Running from the Command Line

The Bulk Costing and Analysis module can run from the command line in "batch" mode, without starting the aPriori user interface.

This provides the benefits of:

• allowing batch cost analysis of many parts at a single time in an automated and scheduled fashion

• using bulk costing for activities like Spend Analytics

• running bulk costing as an offline process

Costing inputs can be specified through spreadsheets, and cost estimates and related data of interest can be output to spreadsheets. This enables you to interface aPriori with other product lifecycle management systems to support fully-automated batch costing. For example, an upstream system may prepare a set of CAD files and a corresponding set of cost inputs to pass to aPriori and initiate a Bulk Costing session; the outputs of the session can then be passed to another downstream system.

Note: If you set bulkLoader.watchpointXlsFile in the properties file, you must also set bulkLoader.rollupName or no report will be generated.