This request came in while one of our consultants, Fred Unrein, was in the field at a customer office.  The customer fabricates small spiral - but they needed the ability to purchase the larger spiral sizes.  AutoBid SheetMetal can be set up easily to handle this scenario.

For our example, we’ll assume that we can fabricate Spiral Duct up to 36” diameter and above that, we want to get a quote on the spiral.

1.        In Global Data Administrator (GDA), go to Ductwork and then Round & Oval Duct Types.

2.       Create a new duct type called “Spiral – Purchased”

3.       For this duct type, make sure that under “Fabrication”, the “Our company can fabricate this duct type” is toggled off.

4.       Now, we’re going to go to our 2” WG Spiral Duct Construction Standard.

5.       On the “Duct and Fitting” tab, look at the “Duct Type” column.  We’re going to set everything above 36” diameter to be our new, Spiral-Purchased Duct Type.

 6.        Our final task is to make sure that the “Spiral-Purchased” duct type has labor associated with it.  Under Galv 2”WG Spiral, select the item “Spiral-Purchased”.

7.       Go to Tools, and then select “Share Labor Between Items…”

 9.        Now, the Spiral-Purchased table will have labor associated with it. 

Now, the AutoBid SheetMetal system will purchase straight spiral duct up to 36” in size – and get quotes for straight spiral duct over 36” in size.  You don't have to worry about the shop labor attached to the items - we'll automatically ignore that since this isn't a fabricated item.