New from Product

File › New from Product… starts from what you are packing - six bottles of wine, twelve cans, a carton of sachets, three bottles of red and three of white - and ends with one finished drawing: the blanks of the outer (the case), the fitment that holds the products apart and, for two layers, the divider pad, each on a page of its own, and a 3D page with the outer folded round the fitment and a product in every cell. The products may stand or lie down, and may go in a shrink-wrapped tray instead of a case. ParametrIQ works out every way the products can stand, suggests a fitment and an outer for each from the library, sizes them, costs them and ranks them; you choose, change what you like, and make the drawing.

The start page's Start from a product… (under Start from a library design), the link of the same name on Run Parametric's list, the command palette and the Pack Designer's Pack These… open it too. It asks a page at a time: Next goes on, Back goes back with what you chose kept, and Cancel stops without making anything. The guided tour Start from a product (Help › Guided Tour…) takes you through it.

The product

Products in the pack lists what goes in: one product to begin with. Add a product adds another, as the one shown is, for you to change: a mixed pack. With several, each is a card with its picture; the one chosen is the one changed below, and Remove it from the pack takes it out. For each product:

Name (optional) names it on the cards and in the drawing's notes (a pack's own name if left empty). Start from a Pack Designer pack (a .piqpack file: Browse…, or one of the packs used lately under Recent), whose kind and sizes give the product's, or Sizes I type: the Shape (round, as a bottle, can or jar, with its Diameter; or boxed, as a carton or pouch, with its Length and Width) and its Height, standing up with its cap or lid. Then:

• Material: glass, PET or plastic, metal can, carton or other (a pack's own, As the pack says, to begin with). It decides the fitment suggested.
• How many in a case: of this product, in a mixed pack.
• Weight of one (optional): the full case's weight is worked out from it.

The picture shows the product from the side and from above, standing up; how it goes in the case is chosen on the next page.

The arrangement

Every way the count fits - each pair of numbers that multiply to it (6: 3 × 2, 6 × 1 …, both ways round where it matters), in one layer, and in two layers with a divider pad between when the count is even - is a card: the cells seen from above (a mixed pack's each its own size), the outer's outside size, the cost and the board, and how many cases go on a layer of a 1200 × 800 (EUR) and a 1200 × 1000 (UK) pallet. The best is chosen and marked Suggested; choose another to use it instead.

Above the cards:

• Pack style: a Case (a fitment and an outer, as below; to begin with) or a Shrink-wrapped tray (a low tray with shrink film round it and the products: see Shrink-wrapped trays).
• Orientation: Upright (standing; to begin with), Lying down, or Either (the upright and the lying arrangements offered together and ranked as one list). See Products lying down. A lying arrangement's card says which way ("3 × 2, lying along": their height along the case's length; "3 × 2, lying across": across it; a carton on its edge, "3 × 2, lying along, on edge") and shows the products lying in their cells.

Rank by puts them in order:

Ties go to fewer layers, then to the squarer case. The prices are those of the accessories' price list (File › Extensions › Accessory Prices…, see Accessories): a board is priced by the item Board: and its name (Board: B flute (3 mm)), else by the item Board. With no price, a card says No board price and the plans are ranked by their board.

The clearances

• Play round each product (2 mm to begin with): a cell's inside is the product's size and this.
• Fitment to outer (3 mm): between the fitment's outside and the outer's inside, each way and in height.
• Offer two layers (on): two-layer arrangements are offered when the count is even (lying down, up to four layers where the count divides).
• Tray wall height (a shrink-wrapped tray only): Automatic (a quarter of the products' height, at least 25 mm; the page says how high that is) or a height you give.

Changing them works the cards out again.

The fitment

The fitments that suit the product, each drawn at the sizes this pack needs, the suggested one first, and None (the products stand in the case on their own). The rules say which come first: glass gets the bottle partitions, PET and cans no fitment or a platform insert, tall products (higher than 2.5 times their width) full-height partitions; glass lying down the partitions, then the Bottle and vial cradle. Each card gives the fitment's outside size, and the cost and board of as many as the pack takes: one on each layer, so a two-layer pack takes two (the card says so: Bottle shipper partitions × 2).

Under the cards are the chosen fitment's values, as Run Parametric asks for them. Those the wizard works out from the product and the arrangement (the cell's size, the cells each way, the height) are marked worked out by the wizard and locked: Unlock the worked-out values to change them yourself. Its own values (the board, a hand hole …) can be changed at once. The rest of the pack follows what you give: the outer is sized round the fitment as it is then.

The outer

The outers that suit, in the same way: each drawn round the fitment chosen, with its inside and outside sizes, its cost, its board and the pallet fit, the suggested one first; under them the chosen outer's values, those worked out (its inside length, width and depth) locked unless unlocked.

The Wrap-around case is one of them: a one-piece blank wrapped round the contents and closed, full height, its inside the fitment's outside and the clearance as the FEFCO cases' is. The same design is offered as a shrink-wrapped tray too.

The summary

Every product with its count (a mixed pack), every part with its size, board and cost (and how many, when more than one: a fitment on each layer, a divider pad between each two), the tray's wall height and the shrink film's area and cost (a shrink-wrapped tray), the whole pack's board and cost, the pallet fit on each pallet (cases a layer, layers and cases), the clearances, the full case's weight (if the product's weight was given) and any design that couldn't be made. Make Drawing opens the drawing as a new drawing, not yet saved, on its 3D page:

• a page for the outer's blank, the fitment's and the pad's, each still parametric (its values in Variables);
• an assembly page and the 3D page: the outer folded round the fitment and the pad, a product in every cell, the products' fit already checked (see Does it fit?);
• a sheet with the outer in a title block, and notes saying the product, the count, the arrangement, the parts (how many of each), the sizes, a mixed pack's cells, the clearances and the cost;
• classified as packaging, so Make It makes the packaging outputs.

Products lying down

With Orientation at Lying down or Either, products may lie on their side:

• A round product (a bottle, a can, a jar) lies with its axis along the case's length or across its width: both are worked out, and each is a card of its own.
• A boxed product lies flat on its broad side; a carton may also stand on its edge.
• The cells, the fitment, the pad and the outer are sized on the products as they lie, and lying products may go in two to four layers (where the count divides, with Offer two layers on), with a divider pad between each.
• Fitments that only hold products standing (the platform insert, the bottle carrier) aren't offered for lying ones.
• The Bottle and vial cradle holds round products lying down in saddles: foam blocks across them, two under each row of products, each block with a half-round saddle for each product (its diameter, the play and the cradle's own clearance), as long as the products side by side need and as high as a saddle's depth and 12 mm. For glass lying down the rules offer it after the partitions, and it is suggested where partitions don't go (one row of bottles, 6 × 1). Standing, the same design is a holder with a round hole for each product. On the 3D page the products lie in the saddles.
• The rules say which materials may lie down at all; a mixed pack lies down only if every product's material may.
• The 3D page shows the products lying in their cells.

Shrink-wrapped trays

Pack style › Shrink-wrapped tray puts the products in a low tray and shrink film round the tray and the products together, in place of a fitment and a case:

• The tray is one of the library's trays that take part (the Self-locking tray, the Tray with glued corners, and the Wrap-around case, full height and closed round the products, which is offered as a case too), offered as cards on the Tray page in place of the Outer page. Its inside is the arrangement and the clearance.
• Its walls are the Tray wall height high: a quarter of the products' height, at least 25 mm, unless you give a height.
• There is no fitment: the film holds the products, so the Fitment page is passed over.
• The film is costed as its area - the pack's outside surface and 10 % for the overlap - at the price list's item Film: shrink, a price per m² (see Accessories). The cards give the film's area, the summary its area and cost, and the pack's cost includes it.
• The pallet fit is worked out as for a case. On the 3D page the film is a thin, clear skin over the tray and the products.

Mixed packs

Several different products in one pack - three bottles of red wine and three of white of another size, or four jars and two bottles: Add a product on the Product page for each, with its count.

• The arrangements are worked out on the total count (6 for 3 + 3), as high as the tallest product.
• The products go into the cells grouped by product, in the order they are listed: each product takes whole rows, or whole columns, whichever makes the smaller pack. A row is as wide as its product (its diameter, or its width, and the play) and each column as long as the largest product in it, so 3 bottles of 65 mm and 3 of 90 mm in 3 × 2 go in a row of 67 mm cells and a row of 92 mm cells, and the case is smaller than with every cell 92 mm.
• Where the counts don't fill whole rows (5 + 1 in 3 × 2), a row that holds more than one product is as wide as the largest of them. With two layers or more, each layer holds its share of each product when the counts divide.
• The fitments that take cells of more than one size (the Bottle shipper partitions, the Bottle platform insert with hole grid and the Case insert grid: see Adding your own designs) are made with each cell its own size; any other fitment, the Bottle and vial cradle among them, is still offered, every cell the size of the largest product. With no fitment, the cells are sized per product too. The outer, the pallet fit and the cost follow the smaller cells.
• The cards' top views draw each cell its own size, its product in it, and the 3D page puts each product in its own cell.
• The fitment and outer suggested are those that suit all the products (glass among them: partitions).
• The sheet's notes list each product with its count and its cell's size (and say where a row holds more than one product, or every cell is the largest's).
• The fitment and outer suggested are those that suit all the products (glass among them: partitions).
• The sheet's notes list each product with its count.
• The Pack Designer's Pack These… hands over one product; add the others on the Product page.

Adding your own designs

A design in the library (in the Parametric folder of an Extensions folder: yours or the app's) takes part when the comment lines at its head say how. These are comments, so they change nothing it draws:

// ROLE=FITMENT
// FROM CELLL=L CELLW=W HEIGHT=D ACROSS=CELLSL DOWN=CELLSW
// SUITS glass,pet,can
// ONLY ACROSS=2-99 DOWN=2-99

The quantities, in mm:

A fitment works out its outside in the variables OUTL, OUTW and OUTH; the outer is sized on them and the clearance. It may say where its cells are, for the products in 3D: PITCHL and PITCHW (from one cell's middle to the next) and FIRSTL and FIRSTW (the first cell's middle from its outside corner). An outer works out its outside in OUTL, OUTW and OUTH too, if it can (else it is taken as its inside and two boards). The board is the design's material choice, T. Every design is run as Run Parametric runs it, so the sizes, areas and costs come from its real drawing.

A fitment that takes a mixed pack's cells sized per product gives PITCHESL and PITCHESW to labelled list variables, empty to begin with (PS={},"Each column's cell length"): the wizard gives each its numbers ({92,92,92}, {67,92}; Run Parametric asks for them as text, "67, 92"), and the design makes each cell its own size, its own CELLL and CELLW when a list is empty or hasn't one for each. It says where its cells are in the lists CENTRESL and CENTRESW (each column's and each row's middle from its outside corner) and sizes itself on CASEL and CASEW, the cells end to end. A fitment that doesn't take them is given every cell the same.

A saddle fitment (FORM=SADDLE) works out one block: its length across the products in OUTL, its thickness along them in OUTW, its height in OUTH, its saddles' depth and radius in SADDLED and SADDLER, and where they are in PITCHL and FIRSTL. The wizard puts two blocks under each row of products, the products on the saddles, and sizes the outer on the blocks' length and the products end to end.

The rules

PackFirst/rules.json in the Extensions folder says which designs suit which products, in order of preference. Yours (in your own Extensions folder's PackFirst folder) is used instead of the app's. Each of fitments, outers and pads is a list of rules; the first whose when the product meets gives the order, by design name (None for no fitment). Designs it doesn't name that suit the product follow, and None is always offered.

{
  "fitments": [
    { "when": { "material": ["glass"] }, "use": ["Bottle shipper partitions", "Bottle platform insert with hole grid"] },
    { "when": { "tall": true }, "use": ["Bottle shipper partitions", "None"] },
    { "use": ["None"] }
  ],
  "outers": [ { "use": ["FEFCO 0201 Regular slotted container", "Shipping case with carry handle"] } ],
  "pads": [ { "use": ["Divider pad"] } ]
}

when may give material (a list), tall (higher than 2.5 times its narrowest side), shape (round or boxed), minHeight and maxHeight (mm) and lying (true: the products lying down; false: standing); a rule without when applies to every product. neverLying lists the materials never laid down ("neverLying": ["glass"]); the app's own lists none, so every material may lie.

From the Pack Designer

The Pack Designer's Pack These… hands the pack it shows to ParametrIQ CAD (it doesn't need to be saved): CAD opens on this wizard's arrangements, the product read from the pack and six to a case to begin with (Back to change the count). The Pack Designer looks for ParametrIQ CAD beside itself and where it is installed; if it isn't found, it says so. Started from a command line, --pack-first <file.piqpack> does the same.