Electronic Catalogs: Technologies
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Do we need a different know-how for the creation of an electronic catalog than for the creation of a printed one? -
Indeed. However, you do not have to acquire this yourself to get a good result.
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Apart from the extra effort during revisions, do conventional graphics have an other disadvantages in comparison to "intelligent" graphics? -
Besides the effort for the administration of hotspots and links, there are some functional limitations with conventional graphics depending on the target environment.
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Is the common overlay technique an efficient method for the creation of hotspots? -
Unfortunately, the overlay technique, though common, is not an efficient method for the creation of hotspots. In electronic catalogs that require frequent revisions, this technique often demands a lot of manual effort during each revision.
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Can I conduct a fully automatic creation and revision of an electronic catalog with a standard software product? -
Yes. You can do so with IsoCompose by ITEDO Software.
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What is most essential when preparing an electronic parts catalog? -
It is most important that the illustrations are prepared in such a way that they can be used in all conceivable environments.
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What prerequisites must be met for a maximum degree of automation in the generation and revision process of an electronic catalog? -
The essential prerequisite for the automation of these processes is the availability of intelligent graphics with graphical objects.
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What advantages does the automatic creation of a catalog offer? -
Besides enormous time and cost benefits, another advantage of an automatic creation is the indirect, increased security of the contained links.
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What advantage does creating overlays with intelligent vector graphics offer when in the end TIFF raster graphics are used in the electronic catalog anyway? -
The creation of overlays with intelligent vector graphics simplifies and automates the process of updating and revising the electronic catalog.
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How does the catalog program create the displayed parts lists? -
Parts lists are mainly available in table form and are directly converted from a database into the catalog format.
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How does the automatic updating of hotspots and links with "intelligent" graphics work in contrast to using conventional methods on common illustrations in an electronic catalog? -
Automatic updating of hotspots and links with "intelligent" graphics is done via object IDs in contrast to revisions made on conventional overlays.
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How can the automatic generation and revision of an electronic catalog be best achieved? -
The goal is to eliminate manual work steps during generation and revisions.
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How do the new "intelligent" graphics automatically generate overlays when we are still working with a raster graphics collection of our existing electronic catalog as an interim solution? -
"Intelligent" graphics generate the overlay rectangle, which includes the whole object, from data about the graphical object.
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How much effort is the creation of an electronic catalog? -
The effort of creating an electronic catalog essentially consists of the data preparation and the programming of the catalog.
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How should the existing illustrations for a printed catalog be fashioned so they can be used easily for the electronic version of the catalog? -
A homogenous vector graphics archive is the preferable way to store such information (i.e. all illustrations should be in the same vector format.)
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How should the existing text or parts lists for a printed catalog be fashioned so they can be used easily for the electronic version of the catalog? -
A database is the preferable way to compile such information.
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How are the links (the connections between text and graphic) created and administrated? -
Unfortunately, there is no universal answer to this since the syntax of the links depends on the environment.
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How are the links between illustrations and parts lists created in an electronic catalog? -
The technology in use determines how, where and to what extent this is done.
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How do you prepare illustrations for processing in a catalog program? -
Illustrations often have to be converted to a format that is suitable for electronic delivery.
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How are the links and hotspots in electronic catalogs usually created? -
Hotspots on illustrations are typically created with overlays.
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How should a spare parts catalog based on Internet technologies be created initially? -
There are several possibilites.
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We already have a printed catalog that we would like to distribute electronically now. How do we get started? -
The answer to this depends on the type of your graphic and parts list data.
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We already have an electronic catalog with raster graphics and overlays and cannot immediately switch our whole graphics archive to intelligent graphics. -
Can we still benefit from the advantages of intelligent graphics in a step-by-step manner?
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