CADPower V23 BOQ and ERP link
Manage your BOM-Q life-cycle
Where does you CAD design data go next?
A CAD drawing and Excel are closely connected. They are part of the same design-draw-fabricate/build workflow. 90% of all design data and manufacturing quantities are extracted from the drawing and sent to Excel for downstream processing, ordering, estimation, proposals, manufacturing & fabrication or similar. So, it is only natural that many of CADPower functions export to Excel directly.
CADPower has always had a functioning Bill of Materials / Quantity takeoff tool (CADPower -> BOM/QOQ Tools -> BOM Generator).
This tool creates a CSV file which can be easily exported to Excel. We are please to announce to you that we now support ERP-related workflows, and the current version, V 23.05 is our first build to do so.
CADPower ERP Export support in the CP_BOM command
The following types of quantity export workflow are supported by the BOM-Q tool:
- Multiple Named Blocks
- Multiple Named Blocks (per polygon)
- Attribute Extraction
- Attribute Extraction (per polygon)
- Attribute Extraction (multiple blks)
- Attribute Extraction (multiple blks-per polygon)
- Count Scale Factors
- Count Attribute Values
- Count Attribute Values (multiple blks)
- Indexed BOM
- Part Names Count
- Dynamic Blocks
- Import Table Only
In V 23.05 of CADPower, a significant improvement has been made and the tool now supports revision control, tracking of project name and number, and the ability to export the drawings into a specified folder from where the ERP software can pick up the drawing data.
With this new addition, you can now specify the project name, project number and drawing revision as additional information that goes into your CSV or XLSX file during the export process.
The output can be saved in a specified output folder which is recognized by the ERP system and data picked up from there.
The ERP-enabled output is triggered by clicking on the ERP settings button in the main dialog and setting the required parameters.
CADPower V23 BOQ and ERP link
Which ERPs does CADPower support?
CADPower is ERP-vendor neutral. CADPower is in use in organizations using SAP, Oracle, BAAN, Siemens and a host of other home-grown ERP and ERP-like solutions. It can interact with other custom-built database management systems and enterprise automation services that do not even fit into the classical definition of an ERP systems.
We support a generic workflow where CSV and XLSX output from CAD drawings are saved in a specific folder with revision information embedded in them.
The ERP software then picks up the data from here and takes it up for further downstream processing.
In the next phase, we are also building a schema to read back the data received from ERP systems and make the same available inside the CAD drawing. This can be used to perform real-time monitoring of drawing assets by the CAD designer and also help pre-sales teams in obtaining latest price-lists and updates while working on technical proposal drawings on CAD.
CADPower ERP Export support in CP_EXPORT2EXCEL command
CADPower has another quick-and-dirty-tool (and very useful too) to help you convert unstructured tables that many users often create to show their quantities. These are not CAD table objects but a disparate collection of lines and text/mtext to depict the listing of quantities, description and probably price too.
The CP_CONVERT2EXCEL command is found in the BOM-BOQ section of CADPower and can be used to convert such dumb text tables into finely structured Excel CSV/XLSX file.
The accuracy of this conversion depends on how predictable (neat) your text/mtext arrangement is. It works for most of the cases with an accuracy of 95+ %, while you may see a few minor glitches and correction required in a minority of cases.
It is recommended that you check the output results before accepting them into your ERP or other downstream processes.
Please reach out to us with your ideas, wishlists, feature requests and more! We are waiting to hear from you!
We need your feedback, ideas and more!
CADPower is stepping into the vast area of ERP data exchange, which can be humongous in its shape and size. What we have in CADPower is a generic platform that will enable the same, and provide basic tools, even if it is not a 100% automated solution for every CAD user and organization.
As part of the CADPower BeSpoke program, we can help you with exactly customized data exchange schemas to help you share your design data with ERP and RDBMS systems.
We couldn’t have reached here without your support. We thank our users for providing sample drawings, workflow scenarios and the expectation of various persona in this eco-system.
Please reach out to us with your ideas, wish-lists, feature requests and more! We are waiting to hear from you!
Email me rakesh.rao(at)thedesignsense.com