Section 8 - Layout Display & Printing

The opening screen of the on-screen container display shows a view of an empty container viewed from a point to the side of the container opening. There may be very occasional instances when the arrangement cannot, for geometric reasons, be viewed from a point to the side of the opening. In such cases a view looking directly into the container opening will be displayed.

The facilities provided on this screen allow the user, aided by the computer, to select a number of three dimensional views of the loaded container so that the complete packing can readily be appreciated and successfully packed. In addition two dimensional views can be obtained on screen and printer.

The options menu displays a number of buttons which provide the drawing functions - All, Next, Back etc.

Initially the Next and All options are available, with in addition and number of 'top of screen' options which will be described later.

The Next option, will display, working from the rear of the container, a group of cases. Thus pressing Next repeatedly will result in the complete cargo load being drawn in a series of stages.

Two methods of display are available to the user, a 'block' method in which blocks of cases of identical type and orientation are drawn at each Next step, and a 'sectional' approach in which partial or complete cross-sections of the container are drawn at each step. The user may select the 'block' or 'sectional' approach initially at the packing options screen. The block approach provides for quicker screen and printer drawing where the cargo consists of a large number of cases, or when there are just a few case types. It can also be changed by the DrawModes option at the top of this screen.

The All option will draw ALL the cases which form the cargo. Gradually, all the items packed will be placed in the container, and as they are, they obscure those towards the rear of the container. If you wish to simply obtain an overall impression of the arrangement then selection of this option will achieve this. Each case has a descriptive label (e.g. A, B), though the DrawModes option can be selected which 'toggles' the display of these labels on and off.

Once one of the Next or All options have been selected other options will become available:

The Redraw option erases the current screen display of the container and returns to the 'empty container' screen.

The Back option, redrawn the container arrangement up the point when Back was selected Except for the last group of cases drawn. This effectively reverses the action of the last Next selected.

The menu buttons Print and Hidden, when used in conjunction with the buttons already described, allow you to easily specify which views of the container are to be output to printer. Those views selected will be output in a similar graphical form to that on-screen but with the addition of descriptive information indicating case orientation and the full descriptive information input by you for each cargo item.

The Print option specifies that a printout of the container view as currently displayed is to be later output. The effect of this key is to shade the cases on the display to indicate that they have been selected for subsequent printer output.

The Hidden option performs a similar function to that of the Print option EXCEPT that the container view output to printer is that visible PRIOR TO THE LAST Next COMMAND. (It is equivalent to selecting Back, followed by Print , followed by Next ).

This is best appreciated by referring back to the example detailed in Section 3 - The Guided Tour.

At any time you can also use the mouse to point at an item in the main screen 3D loadplan and display adjacent to the item its description.

Below this is shown the Width, Ht and Length of the item with respect to the container, and below this the co-ordinates of the rear bottom left of the item. The X, Y and Z axes are shown on the diagram.

The Codes and Summary options available under the Tables option at the top of screen provide in both instances pull-down windows providing additional information about the current display. The Codes option provided information on the Codes / Descriptions associated with the on-screen case labels A, B etc. The Summary option provides, as might be expected, a summary of the loaded cargo and the container characteristics. Both these sets of information are provided automatically on printed reports, but their provision (on-request) on screen may well help your appreciation of the cargo plan as it is developed.

Once all the cases have been drawn on-screen, the option menu will indicate that End may be selected. Users will (probably) have selected a number of container views to be printed. CARGOMANAGER will always have available, in addition to any views that the user selects to be printed, a view of the final, fully loaded container.

The screen also indicates the number of pictures which will be output if Print is selected - and indicates that it is possible not only to produce 3D pictures of the packing but also 2D pictures (including floor plan and views from the side).

In addition to the three dimensional screen view and three dimensional printer picture(s) it is also possible to view and print two dimensional views from the side and top of the container as well as a container floorplan. From the top of screen on which the three dimensional view is constructed the 2D Views option can be selected.

This allows the screen display of left and right hand side views of the container (both displayed at a slight angle so as to indicate the widthwise pattern of cargo). In each instance a top view is also provided. A strictly two dimensional floorplan may also be viewed.

On selecting End you then have the opportunity (as described earlier) to print the diagram(s) selected. These printed view(s) provide information not only on which case types are to be placed where (using the case codes A, B, C etc), but provide, in addition, an indication of the orientation of each case.

This is always done using the coding scheme described below, but can also (optionally) be done using colours / shading - as per the screen display described above. The user is prompted prior to printing whether a 'normal' colour / shaded picture is required, or just a line diagram. This option is provided to restrict ink usage on an inkjet printer.

This may have been the only valid vertical dimension in packing, or others may have been acceptable. In addition each case was defined as having a 'length' and a 'width'. In order to place a case in the container so as to match the three-dimensional drawn view it is necessary to identify the direction in which the dimension defined as 'height' is placed and the direction in which the dimension defined as 'length' is placed.

Each of these could be vertical in the container, widthwise across the container, or depthwise into the container. In order to identify the orientation, a code is printed for each case placed, in addition to the letter coding (A, B, C etc). These are detailed below and also on each printout:

Code & meaning	Code and meaning
1 Height vertical, length depthwise.	2 Height vertical, length widthwise.
3 Height widthwise, length depthwise.	4 Height depthwise, length widthwise.
5 Height widthwise, length vertical.	6 Height depthwise, length vertical.

The Coords option allows you to output to the printer a report listing each item in the consignment and its exact co-ordinates within the container.

The Add option allows you to add additional cargo to that already placed. This procedure is discussed in detail in the next section of this manual.

The Level and UnLevel options provide for the levelling and un-levelling of the cargo. As discussed earlier there may well be situations in which a cargo is to be carried which is significantly less than the volumetric capacity of the container. In such instances a 'spreading' of the cargo over the container floor may be required for stability.

Thus at any point in time for a given cargo there are two possible packing arrangements:

One in which the cargo is packed towards the closed end of the container (Un-levelled).

One in which the cargo is 'spread' over the container base - thus minimising height usage. (Levelled). A user who has specified a cargo and progressed through packing to immediately display on-screen a cargo arrangement is faced with an un-levelled load.

Selecting Level at this stage will cause levelling calculations and the display of the levelled arrangement to be performed. Likewise the selection of UnLevel will result in the display of the un-levelled load.

The menu displayed will only display one of Level and UnLevel at any time. If you have just viewed (on screen) an Unlevelled load (pushed to one end) then Level for levelling will be displayed. If you have just examined on screen a levelled load then only UnLevel will be available.

Selection of either will result in a delay whilst the screen picture is built up. The selection of Level (on the first occasion for a particular cargo) will, in addition, necessitate the calculation of the best arrangement prior to display.

Obviously the output presented on the printer takes account of both the drawing mode in operation and the levelled or un-levelled form of arrangement in use. The view(s) printed will always match those of those of the last on-screen view examined.

As discussed earlier the 'block' approach to drawing provides for quicker screen and printer drawing where their are either a large number of cases in a load, or where there a small number of case types. The 'sectional' approach may be found to be more suitable where there are a large number of case types in a cargo.

If the consignment has not been fitted into the container then this option will also be displayed. The 'leftover' cargo will automatically be entered into the CARGOMANAGER input screens ready for packing into the next (and any subsequent) containers.