Re: Coping with Ingredients

Thanks Howard,
I'm going to have to have a think about how the additive 'family' numbers can be presented to the user when they add a new Material. I think I'll need a table of family numbers and their descriptions.

What happens when the ingredient needs two additives? Would the dialog box have to be a continuous form (based on a temp table??) to allow multiple additive records?

If the user later changes a base-product ingredient AppRate value, I would need to update all additive rates. It wouldn't be good practice to ask the user to input the percentages again. So I would have to store the base-product ingredient's old AppRate value, then calculate what percentages the additives came from, then re-calculate the additives' AppRates and update them.

Whew! Does this sound right to you? I hope I'm on the right track.

BTW. I know that in at least one case, the user would receive his information (from the supplier) like this:
This product should be mixed with sand in the ratio of 1 part resin to 3 parts sand. This will spread at a rate of 3.8 kg per square meter. The sand itself should be a mix of 3 different grades (say grade A, B & C) in the ratio 1:2:2 (A:B:C)

I think this is equivalent to a resin:sandA:sandB:sandC mix of 1 : 0.6 : 1.2 : 1.2 I think what I will have to get the user to do is divide (in this case) 3.8 by 4 (1 resin to 3 sand) to give the AppRate of the resin first. Then the additive rates can be entered as 0.6, 1.2 etc

Since I don't know how many different ways the suppliers give mixing instructions, I unfortunately would have to require the user to first gather the information in the appropriate format. (Albert D. Kallal would probably have my guts for garters for saying that <g> --- only kidding Mr. K... only kidding).

Thank you very much, Howard. I appreciate it.

Are there any other good ideas floating around??

"Howard Pohl" <hpohl2001_at_attbi.com> wrote in message news:QjON8.48433$pw3.1679_at_sccrnsc03...
> Hello Graham,
>
> I would recommed something similar to the following:
>
> Add the two fields to tblMaterials
> MatIsAdditive - Boolean Used to classify material as an
> additive if TRUE or base product if FALSE
>
> MatAdditiveKey - Number If MatIsAdditive is TRUE then this denotes
> the family of additives for this material
> Else this field
> indicates the family of additives that is added to this base product
> Default field to 0 to
> indicate no additives needed
>
>
> Add code that checks for MatAdditiveKey > 0 to the procedure that adds
> records to tblIngredients after a record is saved.
> If it is greater than 0 AND MatIsAdditive is FALSE then it indicates that an
> additive could be added to this base product.
> Store the Qty/square meter is needed of the base material in a variable.
> Store the MatAdditiveKey from the base material in a variable.
> Present a dialog with a subform populated with a list of additive materials
> based on the stored MatAdditiveKey
> a text field that stores the percentage of additive needed and Cancel / Add
> command buttons.
> If a user selects an additive, enters a positive percentage and presses the
> Add command button a process is envoked that
> adds another record to the ingrediat table that is based on the selected
> additive and stores the AppRate based on the percentage
> times the stored AppRate value you stored in the variable earlier.
>
> I hope that this makes sense, it is summer vacation and my kids have been
> constantly hovering over me as I have attempted to
> gather and present my thoughts.
>
> Best regards,
> Howard
>
> "Graham Bellamy" <dontwriteme_at_ask.first.com> wrote in message
> news:ae87k5$qto$1_at_perki.connect.com.au...
> > I am applying a surface finish to industrial floors. To an Ingredients
> table, I add
> > Material and Application Rate. From this (knowing the area) I can
> calculate the Quantity
> > of each material needed. My problem is where a material does not have its
> own application
> > rate, but is a percentage of another Material. I don't know how to
> calculate the quantity
> > of all materials and end up with this info in 'one' calculated field of a
> query. I believe
> > I need it in just one field so I can later use it in Reports (total job
> cost, cost of jobs
> > done for Month etc).
> >
> > Can anyone help?
> > This is what the structure looks like:
> >
> > tblMaterials
> > MatID (pk-autonum)
> > MatName etc
> >
> > tblSection (contains properties of the section of the building)
> > SectID (pk)
> > Description
> > FloorArea etc
> >
> > tblIngredients
> > IngID (pk-autonum)
> > SectionID (fk 1-M)
> > MatID (fk 1-M)
> > AppRate etc
> >
> > So ingredient data would look like:
> > IngID SectID MatID AppRate
> > 1001 12 38 0.25 (L/square meter)
> > 1002 12 26 2 (kg/square meter)
> >
> > Material 38 might be a primer, 26 a resin compound.
> > Knowing the area (say 100 square meters), the Qty is just Area*AppRate.
> Easy.
> > But now I need to add a pigment whose quantity is 1% of the Qty of Resin.
> This doesn't fit
> > into my table.
> > I tried making another table for additives
> > tblAdditives
> > IngID (fk 1-M)
> > MatID (fk with tblMaterials 1-M)
> > Percentage
> >
> > But then when querying the Ingredients and Additives, I got two Qty
> columns, and I don't
> > know how to get one column of ingredient quantities (an additive is a kind
> of ingredient).
> >
> > Your help in this matter is appreciated.
> > Graham
> >
> >
>
>
Received on Thu Jun 13 2002 - 00:17:06 CEST