This article applies to version 1708xxx and later



The design process should be extremely quick and simple based on the assumption that you have taken the steps to configure your baseline settings.  This article will cover basic design and general modifications.


You can save hours and hours of design time each week by ensuring that your baseline settings are accurate for your company. Most companies can complete a design with changes in under 5 minutes.


Creating a New Design:


1> In the Design module > click on NEW in the upper left corner to select your preferred crate style template

2> If you have chosen some preferred style templates, change the SEGMENT drop-down to Preferred. Or you may use the filtering options to filter to styles that meet your specific needs. Remember that the base configuration: ply versus lumber, rubbing stips or not, are based on what you set as your most common base configuraion in Preferences. When you select the style template to start with, you can change these settings for this design without having to go to Preferences. (Click on the ? to the left of the filter for an explanation of the terms in the filter.)


 Select the Green Arrow OR Enter on your keyboard.  






3> In the new design window, the only required input is the Inside Dims or Content Dims values.


Note: On this window there are fields that you can select or change values before Crate Pro creates your design.   If you often find yourself making many changes here, you may want to adjust your baseline settings in Preferences so that your most common defaults are preselected.  Here are a few commonly changed fields.


  • Customer Name: Desirable if this design is specific to a customer and you do not want it to be used for another customer,  or a customer has special pricing, or notes have been added to the customers record that may be important to the person designing for this customer.   Selecting a customer name will also add this design to the customers record in the Customer module
  • Description.  Strongly recommended. This will allow you to easily locate the design and if you intend to reuse the design, it'll be identifiable. This should be unique. Part numbers or descriptions of the content are common. Crate Pro.will fill in sequential design numbers if left blank. 
  • Material Groups - Crate Pro allows you to build the same crate using up to 5 different sets of lumber and plywood for each style family and pallets. These are configured Preferences > Construction  (A future update will allow for unlimited material groups)
  • Packing Materials : Similar to Material Groups. You can create up to five unique sets of materials that can be automatically applied OR can be entered in the fields as suggestions.
  • Assembly /Closure Fasteners - Your defaults appear here. If not what you want to use, change out the fasteners now or after creating the design. The only fasteners shown prior to creating the design are Assembly and Closure fasteners as these are most commonly changed.  The Assembly Time is controlled by your fastener settings.
    •  Closure fasteners are applied to the panels indicated by the Closure Condition setting: example - if your choose TO  (Top Off), fasteners listed in the Assembly fastener will be used to assemble all panels except for the top. Fasteners listed in the Closure Fastener field will be used for the top panel.
    • The Closure Condition will appear on the cut lists. 


4> If you are happy with your pre filled information in the other fields, select the Green Arrow and Crate Pro will check your Preferences module, User module and Customer module settings and apply all applicable values which can be modified as desired.


5>CUT LISTS / MANAGERS REPORTS:  To review your cut lists and other reports, click on Print Email located at the top of the window. The magnifying glass allows you to preview the report prior to printing.


WHEN IN A PREVIEW CLICK THE ENTER KEY ON YOUR KEYBOARD TO CONTINUE


Note: Additional details on options in the New design screen will be available in another article shortly or can be found in the manual.



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Reviewing and changing your Design: Basics


After your design has been created you may wish to make changes, add packing materials or other items.  


Panel Tab review: Top, Ends, Sides, Base, Lower Assembly:


The Ends and Sides tabs display the configuration for one panel however materials calculated and cut sheets will be for 2 panels. This allows you to more easily make changes on complex designs.  However, the ENDS and SIDES have a Panels quantity field  that allows you to change the value from two to one such as if you may wish to replace one panel with a door or ramp.



Sheathing, whether lumber or plywood will appear on the left side of the screen. Cleating will appear on the right. The materials that appear in each field are based on the Material Group you selected when you created the design. 


Terminology


Sheathing and Cleating:


1> This displays the selected sheathing material based on the selected Material Group


2> This displays the cleating based on the Style Template you selected with the material used based on your selected Material Group


3> When panelboard(plywood, OSB) is selected and the design requires a splice, the pieces are displayed. The splicing is based on several settings: The value shown to the left 'Minimum: 16". In the Preferences module > Settings tab > Minimum Dimension of any Panelboard Piece, there is a baseline value which tells Crate Pro how narrow you allow a single piece of panelboard to be when a splice is required.  If you would like to change this value in this design only, go to the Rules tab. Return back to the tab and select to 'Apply'. The default of 16" is common in the industry but based on the type of crating you do, you may prefer to set a higher or lower value in Preferences for Crate Pro to base splices on.


 Preferences module > Settings tab > OK to Rotate Panelboard, if checked, when a splice is required,  lets Crate Pro rotate a panel from the width then length dimension to calculate length then width if it reduces the number of required saw stops. If not and you want to apply it for this design only, click on the Rules tab and check 'OK to Rotate Panelboard'.  Return to the panel tab you want to recalculate and select 'Apply'. (This is not yield optimization as there are many other factors that would need to be applied, such as the type of saws you use, the number of crates in the design and if you will combine multiple designs together for the purpose of optimizing. Export the Details > Pieces into a CSV or other flat file for import into your optimizing software. (Note: A soon update will allow you to export a pieces report in Projects module which will combine all same sized pieces from all designs on that Project)


4> Based on your Preference settings, the calculated quantity and spacing of support cleats will be displayed. The support cleat values are 100% managed by your settings in Preferences > Construction > [style family tab] > Rules & Other. Users can  change any of these values in each design, if desired, by clicking in the fields and/or remove items by clicking on the red X and the end of the component line. This does not change your default Preference settings.


5> Support Rule: This information displays the support cleat spacing. In the panel below. The rule here indicates that 'V1 - Vertical Only' that support cleats will be placed vertically (front to back on top panel). 


The First / Rest values are based on when the first support cleat is applied, after which the rest value is used to add additional support cleats. In the example below it indicates that if there is at least 36" of unspanned area between the framing cleats, the first support cleat will be placed. The Rest value of 24" indicates that after placing the first support cleat, if there still is 24" of unspanned area, additional support cleats will continue to be added until there is less than 24" of unspanned area. These are common values in the industry but you can set your desired values in Preferences.


Lumber Sheathing and Base Panels


Unless the style template being used is 'Open Sheathing' or open frame, either a clean fit or rip will be calculated based on the default material being used from the selected Material Group.(example of open sheathed crate LLO-157)


Rip - based on the material shown, this amount must be removed from one of the boards to fit.

Clean Fit - the material fits without any ripping or gaps

Gap - There are two values. The first indicated the spacing between each board. In ( ) the total spacing on the entire deck. By seeing the total amount of spacing, users may chose to add a Base Lumber 2 to fill in. Changing the material or quantity of boards and click out of the field to change the gap values so you can create more or less gap.  Testing different options should take seconds. It's common to swap materials and check how it affects costs.


ANY LUMBER STYLE CRATE CAN BE MADE OPEN SHEATHED (OPEN FRAME) BY REDUCING THE NUMBER OF CALCULATED BOARDS ON A PANEL




Lower Assembly


If skids and/or Rub Strips are applied, the material will appear here. The icons to the left of the materials indicate if the materials is placed FLAT, ON EDGE or is a SQUARED material such as 4x4's or 6x6's.  The default orientation for non-squared material is set in Preferences > Settings. Users can click on the icon to change the orientation in this design.




Fasteners


The list of fasteners includes all fasteners preset in Preferences whether you use them or not in this design. Clicking in any field will show the available list of fasteners to swap.


When selecting a fastener field to swap out the current fastener, you may not see the fastener you want. Go to the Inventory module > Fasteners and locate the fastener you're looking for in the list. Click on it. 


Confirm that the checkbox is checked for how that fastener will be used. Uncheck any box that includes a position that the fastener will not be used for. (image 2)



Material Swap and Effects on Dimensions


You may want to swap out a material which affects the dimensions of joining materials. In this example on the END panels the default 1/4 CDX was swapped for 1/2 CDX. The tabs that have components that are affected by the change will have a yellow light appear. (image 1)


Click on the light OR on the RULES tab to see the affected components. (image 2) Click on RUN RULES to allow Crate Pro 6 to resize the affected components. If there are any lumber sheathed panels, you will need to click on the individually so confirm the GAP, CLEAN FIT or RIP values that may have changed are accepted. 


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