Import and Export > Tekla EPM (PowerFab) Integration

When a Tekla EPM plate is scheduled, PrimeCut NE creates its expected remnants as usual and reports them to PowerFab in the same message as the nest. This topic describes how those remnants live on both sides afterwards.

What PowerFab is told

Each remnant is reported with its size, its type - Remnant, Skeleton or Scrap - and a remnant name built from PrimeCut NE's remnant naming scheme, along with an image of it. PowerFab files the remnant under that name and returns its own remnant id, which PrimeCut NE keeps on the remnant plate. Remnants reported as scrap are not expected back in inventory.

As Tekla EPM plates are expected to be rectangles, crops should produce rectangular remnants. PowerFab treats any other shape as a rectangle the size of the remnant's extents.

What the remnant carries in PrimeCut NE

A remnant inherits from the plate it was cut from the material description PowerFab uses - shape, thickness label, unit system - and, with job scoping on, the job the plate was reserved to, so the offcut of a reserved plate starts out reserved to the same job. It does not inherit the parent's inventory item id; it is a new item as far as PowerFab is concerned.

When PowerFab lists the remnant

Once the plate is cut and PowerFab has the remnant in its inventory, Get Inventory lists it like any other item, with PowerFab's remnant id and name. From the first Sync with PowerFab after that:

•the remnant plate learns its PowerFab inventory item id, so quantities and reservations follow it from then on;

•with job scoping on, the remnant takes the job PowerFab holds for it - which may be a different job from its parent's, or none;

•its caption in the workspace plate list changes to PowerFab's remnant name.

PowerFab may consume a remnant and list a new one in its place with a new id and name. PrimeCut NE follows the remnant by the id PowerFab returned when the nest was saved, so a remnant it never saved is not matched to anything.

Nesting on expected remnants

An expected remnant can be nested on before its parent is cut. When such a nest is scheduled, PowerFab is told which saved remnant the nest sits on, so it records the nest against the future remnant rather than against new stock. When the parent plate is unscheduled, PrimeCut NE asks PowerFab to delete the saved nest, and the expected remnants go with it.