Cable Schedules

This is a brief post covering a feature of APSR that was introduced in Version 3.0 but is not often used, despite it being a really powerful tool for controlling page layouts in the Report Designer.

Sub-reports are one of those features that will either make your eyes light up, or will draw a blank "Huh?". They're great when you need to design a complex report, and there are some designs that just can't be done without sub-reports, but if you've never needed them, then you've probably never even tried them.

For the experienced Report Designer, Sub-reports provide the ultimate in fine-grained control over your report layout, and in APSR we have perhaps the easiest sub-reports of any reporting application. When the report designer is open, all report sections and sub-reports are shown as tabs across the top of the window, and switching between the Parent report and the Child (sub) report is as easy as switching tabs.

The new report "Cable Schedule with Routing Sub-report" is a great example.

Cable Schedule with Routing Sub-report

Each Report Section can be either a full-page Section that prints on separate pages in the final report, or a Sub-Report Section that printed embedded in another page. This report contains six separate sections, the first three of which are separate printable sections which appear full-page, and the last three are sub-reports which appear embedded on the Cable Schedule page.

Each Report Section has a Sequence Number that determines the order in which they appear in the final Report (a value of zero (0) indicates it's a sub-report only). For example, the Summary Page is a simple list of the Cable Types included in the main Cable Schedule, with the total length of each Type shown. This is the second section to print, as set in the Properties box.

Section Display Name and Sequence Number (print order)

The main section of the report (Cable Schedule) includes two sub-reports, one for the Cable Route information, and another as a Title Block. Cable Routes show the various Cable Ladder sections or Nodes that the Cable passes through, and there can be anywhere from zero (0) to dozens of Cable Route items for each Cable. We want them to appear in a compact area of the detail section of each Cable, in the Routing column.

Routing Sub-report Section embedded in the Parent Report Section

Finally, the Filter String is used to link the Parent and Child Reports. In this case, it filters the sub-report (with the route data) to only show route information for the Cable currently appearing in the Parent report.

Filter String linking the Parent & Child Report Sections

The Title Block sub-report appears in the Page Footer of the main Cable Schedule, and in-turn contains another sub-report for Revisions (ie nested sub-reports!) 

You can check-out the full report by downloading a trial package. We have also included an SPI Wiring Report "Terminal Strip with Wiring Connections" which shows the wire connections on each side of a Terminal Strip. For each terminal, a sub-report is used on the Left and Right hand sides which nicely handles situations were 2 or more wires are connected to the same terminals.