Selecting a lens from the picker - using the lens code

In the lenspicker there is a filter box at the top and in here you can put part of the code or description eg Comfort and only lenses matching this will be shown.

If you do happen to know the code then in the filter at the top then you can force the software to exactly match this code by entering / followed by the lens code.

eg  /PR24  

You still need to click on the lens description shown to confirm this is the intended lens.

Entering Tray numbers - force to be a certain number of characters.

In the settings editor, you can now specify a minimum length and a maximum length for the tray number. So if the trays are permanently marked in the range 1000 to 3000 then you can set the minimum and maximum length to 4. This will assist in stopping the wrong tray number being entered within Order Entry.

Remote Edging Charging.

Remote edging charges.

It is possible to apply a different remote edging charge for different frame types. If the remote charge is RE then Annapurna will look for a charge for RE+glazing charge type code eg RENS or RSRL.

If the RENS or RSRL does not exist then it will drop back to the standard RE charge.

Backups

As the number of orders in Annapurna have increased (we have some customers with nearly two years of orders) then the back up time has lengthened.

In order to reduce this, we have introduced the concept of a full and partial backup. You will notice the backup question has now changed. The full backup runs as now and is the default on Fridays.  The partial back up only differs with regards to orders ie it backs up everything as now except for the orders. Only the orders entered in the past 90 days are backed up in the partial backup.

Please note the Annapurna back up are NOT a substitute for arrange a proper backup on the server.  This is the belt in "belt and braces", you should still organise the braces.

With the advent of cloud solutions such as dropbox, it is also a good idea to point the Annapurna backup at a dropbox (or equivalent) folder and then this will give security in the knowledge that this is backed. 

We are currently looking at integrating a cloud backup which it is hoped to release shortly.

Reject Reasons and Departments

Annapurna V2.19 and Kalahari 

This list of available reasons and departments for rejects and returns has been extended.

The reporting of rejects has also been improved.

Charging for High Cyl and Outside Range Power.

There are two methods for calculation of the extra charge. In both methods, extra charges are created in the form of CYLxx where xx is the power.

Absolute Method.
This compares the value of the cylinder power with the maximum cyl and then applies the charge. So if the maximum cyl is 6.00 and the cylinder ordered is 7.00 then in the following list the CYL08 charge will apply.

CYL06    £xx.xx   charge for cyls up to 6D
CYL08    £xx.xx   charge for cyls up to 8D
CYL10    £xx.xx   charge for cyls up to 10D
CYL99    £xx.xx   charge for excessive cyl - always good to have this as the default.


Excess Method.
This will then charge the excess of the order cylinder over the maximum cyl.  So if the maximum cyl is 6.00 and the cylinder ordered is 8.25 then the excess is 2.25 and then in the following list the CYL03 charge will apply.

CYL03    £xx.xx   charge for extra cyls up to 3D
CYL06    £xx.xx   charge for extra cyls up to 6D
CYL09    £xx.xx   charge for extra cyls up to 9D
CYL99    £xx.xx   charge for excessive cyl - always good to have this as the default.

The Absolute method is the default method. In order to switch to the Excess method then there is a setting "Pricing / High Cyl charge taken from excess power" which needs to be set.

The above also applies to the Outside range charge.

Frame Packages vs Complete Pricing

There are two distinct but similar methods for introducing special pricing for buying a glazed frame and lenses together.

Frame Package.
In this a total price is set for the combination of the lenses and the frame. A discount is added as a line to show the reduction from the regular price to the package price, ie the benefit of buying as a package.  The package name is used as the description of the line item on the pricing.

Complete Pricing.
This is to encourage lens sales with the frame so when the frame is sold with lenses then the customer record is checked to see if there is a complete price list set. If there is then the lenses are then sold at the prices in the complete list. If there are not prices for the lens within the complete pricelist then the regular lens pricelist for the glazed lenses are applied. It is also possible to set different supplements for rimless and supra glazing within the complete pricelist.

Annapurna can support both but the Frame Package takes precedence over Complete Pricing.

Different Frame List Price for Packages

It can be that there is a need to show a different list frame price for a package. Package price works by calculating the price according to the customer rules for each lens and frame and showing this. A credit is then applied to bring the total price back down to the package price.  That is all good but a customer could be set with a a special frame price for stocking the empty frame and this is not necessarily the correct price to be used for supply of the frame as part of a glazed package. 

To achieve this then it is now possible to set a pricelist to be used for the frame element of the package. This is in the Settings / Settings / Pricing / Defaults / Package.

If the frame has a price in the nominated package pricelist then this is used but only in the package.

SF6

Annapurna (and Solenzara) can create catalogue in SF6 format. There are restrictions in the catalogue definition which do not in our opinion make it a useful catalogue for flexibility in going forward but as other systems have adopted it then there can be a need to produce files in this format.

In Annapurna, please go to Data, Deploy to the web and from there you can see a tab called SF6.

Click on Make SF6, go to configure tab and enter

Code  = enter a 3 character code for the Lab.

Name = enter name of the Lab.

You can leave the rest as is.

You can then click on Make Catalogue.

Please see SF6 conversion.pdf on how information is copied over.

VCADevice Ltyp & Ltype

In the OMA/VCA/DCS Standard, Ltyp was depracated some time ago and Ltype is now used.  For machines (Mr. Orange) which no longer support Ltyp then we have added in a Ltyp to Ltype convertor. It is essentially the same data but laid out in a fixed format.

This is in VCADevice 1.33

Surface Both lenses and Surface plus powered lenses where a shape was provided.

There are two new settings in the settings editor.

Plus Powers with Standard Shapes: This is used to indicate that the lab want to operate so that if a standard shape or a drawing is selected for a plus power then this can be set to signify that the user wants an optimised lens.  You can still tick the finished checkbox to force the lens to be taken from finished.

Surface Both is one lens is surfaced.  This is used to indicate that the lab will operate by surfacing both lenses, this is generally to ensure coating, transitions colour matching and base curves agree.

Both of these are not applicable if the customer record indicates that the customer prefers price over cosmetic.

There is also a refinement to the prefer 65mm setting so that it takes into account any potential saving from using a 55mm or 60mm finished lens. The tendency will be that low plus powers will go to a 65mm but that higher powers will go to a lower diameter.

Connecting with Multiple Glazing systems.

It is becoming common to use Annapurna in labs who are running Nidek, Lab control, Essibox and so Annapurna has to feed files into all of these programs. In order to do this, a second output folder for the glazing files has been added.

View Job - Status Updating

View Job allowed the status of an order to be updated.  Since then the tracking module has been added (on production panel) so this has made this outdated. Accordingly, it has been modified to show a list of potential tracking sections in the same manner as the tracking module.

Target Dates and Wanted Dates

Sometime it happens that unrealistic wanted dates are asked for.  Let's suppose the target for the job is 3 days.  If a wanted date of 2 days is asked for then this is probably possible but the order entry operator possibly should know this in order to set up the process to speed up production on this job. If a wanted date of 4 days is asked for then there is not a need for any special action. 

In our example above, if a wanted date of 1 day is asked for then it is unlikely that this is possible so order entry should not allow this (there is nothing to stop the wanted date being typed into special instructions).

Annapurna 2.17 has updates to handle this. There are the following scenarios.

Wanted date greater than or equal to the target date - No action.

Wanted date less than the target date - An minimum lab date is calculated which is the realistic date that the lab could achieve by making the job urgent. The following conversion is applied
Target Days Minimum Days
     0                 0
     1                 0
     2                 1
     3                 2
     4                 2
     5                 3
     6                 4
     7                 4
     8                 5
     9                 6
   10                 6

If the wanted date is greater or equal to the minimum date then the job is accepted with a warning to the operator.
If the wanted date is less than the minimum date then the job is not accepted.  There is also another fudge in that the browser will still allow wanted dates to be added without this test.

Order Entry - Edge Thickness

Just a small update but something added to prevent edge thicknesses being entered that are less than the designated edge thickness less 0.3 for the frame type.

So if it is a supra(groove) frame and the designated edge thickness is 2.0 mm then a user requested edge thickness cannot be below 1.7.

There is an exception and the requested edge thickness cannot be below the designated edge thickness for metal frames.

Rejects - Recording Machine used

The reject program has been updated so that a machine can be recorded against the reject. You can add your own list of machine names and these are reported on in the reject report so that patterns can be identified.

MEI

A MEI edger (with the TBA) has been successfully connected into the VCAGlazer program. As well as the regular communication of shape and powers, a table has been added to allow engraving designs to be picked up and recognised and for powers to be verified. The MEI is impressive and when running in this mode then it allows for fast throughput.