Crate Pro Support

WE NOW OFFER A FAST START  PDF CONFIGURATION GUIDE AND A CRATE PRO 6 MANUAL AND USER GUIDE WITH DETAILED INFORMATION ON THE MODULES AND FIELDS IN CRATE PRO: CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE MANUALS

1> Configuring Inventory:

Whether Imperial or Metric, Crate Pro includes a lot of common materials used to build crates. Cleaning up the Inventory module so that you're working only with the materials your shop uses is one of the steps that users have said has a major impact on how fast they can make modifications to their crate designs. Since your're a custom crating company, this step can't be understated!

 (Recommended to View In Order)

1> Setting Your Active and Inactive Inventory Items (video)

        **Effective Crate Pro 6.171030, October 2017) Active inventory checklist is available in the 'Designs Field List' dropdown. The 'Projects Field List' has the new feature to allow users to set items that are available to be sold directly from Inventory separate from the Design

2> Adding New Items and Modifying Existing Items (video)  If you want to change the name of any existing item you must do so before you use the item in a design or on a Project

3> Tracking Level Basics (video) Set Your Buying Levels Before you Use and Item in a Design or Project Set Your Buying Levels Before you Use and Item in a Design or Project

4> 'Available on Projects'- (video) Tells Crate Pro what items you sell directly from Inventory at a different mark-up level. You can specify the Unit Of Measure (Inactive items can also appear on Projects)

5> Lumber: Design Component Length & Available on Projects (video) Lumber includes additional options to account for different lengths

More Lessons to Understand Inventory

More on Tracking Levels (video)

Understanding Material Pricing, Tracking and Mark-ups (video) 

Active Versus Inactive Inventory (old) (video)  This is another explanation. Includes similar information as in Inventory Video 1

Fasteners - Setting Tracking Levels  (solution article)

Wrapping materials - How to enter and how they are applied in the Design (video)

Converting lumber board foot weights to linear foot  If you will enter your costs for lumber by linear foot, be sure to adjust the weight of the material from the default of board foot.

2> Configuring Your Material Groups:

After ensuring that the materials that you will use to build your crates are in the Inventory module and ACTIVE,  you can set up to five unique groups of materials from the active items to give yourself options on what you want Crate Pro to use to build your crates.

Important:  If you have an inactive material in a Material Groups that you select for a design, your calculations may be worng and your splicing will not function as expected. you will get errors in the designs.

 Included is an attached example of a Material Group printout that users have said makes it easy to remember what materials they selected for each Material Group. It can be very helpful to do a screen capture of the material group page in Preferences once you set you preferred materials. See example attached.

1> Setting up Material Groups (video)

2>Setting up your Undercut Preferences (solution article)

3> Visual Terminology to Understand Different Types of Cleats / Battens, Joists, Stitching and Fastener Nailing Patterns (solution article)

4> Visual Terminology on Understanding Cleat / Batten and Support Rules (WCO site)

3> Select Your Preferred styles (crate construction templates):

Crate Pro includes hundreds of crate style templates which are based on the crates construction methodology or how the materials are oriented to each other. Style templates are NOT the materials used to build your crates or the dimensions but how the each component is positioned to another.  Its common to select between two to twenty style templates as your shops most common construction method and mark them as Preferred.

1> Visual Terminology of the CAP panel and Different BASE options (solution article)

2> Cheat Sheet for Identifying Preferred Styles (solution article)

3> Choosing Your Preferred crate style templates (video)

4> Link to Image Gallery (WoodenCRATES.org website)

5> Setting Your Style Templates in Preferences  (video)

6> Additional design settings (video) There are many custom settings but lets set some of the main ones to have Crate Pro do the "heavy lifting" of design creation.

Hey!! Live support session are available!   

Bookmark this Solution Article Link . You will have a code for free or discounted live sessions and call backs if you have an active maintenance plan. If you're unable to locate your code, log into your support account and check your Profile page.

Joseph M.

Support Team