Reports control control the way that KCDw outputs your cutlist to the printer. Without a report file, KCDw, would not know how to print your parts. Report files can be edited in many ways to make the program print your parts the way you want them to look. To customize a report we recommend making a copy of an existing report to use as your starting point.
Making a New Report
| • | Click on Parts on the Main Menu Bar. |
| • | Highlight the report in the Printed Reports scroll box, that is closest to what you would like |
| • | Click on the edit button in the lower left |
| • | Click on save at the new window |
| • | Click yes when it asks you if you want to save the report |
| • | Type in the new name for the report and put a .RPT after it |
| • | The new report will not show up right away, you should exit the parts section by clicking the close button and then return to the parts section and you will see your new report. |
You have just made a new copy of a report that now can be modified to change the way the parts will print. Cabinet, door, and drawer parts can be included or excluded in a printout. At this point you can make changes to your report or you can decide to make a new part list.
Changing the Way Parts Printout:
Above, you will see a portion of the !! KCDw CUT-LIST.rpt report. If you look at the report you will notice that it is broken up into "paragraphs" starting with the phrase Group and ending with End Group. Each paragraph will print out a group of parts printed on its own page(s). In this group you can decide which parts are included and which are not. Some ways to include parts in a group are by the name, material, printout order number 1(po1), printout order number 2(po2), and by units. You could also check for any combination of this, asking for a certain name and material type. This allows you to have all parts named Side, Back, or Bottom to all printout on the same page together. Described below are a few different ways or conditions that you can have parts included in a group
Sort Parts by their Name
The name is placed on the first line of the "paragraph". It can be combined with other parts. This will allow you to have two or more parts print together on the same page, the exact order in which they print on that page is controlled by the printout order number 1 of the part line in the Part list which is modified separately. The rest of the "paragraph" will appear almost exactly as any other paragraph, only the first line will look different. If you have more than one name of a part for a group you need a | symbol to separate the names. Reference the example for details:
Group (Name = Stile)
The only parts included on this page have the exact name Stile.
Group (Name = Rail)
The only parts included on this page have the exact name Rail
Group (Name = Stile*|Rail*)
The only parts included on this page will those that start with Stile or Rail and If the part name was Stile (left) it would be included. If the part name was Left Stile it would not be included because there is no star(*) before the word Stile.
Wildards (*)
In the above example you will see there is a asterisk (*) after the words Stile and Rail. This is called a wildcard, basically the report will look for any part whose name starts with Stile or Rail and anything else after. If there were no asterisk, the report would only include parts name Stile and Rail, if you had a part named Rail (Top), it would not be included. Only by putting an asterisk after the word Rail would you get that part to print. You can also put astericks before a name. Example: *Rail* This allow parts with the word Rail anywhere in the part name, like Hang Rail, Top Rail or Rail (Mid).
Sorting parts by Material
You can create reports that sort parts by their material. You do this very simply by typing this on the Group line of the report. Group (Material= 3/4" Solid Wood).
This will only print out parts whose materials are 3/4" Solid Wood. You can add wildcards like with part names and you can combine materials and names, like this. Group (Name=Stile)(Material=3/4" Solid Wood). This example will print out only parts that are named Stile and whose material is 3/4" Solid Wood. A Stile made up of 3/4" Oak would not print and a Rail with 3/4" Solid Wood would not print.
Sort by Printout Order Numbers
In addition to Name and Material, you also sort by Printout Order numbers. Every part created by KCDw has two printout order numbers. Check out the help topic on Part Lines for more information on printout order numbers. To include a part with a specific printout order number in a group, follow this example: Group (PO1=50)
These can be combined with other items on the group line. For example Group (Name=Side)(Material=3/4" Ply)(PO2=100). This would print out a part whose name was Side and had 3/4" Ply material and had a printout order number 2 = 100. In addition to the equal sign (=) printout order numbers can be less than (<) or greater than (>). Example: Group (PO1>40) This would printout only parts with a PO1 number greater than 40.
Printout order numbers are very useful for filtering out parts. For example, say you wanted to create a report for stiles and rails but you wanted separate reports for top, base and tall cabinets. You could very easily set the PO1 or PO2 on the part lines for top stiles and rails to one number, base stiles and rails to another and tall stiles and rails to another. Then set up the report so each one would be in a different group.
Check the help topic on editing parts for more information on changing part files.
Sorting Parts within Groups
In the above example of a report you saw a line that looked like this.
Sort (-Po1)(Width)(Length)
The Sort line arranges the way the parts print within the group. In the above example the parts printed would be sorted by (in ascending order) Printout order 1, then by width (in descending order) then by length (in descending order). If you put a dash in front of the sorting element, like with -PO1 above, this sorts from smallest to greatest, (ascending order). If you do not put the dash in front of the element, like with Width, this sorts from greatest to smallest. Also when you have more than one element on the sort line, the first, left most element is evaluated first, then the next and so on.
Example. Say your sort line reads: Sort(Width)(Length).
The first item printed would be the part with the largest width. If two parts had the largest width, then the one with the largest Length would print first.
Combine Parts within Groups
Just above the Sort line is a line that reads Combine -G, the word Combine just above the Sort line means that the computer will combine parts that are exactly the same size, name, have the same material etc. The -G to the right of Combine means the program will ignore the Group Name field of any Part line and still combine parts that are exactly the same except for the Group Name field.
Print Group Line
Each item to be printed is enclosed in parenthesis. In addition to the item to be printed, there is an @ and a number which tells how far to the right the printing will start. If the item to be printed is larger than the next item's starting point, then it will shift down a line. If you put a dash (-) in front of the number, then the item will be printed right justified.
If you include an additional @ and a number within the parenthesis, you will truncate the item to the printed by the number listed.
Assembly and By Unit Reports
Assembly and By-Unit reports allow for a picture of the cabinet to be printed on the report. The way that picture prints can be altered in a number of different ways.
Print Picture (Dimension Level=4) (Left=10) (MaxH=50) (Bottom=15) (Scale=100)
The above line would print a picture that is 10 pts (points are defined by the font type you use) to the left. 15 Pts from the bottom, with a maximum ht of 50 pts. The picture would print with a Dimension Level of 4 and would have no scale. The MaxHt can be set as high as 75, the Dimension level can be between 0 and 4. The Scale can be set to any number. 100 is no change, 50 would reduce the picture in half, 200 would double the size of the picture.
REPORTID = CEF
At the top of your report you may see a statement that reads REPORTID = CEF. This statement makes it so that if your parts list header file has a line in it that reads REPORTID=C or REPORTID=E or REPORTID=F, then when you click on your parts list method on the left, under reports you will be able to select this report to use. If you have an older cut list that does not have the REPORTID=C,E,F in the header file and you would like to be able to use a new report with your old cut list then change REPORTID=CEF to REPORTID=CEF0, add a zero to the end of line. The last character must be a zero and not the letter o.