Batch Printing Reports Using Report Groups (Overview)

Microvellum offers a tool for batch printing reports (a feature requested by community members).

The reason for this request is efficiency. If you consistently have 15 reports to print each time a work order is processed or send reports to various locations on your network, you will spend a significant amount of time clicking buttons to print those reports or to export them to a different file format. Contrast that with the time and clicks required to set up a single group of 15 reports, setting the property of each to print after the work order is processed, and then stand back and let the program automatically print them as a batch each time they are needed. You may move on to other tasks while the computer renders and prints the batch of reports. Not only that, but once you configure the groups, the time savings multiply each time you print them as you don’t need to go through the same steps each time they are printed. Very powerful indeed!

You may think of this tool as automated batch report rendering, with output to various file formats, to various locations in your file system.

Each report group contains properties that control the way it behaves. Also, each report within the group contains properties you use to customize the output format and destination of the rendered or finished report. For example, instead of printing all the reports in a group with a printer, you may want to save one or more of the rendered reports in that group to a shared location on your network, so it’s accessible to multiple individuals.

There are several options for how you want to initiate the print operation of the reports in a group. You may set them up to print manually or automatically.

Report Groups exist on a configuration level, which means that each report group within any one configuration is available to all projects and work orders within that configuration.

In order to access Report Groups, the Report Designer module is required. For more information, please contact your Account Manager. Your Account Manager’s name and contact information can be found in your Help>About Microvellum interface.

This tool comes with a full suite of report group editing tools and properties. See Batch Printing Reports Using Report Groups (Reference) in the Microvellum Help Center for a reference article explaining how to configure report groups, as well as the options of the groups and individual reports in the group.

You could set up one group as an estimating group, including the Estimating, Buyout, Material Purchasing reports.

You may decide to create a group of reports that access the un-optimized work order data, including the Edgeband, Hardware, Master Cut, Product Detail, Subassembly List, and Subassembly Parts reports.

Another example might be a group of reports accessing optimized nesting data that includes the Nesting Optimization, and Nesting Optimization Summary reports.

Each of these groups is set up to contain different reports, different output types, different processing procedures, different batch evaluation times, different destinations, and different custom group names.

Create and edit your report groups from “Microvellum Setup > Design Reports > Setup Report Groups.”

Manually print the reports in your report groups by setting the appropriate group option and then printing the group from “Processing Center > General > Reports > Report Groups.”

Set up your reports to execute after a work order is created by setting the appropriate group option and then creating a work order. The reports will be automatically rendered and either printed to the default Windows printer, or the export files will be created in the specified format at the location specified.

Set up your reports to execute after a batch is processed by setting the appropriate group option, checking the box Process Report Groups on the Processing Center screen, and then process the work order. The reports will be automatically rendered and either printed to the default Windows printer, or the export files will be created in the specified format at the location specified.

Fig. 1 – Report Groups Configuration Access

Fig. 2 – Report Groups Screen Before Adding Groups

Fig. 3 – Report Groups Screen After Adding Groups but Before Adding Reports

Some Users create reports that display selection boxes for variable input of one type or another. The selection box is displayed as the report is evaluated before rendering, and the variable value assigned from the input is then used by the report as it renders. This type of report must be printed manually from the Print Reports command, and not the Report Groups command. They should not be added to a report group at this time.

Fig. 4 – Report Groups Screen After Adding Groups and Reports

Fig. 5 – Work Order Screen Checkbox to Activate Automatic Report Group Printing for the Work Order

Fig. 6 – Processing Center Screen Checkbox to Activate Automatic Report Group Printing for the Batch

Fig. 7 – Processing Center Access to Print Report Groups