gvoyzey

Hi

I'm in the process of setting up my database and I have hit a stumbling block with regard to installing a 10m HDMI cable and assigning it to the pre-wire phase.
When it's in the pre-wire phase it assumes the cable is a bulk wire item and when added to a project it indicates the incorrect pricing structure (default length x Price).

How do I get around this issue??

Regards
Glenn

SenoS

Any Phase that has the "Show 'Head End' Dialog for Wires in Projects" option checked will treat the Wire and Cable products assigned to the Phase on a per foot/meter basis. Generally Wire and Cable like a 10m HDMI cable would be considered a "Finish" wire, and thus be treated like a single unit vs. on a per foot/meter basis. You can either assign the "Finish" phase to this wire or you can create another Phase for this and just don't check the option to "Show 'Head End'...". Here is a post describing Wire and Cable behavior.

gvoyzey

Thanks for your suggestion Senos.

I have a reasonable understanding of why this happens, but I'm after a solution to this issue. If I allocate another phase to pre-made cables to be installed during pre-wire then I think it's quite misleading to label the phase of the wire as finish, when it's actually installed during the pre-wire (months earlier). Also my understanding is that when I generate pre-wire picking lists and purchase orders for the pre-wire phase, these cables won't be in that report and could easily forgotten.

SenoS

I understand why you wouldn't want to mark this cable as "Finish" since it actually does get installed during the Pre-Wire Phase. There are really only two possible solutions for this and one of them is to create a new Phase for these wires as previously mentioned, one with a name that makes more sense to you vs. "Finish". You would just need to make sure you filter your reports appropriately (you can filter by more than one criteria). It is not uncommon for clients to create phases do deal with Wire and Cable products. An example is custom in-house built wire lengths for a rack. They don't want this wire assigned to the "Rough-In" (or Pre-Wire) phase but they want to bill by the foot for the wire. So they create a new phase and name it something like "Rack Build" and then check the "Show 'Head End'..." option for that phase.

Another possible solution for you is to create a new Category named something like "Cabling" and set the Category Type to "Equipment" vs. "Wire". This will treat the product like one unit and allow you to assign it to the Pre-Wire phase w/ no prompt for wire length. Again, you would need to make sure you filter your reports appropriately. This option may not be as appealing as the Phase option above because of the functionality of how Categories interact with our drawing interfaces.

Other users might have some suggestions on which of the above scenarios they feel works best for them.

gvoyzey

I think the different phase option will work better for me.

Thanks for your help