2020 Worksheet - Using an Alternate Manufacturer
In 2020 Worksheet, an “alternate manufacturer” (referred to as an
"Alt Mfg") is a secondary version of a manufacturer. A secondary version of a manufacturer catalog can be useful if you need access to both the most current pricing and features of a catalog, but also an older version for an existing contract or legacy pricing.
The Alternate Manufacturer feature in 2020 Worksheet allows you to keep both the current and an older version of a catalog on your computer simultaneously. Alternate Manufacturers only include the catalog information, not the graphics (this is by design to avoid breaking certain features).
The following document outlines how to set up an Alternate Manufacturer and how this feature functions within 2020 Worksheet.
How to Install an Alternate Manufacturer (Using a DVD)
1. Close any open 2020 applications and insert the disk that contains the desired catalog version (must be January 2009 or later to work with the current version of the 2020 installer).
2. Go to Start > All Programs > 20-20 Technologies > Catalog Maintenance. (You may also search for this app by typing Catalog Maintenance into the Windows search bar)
3. On the “20-20 Commercial Catalogs Setup” window click the Alternate Manufacturer button.
4. On the “Alternate Manufacturer Setup” window click Next.
5. On the “Select a Manufacturer window”, click the Find DVD button to locate your DVD drive. This window will then detect and display the name of the DVD you have inserted. The Browse button may also be used to point to a folder containing the installation files in place of an actual DVD.
6. Search the list of catalogs and select the manufacturer you would like to install and click the Next button.
7. The program will auto generate a new 3-character manufacturer code and a description for the alternate catalog. This is a custom version of the catalog so the MFG code should be a FAKE code that 2020 does not currently use, such as “XXX” or “ZZZ”. This code will not be seen by manufacturers, it is only for your internal distinction. This will matter later when you use the catalog (read ahead to see how this MFG code is used). The description can be customized to your preference. Once you are satisfied, click Begin.
8. Once the progress bar is complete, click Finish to finalize your Alternate Manufacturer.
How to Install an Alternate Manufacturer (Using a .DSAZIP File)
If you need to install an alternate manufacturer using a .dsazip file you must first extract the contents of the .dsazip to an empty folder on your PC.
1. Make sure your PC is enabled to show file name extensions.
2. Right-Click on the .DSAZIP file and choose Rename.
3. Change the .DSAZIP file extension to .ZIP
4. Open the renamed zip file. You should see the following items inside the .zip
5. Select all the items and choose Copy.
6. Paste the contents of the zip into a new empty folder on your PC.
Once you have pasted the contents of the zip file into a folder, you can install it by following the steps in the above section "How to Install an Alternate Manufacturer (Using a DVD)". When you reach step 5, instead of using the Find DVD button you will use the Browse button. You then browse to the folder you extracted the zip to. That folder will act as the DVD and you can proceed with the rest of the steps to install the catalog.
How to Use an Alternate Manufacturer (2020 Worksheet)
For the following demonstration, an Alternate Manufacturer has been created and added to Worksheet for the 20-20 Enriched Data Demo catalog (DMO). The Alternate Manufacturer is using a dummy MFG code of “DMX”.
The primary use of adding an alternate manufacturer is to be able to store and have access to older pricing. You may pull items directly from the Alternate Manufacturer into your Worksheet. However, you will normally use the current/updated manufacturer (DMO) for design purposes and then update the Worksheet to the Alternate Manufacturer code (DMX) to switch the pricing over to what is stored in the legacy alternate catalog.
1. Turn on the Alt MFG Column in 2020 Worksheet. Simply right click on any column and choose
Customize Columns. Select Alt Mfg to turn on the column.
2. Assign the 3-character “Alt Mfg” code to the line items you need to update for the alternate manufacturer pricing. In the example below, two line items are in Worksheet from the DMO catalog and we will assign them the Alt Mfg code of DMX to update the items against the Alternate Manufacturer. If there are many line items you need to update, use the
Assign tool located under the
Edit menu.
3. Once you have assigned the line items Alt Mfg code, perform an
Update Against Catalog by selecting it from the Worksheet menu.
4. Change any of the criteria if necessary and click Update. The line items should now be updated against the data stored in the alternate manufacturer catalog.
Note: Please note that an Alternate Manufacturer should appear in the list below the actual manufacturer. Otherwise you may experience performance issues when working in the secondary Alternate Manufacturer.
How to Manually Install an Alternate Manufacturer Using Loose Catalog Files
This section describes how to manually install a manufacturer catalog in 2020 Worksheet using the preferences. This is an advanced method and can be used if you have the raw catalog files for a particular catalog. Perhaps you were provided the file directly from a manufacturer, 2020, or you obtained the older files from another PC that already has the alternate installed. A 2020 catalog file has a file extension of
.CAT and is reported by Windows as file type "Security Catalog".
If you need to add a loose file in 2020 Worksheet, it is highly recommended that you set it up as a separate Alternate Manufacturer as outlined below. Overriding the main manufacturer data can prevent future updates to that manufacturer from installing correctly. This is because the 2020 installer is designed to ignore any “custom” editing on the system to protect your personal preferences.
1. Place the *.CAT file(s) into a 3 character folder along with your existing manufacturer catalogs. The default location for 2020 content is C:\ProgramData\2020\Content. For example, we will be creating an Alternate Manufacturer by using an older catalog file for the DMO catalog. In the image below, a new folder "DMX" was created to place the DMO.CAT file into.
2. In 2020 Worksheet, select
Preferences from the Tools
menu.
3. Click the
Content button on the left.
4. In the Content tab, click the
New Manufacturer button.
5. Enter the 3-character code for the alternate manufacturer and press
OK. This should be the same 3-letter code of the folder you placed your catalog files into and it must also be a 3-character code not already in use by any other installed 2020 manufacturer.
6. Enter the Manufacturer Name that describes the alternate manufacturer and press
OK. This can by anything of your choosing.
7. A Browse for Folder window will appear asking you to select the 3-character folder that contains the catalog files. Select the location of this folder and press
OK.
8. The newly created Alternate Manufacturer will now show in the top “Select which manufacturers will be available” box. It will be at the bottom of the list by default. If you choose to move it up the list using the arrows,
always keep the alternate below the primary it is an alternate of. 
9. Now we need to add the catalog to the newly created Alternate Manufacturer. Highlight the new manufacturer and click the
Add Content button in the bottom section to the right of "Select which content will be available".
10. It will now open in the folder we selected earlier. Select the .CAT files in the folder and click
Open.
11. Click
Apply and then
OK in the preferences dialog.
12. 2020 Worksheet will need to be closed and restarted for the changes to take effect. Once done, the newly added alternate manufacturer should show in your Content list.
