The Parts Library

The same transmitter gets bought on three jobs, and its datasheet gets hunted down three times. The Parts Library holds every part your company uses once, shared across all projects: attach a datasheet or record a price on one job and the next job inherits it.

Browse and filter

Open Parts to see the whole library: catalog number, manufacturer, description, category and tags, a Datasheet and a Manual column that each show a check or Missing, and the last quoted price with its date. Sort picks the column and direction, and the line above the table counts how many parts have a datasheet, a manual and a quote. Search matches catalog numbers, manufacturers, descriptions, categories, and tags. On Your parts, the rail on the left narrows the list. Coverage, Needs a look and Manufacturer show a count beside each choice. Under Coverage, three gap filters make cleanup lists for you: Missing datasheet, Missing manual, and Never quoted. Under Needs a look sit Possible duplicate and Needs cleanup. Manufacturer, Category, and Tags follow; a long list shows its first eight, and Show all opens the rest with a box to filter them. Clear turns every filter off. On a narrow screen the rail folds into a Filters button above the list that says how many are on.

Delete in bulk

Check the parts you want to remove, or check the box in the bar above the list to take the whole page. With a page selected, Select all matching widens the selection to every part your search and filters match. Delete selected lists which parts it will skip and why: a part that is still on a project's register, a quote, or a purchase order stays, the same rule as deleting one part.

The part page

A part carries its catalog number, product name, manufacturer, description, category, and tags. The product name is read off the attached datasheet and shows wherever the catalog number does. The manufacturer field is a combobox backed by manufacturer profiles, so "Rosemount" and "ROSEMOUNT INC" resolve to the same maker instead of splitting your library. Under the part's name, the title block reads Maker, Part number, Category, Tags, Last quoted and Lead time. Categories and tags are shared vocabulary; see Library vocabulary. Change picks another category and Add tag adds one in place (New tag while your library has none yet), and each name opens the library filtered to it.

Short on descriptions? Generate from datasheet writes one from the datasheet you attach, with live progress and a Stop button. The result comes from the document itself, so it says what the sheet says.

The same read fills Ratings: supply voltage, SCCR, temperatures, mounting, listings and the rest, grouped under Electrical, Measurement, Environment, Mechanical and Listings. When every value comes from one page, a single link opens the datasheet at that page; otherwise each value links its own. A line under the ratings names what the datasheet leaves out, such as enclosure rating or humidity. A value whose quote may not support it waits under Needs a look with the quote beside it until you keep or clear it.

The rail beside the page gets you around. Parts goes back to the list, and Find a part or document opens another by name. When you opened the part from the list, Previous and Next step through that list in its order and filters, with your place such as 3 of 32. Below them sit the part's sections, Documents, Pricing, Orders, Used in and Maintenance, each with its count, then the projects that use it. Used in names each project by its job number and name.

Edit part changes the part's fields. More holds Delete part. A part nothing references is deleted after one confirmation. A part still on a register, a quote or a purchase order says This part is still in use and counts each kind; each count opens the section that lists them.

Needs cleanup

Older imports could turn a spreadsheet's placeholder text into parts named "-", "PART NUMBER" or "See valve schedule". When the library holds any, or possible duplicates, a band above the list counts them and Show them turns on the Needs cleanup filter and Show all parts turns it off. A placeholder part offers Unlink and delete: every item that used it keeps its name, quantity and submittals and waits for a part, and the part is deleted. A part on a quote or purchase order is merged instead. Open a possible duplicate to merge it.

Merge duplicates

When two library entries plausibly name the same part (a quote's full ordering code next to your catalog number, for instance), the part page flags a Possible duplicate and offers Merge into this part. Merging moves the twin's datasheets, re-points every register and submittal item, and carries its pricing history and purchase order lines to the surviving part, then deletes the twin.

If a quote line was filed against the wrong part, use Move on that price line to send it to the right one.

Pricing

Pricing lists every quoted price across every project, newest first, with vendor, quantity basis, lead time, and a link to the quote behind it, with the part's Mouser listing under it. Current marks the price in use and Never ordered a quote nothing was bought from. Orders lists the part's purchase order lines with their state and promised dates, and each one opens its purchase order. See Quotes and purchase orders.

Parts arrive on their own when you import a BOM; you rarely need to create them by hand. Attach documents from the part page's Documents section: Part documents.