Overview: Material Wizard Prompts

Overview: Material Wizard Prompts

In our effort to reduce the number of separate cut part materials, edgeband materials, and hardware materials, Microvellum has created what we refer to as formula-driven materials. The interface for user interaction between these materials and the user is what we call the Material Wizard Prompts and is the subject of this article.

The Material Wizard Prompts and formula-driven materials are supported in Imperial and Metric Component Cabinet Libraries as of build 49.0, Metric Office Furniture Libraries as of build 1.1 and Microvellum software build 15.6.1806 or greater.

Older data may not be set up to take advantage of this feature. However, newer libraries coming out in the future will. 

Material Wizard Prompts Access

The worksheets or files for CutParts, Edgband, and Hardware may now contain a sheet or tab named Prompts. The data on this page is displayed in two locations – as a tab named Material Wizards in the Project Properties interface, and as a button named Access Material File Wizards in the Library Specification Groups and Project Specification Groups interfaces.

The worksheets or files for CutParts, Edgband, and Hardware may now contain a sheet or tab named LookUpTable. This sheet contains two look-up tables for use with formula-driven materials.

Cabinet Component Libraries with a build of 50.0 or greater and a release date before September 24, 2019, contain these two worksheets, but they will both be blank until you add the data. The Office Furniture Library build 1.1 contains the worksheets and the data.

Project Properties Access to Material Wizards

The first point of entry for access to the material wizards is from the Project Properties interface. Open a project and then click the Project command bar and then Project Properties. See the series of screenshots below for examples of this access and the resulting wizard screens.


Fig. 01 – Entry Point for Access to Material Wizard Prompts from Project Properties


Fig. 02 – Material Wizards Buttons on Material Wizards Page
The screenshots below contain data for the Microvellum Office Furniture Library version 1.1 for demonstration purposes and may differ from what you see on your system.

Fig. 03 – Cut Parts Material Wizard Prompts
Checking the box for “Sheet Material 3 Custom,” “EB Material 1 Custom,” or “EB Material 1 Thickness Custom,” each adds a custom material to the “M” workbook section named Custom Material Name.

Fig. 04 – Edgeband Material Wizard Prompts


Fig. 05 – Hardware Material Wizard Prompts (Hinges)


Fig. 06 – Hardware Material Wizard Prompts (Handles/Pulls)


Fig. 07 – Hardware Material Wizard Prompts (Drawers)


Fig. 08 – Hardware Material Wizard Prompts (Locks)


Fig. 09 – Hardware Material Wizard Prompts (Additional Hardware)

Project Spec Groups Access to Material Wizards

The second point of entry for access to the material wizards is from the Project Specification Group interface. Open a project and then click Toolbox Setup > Project Specification Groups > Access Material File Wizards. See the series of screenshots below for examples of this access and the resulting wizard screens.


Fig. 10 – Entry Point for Access to Material Wizard Prompts from Project Spec Groups


Fig. 11 – Commands for Material Wizards on Project Spec Groups Page
The remaining screens from this entry point are identical to figures 3 – 9 above.

Formula-Driven Materials – a Brief Summary

A complete discussion of formula-driven materials is beyond the scope of this article, but here is general information about them that might prove useful in understanding the material wizard prompts.

Formula-driven materials and the material wizard prompts discussed in this article depend on the spreadsheet data in the “M” (Materials) workbook. That workbook must contain the tabs “Prompts” and “LookUpTables” in addition to tabs named SheetStockLibrary, SolidStockLibrary, and BuyOutLibrary. The LookUpTables tab contains two sections, one named Custom Material Name and the other named Material Name. The LookUpTable sheet contains the source data used in the Prompts sheet. The sheet named SheetStockLibrary, by default, contains 15 formula-driven materials in which the formula links to defined names from the Prompts sheet. It is data from this Prompts sheet that is displayed in the material wizards.

    • Related Articles

    • Understanding the Project Wizard, Global Variables, Material Files, and Door Wizard Interfaces

      This article summarizes the Project Wizard, Global Variables, Material Files, and Door Wizard Interfaces within the Library Specification Groups. For a general understanding of Library Specification Groups, see: Understanding the Library ...
    • Working Within the Project Wizard, Global Variables, Material Files, and Door Wizard Interfaces

      To begin modifying the components tied to a specification group collection, you must select a specification group collection first, indicated by the green checkmark. By clicking on the icons directly above the left section, you can modify the ...
    • Overview: Materials in Microvellum

      Material Levels in Toolbox Figure 1: Library Specification Groups. Figure 2: Project Specification Groups. Materials in Toolbox can be controlled through one of two interfaces, each of which is attached to one of two levels of control: library ...
    • Overview: Material Pointers

      The material of a part is determined by the Material Name property associated with the part. The image below shows a Base Back part within a product and the material that is currently assigned to that part.  Fig. 1 – Base Back currently has the ...
    • Overview: Material Handling Codes

      Material Management Systems are becoming more common in the woodworking industry. One of these is the SCMI Flexstore system. These systems require material information in the header of the TXT files that define the part labels for the sheet. Fig. 1 ...
    • Recent Articles

    • Toolbox Release Notes | Build 24.1.1105.641

      The following release notes apply to Toolbox build 24.1.1105.641 Nesting Fix Fig. 1: The fatal error that would occur during processing. There was reportedly an issue that occurred when clients attempted to process a work order using the nesting ...
    • Microvellum Foundation Library Release Notes | Build 24.1025

      The following release notes apply to Microvellum Foundation Library build 24.1025. Additions Added new global variable “Remove Stop Dado On Bottom Edge” for wood drawer boxes. Check this option to run the dado through at the bottom of the sub front ...
    • Toolbox Release Notes | Build 24.1.1030.641

      The following release notes apply to Toolbox build 24.1.1030.641 Routing and Profile Fixes Several issues were found with routing and polyline paths: Fig. 1: Horizontal routes off of a part disappearing (left) and appearing correctly (right). When ...
    • Toolbox Release Notes | Build 24.1.1010.641

      The following release notes apply to Toolbox build 24.1.1010.641 Biesse Winstore Fix Several issues with the Biesse Winstore plugin have been resolved: There was an issue that would sometimes occur wherein materials that were intended to stack wound ...
    • Toolbox Release Notes | Build 24.1.1001.641

      The following release notes apply to Toolbox build 24.1.1001.641 HBore Toolfile Fix Fig. 1: The location in the Toolfile UI where the error would occur. There was an issue reported with the functionality of the Horizontal Boring Machine setting in ...