presented in Chapter 8: Production-Control will be presupposed for all discussions of these sorts, so please review that chapter if you are not already familiar with the piece mark schemes on which Structural Material Manager bases its shipping functions.

Sorting by all piece marks is quite straightforward. The system simply rearranges the material list such that the items are arranged alpha-numerically by piece mark; any identical items are combined, and their quantities are tallied. If two items contain identical piece marks, the items are sorted by type and size as discussed in the previous section; you thus might think of a sort by all piece marks as being like a regular sort by type and size except with the sorting criteria modified so that the piece mark field has the highest precedence (even above Material Type). The key characteristic to keep in mind concerning a sort by all piece marks is that no distinction is made between major marks such as 1B1 and detail marks such as p1. Thus, the piece mark order of the list is disrupted such that this type of sort is not suitable for any job for which you later wish to obtain shipping reports.

A more complex - but potentially more useful - type of piece mark sort involves sorting only on major marks. In this type of sort, Structural Material Manager physically re-arranges the list so that items containing major piece marks are sorted alpha-numerically. Items with detail marks are not figured into the sort in any way, but such detail items are indeed “carried along” with their respective major marks during the sort so as to not ruin the piece mark sequence that identifies fabricated assemblies.

Consider the following material list fragment presenting the piece marks for (2) fabricated assemblies before sorting by major mark only:

The most important fact to garner from the above example is that detail items p2 and f3 stayed associated with major mark 1A1 even after the sorting process moved 1A1 to the top of the material list. Likewise, detail marks a1 and b2 stayed with 1B1 as it moved in the list. This is the essence of sorting by major marks only: detail items remain subordinate to their original major marks in the exact order they were entered.

Note that no sorting based on detail marks within assemblies is done when sorting by major marks only. In the above example, for instance, the system makes no attempt to re-arrange 1A1's detail items to place detail mark f3 ahead of p2; the detail items retain their original order. It is the detailer’s responsibility to properly order detail items within an assembly, and Structural Material Manager will not alter their order in any way when sorting by major mark only.

Just as no sorting based on detail marks is done when sorting by major marks only, no combining of any duplicate items - whether major marks or detail items - is done in this sorting method. Duplicate major marks will, of course, end up adjacent in the material list after such a sort, but they will not be combined.

Chapter 8 presents two different shipping mark schemes that are supported by Structural Material Manager’s Production-Control Module: the one used by most fabricators, and an alternate one. Sorting only by major mark can be carried out using either one of these schemes, and the scheme used depends on which one you have already chosen under the Production Control menu. There is no need to specify the desired scheme at the Sort Material dialog since Structural Material Manager already “knows” which scheme is in effect for the job.

When sorting by major mark only, the system will verify that the job’s first item does indeed bear a major piece mark under the selected scheme. Sorting by major mark only is based on the assumption that the list has been entered in the proper piece mark sequence, so this is critical. If the job begins with a detail item, you will be informed that the sort has been canceled and that the job has not been altered in any way.

Let’s consider an example of when sorting by major marks only could be quite a time-saver. Suppose a bill of material has been entered in proper piece-mark sequence with major marks as assembly headings and minor marks beneath them as detail items. Further suppose that the optional External Data Interface (see Chapter 18) is then used to import some bills of material that originated in a CAD system. The newly-imported items will appear at the end of the original takeoff. You may now have a job listing that is hundreds or thousands of lines long, and finding a certain major mark within the bill of material could be quite a chore. A quick sort of the list by major mark only, however, would conveniently rearrange the job alpha-numerically by major mark so that mark 1B1, for instance, would be near the top of the list whereas 3G3 would be farther down.

One last word concerning sorting by piece marks. If your goal is simply to produce a shipping report arranged alpha-numerically by piece mark without permanently rearranging the order of the unsorted material list, see Chapter 8: Production-Control. That chapter discusses Master Shippers, Shipping Tickets, Status Reports and Shortage Reports that can all be printed alpha-numerically by piece mark without need for physically sorting the job! Remember: the goal of physically sorting by piece mark is to change the order of the list as it appears on the material entry / edit screen, not the reports.

Section 7-4: Criteria for Combining Items. As the system sorts the material list, it constantly checks to see if any identical items exist. If duplicate members are found, they are combined into a single item and their quantities are totaled.

The manner in which combinable items are determined is very simple: the items must be 100% identical to be combined. This means that not only must the items have the same Description field and Length, but they must also have identical Piece Mark, Mill Mark, Material Grade, Camber, Remarks, Sequence, Material Price, Shop Labor and Field Labor fields. The Number of Pieces field may, of course, differ between the items as the two figures will be added and the sum used as the Number of Pieces field for the single item that the individuals are combined into.

Duplicate items are combined when sorting by material type and size. They are also combined when you instruct the system to physically sort the list by all piece marks. However, no consolidation of duplicates is performed when you are sorting based on major piece marks only. So, if two identical items with piece mark 1B1 exist in the list - one with quantity 4 and the other with quantity 3 - a single 1B1 entry will exist with a quantity of 7 after you sort either by size or by all piece marks. Both items will remain, however, after sorting by major marks only since no dupe consolidation is done for that sorting method.

Section 7-5: Sorting Modes. The sorting function has two distinct modes of operation: one mode does not affect the order of the original unsorted material list, and the other physically sorts the unsorted list into proper order. Both modes produce exactly the same sorted printout; the only difference is how the unsorted list is treated.

The first sorting mode is employed automatically by Structural Material Manager; it keeps jobs sorted by type and size without the user ever having to tell the system to sort the job! That method simply makes a properly ordered copy of the material list “behind the scenes;” this preserves the original order of the unsorted material list while still allowing a sorted printout to be obtained. This proves useful when changes must be made to the material list after sorting, as the Material Entry Screen still lists the items in their original unsorted, un-combined order. Another benefit of this method is that an unsorted printout, which is often more convenient than the sorted copy in checking for entry errors, is still available after automatic sorting.

The second sorting mode, a “physical” sort, actually sorts the unsorted material list into a different order. One such sort is a physical sort by material type and size; it is generally used only for inventory lists and price lists. If this method is used, the Material Entry Screen will list the items in sorted order by size whenever that job is next loaded for further entry or editing of items. This type of sorting is not automatic; the user must explicitly select it with the Sorting | Sort Material menu options.

Any items belonging to the material type "Main Member" will be eliminated during a physical sort by type and size. "Main Member" in this sense refers to a dedicated class of item headings that are used to denote the start of a fabricated assembly for purposes of producing shipping reports based on the list's piece-mark sequence. Since any list entered in piece-mark sequence will be entirely rearranged by the physical sort by type and size, thus ruining this sequence, it is of little consequence that the Main Members are deleted. See Chapter 8: Production-Control, for more information on Main Members.

Sorting by piece mark always constitutes a physical sort. Unlike a sort by type and size, however, such a sort does not eliminate Main Members from the job.

Physical sorting, whether by type and size or by piece mark, is always non-reversible. Accordingly, the system warns the user of this before carrying out a such a sort and requires confirmation before proceeding.

You may wish to make a backup copy of a job with File | Copy before carrying out a physical sort. That will enable you to always return to the original material list (via the safety copy) if the effects of the sort were not as you expected.

When used with an inventory list, accidental physical sorting by type and size would probably cause no harm since there is generally no need to preserve the original order of inventory items. Physical sorting of an actual job by type and size, however, could have disastrous consequences since that type of sort disturbs the list’s piece mark sequence and thus prevents you from obtaining Shipping Lists (see Chapter 8 for a discussion of the piece mark format required for obtaining Shipping Lists.) Likewise, physically sorting a job by all piece marks (as opposed to by major marks only) will almost certainly disrupt the list’s piece mark sequence such that Shipping Lists will no longer be available.

Among the different types of physical sorts, sorting by major marks only probably carries the least risk of later causing Shipping List problems since it automatically keeps fabricated assemblies intact. This assumes that the job was properly entered in the first place with major marks identifying assemblies and minor marks identifying the detail items. Still, you are always advised to consider the non-reversible nature of physical sorting before carrying out a sort by major mark.

Section 7-6: Automatic Re-Sorting of Jobs. Whenever a job that has been previously sorted is altered in any way by the Material List | Enter / Edit Material function, the sorted version of that job is automatically erased. This is done to prevent the possibility of an outdated sorted file not reflecting changes made to the unsorted material list since the time that sorting took place. However, as soon as the user exits the Material Entry Screen, the job will automatically be re-sorted. What this means to the user is that sorted printouts are always available and are sure to be up-to-date without any need for ever manually selecting the Sort | Sort Material menu options.

Section 7-7: Sorted Report Format. This section describes the format of the sorted printout when it is produced as a report. The information presented here does not apply when the sorted output is generated as a set of adhesive labels.

Items on the sorted printout are always listed in order from large to small within their respective material types. Sorting by piece mark - whether by all piece marks or by major marks only - has absolutely no effect on the Sorted Report’s format. Piece Mark sorts are intended for altering the order of the material list as viewed for entry or editing rather than for changing the appearance of the Sorted Report.

The sorted printout places all similar items in a group, which is indicated by the fact that no blank line is left between the items. Similar items, in this context, are basically items that have the same Description, Material Grade and Camber fields, regardless of the contents of the other fields.

All weight values available on the unsorted printout, as well as the total item count for each material type, are also provided in the sorted listing. In addition to these figures, the sorted printout also lists a group weight for all similar items which are, as noted above, printed with no blank lines between them.

A group lineal total is also supplied with the group weight for all lineal material types; i.e., Beams, Channels, Bars, Angles, Tubes, Rods, Rebar and Pipes.

Groups of similar Bolts are followed by a group count. This is a tally of each of the item quantities in the group; it provides an exact piece count for each different bolt size.

If the user so desires, each material type presented on a Sorted Report may be started on a new page.

Section 7-8: Sorted Label Format. Whereas the previous section discussed the format of the sorted results when printed as a report, this section focuses on the format when those same results are printed on adhesive labels.

Just as is the case on the normal Sorted Report, items on the sorted labels are listed in order from large to small within their respective material types.

A separate label is generated for each item, and any one label is repeated as many times as necessary in order to represent the full quantity. So, if W 10 X 54 X 19'-3 1/4 has a quantity of (3), then (3) separate labels will be printed. The item weight that appears on each of these (3) labels will be the weight of just (1) W 10 X 54 X 19'-3 1/4 rather than the weight of all (3). This is to be expected since each item is a separate entity represented by its own label.

By default, Bolts and Miscellaneous Items are not printed, as it is assumed that you do not want to generate identification tags for such items. If labels are ever desired for one or both of these types, simply click the “Material Types to Print” button that appears on the Print Sorted Labels dialog, and check the appropriate type(s).

Section 7-9: Printing the Sorted Report or Labels. The same basic instructions used to print the Unsorted List in the previous chapter apply to printing the Sorted List; you’ll notice only minor variations. To print a Sorted List, start by opening any job with File | Open Job, then select the Sorting | Print Sorted | Report option. If you prefer to direct the Sorted List to adhesive item labels, then choose Sorting | Print Sorted | Adhesive Labels. More information on labels can be found in Chapter 19: Adhesive Item Labels.

You do not need to use the Sort Material option that is available in the Sorting menu unless you want to physically sort the job. A Sorted Report is automatically available without explicitly sorting the job, as jobs are automatically sorted by material type and size “behind the scenes.” The Sort Material option is used only for permanently sorting the list. For instance, you might want to physically rearrange the items in an inventory list or price list so that they are permanently sorted into descending order by type and size. You also might want to permanently sort a job by piece mark. After such physical sorts, there is no way to return the list to its original, unsorted order. Thus, if your only goal is to obtain a Sorted List, just click Sorting | Print Sorted Report without bothering with the Sorting | Sort Material function, and you can rely on the harmless non-physical sort that Structural Material Manager automatically carries out for each job. See Chapter altogether, and click simply rely on the harmless, non-physical sort that Structural Material Manager automatically carries out. These issues were discussed in Section 7-5: Sorting Modes.

When you produce the Sorted List as a report (but not as a set of adhesive labels), the system provides a few options that are not available on the Unsorted List. For instance, a check-box exists which lets you indicate whether each material type (W, C, PL, etc.) should begin on a new page. It also provides a check-box for specifying whether a summary-only report should be generated; this is a printout that lists no items, but rather, only final totals.

By checking the “Print an individual summary for each sequence” box, you are telling Structural Material Manager that each unique sequence contained in the job should gets its own summary. Regardless of whether this box is checked, a summary for the entire job (i.e, items from all sequences) is also produced. See the next section, Section 7-10: Summarizing Each Sequence on the Sorted List, for more details on sequences.

It is possible to exclude one or more material types from the printout whether you are printing a report or adhesive labels. In the extreme case of excluding every type, you will get a summary-only printout described above, although that would be a clumsy way of obtaining it. Click the “Material Types to Print” button in order to specify which types should be printed; all types are checked by default. Un-check the types you want excluded from the report.

Section 7-10: Summarizing Each Sequence on the Sorted List. This section presents some information regarding jobs sequences and how they affect sorting. This information applies only when the Sorted List is printed as a report; when the list is printed as a set of adhesive labels, the option to summarize by sequence does not appear since labels, by their very nature as item-identification tags, do not contain summaries.

If you are unfamiliar with sequences, it is best to refer to Chapter 17 at this time. It provides detailed information concerning job sequencing.

Items that have different sequences but are otherwise identical will not be combined on the Sorted Report. Since the sequence field does not appear on the Sorted Report, the reason that the items were not combined is not immediately obvious. However, if you view the job’s items at the Material Entry Screen, you will see that the items do indeed have different sequences.

Just as items with different sequences are not combined on the Sorted Report, they are not combined in a physical sort operation. After the physical sort, items that are identical except for their sequences will be adjacent in the material list, but they will not actually be combined. Remember, the criterion for combining items is that they must be 100% identical, so having different sequence fields means that the items can’t be combined.

The Sorted Report always ends with a summary of the entire job. However, as you saw in the last section, you can also specify that a summary should also be printed for each job sequence.

The sequenced summary feature is available for jobs that contain up to 15 unique sequences. If more than 15 unique sequences are found in the job, the system simply informs you that your request for summaries by sequence has been canceled, but the Sorted Report and the usual total job summary are both still printed. The 15-sequence limitation is imposed by memory limitations within Structural Material Manager.

If you instruct the system to print summaries for each sequence, but the job contains just one sequence, the summary for that one sequence would of course be identical to the entire job summary. In order to avoid this redundancy, Structural Material Manager automatically cancels your request for sequenced summaries if it does not detect at least two unique job sequences.

Section 8-1: Introduction. The optional Production-Control Module enables the system to print Shipping Lists and Shipping Tickets. These reports are based on the piece-mark sequence of the material list.

When a Shipping Ticket is printed, the system is able to record which items and quantities were shipped, including the date they were shipped, in a Production-Control history. This enables the user to easily track the job's progress at any time by producing a Status Report or Shortage Report.

Two of the Production-Control Module’s reports, the Master Shipper and the Shipping ticket, can be printed as either normal reports or as sets of adhesive labels. The adhesive labels serve as item-identification tags.

This chapter covers Production-Control information such as the required piece-mark sequence, printing the reports and labels, etc. You should also refer to Chapter 17: Job Sequencing, for more information; that chapter contains a section devoted exclusively to covering the details of using Production-Control with jobs that have been sequenced.

Section 8-2: Shipping List Format. A Shipping List is available that prints shipping weights based on the list's piece-mark sequence. It reports shipping weights at the end of each main member.

The ability to generate shipping weights relies on having the material list in a certain piece-mark sequence. The scheme described in this section is the one most commonly used. An alternate scheme, used by fewer companies but nonetheless important, is described in Section 8-17.

Main members are assumed to have a major piece mark containing upper-case letters, such as "18B2", without any lower-case letters. Detail items are assumed to have minor piece marks containing lower-case letters, such as "a12." If a mark contains upper-case and lower-case letters, such as "17Ab2", it is considered a detail item.

As Structural Material Manager prints the Shipping List, it keeps track internally of whether the last item printed was a main member or a detail item. If it was a detail item, and the next item to be printed is a main member, the system knows that a new assembly is about to begin. It then generates a shipping weight for the entire previous assembly before printing the main member that begins the next assembly. Perhaps it is best to think in terms of Structural Material Manager’s logic, which can be expressed as “if a detail item was just printed and now a main member needs printed then it is time print the shipping weight for the previous assembly.” If you think in terms of this logical condition, you’ll be able to look at any series of items and instantly determine the points at which Structural Material Manager will generate shipping weights.

As an example of the piece-mark sequencing described above, assume that a material list is as follows:

Piece Mark	Quantity	Type	Description	Length
4B1	2	W	14 x 30	15'-11
a4	8	L	3 x 3 x 1/4	0'-9
h4	2	PL	3/8 x 9 3/16	2'-0 3/4
15B5	1	W	12 x 26	12'-9 1/2
d15	4	L	4 x 4 x 1/4	0'-9
f15	2	PL	1/4 x 6	0'-6 3/8
15B6	1	W	8 x 24	5'-8 1/8
b4	2	L	3 x 3 x 1/4	0'-6
e15	2	L	4 x 4 x 1/4	0'-5 1/2
m1	8	PL	1/4 x 3 1/8	0'-7
15B7	1	W	12 x 26	12'-9 1/2
d15	4	L	4 x 4 x 1/4	0'-9
h15	1	PL	3/8 x 11 7/16	3'-8 1/4
16B3	2	W	12 x 26	9'-11
a4	8	L	3 x 3 x 1/4	0'-9
c16	4	PL	3/8 x 7 1/4	0'-9

A shipping weight line would be generated after detail items “h4," “f15," “m1," and “h15" because each is followed by a main member, “15B5," “15B6," and “15B7," respectively. A shipping weight line would also be generated after detail item "c16" because it is the last item in the list.

Each shipping weight line consists of two separate weights. The first weight is the weight of all pieces listed for the member. This figure is the sum of the main member's line weight total plus each detail item's line weight total. The second shipping weight is the weight of just one member. This is the total weight described above divided by the main member's quantity; if the main member has a quantity of 1, the total and single weights will be identical.

It has already been mentioned that marks containing both upper-case and lower-case letters are considered to be detail items rather than major marks. Most major marks don’t contain any lower-case letters anyway, so this does not usually pose a problem. One case in which it might become an issue, however, is if your piece marks contain right and left indicators of “r” and “l.” Be sure to use “R” and “L” instead of their lower-case counterparts, as a major mark “C8-R” will be considered a detail item if you enter it as “C8-r.”

It is important to note that any item with a blank piece mark is considered to be a detail item! This can pose a problem if your bill of material does not include piece marks on bolts; a bolt entry will thus be considered to be detail item of the previous main member, and this is generally not correct. To see why this is a problem, assume the following 16B3 assembly used as an example above was followed by a bolt line representing 500 fields bolts but containing no piece mark:

Piece Mark	Quantity	Type	Description	Length
16B3	2	W	12 x 26	9'-11
a4	8	L	3 x 3 x 1/4	0'-9
c16	4	PL	3/8 x 7 1/4	0'-9
	500	BOLT	1"	0'-3

Since the bolt line contains no piece mark, it would be assumed to be part of the assembly 16B3 even though this is not really intended. The weight of the 500 field bolts which were intended to apply to the job as a whole rather than just the 16B3 assembly would be added to 16B3's weight thus artificially increasing it. If the quantity on the bolts had not been divisible by 16B3's quantity of 2, such as if the bolt quantity had been 503 rather than 500, Structural Material Manager would have reported a bad detail item quantity on mark 16B3 as discussed in Section 8-3: Detail Item Quantities.

The solution to the problem described above is to always include major piece marks on bolt lines that are not intended to be part of any one assembly, i.e., treat them as stand-alone major items. For field bolts, you may wish to use major marks such as FB-1, FB-2, etc. whereas SB-1, SB-2, etc. make good choices for shop bolt marks.

If you request a Shipping List, but the material list is not actually in piece-mark order, the system will display a screen message to inform you that the shipping weights cannot be produced. Specifically, if the first item in the list does not contain a major piece mark, the system will report an error message stating that a Shipping List cannot be produced.

Section 8-3: Detail Item Quantities. Regardless of whether you use the standard piece mark scheme discussed in Section 8-2, or the alternate one described in the Section 8-17, it is important that detail item quantities be entered properly.

All detail item quantities must be multiplied by the number of main members needed. Consider the example of a main member with piece mark 1B1 and a detail item with piece mark a2. Assume that (2) detail items a2 get attached to each main member 1B1. If only one main member 1B1 is needed, then the corresponding quantities and marks are of course (1) 1B1 and (2) a2. If three main members 1B1 are needed, those quantities change to (3) 1B1 and (6) a2. The point is that you must be careful to increase the detail item quantities in proportion to the main member quantities.

Internally, the system divides every detail item quantity by its respective main member quantity to determine exactly how many detail items are attached to one main member. In the above example, the quantity of (6) for item a2 is divided evenly by the quantity of (3) for main member 1B1. The result of this division is (2), so the system knows that (2) items a2 are attached to every (1) item 1B1. This information is used to determine the weight of one fabricated assembly 1B1, as opposed to the weight of all three fabricated assemblies 1B1.

Every detail item quantity must be evenly divisible by its corresponding main member quantity. Since the quantity of (6) for item a2 can be divided evenly by the quantity of (3) for main member 1B1, the assembly is assumed to have correct quantities. If however, item a2 had a quantity of (5) instead of (6), the system would discover that (2) cannot be evenly divided into (5) and thus conclude that it cannot evenly distribute (5) detail items over (2) main members. Although such an error is not caught during material entry, it is flagged on any of the various shipping lists with a "BAD DETAIL-ITEM QUANTITY!" or “DETAIL-ITEM ERROR!” message (either message may appear). Such errors are often caused by mistakes on the original drawings, but other times are the result of simple entry errors. In either event, the material list must be corrected and re-printed.

For examples of completely valid detail item quantities, please refer to the examples given in Section 8-2: Shipping List Format. Here is an example of incorrect quantities:

Piece Mark	Quantity	Type	Description	Length
4B1	2	W	14 x 30	15'-11
a4	8	L	3 x 3 x 1/4	0'-9
h4	3	PL	3/8 x 9 3/16	2'-0 3/4

The second line is correct, as 8 Angles can be evenly distributed over (2) W Shapes by grouping (4) Angles with each W Shape. The third line, however, would cause Structural Material Manager to generate a “BAD DETAIL-ITEM QUANTITY!” or “DETAIL-ITEM ERROR!” message since there is no way to evenly distribute (3) Plates over (2) W Shapes.

It is important to note that there will never be an quantity error if the main member has a quantity of (1). This is because all numbers are, of course, multiples of 1, so any detail item quantity will be valid.

You may occasionally encounter cases in which the system reports “BAD DETAIL-ITEM QUANTITY!” or “DETAIL-ITEM ERROR!” where you feel there is no error on the drawings nor in the data entry. In such cases, refer to Section 8-4 for a way to eliminate the error using Structural Material Manager’s “Main Member” designation.

In the event you ever encounter a detail item quantity error that initially does not seem to make sense, try applying these troubleshooting guidelines:

2. Once you are sure that you understand all relevant sections of program documentation, you can begin to investigate the particular marks that Structural Material Manager has reported as having bad detail item quantities. Start by clicking Production-Control | Specify Piece Mark Scheme, and make sure that the desired scheme - whether Normal or Alternate - is selected. Nearly all users will want to choose Normal, but this check is always the first one to perform since the simple mistake of having the wrong scheme selected can certainly lead to some baffling quantity errors!

3. Printing a regular Shipping List (not a Master Shipper or Shipping Ticket) for the job as discussed in Section 8-6 is the next troubleshooting step. That printout will show you exactly how Structural Material Manager is grouping items into fabricated assemblies, and a "BAD DETAIL-ITEM QUANTITY!" or “DETAIL-ITEM ERROR!” message will appear alongside any assemblies for which a detail item quantity error exists.

4. Armed with the assembly breakdown reported on the regular Shipping List, go to the Material Entry Screen. Locate a major mark for which "BAD DETAIL-ITEM QUANTITY!" or “DETAIL-ITEM ERROR!” was reported on the printout, and adjust a quantity (or quantities) as necessary. Sometimes the quantities are fine, but it is actually a detail mark that needs changed to a major mark or vice-versa to solve the problem; in that event, the incorrect mark will have caused an item to “belong” to the wrong fabricated assembly. Repeat this process for each major mark that is in error.

Once you gain some experience in solving detail item quantity errors, you might want to skip the step of printing a regular Shipping List in the above troubleshooting guidelines. Rather, you could just jot down the major marks that are being questioned by Structural Material Manager, and go straight to the Material Entry Screen to make the required changes to quantities and/or piece marks.

Section 8-4: Main Members. A word is in order concerning the term "main member." In relation to this chapter's discussion of shipping lists and other Production-Control features, this term refers to any item containing a major piece mark. This item can be a Beam, Channel, or any other valid material type.

The possible point of confusion here is that Structural Material Manager also supports a “pseudo” material type known as "Main Member." It is used primarily as a heading for assemblies in which no one component item can be clearly defined as the major piece. In such cases, the Main Member type is selected during entry (it is labeled “MAIN” at the lower right-hand corner of the Material Entry Screen) and is given the quantity and major piece mark for the assembly. Once a valid quantity and major mark are specified, a descriptive heading such as "FRAME ASSEMBLY" is then entered. Any items entered after this Main Member heading are given detail item piece marks and are thus assumed to be a part of this particular "FRAME ASSEMBLY."

The bottom line is that you need to realize that the main member of a fabricated assembly may either be an actual physical item such as a W Shape or Tube, or it may be a heading that has been entered on a Main Member type of item. In either case, the item will carry the major piece mark for the assembly.

We’ll capitalize “Main Member” when referring to Structural Material Manager’s special designation while using lower-case letters in “main member” to indicate an actual item (Beam, Channel, etc.) that happens to contain the assembly’s major piece mark. This convention will hopefully help you to more readily determine the manner in which the term is being used.

Since the Main Member type is used exclusively for specifying shipping marks, the piece mark must contain upper-case letters. This is the only material type for which the piece marks are checked during item entry. So, if you attempt to enter a Main Member at the Material Entry Screen and either omit its piece mark or specify a lower-case piece mark, Structural Material Manager will not accept the entry.

We will now present an actual case of when it would be beneficial to use the Main Member type. Suppose your bill of material contained the following items:

Piece Mark	Quantity	Type	Description	Length
2A12	2	L	3 x 3 x 1/4	8'-11
a19	1	PL	3/8 x 3 3/4	0'-7
b19	1	PL	3/8 x 7	0'-7 1/4

In this example, 2A12 is the major piece mark, and a19 and b19 are detail marks. Normally, detail items have quantities that are multiples of the quantity associated with the major mark. So, in this case we would expect Plate a19 and Plate b19 to each have quantities of 2, 4, 6, 8, etc. However, the quantity on each of these items is 1, and Structural Material Manager will thus flag this as a detail item quantity error as discussed in Section 8-3.

There are times when the detail item quantities legitimately are not multiples of the major mark’s quantity, and the group of (2) Angles 2A12 with (1) Plate a19 and (1) Plate b19 attached to it is one such case. The point is that these items really do form a fabricated assembly even though they violate Structural Material Manager’s quantity rules. The reason for this in this particular instance is that a single assembly requires (2) Angles, and the major mark 2A12 is associated with those Angles. This is where Structural Material Manager’s “Main Member” designation comes into play.

By placing major mark 2A12 on a Main Member that has quantity (1), and giving the Angle its original mark but in lower-case letters (i.e., 2a12 rather than 2A12), you can create a perfectly valid fabricated assembly from Structural Material Manager’s viewpoint:

Piece Mark	Quantity	Type	Description	Length
2A12	1	Main Member	Some Assembly
2a12	2	L	3 x 3 x 1/4	8'-11
a19	1	PL	3/8 x 3 3/4	0'-7
b19	1	PL	3/8 x 7	0'-7 1/4

Why does this work? As mentioned in Section 8-3, any detail item quantity is a multiple of (1), so using a main member quantity of (1) on mark 2A12 solved the problem. Just remember these steps to using the Main Members designation to correct a detail item quantity problem:

A) Insert a Main Member heading above the assembly’s actual item that contains the major mark. The Main Member is to be given the major mark now, as well as a descriptive name to identify it (“SOME ASSEMBLY” in our example). Use a quantity of (1) on this line if the items that follow represent a single fabricated assembly. Quantities other than (1) are indeed valid, but you will then have to be careful that all detail items that follow bear quantities that are multiples of the Main Member’s quantity.

B) Change the actual main member’s piece mark to lower-case. Thus, the item that once carried the assembly’s major mark now has become a detail item subordinate to the new Main Member. In the example above, the actual main member was the Angle entry, and its mark had to be changed from 2A12 to 2a12. Its original quantity does not have to change.

Nearly all detail item quantity errors reported by Structural Material Manager are indeed errors. The information presented in this section is intended only for addressing those cases in which the assembly has no one item that is clearly identifiable as the main component (such as a ladder assembly), and detail item quantity errors thus result.

Section 8-5: Master Shipper Report Format. The normal Shipping List prints every item in the material list, but another type of lists excludes all detail items from the report in order to produce a Master Shipper. Since it only lists the items that have major piece marks, it is a much shorter report than the regular Shipping List.

The Master Shipper can be printed as either a report or as a set of adhesive labels. This section focuses on the report format; see Section 8-8: Shipping Labels for information on the adhesive label format.

Note that the weight totals on both the Shipping List and Master Shipper List are identical. This is because although the Master Shipper does not print detail items, it does include them in all weight calculations.

The Master Shipper does not print the shop hours, field hours, material price, line weights, etc. for the main member. These figures are irrelevant on the Master Shipper since they apply only to the main member line itself, and there are almost certainly detail items in the assembly that are not being printed due to the very nature of the Master Shipper's format which omits detail items (but that nonetheless includes their weights in the total assembly weight). Printing values that are specific only to the single line that describes the main member would thus be confusing since you might be led to believe that they apply to the entire assembly. Another report, the Estimating Report does, however, print the item price and price unit for the main member even when it is printed in a Master Shipper format; this is useful in unit-pricing situations.

Two types of Master Shipper are available. One type lists all major marks in the order they were entered in the job, and the other sorts the major marks “alpha-numerically” so they are in order by letter and number. When asking Structural Material Manager to produce a Master Shipper, you choose which format you prefer. Note that the formats of the regular and alpha-numerically sorted versions differ by more than just piece-mark order; the alpha-numerically sorted version of the Master Shipper reports the total number of main members in the job, whereas the regular version does not. Although the alpha-numerically sorted version provides this extra total in comparison to the regular version, it omits the Mill Mark and Remarks columns that the regular Master Shipper does indeed provide. The next section shows how to print the Master Shipper; you may wish to experiment with both formats to see which best suits your needs.

Section 8-6: Printing the Shipping List or Master Shipper. Follow these steps to print a Shipping List or Master Shipper:

A) Use File | Open Job to open any job that you know is in the correct piece-mark sequence for use with Structural Material Manager’s Production-Control feature.

C) Specify all information concerning title-block fields, whether to print to the printer or screen, etc. as you would with any other type of report.

D) Select the alternate shipping mark scheme if you need it. Most users can skip this step and simply use the normal scheme which is the default.

E) If this is a Master Shipper, you can check the “Sort Shipping Marks into Alpha-Numeric Order” box if piece marks should be sorted alpha-numerically. If this box is unchecked, marks will be printed in the order in which they appear in the job. This option applies only if the Master Shipper is being printed as a report; if it is being directed to adhesive labels, the marks will be sorted alpha-numerically by default and this option will thus not appear.

If this is your first time using the system and you have just entered the sample material list, you will not be able to produce a Shipping List at this time. This is because the sample material items were not entered in the proper piece-mark sequence required to obtain this list. You may wish to go ahead and try to get this report anyway, just to see the message that the system reports to inform you that the list in not in the right format to obtain a Shipping List.

Section 8-7: Shipping Ticket Format. Whereas the Master Shipper lists all major items for the entire job, a Shipping Ticket lists only the items that are part of a particular shipment. It serves as a "loading list".

Shipping Tickets can be printed as reports or as sets of labels; this section focuses on the format of the report version. Information on the format of the corresponding adhesive labels can be found in Section 8-8: Shipping Labels.

Shipping Tickets include additional title-block information that is not found on other reports. Here is a summary of these additional fields:

• Ship-to Company Information (name, address, job-site phone, contact person, etc.)

The additional title-block information is presented in the form of a cover sheet that is printed before any of the actual items are listed. The presence of this cover sheet usually allows the Shipping Ticket to be used directly as a shipping document without need for an additional cover sheet to be produced separately.

When specifying the items for shipping, it is only necessary to specify a major piece mark and the quantity being shipped.

Just as is the case for the Master Shipper, detail items are not printed, but they are included in all weight calculations.

A total weight figure for the items being shipped is presented at the bottom of the Shipping Ticket, as is the total number of main members being shipped.

You cannot have duplicate major marks in a job for which you wish to print Sipping Tickets. The Production-Control history which tracks the Shipping Ticket’s output in terms of which marks shipped, how many shipped, when they shipped, etc. is not designed to deal with duplicate major marks. Thus, if the major mark 1B1 appears in multiple places in the job, the system will report that these duplicate marks need corrected before a Shipping Ticket can be printed. Section 17-4: Shipping Considerations When Using Sequences elaborates on this issue as it relates to having duplicate major marks in the different sequences.

The above discussion concerning duplicate major marks does not apply to detail marks. Duplicate detail marks are indeed permitted.

Section 8-8: Shipping Labels. By directing either a Master Shipper or a Shipping Ticket to adhesive labels rather than using the usual report format, you can generate item-identification tags. Such tags are very useful for shipping purposes as well as general production-control use.

You may be familiar with labels that are based on the Sorted Report or the Nested Report. Shipping labels differ from these other labels in that they represent only the main members of the job, i.e., the items that contain major piece marks. No labels are printed for the job’s detail items.

The weight printed on a shipping label represents the weight of the entire fabricated assembly; it includes the weight of not only the main member itself, but all attached detail items as well.

When printed as a report, the Master Shipper can present the piece marks in the order in which they appear in the job or sorted alpha-numerically. These options are not available when the Master Shipper is printed as a set of labels, as the labels corresponding to the Master Shipper are always sorted alpha-numerically by piece mark.

The Shipping Ticket can be printed so that the marks appear either in the order that they were specified for shipping or sorted alpha-numerically by piece mark. This option is available both when the Shipping Ticket is printed as a report and when the output is sent to a set of adhesive labels.

Suppose you specify certain major marks and quantities for shipping, and these items are printed on a Shipping Ticket in the usual report form. If you’d then like to generate a set of adhesive labels for those same items, it would be tedious to have to re-specify all of the marks and quantities. See Section 8-0: Re-printing a Shipping Ticket for a time-saving alternative.

Section 8-9: Printing the Shipping Ticket. Printing a Shipping Ticket is as simple as specifying a series of major piece marks and quantities that are to ship. As each mark is entered, the system displays the current truck weight to assist you in determining when a full load has been reached.

A) Use File | Open Job to open any job that you know is in the correct piece-mark sequence for use with Structural Material Manager’s Production-Control feature.

B) Select the Production-Control | Print | Shipping Ticket menu options. Click either the Report menu item or the Adhesive Labels item depending on the intended destination of the Shipping Ticket output.

C) If the job is not in the proper piece-mark sequence expected by the Production-Control feature, you will be informed that the Shipping Ticket cannot be printed. Similarly, if detail-item quantity errors are present in the job, a list of major marks containing such errors will be presented so you can adjust the quantities before trying again to print the Shipping Ticket.

D) If any Shipping Tickets have already been stored in this job’s Production-Control history, a dialog will pop up and prompt you to either choose an existing ticket or create a new one. No such dialog will appear if the job’s Production-Control history is empty. For purposes of this discussion, we’ll assume that the dialog did not appear or - if it did appear - that you chose to create a new ticket. See Section 8-10: Re-printing a Shipping Ticket for details of how to retrieve a previous ticket.

E) The “Build Shipping Ticket” dialog will now appear. It is here that you will enter piece marks and quantities that are to ship. As you do so, the right side of the screen under the heading “Ticket in Progress” will be updated to show not only each mark and quantity on the ticket, but also the total truck weight and a count of assemblies shipping.

Non-typists will probably want to specify a major mark for shipping by double-clicking the desired mark under the heading “Piece Mark Status” on the left side of the screen. That causes the mark to be selected in the “Piece Mark to Ship” drop-down list in the upper center portion of the screen.

Skilled typists will save time by avoiding the mouse and typing the desired mark directly into the “Piece Mark to Ship” drop-down list. That list has been designed with a feature commonly referred to as “type-ahead” or “auto-complete” in which your keystrokes cause the list to automatically move to the next major mark that matches what you’ve typed so far. Once the proper mark has been found, just hit Enter to select it.

No matter whether you selected a mark by double-clicking it at the “Piece Mark Status” list or typing it directly into the “Piece Mark to Ship” drop-down list, the system now expects a quantity to be specified. Type any number up the maximum that remain available for shipping for this mark. You can then click the “Add Mark and Quantity to Ticket” button, but simply hitting Enter is faster and achieves the same goal.

Note that you cannot specify more items for shipping than the total that remain available to ship for that mark. Suppose a job has a quantity of (9) on mark 2D3, and (4) of these items were shipped on one day and (3) on another. The Production-Control history stored with this job lets Structural Material Manager know that only (2) more 2D3 items can be shipped, so the system simply will not allow you to specify a quantity greater than this.

Once the a mark is fully-shipped, it will no longer be listed in the “Piece Mark to Ship” drop-down list, as there is no sense including a mark in that list if that mark has no further items to ship.

Whether a fully-shipped mark it is still listed under the “Piece Mark Status” heading depends on whether you have checked the “Hide fully shipped marks above” box. If you check the box, all marks showing zero items left to ship will be hidden from view. This lets you whittle the display down to just the marks that actually have items remaining to ship.

Note that marks must be added to the ticket one at a time. The process described above is thus an iterative one in which you specify a mark, specify the quantity shipping, and repeat the process for the next mark. The reason that you cannot simply select a series of marks to be added to the ticket at once is that a shipping quantity needs specified for each mark. That mandates the repetitive nature of building the ticket one mark at a time. If, however, if you ever need to ship all or most of a job's major marks at one time, this can quickly be done without entering each and every mark and quantity; see Section 8-11: Shipping the Balance of a Job for details.

There is no way to change the quantity of a piece mark that you have listed for shipping under the “Ticket in Progress” heading, but entries there can easily be deleted. So, if you ever enter the correct mark but the wrong quantity, you can delete that entry, and try again. For instance, if you specified that (3) 1B1 items were to be shipped but then noticed that the truck weight became too high, you could delete the entry for (3) 1B1 items. Then perhaps you could again specify 1B1 for shipping, this time with a quantity of (2) to see if this many 1B1 items can be shipped without exceeding the maximum truck weight.

In general, deletions are done by selecting one or more lines under the “Ticket in Progress” heading and either clicking the “Delete Selected Item(s)” button or simply hitting the Delete key. Multiple selections involving Shift-clicking or Ctrl-clicking are fully supported. You will, of course, be asked for confirmation before any deletion actually occurs. If you approve the deletion, the selected marks and quantities are removed under the “Ticket in Progress” heading and get added back both under the “Piece Mark Status” heading and to the “Piece Mark to Ship” drop-down list.

The order of marks under “Ticket in Progress” is the order in which they will appear on the Shipping Ticket (unless you later decide to have the Shipping Ticket list marks in alpha-numerically sorted order). If you want to re-arrange the order in which marks will appear on the ticket, just select a certain line with a click of the mouse, and click the “One Up” or “One Down” buttons until the line moves to the desired location. Repeat this process until marks are in the desired order.

F) The process of specifying marks and quantities is iterated over and over as outlined in the previous step. Once the truck weight reaches the desired figure, or you simply have no further marks to add to the Shipping Ticket, click the Done button.

G) The system now asks whether the Production-Control history should be updated based on this Shipping Ticket. Click Yes or No, depending on your preference.

If you responded with Yes to the previous question, you will prompted to verify that the displayed date is correct. This is, of course, very important, as this date will be stored in the shipping history. The default date displayed is today's date if you are creating a new ticket, but it is sometimes useful to select a different date (perhaps tomorrow's date if preparing a ticket Tuesday afternoon for a shipment actually scheduled to leave Wednesday morning). If you chose to re-print an old ticket, note that the default date is automatically set to the date on which the ticket was originally printed, not today's date. Whether creating a new ticket or re-printing an old one, verify that the date is the one you want stored in the history, change the date if necessary, and finally click the “Update Production-Control History” button.

H) The dialog for actually printing the Shipping Ticket now appears. Specify all title-block information as you would with any other type of report, and also enter the extra title-block fields that appear only on Shipping Tickets (ship-to address, bill-to address, etc.)

I) A date-selection control for specifying the Shipping Ticket date might appear at this dialog. If you are updating the Production-Control history for this job, then whatever date you specified for recording in the history is going to appear on the Shipping Ticket, and there is no provision for changing it now; no date-selection control appears in such cases. However, in cases in which you are not updating the Production-Control history, a date-selection control appears on this dialog. If the date-selector does appear, carefully check that it shows the date that should appear on the Shipping Ticket, and change it if necessary.

J) Check the “Complete Shipment” box if you intend to ship all items for the job or if this is the final shipment for the job. Checking this box does not cause any special processing to occur, but it does change the Shipping Ticket’s heading in order to reflect the fact that this is a complete shipment.

K) As its name implies, the check-box labeled “Sort Shipping Marks into Alpha-Numeric Order” determines whether or not piece marks on the ticket will be sorted.

If this box is unchecked, the piece marks on the Shipping Ticket will appear in the exact order that you entered them at the “Build Shipping Ticket” dialog (i.e., the order they were listed under the “Ticket in Progress” heading at that dialog). This is desirable in cases when you wish to enter marks in the order that the trucks should be loaded. Structural Material Manager will even allow you to repeat a mark multiple times at the “Build Shipping Ticket” dialog, as the loading sequence may call for mark 1B1, for instance, in various places. So, be sure to not select the “Sort Shipping Marks into Alpha-Numeric Order” if you entered marks and quantities in the order in which you intend the truck to be loaded.