Costing without a CAD file

The aPriori Bulk Loader provides the ability to cost or re-cost a part without having a CAD file present. This capability is available in two situations:

• After costing a part once with the CAD file present, you can re-cost that same part without the CAD file. This is useful, for example, if a non-designer like a cost analyst wants to try recosting a part with different inputs, but who may not have access to the engineering CAD files. Ensure that:

The Process Group specified in the userinputs.xls file is the same as the one used when the scenario was costed with the CAD file present. The CAD-less process group must be the same as when the component was originally costed.

In the Bulk Cost Group dialog, the Only cost components in spreadsheet checkbox is enabled.

In the Bulk Cost Group dialog, the Processing Rule if Scenario Exists is set to Update.

• You can also define a non-CAD part in a User Inputs file, specifying basic component geometry fields such as volume, surface area, length, height, width, and cost it with the Bulk Loader without having any CAD file at all. The component MUST be cost with the User Guided process group.