Downloading Products data VS "Copying" discontinued products - D-Tools Forum

Andy N · 05-26-2009, 08:04 PM

Hi All -

I am interested in others use when adding new products to their db as old products become discontinued, and how people use the download tree VS Copying their now discontinued product and modifying it to represent the new model #

I do enjoy the ease of downloading a new products specs direct from the Download Tree, what I do not enjoy doing however is re-populating the new product with all of the accessories of the old product.

Say a receiver for example, this piece can have 10+ accessories.

Double edge sword, as if one simply copies the discontinued product and adjusts it to represent the new model #, all of the ease of use on url and i/o's is lost.

All input welcome

**Kevin Mikelonis** · 05-26-2009, 08:37 PM

For the power users with a well engineered database that is accessorized and includes robust poroducts with accurate I/O's that are set to your company's standards for signal and terminal namings, copying existing products is always faster and maintains consistency.

Researching the specifics about a new product by performing I/O and specification review is a highly valuable exercise by engineering staff who will learn more about the products they are loading in their database.

Also consider not discontinuing products, but rather editing the model number and other specifications for the new model.

Discontinued items that are specified into existing projects remain in the project file even if they do not exist in the database.

I have not come up with a good reason to keep a database populated with items I can no longer specify into a project, even if it is marked as discontinued.

How about you?

Andy N · 05-27-2009, 06:24 PM

Yes I have.

If a product name is simply changed to the new model and NOT discontinued.

ex. If I turn product "abc" into product "xyz" as above and I still have "abc" in a project, when my purchaser goes to push the job over via quicklinks the product has a gray background and will not push over, thus the $ amount is off.

So I have been discontinuing products and copying them as we have a pretty robust database at this point.

.02