By default, aPriori auto-selects the lowest cost routing at the selected facility. You can override the default and select an alternate routing. If the alternate routing is not feasible based on routing rules, aPriori warns you and reverts to auto-selection. If you want to use the alternate available routing and ignore the routing rules, you can select this option using the Process Routing window. In this case, aPriori attempts to cost the component with the selected routing regardless of feasibility constraints. Note that costing might still fail for other reasons, which would be reported as an error to you, but would not cause aPriori to revert to a different routing.

If the Machining process group has been licensed, Sheet Metal routings can include 3-Axis Milling, Cylindrical Grinding, Gun Drill and 2-axis Wire EDM operations. For complete details about machining, see Stock Machining and Machining Process Groups.

The routing also includes subsequent optional surface treatment and packaging processes, if your company has licensed these modules.

Stage Tooling and Progressive Die process routings that evaluate the type and number of die stages/stations required for a particular component. Operations are determined using die selection algorithms according to individual rules defined for stage tooling dies and progressive die stations respectively. Once die stages and stations have been determined, tooling costs are then computed and displayed.

The default behavior is to let aPriori determine the number of stages. You can also manually edit the number of stages by editing the number of occurrences of the Generic Press (for stage tooling) process or the Die Station component-level operation (for progressive die). A number of setup options also allow you to influence the number of stations for progressive die—see Progressive die process setup.

Partial Progressive Die routings also are supported but not generated automatically by aPriori. Users can construct them from (full) Progressive Die routings by assigning GCDs from Progressive Die to Stage Tooling (generic press), using the GCD Editor.

Note that the cost model relies on a node occurrence generator Java plugin (specified by the node attribute generatorName) to group operations by die station or stage. See Working with Zero-or-More Nodes in the Cost Model Workbench Guide for more information.

The hard-tooled stamping processes (Stage Tooling, Tandem Press, Progressive Die, and Standard Press) all are available via a separately licensed module.