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Working with the Material Master
The Material Master is the core parts list used for drawings, 3D Views, the Bill of Materials and scaffold calculations. Each installation of Avontus Designer comes with a complete database of stock materials for each supported system. However, the Material Master can be completely customized to match the materials available from your supplier(s) or within your own inventory. If plan to integrate with Quantify, this list should be updated to match your Quantify Product Catalog. For more information, refer to Integrating with Quantify.
Note: You can only edit the Material Master when no Avontus Designer drawings are open. If a drawing is currently open, the Material Master will open as read-only.
Options for Entering Information into the Material Master
There are five ways to enter information into the Material Master:
Text Fields
Part Number (required) | Duplicate Part Numbers are allowed. |
Description | Having a description is highly recommended. This information appears in the Bill of Materials and in various options. |
Weight | The weight of a single part. This is used when calculating the total weight of designs and affects leg load calculations. |
Effective (Effective) Length | This is the length Avontus Designer uses when determining when to use or substitute this part. For parts such as fixed braces, the Eff. Length should match the bay width (the corresponding ledger's Eff. Length). |
Actual Length | This is the physical length of the part. This is used for displaying parts in 3D views and for total scaffold calculations. |
Width | This is the width of the part. For parts such as planks, this is used to determine how many planks will fit on the bay. |
Height | This is the height of the part. For parts such as fixed braces, this should match the lift rise (total length of nodes for level) compatible with the brace. Required dimensions will vary based upon the item's Material Group. Note: The unit of measure noted on materials is inherited from the Backstage selection. Avontus Designer will automatically convert dimensions if the units are changed. Refer to the New section of About the Backstage for more information about units. |
Manufacturer | Enter the Manufacturer of the part. |
Add Parts | Add any additional parts to the selected part. If a part is assigned to another in the Add column, then whenever the parent part is used in a drawing, then the added parts will be included in the Bill of Materials. |
Any dimension fields (weight, effective length, width, height) can be used with formulas. The cell keeps the formula as entered so users can include factors affecting the total measurement. You can see the applied formula by clicking on the cell.
Click away from cell
Click on cell
Dropdowns
Material Group | Choose from the default list of groups. The Material Group determines where this item will appear in lists of optional materials and/or how Avontus Designer automatically uses this item in designs. Note: Not all Material Groups (such as the group Other) are used for automatic part substitution in the drawing and may not display in the wire 3D views. |
Supported Systems | Select the Scaffold System for the material. You may choose more than one system. Selecting All makes this material available in all systems and is defaulted for materials such as wood planks. |
Checkboxes
Active | Inactive materials are ignored in the drawing process and are not available to select in the Bill of Materials. |
Custom Options Popup
Custom Options | When you click in a cell in the Custom Options column, the Custom Options popup appears. Use it to create and configure your own options for the selected material. To view what custom option you can configure, refer to the Custom Options Index section of Adding, Editing, Duplicating, Activating/Deactivating and Removing Material. |
Color Picker
Color | The selected color is used for differentiating this material in the 3D Model View. |
Integrating with Quantify.
Quantify uses the Bill of Materials calculated for a drawing to automatically populate the products on a new Estimate. To ensure all products are added properly, Avontus Designer's Material Master should contain the same parts, part numbers and information as Quantify's Products Catalog. The part number detailed in Avontus Designer's Material Master will be used during integration to identify matching materials with the same part number in Quantify's Product Catalog. Details (such as part descriptions, weight, etc.) are not required to match. However, it is recommended that these fields match as well, to prevent incorrect entries.
If a conflict exists (such as a part number that is not in Quantify's Product Catalog), Quantify will not add the material to the Estimate. Quantify will display a list of excluded materials after the integration is complete.
For more information, please visit Integrating with Quantify