Simple, low cost Revision Control for designers

A Softcover International product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Mar 14, 2000

Softcover has announced the release of Parts and Vendors 4, a new version of the low cost parts list manager and supplier database for design engineers and prototypers.

Softcover has announced the release of Parts and Vendors 4, a new version of the low cost parts list manager and supplier database for design engineers and prototypers.

Top of the new product range is the Parts and Vendors ECO Edition which integrates a simple Engineering Change Order system to provide checks and traceability to changes in product design and specifications.

Parts and Vendors 4 (P and V4) is an improved new 32-bit release of a product that appeals to designers and companies for whom a full-blown manufacturing system is more than they need.

Three editions of P and V4 provide all the control they need.

The entry-level SE (Special Edition) is essentially the parts list and supplier database.

It costs ?79 (excl).

Its many features are a powerful and affordable alternative to the "little" parts listing and supplier programs many designers and engineers have written for themselves using a spreadsheet or database.

The P and V4 SE edition allows the user to create and manage a database of components and sub-assemblies linked to multiple sources of supply.

At any time during the course of a design a user with the SE edition can extract all or part of the component cost, check on available stock and source components from suppliers.

At any time the user can drill down from the top-level assembly through sub-assemblies starting at any level to get detailed product information and to track the cost of a design as work progresses.

The P and V4 EX (Extended) edition adds Purchase Orders, autogenerates RFQs (Requests for Quotes) and POs (Purchase Orders), automatically updates Stock while maintaining minimum stock levels for a build of any product in design.

It extracts Made-from features and compares Parts Lists.

It includes Permission Controls to allow a manager of a data file to allocate editing access to users appropriate to their job function.

The EX costs (?199).

Data can be shared between SE, EX and ECO editions.

The new ECO edition puts a protocol in effect to control changes to item specifications.

This provides checks, balances and traceability to changes in products' design and specifications.

With ECO control, changes go through a cycle of review, approval and checking before the changes are Released to the main database.

Old revision specifications can be archived to PDF files, and P and V keeps a Revision History of what changes were made to each item.

The ECO edition includes all SE and EX features.

The ECO edition costs ?249 (excl).

P and V 4 uses the Microsoft Access 95 / 97 data file format.

The file format and the Jet database engine are robust and have demonstrated their reliability.

P and V4 will import existing parts lists and supplier databases in a standard CSV (comma separated value) format.

P and V4 exports its data in CSV and Excel formats.

P and V4 runs on networks.

A single data file can be shared among a group of users.

P and V4 requires a PC with CD ROM, Windows '95, '98 or NT 4 (SP2 or higher) and a minimum of 32Mb RAM.

P and V is developed by Trilogy Design in the USA.

Readers can download a working evaluation from Softcover's web site.

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