How to work with Fabric Management

Optiplan V3
Edition 1 - May 2004
521447AA

Optiplan V3
How to work with Fabric Management
 How to work with Fabric Management
Optiplan V3
Edition 1 - May 2004
521447AA

Copyright

Copyright law forbids any copy, reproduction or complete or partial translation of the information contained in this
document, without the written consent and agreement of Lectra.

Guarantees

Lectra reserves the right to modify information relating to its products etc. without prior notification, with the aim of
improving their reliability and operation. Publication does not imply that the material included is free of all
industrial property rights and does not grant any license over these rights. Moreover, Lectra takes no
responsibility regarding the consequences of its use for whatever purpose.

Performances and other data appearing in this documentation are approximate and have no contractual value

Registered trademarks

Optiplan is a Lectra registered trademark in France and other countries.

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Accumark (TM) is a Trademark of GGT.
Windows is a Trademark of Microsoft Corporation

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PREFACE

The purpose of this document is to give the reader a practical guide on how to use the new Fabric
System in Optiplan V3.
The document should enable persons experienced in working with Optiplan V2 to understand and use
the new Fabric System in Optiplan V3. It is not an introduction into Cut Order Planning or Optiplan.
The intended audience to read this document is people that are familiar with the concepts of Cut Order
Planning and have used and understood Optiplan V2.

This document refers to the following documents:

[1] 521444 Optiplan V3 Fabric Management – Reference Guide

Used Abbreviations:
OPFMS – Optiplan Fabric Management System

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Contents
1. Definition of Fabric in Optiplan V3............................................................................................ 5
2. Two Ways Of Working with Fabric In Optiplan V3 .................................................................. 5
2.1 Working With Order-Related Fabric.......................................................................................... 5
2.2 Using the Fabric Database ....................................................................................................... 6
2.2.1 Planning with multiple attributes ........................................................................................ 7
2.2.2 Fabric Assignment Based on Rolls.................................................................................... 8
3. Working with order-related fabric ............................................................................................. 9
3.1 Example 1: Basic method, without looking at available fabric .................................................. 9
3.2 Example 2: Basic method, working with available fabric ....................................................... 10
3.2.1 Compare calculated usage versus allocated amount of fabric........................................ 10
3.2.2 Adapt ply heights to fabric availability.............................................................................. 11
3.2.3 Respect available fabric during planning......................................................................... 14
4. Using the Fabric Database ...................................................................................................... 15
4.1 Example 1: Basic method, working with total lengths (no rolls).............................................. 15
4.2 Example 2: Basic method, working with roll information......................................................... 16
4.3 Example 4: Basic Multi-Width-Planning .................................................................................. 17
4.4 Example 5: Complex Multi-Width/Shade-Planning ................................................................. 22
4.5 Example 6: Complex Multi-Width/Shade-Planning with complete fabric control .................... 24
5. Fabric Assignment ................................................................................................................... 26
5.1 Manual Fabric Assignment ..................................................................................................... 26
5.2 Automatic Fabric Roll Assignment .......................................................................................... 27
5.2.1 Assignment Strategies..................................................................................................... 28
5.2.2 Fabric Grouping ............................................................................................................... 28
5.3 Already assigned amount ....................................................................................................... 29
5.4 Using Assigned Fabric in Production ...................................................................................... 30
6. Working With Fabric Weight.................................................................................................... 32

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1. DEFINITION OF FABRIC IN OPTIPLAN V3

Optiplan V3 interprets fabric as a piece of material, which has a usable width, a usable length, and is
identified by uniquely by a name or code.
This definition can be supplemented by all kinds of “Attributes” based on the user’s needs and the
user’s understanding of a “Fabric”. There are many predefined attributes, which are respected by
Optiplan V3 and can be used to achieve the full power of Optiplan. Examples of such attributes are
“Shrinkage”, “Motif Repeat”, “Fabric Direction” etc.
But there is also the possibility for the user to extend the list of predefined attributes with his own
attributes; properties of the fabric that are important to his way of working. Optiplan cannot work or
calculate with user-defined attributes as it does not know their meaning, but it will maintain the
attributes and allow the display of all these data the same way as it does with the predefined
attributes. Examples of user-defined attributes could be “Supplier”, “Washing Instructions” etc.
The usage of particular attributes (other than a fabric code, a defined width, and typically also a fabric
price) is not a must, but optional and up to the user. If, however, certain features of Optiplan V3 should
be used, the fabric must supply the necessary information, so that Optiplan can process it. It is, for
example, not possible to use automatic shrinkage matching, if the fabric does not contain information
about its shrinkage values.
The definition of Fabric Attributes is described in document [1], chapter 4.2. The definition dialog can
be called from Optiplan’s “Options” menu.

2. TWO WAYS OF WORKING WITH FABRIC IN OPTIPLAN V3

There are two basic ways to work with fabric in the new Optiplan V3. The first way is called the
“Working with order-related fabric” and works exactly as the in previous versions of Optiplan. The
fabric is entered and maintained on an order basis. The second – and new – way is the called “Using
the Fabric database” and offers a complete new range of opportunities for linking the planning process
tightly to the fabric inventory.
This chapter should outline the basics and differences to give the reader the necessary knowledge to
judge and decide, how a particular order should be processed.

2.1 Working With Order-Related Fabric

In this way of working, the order and fabric are considered as a unit.

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Order A Order B Order C

Fabric entered for a particular order is completely local to this order and does not appear anywhere
else. In particular, it is not possible to move fabric from one order to another.
To select this way of working, the option “Use Fabric Database” must be switched off in the “General”
tab of an Optiplan component order:

Note: This checkbox is enabled as long as there is no fabric entered for the order. As soon as the first
fabric is entered on the fabric page, this checkbox will be disabled. To change its setting after
having entered fabric, you first must delete the fabric.

2.2 Using the Fabric Database

The fabric database shares the available fabrics among the orders. All orders have access to all of the
fabric articles in the database.

Order A Order B Order C

Fabric Database

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The orders itself do not contain any fabrics. Instead, they just specify the fabric they want to use.
When opening an order, this description is used to consult the fabric database and to extract the
currently available fabric articles (rolls) that can be used for the order.
It is possible, that the same fabric article can be used in several orders. The user is free to decide
which and how much of each fabric is used for each order. The final assignment of actual rolls to a
particular order is not made until the step “Fabric Assignment” which is described in a later chapter.
The advantages of this approach are:

• At any time during planning the user knows about the actual fabric situation in the warehouse
and can plan accordingly.

• Fabrics can be moved from one order to another. This leaves the user the choice on priority of
orders and the fabric available to them.

• The actual decision on which and how many rolls for which order is deferred to the end of the
planning process and can thus reflect the current situation in the warehouse immediately
before the order is processed in the cutting room or is shipped on a truck.

• Fabric article information can be imported and exported to be synchronized with the
warehouse inventory system.

• Planning for multiple widths, shades, etc. is possible for orders using the fabric database.
To work with the fabric database for a particular order, you must check the “Use Fabric Database”
checkbox in the order generalities.

2.2.1 Planning with multiple attributes

This powerful new planning feature of Optiplan V3 allows for example to specify a fabric available in
several widths in an order and leave the decision to Optiplan, which of the available widths is best
suited to match the order and available markers.

Needed Amount
Fabric Code

Available Widths Available Lengths

This planning feature is suitable when there are several fabrics to choose from and when the not-used
fabrics in this order can be used in other orders. In the order-related way of working all fabric is

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exclusively dedicated to the current order. Non-used fabrics can’t be used by other orders. They would
just remain unused forever.
Therefore, the multi-planning feature is available only when working with the fabric database.

2.2.2 Fabric Assignment Based on Rolls

In Optiplan V3 it is possible to control the assignment of fabric to a particular order down to the fabric
roll level or even parts of a single roll.

To use this feature, roll information must be available. As the order-related way of working is designed
to work with total lengths and not with single rolls, the Fabric Assignment feature is available only for
orders using the fabric database.

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3. WORKING WITH ORDER-RELATED FABRIC

Make sure for all of the examples in this chapter, that the checkbox “Use Fabric Database” on the
“General” page of the order data is switched off, when you create a new order.

3.1 Example 1: Basic method, without looking at available fabric

This example demonstrates a basic way of working with fabric. You just start typing.

As soon as you press “Enter” at this point, Optiplan looks, if you’ve ever used that fabric before and if
so, it will fill the remaining columns with the values that you have used previously for this fabric. If the
fabric was never used before, Optiplan has no information about it and you must fill in the other values
yourself.

The three stars in the “Length (Usable)” column mean an unknown length. Optiplan can work with this
value and assumes, that there is unlimited fabric available.
When you enter the second or following fabrics, Optiplan does the same type of lookup for the fabric
to see, if it has been used before and will automatically fill in the other columns. If, however, the fabric
has not been used before, Optiplan will copy the values from the preceding line and you just have to
change the values, which differ.

As you can see in the example, this order uses fabric in different widths. Optiplan will automatically
take care of that fact and will not combine the different widths in the same section. Sometimes,
however, a combination is explicitly desired. For example, when the difference is, as above, only 1 cm,
it can be better to cut both fabrics together with markers in 142 cm width. You can control Optiplan’s

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behavior by setting a “Marker Tolerance” in the Fabric Class parameters. These values specify, how
much a marker may be narrower or wider (only sometimes useful) than the fabric underneath it.

When the marker tolerances are set to zero, the different widths are strictly separated. With a value of
2 cm, as in this example, you are accepting markers that are up to 2 cm narrower than the fabric. In
this case, Optiplan would combine both fabrics from our example within the same section and will use
markers with a width of 142 cm.

3.2 Example 2: Basic method, working with available fabric

3.2.1 Compare calculated usage versus allocated amount of fabric

This example demonstrates, how to use Optiplan while looking at the available fabric. To use this
feature, the amount of fabric available must be known to Optiplan. You enter it in the column “Length
(Usable)”.

When you enter the quantities for your order, you have the first opportunity to make a rough check for
the balance of fabric needed and fabric available.

Fabric available Fabric needed

The needed fabric is calculated, based on the average area of the sizes used in the order. It is also
possible, to do this calculation based on a user-supplied value. This value is entered on the General
data page of the component order.

The checkbox below that input field switches the calculation mode of the needed fabric. When you
check it, you’ll get the following result.

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Here you can see, that you do not have enough of Fabric 1 to produce all the garments, whereas you
will have quite some Fabric 2 left over. Changing the quantities is your first chance to better match the
available fabric.

Section Planning informs you in the lower right part of the window exactly about the current situation
and warns you, that you are not able to produce the order as it is currently planned.

3.2.2 Adapt ply heights to fabric availability

By clicking the button, you can direct Optiplan, to automatically and proportionally adapt the
ply heights of the planned sections to match the available fabric.
In the following dialog you can select, which fabrics should be adapted. By default, all fabrics are
selected.

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If you do not intend to select particular fabrics for adaptation, you can skip this dialog in the future by
switching off the corresponding checkbox at the bottom of the dialog.

The checkbox „Stop after proportional adaption“ has the following meaning: The automatic ply height
adaption is a two-step process. First, ply heights are increased or decreased proportionally. In a
second step, fabric that is still left over is distributed on sections, where it fits. Under certain
circumstances (only very long and very short markers – no middle length markers) this results in
putting all remaining fabric on the short markers. To prevent this from happening you can check the
checkbox and direct Optiplan to stop after the proportional adaption.
Next, the ply heights are adapted.

The button opens a dialog, where you have a detailed overview of the current fabric situation
and the resulting quantities of garments in the order.

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If you want to undo the ply height adaptation to the available fabric, just click the button again.
You can make the necessary changes in Section Planning, or you can defer this step until Spread
Planning.

Clicking the button in the Spread Planning dialog opens the window to select the fabrics that
should be adapted. Please note, that in Spread Planning there is another option at the bottom of the
window.

It directs Optiplan to increase the number of plies only up to the maximum ply height, but not further.
But this option can also lead to the situation that not all fabric is used up.
Next, the ply heights are adapted.

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3.2.3 Respect available fabric during planning

Another method to prevent Optiplan from planning more plies than there is fabric for, is to use the
checkbox “Respect available fabric during planning” on the General Data page of the order.

If this checkbox is checked, Optiplan will look during the Section Planning process at the available
fabric and will not use more fabric than available. If there is not enough fabric for one or more fabrics
in the order, the planning process stops. It will issue a big warning, that the ply heights have been
reduced due to not enough fabric.

Both methods for looking at the available fabric are independent from each other. You can select the
method, which best fits your needs.

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4. USING THE FABRIC DATABASE

Make sure for all of the examples in this chapter, that the checkbox “Use Fabric Database” on the
“General” page of the order data is checked, when you create a new order.
Entering fabric in the Fabric Editor is described in [1] and will not be repeated in this document.

4.1 Example 1: Basic method, working with total lengths (no rolls)

For this example, the following fabrics have been entered into the fabric database. Please note, that
each fabric is there only once and that the entered length is the total length of this fabric.

You enter the fabric code in your order. As soon as you press the “Enter” key, Optiplan accesses the
fabric database and looks up the available fabric, which matches the fabric code. It loads the fabrics
and displays the information about it.

Please remember that you are not entering fabric in the order! What you enter is a description of the
fabrics you want to use from the database. The columns are criteria, which the fabric in the database
must match. These criteria, which are used to search for the fabric, are displayed in blue. Values in
black are data attributes of the fabric coming from the database.
You enter the other fabrics of your order in the same way and plan as usual. Everything, which has
been said in the previous chapter about taking care of the available fabric, also applies for working
with the fabric database.

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4.2 Example 2: Basic method, working with roll information

For this example, the following fabric rolls have been entered into the database. (Please note, that for
Fabric 3 there are rolls in two different widths available)

As in the previous example, you enter the fabric code in your order. As soon as you press the “Enter”
key, Optiplan accesses the fabric database and looks up the available fabric that matches the fabric
code. It loads the fabrics and displays the information about it.

You will see in the column “# Fabrics”, that Optiplan has found all three rolls of Fabric 1 and it has
automatically summed up the lengths of the rolls to the total of 136,73 m of usable fabric. When you
double click in the very first gray column, you’ll get a detailed listing of the available rolls.

Enter Fabric 2 and Fabric 3 the same way.

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You will notice, that Optiplan has found 7 rolls of Fabric 3 totaling 262,96 m, but does not display a
width or price for it. The reason for this is, that for Fabric 3 there are rolls in two different widths. The
two widths also have a different price. Currently, the only criterion that the fabric from the database
must match is the fabric code “Fabric 3”. You see this, because this value is displayed in blue. This
criterion is fulfilled by all seven available rolls (double-click on the gray “3” in the leftmost column to
see them). As there are different widths, Optiplan cannot display one. The same applies to the price
field.
By specifying the desired width, the picture changes.

There are now only three rolls of Fabric 3, totaling 68,18 m. As the price for all three rolls is the same,
Optiplan can display it.
Important: Notice the different display colors for the widths! The width for Fabric 3 is in blue, because
it is part of the fabric specification for the database. The other two widths are in black, because all the
rolls retrieved with the single criterion “Fabric 1” (or “Fabric 2” respectively) have by coincidence the
same value. When there is only one value, Optiplan can display it. When there are multiple values,
Optiplan displays nothing.
The values in the columns Shade and Price are also only displayed, because all the rolls have the
same value.

4.3 Example 4: Basic Multi-Width-Planning

In this example, you’ll use the same fabric rolls as in the previous example. Remember, that Fabric 3
had rolls in two different widths.
In the previous example, you simply specified the width you wanted to use. Often, however, you do
not know, which width is better suited. This is the situation where you can use the Multi-width planning
of Optiplan.
Enter the three fabric codes on the Fabric Data page of an order.

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Now, with Fabric 3 selected, enter the two widths in the lower part of the window.

Optiplan has split the seven available rolls into two groups, depending on their width. There is no
longer Fabric 3 in the upper part of the window. The resulting order matrix looks like this.

Parent line

Child lines

Fabric 3 has created two child lines, which specify the different widths of Fabric 3. “Fabric 3” is called
the parent line, “148,0 cm” and “150,0 cm” are its children.
On the Fabric Data page of the order, parent lines go in the upper part of the window. The lower part
of the window lists the children of the parent selected in the upper part.

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Parent fabric

Child fabrics

As you don’t know yet in which width you want to produce the garments for Fabric 3, the quantities go
into the parent line. Optiplan will take the needed garment quantities from there and will create plies
for them in one or more of the child fabrics.
If you know from the beginning, that you want to produce a particular number of garments in a
particular width, you can also enter these numbers into the child lines. Optiplan will plan these
garments only with the specified child fabric and no other fabric.
You have specified the child fabrics manually by entering the different widths. There is also the
possibility to break up all parents into their corresponding children easily. To do this you need to
prepare a public profile (see [1]) that describes, how you want to break up the parents into children.
This is done only once.
For this example you define a profile for all widths between 1 m and 2 m and save it as a public with a
name describing its content.

Note: The profile must specify a range of values. If you specify an exact value, the result of the
automatic breakup of the parent would be just a single child with exactly the specified criterion. Only
one child is quite useless as the results are the same as working with no children at all.

To move the child fabrics back to the parent, you use the button in the order fabric page.

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Now select the previously created profile from the combo box and you’ve achieved the same result
automatically, that you had created before manually.

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Note: if you’ve just created the profile and it’s not in the list, close the order and reopen it. It should
then be visible.

You can re-query the database with the button. If for example, some new rolls of Fabric 1 have
arrived and have been put into the database, you will see them after clicking on the button.

You can now go on and plan your order as you are used to.

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4.4 Example 5: Complex Multi-Width/Shade-Planning

For this example some more rolls in a different shade for Fabric 3 have been entered into the fabric
database.

You want to break up Fabric 3 by width and shade. You can do this manually, as in the previous
example, by entering width and shade in the lower part of the Fabric Data page.

You can do the same also automatically with a profile. The profile definition must contain a range of
desired widths and a range of desired shades. Note, that although the shades in the example are
numeric (0 and 1), the shade field is an alphanumeric field.

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In both cases the result is the same (except the order of the child lines, which can be changed with the

and buttons if desired). The resulting order matrix looks like follows and you can plan
your order as usual.

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4.5 Example 6: Complex Multi-Width/Shade-Planning with complete fabric control

This example uses the fabric rolls and the order of the previous example. Open Section Planning with
this order and plan a solution.

Take a look at the first marker in the list. Optiplan chose for Fabric 3 the child fabric with the same
width and shade as the other fabrics. But, there is not enough of this fabric available to produce all
required plies. So, it took the rest of the plies from the other shade.
An alternative planning method would be to use up shade 1 of fabric 3 first, and use shade 0 only of

there is not enough fabric of fabric 3 available. Click on the button and select the Fabric Usage
page. In the column “Use?” uncheck the checkbox in line 4. This prevents Optiplan from using this
fabric. Close the dialog and re-plan.

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Optiplan now uses only shade 1 for this section. You can iteratively check and uncheck the
checkboxes in the “Use?” column and thus can exactly control, which fabrics are used by Optiplan for
the next planning step.

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5. FABRIC ASSIGNMENT
Up until now there was only a loose connection between an order and the fabrics in the database,
based on the description of the desired fabric in the order. On each opening of an order, the database
is queried according to the description and the currently available fabrics are loaded.
With fabric assignment, you create a much stronger connection between an order and the fabrics. You
declare which fabrics and how much of it you want to use for an order. The declared amounts are no
longer usable by other orders and the fabric is reserved for your particular order.

The Fabric Assignment dialog is called by clicking on the button in either Section or Spread
Planning and selecting the “Fabric Assignment” tab.

Fabrics used in the

order

Current assignment
status

Fabric details for

selected fabric

Control for automatic

fabric assignment

In the above example, four fabrics have been used in the order. The first fabric is selected in the upper
grid and the lower grid shows the six fabric rolls available in this fabric. No assignments have been
made yet.

5.1 Manual Fabric Assignment

You can now start assigning rolls by simply double-clicking on them.

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When you want to remove an assignment, double-click again. When you want only part of a roll
assigned to the order, simply type the desired amount into the column “Assigned Amount”.

The area to the right of the roll grid immediately informs you about the new status of your
assignments. It tells you the amount of fabric needed, the amount currently assigned and the
difference between the two. As soon as you have assigned enough fabric, the color of the balance
field changes from red to green.
The two buttons at the bottom of the window are a quick way to assign all rolls or to remove all
assignments. They are working on the selected fabric only.

The “Clear All” button works on all fabrics in the order and completely removes all assignments for the
order. Use it with care!

5.2 Automatic Fabric Roll Assignment

Besides the manual assignment of fabric to the order, there is also the possibility to have this done
automatically.
This feature is available only in the Optiplan Expert V3 module.

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Grouping
Start automatic
fabric assignment

Assignment
strategy

5.2.1 Assignment Strategies

a) Shortest Fabric First
Optiplan selects the shortest fabric roll and assigns it to the order. Then, the next shortest roll is
assigned and so on, until the balance is greater than or equal to zero. When partial roll assignment is
allowed, Optiplan takes from the last roll only the part, which is needed to reach a zero balance.
b) Best Fit
Here, Optiplan tries to figure out a combination of fabrics, that minimizes the balance left over. As
partial roll assignment makes no sense with this strategy, the option is disabled in this case.
c) Least Fabric Changes
The least fabric changes are typically achieved with the longest rolls. Optiplan assigns the longest roll
to the order. Then, the next longest roll is assigned and so on, until the balance is greater than or
equal to zero. When partial roll assignment is allowed, Optiplan takes from the last roll only the part,
which is needed to reach a zero balance.

5.2.2 Fabric Grouping

Suppose you have stored your fabric rolls on pallets and you maintain a pallet number as fabric
attribute, so that Optiplan knows, which fabric is on which pallet. With Fabric Grouping you can then
automatically work like you do it manually in the following scenario.
You assign the first roll, which seems suitable to you. This roll is stored on a pallet. Before you assign
any other roll, you use the other rolls that are also stored on the pallet. Then you choose another
fabric roll, but you use the same shade as the roll, you’ve assigned just before. And so on.
With the following fabric grouping setting, Optiplan will automatically work exactly in that way.

Optiplan selects the first roll based on the selected strategy. It then uses only rolls, which have the
same attribute value for the attribute specified at the first level. When there are no more rolls that have

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the same level 1 attribute value, Optiplan will look for rolls with a matching level 2 attribute and so on.
You can specify up to three grouping levels.

5.3 Already assigned amount

When you have assigned fabric and you process another order, that uses the same fabric that you
have previously assigned, you can see in various places the differences between the total amount of
fabric in the database and the fabric available to your order. The fabric attributes can be configured to
include “Length (T)” and “Length (U)” attributes (or, “Weight (T)” and “Weight (U)”; see next chapter).
“Length (T)” is the total amount of a particular fabric in the database. “Length (U)” is the usable
amount that is available to your order. The difference between the two values is the fabric that has
already been assigned to other orders.

In the Fabric Assignment dialog the rolls that are completely assigned to other orders are displayed in
blue color to distinguish them easily from the rolls that you can still use.

If you want, for example to know, to which order the roll with 18,57 m has been assigned to, because
you need it for the very urgent order, that you are currently process, select the roll by clicking on the
“2” in the very first column, then click on the “Details” button on the bottom left.

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Edition 1 - july 2004
521447AA

A dialog will be shown, that lists exactly which amount of fabric from this roll has been assigned to
which order(s). It’s now up to you to make the choice, if you can take away that roll from the first order
and use it for your current one or not.

5.4 Using Assigned Fabric in Production

At one point in time, your order goes into the cutting room for production, or on a truck for shipment. At
this point the fabric rolls are physically removed from the warehouse and must also be removed from
the fabric database. You do this by clicking the “Produce” button in the Fabric Assignment dialog.

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 How to work with Fabric Management
Optiplan V3
Edition 1 - july 2004
521447AA

As this operation cannot be undone, you’ll get a confirmation message. When you answer “Yes”, the
assigned rolls are removed from the database. You can then also no longer make any changes in the
fabric assignment of this order.

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 How to work with Fabric Management
Optiplan V3
Edition 1 - july 2004
521447AA

6. WORKING WITH FABRIC WEIGHT

With Optiplan V3 it is possible to work with fabric weight instead of fabric length. A prerequisite to do
this is that Optiplan knows the width and the specific weight of the fabric. Optiplan can then convert
between length and weight and vice versa.
Simply select the weight columns instead of the length columns in the grid. The weight columns are
special columns that display weight or length, depending on the availability of the specific weight.

When entering fabric amounts, be sure to enter first the specific weight, then the amount.

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