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This section describes each of the components in detail and explains the importing process.

The only way to configure XYZ-related data elements in ProTrack Warehouse is by building an import file, and importing the elements one at a time. This section refers to the spreadsheet, “SOP for XYZ Importing.xls”. This is the official document containing import templates for each XYZ component. Each tab of the workbook must be completed prior to importing the data elements.

Coordinate System Origin – Coordinate values cannot be negative, thus the origin should be set with large enough to allow floors to grow in any direction. For example, the origin could be treated as (1000, 1000). When viewing a facility’s layout in ProTrack Warehouse using the Facility Layout Java applet, the coordinate system axes are orientated such that the x-axis points to the right and the y-axis points downward. In other words, the x-coordinates ascend as you move to the right and the y-coordinates ascend as you move downward.

Location Data Element Naming Conventions – It is recommended that the following naming conventions be followed to so that the user easily knows where the data element is located on the Facility Layout.

Data Element

Naming Convention

Naming Convention Example

Comment

Facility

FAC

DC1

Facility ID must match EXACTLY what is configured in ProTrack Warehouse and being sent in the WMS extraction file.

Floor

FAC-FLR

DC1-FLR1

 

Aisle Path

FAC-FLR-AISLE

DC1-FLR1-04A

When two or more Aisle Paths are needed for a single rack (i.e. due to a non-passable barriers such as a security cage fence), append lowercase letters to the AISLE element.

Segment

FAC-FLR-AISLE-1

DC1-FLR1-04A-1

The ‘-1’ suffix increments (‘-2’, ‘-3’, etc.) with additional Segments on a single Aisle Path.

Location

FAC-LOC

DC1-032457

Must match the ‘To Location’ field EXACTLY being sent in the WMS extraction file.

Travel Path

FAC-FLR1-FLR2-1

DC1-FLR1-FLR2-1

 

Table 1. Naming Conventions


Anchor
FLR
FLR

Floor

A floor is the lowest level component of XYZ mapping. A facility can have multiple floors, which may or may not represent various actual floors in the warehouse. Floors can be used for this purpose (such as in mezzanine areas), or they may be used to simply divide a large single floor into multiple smaller sections. Any component added to the floor should be inside the floor.

Please refer to the Floor tab of the current “SOP for XYZ Importing” Excel spreadsheet.

Floor ID

Floor Name

Description

Start X

Start Y

End X

End Y

Width

Facility ID

1-FLR1

1-FLR1

Chicago - First floor

4000

2500

8000

5000

4000

1

2-FLR1

2-FLR1

Joliet - First floor

2000

2000

6600

5000

4600

2

Table 2. Floor Example

Info
titleInfo
  • Commas ( , ) are not allowed in description fields for any .csv import file, as ProTrack Warehouse will treat the comma as a field separator and the file will error out.

Field

Description

Floor Name

Name of the floor.

Start X

X value of the start co-ordinate of the floor.

Start Y

Y value of the start co-ordinate of the floor.

End X

X value of the end co-ordinate of the floor. This value should be equal to start X.

End Y

Y value of the end co-ordinate of the floor.

Height

This is for future development, and thus not currently available in this version of ProTrack Warehouse.

Width

Width of the floor.

Description

Description of the floor.

Table 3. Floor Field Descriptions
 

To view a floor in ProTrack Warehouse:

  1. Access the Facility Layout screen, and click .
  2. Select the facility name from the Facility list and floor name from the Floor list and click . The selected floor will be displayed.


    Fig.1 Facility Layout Viewer - Floor

     


Anchor
Aisle
Aisle

Aisle Paths

An Aisle Path is a passable travel space over which equipment or people travel. An Aisle path resides on a floor and may have Segments around it. Nodes are created on the Aisle Path, at its intersections and end points. Multiple Aisle Paths can intersect.

Please refer to the Aisle Path tab of the current “SOP for XYZ Importing” Excel spreadsheet.

Aisle ID

Aisle Name

Start X

Start Y

End X

End Y

Floor ID

Numbering Direction

Numbering Scheme

Travel Rule

path_access_rule

1-FLR1-100

1-FLR1-100

4200

2800

4300

2800

1-FLR1

ALT_LR_ES

DUB_INC

DIRECT

BD

1-FLR1-101

1-FLR1-101

4200

3000

4300

3000

1-FLR1

ALT_LR_ES

DUB_INC

DIRECT

BD

1-FLR1-102

1-FLR1-102

4200

2800

4200

3000

1-FLR1

ALT_LR_ES

DUB_INC

DIRECT

BD

1-FLR1-103

1-FLR1-103

4250

2800

4250

3000

1-FLR1

ALT_LR_ES

DUB_INC

DIRECT

BD

1-FLR1-104

1-FLR1-104

4300

2800

4300

2900

1-FLR1

ALT_LR_ES

DUB_INC

DIRECT

BD

1-FLR1-104a

1-FLR1-104a

4300

2910

4300

3000

1-FLR1

ALT_LR_ES

DUB_INC

DIRECT

BD

Table 4. Aisle Path Examples

Field

Description

Path ID

ID of the aisle path.

Path Name

Name of the aisle path.

Start X

X value of the start co-ordinate of the aisle path.

Start Y

Y value of the start co-ordinate of the aisle path.

End X

X value of the end co-ordinate of the aisle path.

End Y

Y value of the end co-ordinate of the aisle path.

Numbering Direction

This is for future development, and thus not currently available in this version of ProTrack Warehouse. This is a mandatory field, so populate with the default value from the table above.

Numbering Scheme

This is for future development, and thus not currently available in this version of ProTrack Warehouse. This is a mandatory field, so populate with the default value from the table above.

Travel Rule

This is for future development, and thus not currently available in this version of ProTrack Warehouse. This is a mandatory field, so populate with the default value from the table above.

path_access_rule

This is for future development, and thus not currently available in this version of ProTrack Warehouse. This is a mandatory field, so populate with the default value from the table above.

Table 5. Aisle Path Field Descriptions

Tip
titleTips
  • Aisle Path name and ID are recommended to be the same.
  • Aisle Paths 1-FLR1-104 and 1-FLR1-104a should be two Aisle Paths as they are divided by a non-passable fence, even though they are both vertical Aisle Paths with the same X coordinates.
  • Aisle Paths must be configured at 90-degree angles. Two aisle paths cannot converge at a single point and both be horizontal or both be vertical. In these cases, the two should just be treated as one Aisle Path.
  • Aisle Paths cannot be built on the edge of a Floor, so make sure the Floor is larger than the location of the Aisle Paths.

To view Aisle Paths in ProTrack Warehouse:

  1. Access the Facility Layout screen, and click .
  2. Select the facility name from the Facility list and floor name from the Floor list and click . The selected floor will be displayed.
  3. Select an aisle path to view the Aisle Path Properties.


    Fig.2 Facility Layout Viewer - Aisle Path

     


Anchor
TP
TP

Travel Paths

A Travel Path is a connection between two different floors. In the actual warehouse, this may be at a staircase, an elevator, or just any point where two floors connect. Travel paths are similar to Aisle Paths in that they are lines over which travel is calculated, but their sole purpose is to connect two floors. Travel Paths start at one node on a starting floor and end at another node on the ending floor.

Please refer to the Travel Path tab of the current “SOP for XYZ Importing” Excel spreadsheet.

travel_id

travel_name

description

start_X

start_Y

end_X

end_Y

end_ floor_id

begin_floor_id

barrier

path_access_rule

width

DC1-1-2-A

DC1-1-2-A

south stairs

1005

2050

1006

2050

FLR2

FLR1

N

BD

0

DC1-1-2-B

DC1-1-2-B

east stairs

1500

1910

1500

1911

FLR2

FLR1

N

BD

0

DC1-2-3-A

DC1-2-3-A

service elev

1005

2050

1006

2050

FLR3

FLR2

N

BD

0

Table 6. Travel Path Examples

Field

Description

Travel Path ID

ID of the Travel Path.

Travel Path Name

Name of the Travel Path.

Description

Description of the Travel Path.

Start X

X value of the start coordinate of the Travel Path.

Start Y

Y value of the start co-ordinate of the Travel Path.

End X

X value of the end co-ordinate of the Travel Path.

End Y

Y value of the end co-ordinate of the Travel Path.

End Floor Id

Floor ID corresponding to the node at the X,Y coordinate specified in the End X and End Y fields.

Begin Floor Id

Floor ID corresponding to the node at the X,Y coordinate specified in the Start X and Start Y fields.

Barrier

This is for future development, and thus not currently available in this version of ProTrack Warehouse. This is a mandatory field, so populate with the default value from the table above.

Path Access Rule

This is for future development, and thus not currently available in this version of ProTrack Warehouse. This is a mandatory field, so populate with the default value from the table above.

Width

This is for future development, and thus not currently available in this version of ProTrack Warehouse.This is a mandatory field, so populate with the default value from the table above.

Table 7. Travel Path Field Descriptions

Tip
titleTips
  • Travel Paths must have some “length” to them. I.e. the start and end coordinates cannot lie on the same point.
  • The start and end points specified in the Travel Path import file should intersect with Aisle Paths, thus linking two Aisle Paths on two different floors.
  • Like Aisle Paths, Travel Paths MUST be either horizontal or vertical. They cannot be diagonal. This means that the Start and End coordinates must be either above or below one another, or side-by-side.


To view Travel Paths in ProTrack Warehouse:

  1. Access the Facility Layout screen, and click .
  2. Select the facility name from the Facility list and floor name from the Floor list and click . The selected floor will be displayed.
  3. A Travel Path is displayed as a larger grey circle overlapping a node.


    Fig.3 Facility Layout Viewer - Travel Path

     

 

Nodes

Nodes will be present at both the ends and intersections of Aisle Paths and Travel Paths. Nodes are not imported like the other components, but are instead generated via the Facility Import screen. Nodes are generated on a per-floor basis and thus must be generated for each individual floor.
 

Info
titleInfo
  • Nodes are to be generated after the Aisle Paths and Travel Paths have been imported.

To generate Nodes:

  1. Access the Facility Layout screen, and click .
  2. Select the facility name from the Facility list and floor name from the Floor list and click . The selected floor will be displayed.
  3. Click on the Floor and the Floor Properties screen will display.
  4. Click on the properties screen.
  5. Nodes will be generated and displayed on the floor.
  6. Click .
  7. Click .
  8. Repeat for all Floors.


    Fig.4 Facility Layout Viewer - Nodes

     


Anchor
Seg
Seg

Segments

A Segment contains one or more locations, and thus typically represents racking. However, locations cannot exist outside of a Segment, regardless of whether or not the actual point in the warehouse is at a rack location. Segments are associated to Aisle Paths; no Segment can exist without an Aisle Path.

Please refer to the Segment tab of the current “SOP for XYZ Importing” Excel spreadsheet.

Segment ID

Segment Name

Inset

Offset

Length

Width

Orientation

Bay_Count

Number_Scheme

Number_Direction

Aisle_ID

Floor_ID

1-FLR1-100-A

1-FLR1-100-A

1

-2

98

4

Left

0

DUB_INC

ALT_LR_ES

1-FLR1-100

FLR1

1-FLR1-104-A

1-FLR1-104-A

1

-2

98

4

Left

0

DUB_INC

ALT_LR_ES

1-FLR1-104

FLR1

1-FLR1-104a-A

1-FLR1-104a-A

111

-2

88

4

Left

0

DUB_INC

ALT_LR_ES

1-FLR1-104a

FLR1

Table 8. Segment Examples

Field

Description

Segment ID

ID of the segment.

Segment Name

Name of the segment.

Aisle Name

Name of the aisle path to which the segment is associated.

Inset

Distance from the aisle starting point to the segment.

Offset

Distance from aisle axis to the segment.

Width

Width of the segment.

Length

Length of the segment.

Numbering Scheme

This is for future development, and thus not currently available in this version of ProTrack Warehouse. This is a mandatory field, so populate with the default value from the table above.

Numbering Direction

This is for future development, and thus not currently available in this version of ProTrack Warehouse. This is a mandatory field, so populate with the default value in from the table above.

Start Bay Number

This is for future development, and thus not currently available in this version of ProTrack Warehouse. This is a mandatory field, so populate with the default value from the table above.

Number of Bays

This is for future development, and thus not currently available in this version of ProTrack Warehouse. This is a mandatory field, so populate with the default value from the table above.

Orientation

Orientation of the Segment as it relates to the Aisle Path. This will determine which direction will be positive and negative when setting the width of the segment. Orientation of Left will have positive distances to the left of the aisle and negative distances to the right of the aisle. Orientation of Right will have positive distances to the right of the aisle and negative distances to the left of the aisle.

Description

Description of the segment.

Table 9. Segment Field Descriptions
 

In the example illustrations that follow, the blue shaded area is the segment. Each cell is 2’ by 2’, so the width of the segment is 4’.


Fig.5 Segment Orientations

 

Tip
titleTips
  • Segments cannot intersect a node.
  • Locations must reside within the coordinates that the Segment occupies. Travel is not calculated from the center of the aisle to the front of the rack, so often times, centering the Segment on its corresponding Aisle Path is easiest. This can be accomplished by using Orientation = Left, Width = 4, and Offset = -2.
  • When making segments in an aisle with a cross aisle in the middle, the inset should be based off the starting X,Y coordinate. For example, the racks are laid out going west to east and there is a cross aisle in the middle going south to north. The left portion will have an inset of 1 from the starting X,Y coordinate but the right portion should have an inset of the starting X to the cross aisle plus 1.


To View Segments in ProTrack Warehouse:

  1. Access the Facility Layout screen, and click .
  2. Select the facility name from the Facility list and floor name from the Floor list and click . The selected floor will be displayed.
  3. Select a segment to view the Segment Properties.


    Fig.6 Facility Layout Viewer - Segments

     


Anchor
Loc
Loc

Locations & Levels

A Location is any point in the warehouse to which you want to calculate travel to or from. For example, locations may be product slot locations, product staging areas, dock doors, order pickup / drop-off locations, or conveyor drop points. Levels are optional, and represent the various heights (Z coordinate) within a particular location. Thus, levels are associated with specific locations, and so the two are imported together. All Locations must be present inside a Segment.

Please refer to the Location tab of the current “SOP for XYZ Importing” Excel spreadsheet.

Location ID

Location Name

X

Y

Floor ID

Segment ID

Level Specifier

Level Height

1-loc1

1-loc1

4205

2800

FLR1

1-FLR1-100-A

1-loc2

1-loc2

4220

2800

FLR1

1-FLR1-104-A

1-loc3

1-loc3

4200

2900

FLR1

1-FLR1-104a-A

Table 10. Location Examples

Field

Description

Name & ID

Must match.

X

X co-ordinate of the location.

Y

Y co-ordinate of the location.

Floor ID

Must match the Floor ID that is configured in ProTrack Warehouse.

Level Specifier

This is the To Location Level ID. Must match exactly what is being sent in the WMS extraction file. Each Level Specifier is separated by the pipe symbol .

Level Height

This is the distance from the floor in inches for vertical travel. Must match exactly what is being sent in the WMS extraction file. Each Level Height is separated by the pipe symbol .

Table 11. Location Field Descriptions

Info
titleInfo
  • There must be the same number of Level Specifiers as corresponding Level Heights.
  • Be aware which direction locations will ascend/descend within an aisle on the floor and enter that same direction into the XYZs.

To view Locations in ProTrack Warehouse:

  1. Access the Facility Layout screen, and click .
  2. Select the facility name from the Facility list and floor name from the Floor list and click . The selected floor will be displayed.
  3. Select a location to view the Location Properties.


    Fig.7 Facility Layout Viewer - Locations