Making a new Material DataSource in CabMaster

Making a new Material DataSource in CabMaster

Advanced topic

How to Create a Material DataSource

CabMaster uses a default set of materials that can be customized to the user’s preference, but there are times when new material manufacturers will appear, and you might want them stored in a separate database.

In this document we will go through setting up a new source of material from another manufacturer, for the purpose of this document we will create a new source of material from Formica.

Step 1:

You will need to identify where your Tables are located on your CabMaster Software version. In the image below using the menu File -> Options [Press F10] and looking at the File locations we can see where the tables are located.



There are two files that will need to be created (Or duplicated from an existing working sample), one is in the Table\ folder, and the other is located in the Table\Materials\ folder.

Step 2:

Using Windows File Explorer you will copy the location provided in the image above to navigate to the Tables folders of CabMaster.

In this example we will take the “Materials.qlt” and duplicate that one, renaming it to the Formica name, so we make “Materials – Formica.qlt”. The picture below shows an example of before [top] and after [below].


Step 3:

Now you need go into ‘Materials’ folder which is still in the same folder that was described in the Step 1, create a duplicate of the Material DataSource filename; “CM-Default.qlt” we will copy and change to “Formica.qlt”
NOTE: Step 3 is the name we see in the Drawing properties for the name of the material source.

Step 4:

Using the file locations that you identified in Step 1, you can get the ‘Pictures, Textures & styles’ folder and use Windows File Explorer to navigate to that folder, if you obtain a JPG file of a logo of the manufacturing brand, you can save it in the ‘Bitmap’ folder.

Step 5:

From Step 3 you will have a table called “Formica.qlt” if you double click on this and open with CabMaster’s TableEdit, there are a couple of fields that need to be altered, attached is an image to show you where in the table is the parts to change, and also we have written down the row names and the column headings to make this easier to see.
NOTE: The information below still relates to our example – yours might be different slightly.


Row: “img” Col: “Name”
Edit the “…\CabMaster.jpg” part of the value to be the name of your JPG from Step 4.

Row: “scr” Col: “Name”
Change the value from “Materials.qlt” to the name provided in Step 2, “Materials – Formica.qlt”

Row: “EditPost” Col: “Name”
Edit the “…\Materials.qlt” to the name provided in Step 2, “\Materials – Formica.qlt”

Step 6:

Cleaning up the copied Table and making it ready for the new materials to be written in.

At this stage we recommend opening the “Materials – Formica.qlt” with Microsoft Excel, but there are some careful points when doing this, firstly, open Microsoft Excel, with a blank workbook, then drag the “Materials – Formica.qlt” into the open workbook (alternatively you can Right click on ‘Materials – Formica.qlt’ and select “Open With” and choose Microsoft Excel if it is in the list). Secondly you will want to turn on the Sort & Filter, if you select the 3rd row in the data, as pictured, you will be able to apply a filter on that row which will allow you to change how you are viewing the materials.

The image below shows the row to select first:


The image below shows where to select the filter option on the row selected - this is under the Home tab of the Ribbon.


Finally once you have opened this file and turned on the filters you are ready to remove the unwanted materials from the previous version of this table that was copied, we suggest you remove the materials one type at a time, 0 = Doors, 1 = Panels, 2 = Benchtops, 3 = Splashbacks, 4 = Edging, 5 = Timber Edging, 6 = Capping, 7 = Vinyl, 8 = Extrusions.

We also recommend that you remove all but one material of all the types present, that way you have something to work from. After you have filtered one ‘Type’ you can select the row that is the second material in that ‘Type’ then scroll down to the last entry, and hold shift whilst you select the last row, then use the Right Mouse to click on one of the highlighted rows and select ‘Delete’ this should remove all the data and move all the rows upwards, keep repeating until you only have one of each ‘Type’ left. Once complete use the Save button to save your changes. Then you will want to double click on the ‘Materials – Formica.qlt’ and run with TableEdit and resave it, so that it can correctly recount the rows in the table.

The image below shows the “Type” column filtered to select type 4 and selecting all but the top material in that type.

NOTE: Excel when you save might warn about not being in an excel format, this is fine and continue with the save, you do not need to save this table in Excel format.

Step 7:

Going back into CabMaster you will be able to activate the new DataSource in the Drawing properties -> My Setup -> Material DataSources page. Once that is switched on you can go to the Materials-Advanced - > Manager page and select in the drop down the new material, in our example it will be “Formica” and we can then ‘Manage’ the materials.



TIP: Click the attachment to download this HowTo to your desktop as a .pdf
Attached is a Blank sample, these files should be able to locate in your CabMasterPro directory and provide you with a working sample to copy and rename into one you would like to use.