Summary
This is an advanced article. If you are unfamiliar with OCR Templates and the Zoning process, please refer to the article “Creating a New Zone Template” before continuing.
As you probably already know, TraceGains can use OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to read Supplier Item data from most COAs that are sent in. One of our advanced features is the ability to read and input data from a COA containing multiple Lots or one Lot and multiple Sublots.
You cannot create a template when the Supplier or Item is Inactive; you'll need to Activate the Supplier and Item.
Procedure for Zoning Multi-Lot COAs
Here is one example of a Multi-Lot COA. In the lower part, the six right-hand columns (numbered 12 to 17) contain the COA data for each Sublot. The names of the Attributes for that data are in the Property column at far left.
Step 1: This article assumes that you have finished creating your original OCR Template for this COA, so go to Configuration > Import Templates, and find and select that OCR Template by clicking the arrow-rectangle on its row.
Step 2: Even though this is an existing OCR Template, upon selection it will open a “New OCR Template” page, but with the Supplier ID and Item ID already filled in. Click the Current Templates drop-down and select the one and only OCR Template you find there. Other existing data will fill in on the page and the page-name will change to “Manage OCR Template”.
Step 3: Click the blue Zone File Editor button and when the Editor opens, Browse for your Multi-Lot COA. Click it to load it into the Editor.
Step 4: Load your first Zone File. Click the Zone File drop-down to the right of Browse. It will initially contain the phrase ** Create New **, expecting that is what the User generally does. Select the one and only Zone File (for now; there will be more, as you continue this operation), numbered “1” in the list. The numbered red Zone boxes will appear, overlaid on the COA image as in the image below.
Step 5: The first time you click anywhere on the image it will turn blue as shown, indicating readiness for Zoning and making the Zone boxes more visible.
The four green areas are your Key Phrases, added here for detail. The green is not shown in the actual Editor.
To create your second Zone File in this example, the easiest way is simply to move the existing Zone boxes from the previous Zone File over to the next column. Here’s how.
Creating a Second Zone File by Moving Zone Boxes
Step 1: Click the hamburger menu at far upper-right and select Copy. You’ll be asked “Are you sure…?” so click Yes. The red Zone boxes will disappear – don’t be alarmed.
Step 2: Click the Zone File drop-down again and select the newly-added file “2”. This will bring the boxes back in the positions they occupied in Zone File “1”. Remember though, you’re now working in Zone File “2”, so any changes you make will be Saved to “2”, not “1”.
As mentioned in “Zoning Basics”, you may want to use the Zoom button at far lower-right to enlarge the boxes you’ll be Zoning.
Step 3: For this COA example, you won’t move the two Zones in the heading area (10 – Lot code & 12 – PO #); they will apply to ALL SIX of the Zone Files you create. So, the first Zone you move will be number 11 (in the Sublot row) since this Zone must collect the unique identifier for each Zone File.
Step 4: To move a Zone box, simply click inside it. A set of “handles” will be added to the box indicating that it can be moved. If avoidable (as in this example) DO NOT try to move the box with your mouse/touchpad! Use your arrow keys for accuracy.
Step 5: Continue moving each of the Zone boxes from column “12” to column “13”, being very careful NOT to include part of a vertical line or overlap another Zone box in your final positioning (this is why you zoom in…).
Step 6: When you have all the boxes from column 12 moved to their new positions in column 13, click Save. The new Zone File you’ve created will be linked to the original OCR Template and will show up in the Zone File list in the Editor.
Step 7: In this example, simply continue the “Copy > Load new Zone File > Move boxes > Save” process until you’ve created all the Zone files needed for this COA. Don’t forget to Save at the end of each!
Please be aware that some Multi-Lot COAs will be more complicated than this, but the same general process will always apply.