Richard Lavsa
rlavsa at tigg.com
Mon Jul 24 07:44:04 CDT 2006
Hello all, I have a question on how to build a piece of my application. The piece I am having trouble trying to put together is as follows. Our engineers call out and get prices on material (aluminum, steel, Stainless), as well as components (Fans, Blowers, Pumps, Pipe, Angle Iron, etc.. ) So what they ask me to put together is a database that they can enter all this information into, and pull out information as needed. It sounded like an easy task at first. I started to lay it out and realized that even though these are all "components" to whatever it is they are building, they may have different characteristics to maintain in the database.. This is my biggest hang-up... how do I make a Component table be able to take into account all the various characteristics for such different pieces. For instance... FAN =3D (CFM, HP, RPM, Make, Type, Model, Cost, Vendor) Pumps =3D = (Style, Make, Model, GPM, Head, Type, Size, HP, Phase, Motor, Cost, Vendor) Starters =3D (HP, NEMA Rating, Voltage, Cost, Vendor) Then you have your Pipe and Pipe Fittings Pipe can be made from various materials, lengths, and thicknesses Pipe fittings can as well not to mention there are elbows, T's, Y's, etc etc... ... So in summary.. What I'm trying to build at this point is a way to record what the engineers received from various vendors and date it. Organize it in such a fashion they can pick and choose based on previous information gathered or based on updated data entered into the system and put together a quick quote for a customer. This will end up as a collaboration tool as well since some of the engineers may call the same vendor asking for the same if not similar items. I simply don't know what the best approach is in organizing all these Parts. They start off as a part, but they all have such different characteristics to record, I don't know where to begin. Any help would be greatly appreciated. TIA, Rich