User input files

Bulk costing accepts an optional user input file in either Excel or CSV (comma-separated values) format files. This enables you to specify parts, production information, overrides for CSL values, and other cost inputs from a spreadsheet.

Production input values provided in this file take precedence over values from other sources. See Precedence of production input overrides for more information.

Although some SMP Characters may process correctly, aPriori does not support SMP Characters (10000 to 1FFFF).

  • As a best practice, use only BMP Unicode characters.

  • For Bulk Costing inputs, aPriorisupports only BMP Unicode characters (0000 to FFFF).

  • aPriori advises against manually creating input columns. Instead, generate the input spreadsheet as described in this section.

Get started with an inputs file

  1. Create a new bulk cost group.

  1. Edit values in the Bulk Costing & Analysis UI.

  2. Save the data by clicking File > Export User Inputs Spreadsheet.

  3. This create a user inputs file in Excel spreadsheet format.

    • If you want to create a CSV file, click Save As .csv in Excel.

  4. The columns in the spreadsheet files map to the columns in the Bulk Costing & Analysis UI in an obvious manner.

Note: You can specify the stock form for Stock Machining, Bar & Tube, or Multi-Spindle Machining process groups for Bulk Costing in the input table and the inputs spreadsheet.