San Ramon, CA – September 6, 2001 – As a result of partnering with its build-to-order, discrete manufacturing, and maintenance organization customers, Relevant Business Systems has enhanced its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) suite by providing users with an interface between the ERP and the popular AutoDesk AutoCAD software suite.

Not only can engineers define part numbers and bills of materials within AutoCAD drawings, the Relevant ERP interface also allows AutoCAD 14 and AutoCAD 2000 users to input Relevant information within AutoCAD drawings. Once defined in this manner, parts and bills can be transferred from AutoCAD into Relevant, creating the standard item master and bill of materials records within the Relevant database. Users can also create a purchasing item master, validate all incoming data and generate messages in the error log.

“AutoCAD is one of the most widely used CAD systems,” explains Patrick Garrehy, Relevant Business Systems' President and CEO. “With it, users can define parts using AutoCAD blocks, link parts to parent drawings, generate AutoCAD parts lists and bills, and export into the Relevant database. Now, with our interface, they can streamline the transfer of products from engineering into production.”

According to Garrehy, the transfer process enforces the same quality control checks and balances as are used on the standard Relevant screens. If a part is defined in AutoCAD using a commodity code or unit of measurement that does not exist in the Relevant tables, the AutoCAD interface will reject the record and create a message in the error log. This message further indicates the reason for the reject and the corrective action required.

Once loaded into Relevant, the items and bills are identical to items and bills added directly into the system using standard Relevant screens.

The AutoCAD interface is available now.