Structural Material Manager's optional External Data Interface (EDI) allows the system to import material lists from, or export material lists to, other software systems. In terms of importing, the EDI can read bills of material from CAD systems into Structural Material Manager. Once this data has been imported, Structural Material Manager can then nest both lineal items and plates, perform job estimates, keep an inventory, and fulfill all of your production-control needs. The EDI thus performs in seconds what used to take hours to type, and it's mistake-free.
No programming is required for most CAD applications! P2 Programs is a company that carries a ready-made product for exporting bills of material to Structural Material Manager's EDI format! Contact P2 Programs at 800/563-6737 if you would like to obtain an interface for any of these popular CAD systems:
CAD systems by the following companies support Structural Material Manager's EDI format directly; bills of material from these systems can thus be read into Structural Material Manager's EDI without need for a conversion program from P2 Programs:
Nearly every CAD system commonly used in the steel industry is able to send its bills of material to Structural Material Manager either directly or via the P2 Programs utility. Importing material lists from CAD is thus almost always able to be accomplished without any special programming. Only if you wish to interface Structural Material Manager to some CAD system that is not mentioned on this Web page and that cannot export its bill of material to an ASCII-delimited file (click here for details on ASCII-delimited files) will custom programming be necessary. In the unlikely event that custom programming proves necessary, a computer a programmer is required to write a conversion utility in the programming language of his or her choice. The utility builds a fixed-field-width ASCII text file in the format that Structural Material Manager's External Data Interface is expecting, and you can click here for details concerning that format. Writing the conversion utility is not a difficult task, but it does require an individual with more than "end user" skills. Once the conversion utility has been written, no programming skills are needed on the part of those using the utility; the completed system can be put to daily use by personnel with no technical background.
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E.J.E. Industries, Inc.
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Washington, PA 15301
Ph: (724) 228-8841 Fax: (724) 228-7668