New and Recently introduced CARGOMANAGER Features.

For Release 6.0

CARGOMANAGER is subject to an ongoing development program with major new upgrades being released approximately every 12 - 15 months. A brief summary of some of the new features is given below, together with enhancements made over the past couple of years which you may have failed to spot when first introduced. 

The Main CARGOMANAGER Manual Menu can be accessed here.

• This release includes a range of powerful new features . Amongst the new features introduced in this and other recent upgrades are:

• This release uses included new and more efficient code to perform calculations more quickly and the programs have been created using a new compiler system.

• Users may also be interested to learn that users are now utilising Mac equipment to run PALLETMANAGER and CARGOMANAGER. Specifically they are utilising Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac Business Edition, Windows 10 Pro all running on a MacBook Pro running macOS Sierra 10.12.5. "It worked perfectly was the comment". Whilst we cannot personally test this out, we are happy to assist users who may be interested in utilising such platforms by proving a trial system of our software for testing.

• Ongoing updates to Windows 10 and the Microsoft Edge browser have necessitated further changes throughout the software to accommodate the new options offered in these environments, doing so in a manner which ensures compatibility with earlier versions of both browsers and operating systems. We have also continues to make changes to try to ensure as far as possible that during both installation and running security products that the user may have installed do not generate false security alerts. As part of these updates it is now possible for users to utilise the 'Print to PDF' function included in Windows 10 [previously free utilities such as PDFMachine White were recommended and this is still an excellent choice for working with a wide range of other software.

• A recent release added a completely new mode of operation - MIXEDCONT - which allows users for have a cargo requiring multiple containers to quickly evaluate the potential savings that may be achieved by using combinations of 2 different container sizes - e.g. X of 40' + Y of 20'. In doing so all combinations of X and Y are evaluated by CARGOMANAGER and as well as screen display of the tabular results an .XLS file is generated of these results so that users can explore the results in other ways. The features of this mode are detailed in Section 12 of the manual. We would very much welcome feedback on the function of MIXEDCONT and suggestions as to how it might best developed in future.

• In this release we have added a number of user suggested enhancements to the 3D display of the container load as it is built up. These include the display of not only the cargo type but also the size and quantity so far packed when any item is 'pointed at' on screen, and the display of numeric information on the total load and the load packed so far on the 3D load build screen as the cargo is added using the 'Next' button. These are illustrated below:

• This release makes it all the easier to add new cargo items to the Item Database. A new button on Screen 4 - SaveItems is now provided to immediately add any new cargo items in the current consignment to the Item Database:

• If you want to quickly find out some of the most important new features of this release (together with enhancements in other recent releases) then this can now be accessed from the Manual Button on the opening screen:

• Whilst CARGOMANAGER has a set of powerful functions to allow users to select a set of loading plans for printing, this release includes a  function (suggested by a number of users) - An Autostep function which allows you to automatically (which a single keystroke) 'set up' a set of print diagrams for printing from Screen 7 where the 3D load plan is 'built up'. This is described in Section 8 of the manual.

• A powerful new packing option has been introduced so that cargo can be segregated so that each container can only hold cargo of a single priority value. Strict Single Priority / Container mode allows users to specify priorities against each cargo item and then pack strictly according to the priorities and, in addition, having completed the packing of all items of priority 'X', close the existing part-filled container and start packing items of priority 'X+1' in a new container. This is described in Section 6 of the manual.

• New controls have been added to allow users to quickly and easily adjust the proportion of a wide screen display that is used for window display (a utility configscreen). By default full screen operation on wide screen displays has been set as the default. See Appendix 1-13 for further details.

• Changes have been introduced throughout to smooth out screen transitions and also to cater for 120dpi use.

	One of the major new enhancements in v5.2 was the introduction of cylinders as an item type. This allows the type of arrangements shown below to be created. It should be noted that in order to obtain realistic load plans for cargo comprising both cubic and cylindrical items that appropriate values are set on the input screens. This is covered in detail in Section 13 of the manual.
	The selection of cylindrical cargo items is based on the dimensional entries on the data input screen as shown below, and a tick box which comes available when length and width have equal values.
	For many years the orientation of units within a container has used a numeric code format 1-6. This remains the default in this release but users can opt for a set of graphics characters which we believe makes identification rather easier. The set of codes chosen are shown below and how to get these codes is described in Appendix 1. In addition the default orientation settings on the input screens can be changed. This is also described in Appendix 1.
	The release includes some major enhancements to speed and functionality to the Weight Wizard function. This comes into play when packing a single container with a cargo which will be limited by the container weight limit, provides the user with the best possible set of cargo to pack in order to just meet the container weight restriction. See Section 4.8
	A PrintALL facility is available in both single and multiple container operations of CARGOMANAGER. This allows users to quickly produce printed load plans for any individual container or for a complete batch of containers with a single selection. The PrintALL function is available from the 'Mini 3D' screen and is described in Section 12 of the manual installed with the software: When select the user can then select whether 2D reports (as well as a 3D load plan) are to be produced and can select which containers are to be printed as shown below:
	From the menu on Screen 7 from where 3D/2D load plan printing is activated, a new menu entry Coordins allows you print out (and save to file) a report containing the descriptions, the exact co-ordinates within the container and the item dimensions / orientations of each item in the load plan. This also includes details of the distance of each item from the container door. This report can also be requested at the point where 2D/3D reports are about to be printed and from the PrintALL function described above.
	A range of enhancements have been made in both input and output routines. These include the display of the total volume and weight of the consignment as it is being entered and the facility to suppress the printout of the full cargo list when printing the 2D/3D reports.
	This release (according to licence) allows a datafile to contain details of up to 15,000 different item TYPES (and obviously various quantities of each of these up to 50,000 items in total), and when packing in MultiContainer mode loads requiring up to 1000 containers / trailers can be solved. In line with these changes the ITEMBASE has been expanded to allow up to 25,000 entries. We have also extended the range of priority values which can be set for each cargo item from the previous range of 1-99 to a new range 1-32000. We would recommend that for speed of processing the previous limits be used unless the extended range is required for a particular application.
	CARGOMANAGER includes a new utility MAKEIB to enable users to quickly and easily create a product ITEMBASE from data that may be held in other formats. The utility enables a user with a spreadsheet containing product descriptions, sizes and weights to quickly convert this to the necessary ITEMBASE format.

We very much hope you find the above features, and others not detailed above, are of use to you and welcome feedback on new features you would like to see included in future releases.

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