Just today, we excitedly pushed our new Label Printing feature to the production servers!

With this feature, you can define multiple label templates and print part or inventory asset information to Dymo LabelWriter printers. We’ve even included a few example label templates to get you started.

Label Substitutions

Dymo’s label software makes it super easy to define and manage label templates. Aligni automatically substitutes part and inventory asset information for variables you place on your templates and even displays a preview of the label before printing.

Since parts can have Custom Parameters, Aligni will also substitute these so you can define labels specific to certain part types. For example, capacitor labels can show the capacitors temperature characteristic (X7R, Y5V, C0G, etc) and resistor labels can show the resistor power rating.

Some supported parameters are shown below. See the Label Printing documentation for more detail.

• PART_NUMBER
• PART_MANUFACTURER_PARTNUMBER
• PART_MANUFACTURER_NAME
• PART_DESCRIPTION
• PART_COMMENT
• PART_VALUE
• PART_X_{CUSTOM_PARAMETER_XML_NAME}
• INV_LOCATION_NAME
• INV_LOCATION_SHORTNAME
• INV_SUBLOCATION_NAME
• INV_DATECODE
• INV_LOTCODE
• INV_LOT_EXPIRATION_DATE
• INV_SERIALNUMBER
• INV_ASSETID
• PO_VENDOR_NAME
• PO_NUMBER
• PO_QUANTITY
• PO_PRICE
• PO_RECEIVE_DATE

This past week, we pushed one segment of our user interface redesign and we’d love to hear your thoughts! ActiveQuote has been a tremendous timesaver for dealing with large semiconductor vendors that typically provide component quotes via email. Several years ago, we moved the entire quoting process out of email and into your component database to streamline the process and make you more efficient.

The new design is a refinement of that process and an improvement in usability. Here are the bullet points of the changes we’ve made.

New Quote Manager

Status

Quote status has been simplified into three categories:

• Pending – A new quote is pending until it has been submitted to at least one of the chosen vendors.
• Active – Once a quote has been sent to a vendor, it becomes active and available for vendor view and response.
• Closed – You may optionally close a quote to prevent further vendor changes.

Simple filtering helps you keep track of quotes that are still in progress (pending) and those that are awaiting vendor response.

Vendor Status

Vendor status is now illustrated with abbreviated vendor names but you can mouse over them to see the full vendor name.

Clean, Elegant Look

The quote entry process has improved, too, with better use of inline editing for the quote name and description as well as automatic saves, eliminating the need to click “Save Changes”. Vendor selection uses new vendor “short names” or abbreviations.

Collapsible vendor tabs clear unwanted clutter and provide an indication of which vendors have been emailed the RFQ.

Side Bar Quantity Helper

The Quantity Helper is still available as a popup tool to summarize part information when determining the quantity to RFQ. We’ve enhanced this capability to support users that use Aligni with wide screens. If the browser window is wide enough, Aligni automatically updates a new right sidebar with part summary information.

Updated Part Cart

Aligni’s Part Cart has a new home above the sidebar navigation panel providing a compact, functional, and elegant look in both collapsed and expanded modes.

On your Account Profile page, you’ll notice that we’ve added user avatars and included a few fun pre-made images. Of course, you can also upload your own image. Enjoy!