Why was it needed?

Customer feedback that because Microvellum software can produce standard casework AND custom casework, the product images used to identify the custom items should reflect the actual customization made.

What has changed?

Previously, the default functionality was to display the source library' product image' in the reports. This image was static, and the process of creating a custom image that accurately represented the product was tedious and impractical. The process of drawing custom product images is now automated with the use of "Flatshot Tokens." You may find details about configuring these in your library data elsewhere in the product documentation.

You will also discover that the ease of using custom product images in reports is vastly improved. You add the flatshot tokens to products you will potentially customize in the future. The tokens contain parameters or instructions that tell the software how the dynamic images should draw. Once you configure those tokens and their parameters, that's it! You have done everything you need to do to create dynamic product images that will reflect your products. All that is left is to customize your product as needed and check the option "Process Flatshot Tokens" when processing your work order.

You may configure the reports to use the new dynamic product images or the previous static product images. The report below is the same product before and after customization with a trash cutout. It contains no modifications other than drawing the part in 2D, adding the cutout machining, redrawing the product, creating a work order, and viewing the report.

In addition to updating the dynamic product image, the software updates the machining for this product to reflect the customization made.

What is new that was not available before?

The ability to draw AutoCAD 2D representations of custom products in various planar and isometric views. Also, the ability to plot the dynamic product images as part of the submittal drawings.

This new AutoCAD dynamic image also takes instructions from the "Flatshot Tokens," as does the dynamic report image already described.

Here is a series of cabinets drawn straight from the library displayed in the AutoCAD Conceptual Visual Style. 

Here is the new dynamic product image for product #1.01, as drawn in AutoCAD. No customization has yet been done.

Here are the same series of cabinets with a simple trash cutout customization displayed in the AutoCAD Conceptual Visual Style.

Here is the same dynamic product image for product #1.01 that was previously drawn in AutoCAD. This is the same drawing that has been automatically updated by the software to reflect the trash cutout - it was not redrawn manually!

While using this new functionality, keep in mind that the reports will reflect the dynamic product image, and AutoCAD will draw them only when the library data contains the flatshot tokens. The default Microvellum build 046.2 Component Cabinet Library contain those tokens and can be used as a template for modifying an existing library, or for future products.

Also, you must select the option "Process Flatshot Tokens" from the Processing Center interface to display the dynamic product images on reports.

There are short tutorials demonstrating the use of the dynamic product images in Reports and AutoCAD elsewhere in the Help Center. You will also find additional information on how to use the "Flatshot Tokens" in the library data elsewhere in the Help Center.

In the Search bar at the top of the Help Center page, enter "Flatshot" for all articles pertaining to the new tokens.