Groups, Components, and Locks
These guides cover grouping items together, creating reusable Components, and controlling how to treat certain items affixed to others as part of the greater whole (lock Locks).
Simple Groups
dataset Groups keep particuar items together, allowing for them to be dragged, copied, cut, and pasted all at once.
To create a Group, select the items you want grouped, then Right Click > Group > Simple, or use Ctrl + G. There will be a faint gray border around the group, and the products will all drag together now. Their positions relative to one another are now fixed.
Groups can be ungrouped by right clicking and selecting link_off Ungroup, or via Ctrl + G again.
Layered Position Groups
When grouping product Positions exclusively, there are two other options in the Group context menu's submenu: Front to Back and Top to Bottom. These are for creating Layered Position Groups, which are discussed here.
Shift + G and Alt + G can be used to Group / Ungroup Depthwise or Top to Bottom Layered Groups, respectively.
Reusable Components
Components are reusable groups of products, fixtures, and other elements that are saved to the Filesystem, brought in from the Components Catalog and can be used in multiple planograms.
As these are Filesystem items, they can be shared with other users, or restricted to particular person Users or diversity_2 Teams.
Common use cases for Components include:
- Creating a fixture library that can be used across planograms, by all your users
- Grouping products that are frequently used together
- Creating a Plan section, such as a Shelf, whose content changes as the root Component changes (a Dynamic Component)
To create a Component, select the items you want to group, then Right Click > Save as Component.
You will then choose a name and location for the Component in the Filesystem, which will determine where it appears in the Components Catalog.
Components Catalog
The Components Catalog visualizes all Components the current user has access to, in a tree-view corresponding to their locations in the Filesystem.
Components can be dragged and dropped into a planogram from the Components Catalog.
By default, all Components the current user has access to will be shown in the catalog. The catalog may be search Searched, Filtered by folder_special Filesystem Drive, and Filtered by label Filesystem Tags to more easily locate particular Components.
Dynamic Components
Dynamic Components are used as placeholders for planogram content that will change over time.
Use them when many planograms will contain a particular set that will change frequently, such as a set of seasonal items.
Additionally, Dynamic Components can be swapped with others, via Right Click > swap_horiz Replace Component, or the Edit menu. This swapping can occur within a single Plan, or across multiple in a group_work Project.
For example, below we have created a Component called Beauty Items Special, which is a Container fixture holding several different beauty products. Whenever this Component is opened and changed, the next time any Plan containing this Component is opened, it will update to reflect the changes made.
Locks
Locked Parts cannot be selected, moved, right-clicked, or edited.
Locking is useful when a Part should not be treated as separate from its parent(s), such as a Rack with fixed Shelves or a Panelboard with products in fixed positions.
The topmost Part in a hierarchy (like a Group or Fixture) cannot be locked.
lock Locks are often used in tandem with dataset Groups, though this is not required. This is particularly useful to prevent constituent members of Groups from being changed (for example, a fixture Component representing cubbies likely does not want its constituent Shelves or Containers to be moved, edited, or deleted).
One can edit locks by selecting any fixture or Group. The hierarchy of that part will be displayed in the Inspector. From there, one can lock Lock or lock_open Unlock any part in the hierarchy, or key_off Lock All Descendants or key Unlock All Descendants of the selected part.