Cabinet Price in Schedule

[kwhitt]

I just laid out a kitchen and entered list prices for each cabinet under the components tab.  Is there no way to have these fields show up in the cabinet schedule?  I did some searching around and saw MarkMc's video where he copies and pastes into excel, but I need the cost data to come directly from CA.  Any ideas on how to achieve this?  Thanks, Kevin

[Kbird1]

Try using the OIP  (Object Information Panel) instead and Create a Custom Field  or use one of the existing Columns like Supplier  (renamed) , just be sure the Column is displayed in the schedule.  

[MarkMc]

1 hour ago, kwhitt said:

I need the cost data to come directly from CA.  Any ideas on how to achieve this? 

What Mick said but you'll have to re-enter all the price data. Price and some other fields in the components can't be accessed with Ruby, they only show up in a Material List.

I had done some work on macros to lookup from an external file to get pricing but got waylaid so not ready for use. You could ask Joe or Michael about a custom macro for that but it is not a small order.

Why do you need the cost to come directly from Chief? are you showing prices in schedules on docs? It's just that I've found looking up in a PDF catalog or using an on line ordering system fast enough that getting pricing in Chief is not that important to me. I'd only been working on the macro lookup thing as 1-an exercise to learn Ruby 2-because people seam to think they need it and I wanted to help Chief out. To make it work you need to generate a csv file with the pricing AND labels must match exactly. It's not so bad for brands that have a single price with upcharges for species, finish, and door/drawer charges. The csv file and the lookup get a lot more complicated for brands that price in groups instead. Trying to both in one system is even worse (that's where I ran off the road)

[kwhitt]

Thanks Mick and Mark. I'll get on it tomorrow.

 

Mark - I won't be pricing this job, but thought I'd make it easier for the designer who will be.  I wouldn't normally put cost info on a floor plan, but in this case trying to be helpful.

 

Is it possible for me to take a corbel (classified as millwork) and have it show up in the cabinet schedule?  I've changed the layer to one that is cabinet specific, but I do not see any further options to include in schedule.  Thanks again.  Kevin

[MarkMc]

1 hour ago, kwhitt said:

Is it possible for me to take a corbel (classified as millwork) and have it show up in the cabinet schedule?

Yes, same as getting a basket of fruit into the schedule. Bit of a work around but not all that bad (this stuff is posted back some time in tips or symbols-plan attached) Then again one of these days Chief will make it easier and the cobble won't be needed. Molding sticks are more of a challenge and don't work as well but also doable.

Corbel in schedule.zip

[kwhitt]

Thanks for the tip Mark.  This is quite a workaround.  Does Chief create cabinet accessories in manufacturer catalogs in the same way?  Does anything cabinet related have to be imported as a cabinet door?

[MarkMc]

Accessories are Fixtures Interior 

[TimSchrock]

On 12/7/2019 at 2:15 PM, MarkMc said:

What Mick said but you'll have to re-enter all the price data. Price and some other fields in the components can't be accessed with Ruby, they only show up in a Material List.

I had done some work on macros to lookup from an external file to get pricing but got waylaid so not ready for use. You could ask Joe or Michael about a custom macro for that but it is not a small order.

 Why do you need the cost to come directly from Chief? are you showing prices in schedules on docs? It's just that I've found looking up in a PDF catalog or using an on line ordering system fast enough that getting pricing in Chief is not that important to me. I'd only been working on the macro lookup thing as 1-an exercise to learn Ruby 2-because people seam to think they need it and I wanted to help Chief out. To make it work you need to generate a csv file with the pricing AND labels must match exactly. It's not so bad for brands that have a single price with upcharges for species, finish, and door/drawer charges. The csv file and the lookup get a lot more complicated for brands that price in groups instead. Trying to both in one system is even worse (that's where I ran off the road)

@MarkMc I've been working on a CSV lookup as well, and things were going great while I was testing hard-coded numbers, then I tried to grab the width & height of the cabinet, and it seems when changing to a Material List, the object links may be broken. I can import the CSV table, parse it, look up a hard-coded width and height, and pull the correct price.

Have you had any luck with this yet? I've tried to evaluate based on Owner Object, Referenced Object, and Materials List Line Item, and still get "Evaluation Error".

[TimSchrock]

1 hour ago, TimSchrock said:

@MarkMc I've been working on a CSV lookup as well, and things were going great while I was testing hard-coded numbers, then I tried to grab the width & height of the cabinet, and it seems when changing to a Material List, the object links may be broken. I can import the CSV table, parse it, look up a hard-coded width and height, and pull the correct price.

 Have you had any luck with this yet? I've tried to evaluate based on Owner Object, Referenced Object, and Materials List Line Item, and still get "Evaluation Error".

Nevermind. I found it. I'd forgotten that I had adjusted the cabinet width to include a fraction and the lookup was throwing the error. Now, to manage the custom widths...
I am curious, though, how far you'd gotten on the project.

[MarkMc]

1 hour ago, TimSchrock said:

Have you had any luck with this yet? I've tried to evaluate based on Owner Object, Referenced Object, and Materials List Line Item, and still get "Evaluation Error".

Short answer is no.

I haven't done any work on this as I don't personally need it, non of my clients are asking for it. If only one client wanted pricing I'd be doing it one of the ways I did my own when I was a kitchen dealer.

For my work I used a schedule copied to a spread sheet. Either drag and drop from that to an online ordering system (15 minutes) OR if that was not available for the brand set up a spreadsheet template that was an order form. With a little manipulation data from the schedule is pasted into the the spreadsheet template populating all but globals, individual prices and number of doors. A typical order took me 15-30 minutes (stuff on doing that posted in either tips and tricks or symbols back around X10 maybe X9) I did also start looking into looking up pricing from a CSV once in the spreadsheet which is likely easier to do. (and adjust if needed)

 

The perfect system, that would load price into a schedule, was just a good will project for I was messing with since people seem to think they need cabinet pricing and I wanted to try to put it out there. NOTE I was working with pricing into the schedule not the ML and yes I got that to work more or less. (NOTE that for me it was imperative to also price modifications, just cabinets is much easier). Just had to do some work with hashes/arrays to bring in pricing for modifications. Problem is that I'm not all that proficient with Ruby so if I leave it alone for long it's like starting over (bad case of halfheimers/CRS) The other problem is getting a full CSV file for a cabinet line. I approached several Mfg at KBIS with no success, even for a couple of my clients. Suggested that they look into it, never happened.

 

As to using the material list for accessing a CSV; back when I first undertook this, end of X11 going into X12 I think, I was out at the user group that year. In the advanced class one of the Chief folks (Chirs Armstrong) showed something he had been working on with the material list to pull window pricing from a CSV. I sat down with him for my one on one to go over a few things. In the long run that turned out to have a problem too. The issue with that could be overcome by lowering -Preferences, Ruby, Safe level. That is something I was not going to deal with and then pass it on. I have not seen anything from Chief on this since.

Between relocating, work, pandemic, a new version on the horizon and playing nurse Ratchet for the near future to missus with knee replacement this week I'm not going to get near it. Already have a lengthy "want to do" list that is more relevant for me. It's still on my list but way down there right now.

 

IF I were serious about doing this for my own work and didn't want to spend forever (which I already have) doing it. I would either look into one on one training for it with Chief OR get in touch with Michael (Alaskan Son) who is a wiz with this stuff. In either case you will want to put together a very accurate and clear list of what you need for results.