The four objects
Object | Holds | Belongs to |
Design | The job: its name, status, notes, reference ID | A store |
Data table | Column headers and one row per item to be engraved | A design |
Plate | The layout of a single item: text, graphics, shape, and size | A design |
Bed | How plates are arranged on the material | A design |
How they relate
A design is the container. It holds exactly one data table, one plate layout, and one bed arrangement.
The data table supplies the values. The plate defines where those values appear. The bed decides how many plates fit on the material and how they are spaced.
What this means in practice
Changing the plate changes every item in the job, because there is only one plate layout. Changing a single row of the data table changes only that item.
Material is assigned at the design level, not the bed level, and is recorded against the design at the time of assignment.
Status also belongs to the design. A design moves through the store's pipeline as a whole rather than plate by plate.
Templates
A template captures the plate configuration without any data. It is the reusable half of a design. See Templates for how they are created and used.