In March 2010 Microsoft will release a Windows update including a browser choice screen that asks you to select your preferred web browser. (Microsoft does so to comply with the settlement with the EU in autumn 2009.) When that Windows update is run on your computer this is what you will see. (Click to enlarge.)

Screen 1	Screen 2

PC-Topp.NET is designed exclusively for Internet Explorer (version 7 or higher) and is not supported under any other browser.

Selecting a standard browser other than Internet Explorer will start PC-Topp.NET in an unsupported browser. This will lead to serious malfunction of PC-Topp.NET!

Therefore we strongly recommend not to select a browser in the browser choice screen but to inform your system administrator!

It might even be advisable for him to disable the browser choice screen altogether.

How to Block the Browser Choice Screen (Microsoft Education Partner Network)

With the new Order Data Transfer Report you can download the order data transfer history displayed on the PC‑Topp.NET Order Transfer page in PDF format. This gives you an easy way to output e.g. all transfer errors during the last two weeks for printout, emailing etc.

There are two ways to create this report:

• Order Data Transfer Information by Category During Default Period of Time
  On the Order Transfer page you can click the PDF icon in the header of each category (new, updated, deleted errors) to create a report with the order transfers in just this category during the period of time displayed on the page (14 days by default; longer periods can be set on request). 
  
• Free Choice of Category and Period of Time of Order Data Transfer Information
  
  Clicking the “Order Data Transfer History” link in the bottom of the Order Transfer page will open a new page that offers further options for customizing the report. You can select
  
  
  • Whether you want to output all or just selected categories of order transfers,
  • The period of time the Order Data Transfer Report should cover.

Now you can assign special instructions to individual orders that describe what should be done when this order runs on a specific machine. This functionality can be used e.g. for marking orders whose production is to be controlled by a supervisor or orders that require special quality checks.

You can do so by defining so called production control codes in the new Production Control Codes page (to be found in the PC-Topp.NET Settings section). Each production control code has a description where you can enter an instruction how to treat the order(s) marked with this code. Production control codes can be assigned to any conversion step of an order via the order data transfer.

At the Machine Terminal, in Conversion Machine Scheduling, and in the Order Summary orders with a production control code appear as follows:

• They are marked with a colored icon so you immediately recognize them.
• Their description text is displayed in a tooltip (Conversion Machine Scheduling and Order Summary) resp. on the General Tab of the Machine Terminal.

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As of now any application that can access the PC-Topp SQL Server database can print bar codes. The first example of this new option is the new PC-Topp.NET corrugator material list. It is now available as a Crystal report in a standard as well as a personalized version that supports bar codes.

The new material list displays the actual program sequence, i.e. the sequence at the corrugator (not the sequence in Program Memory). Much like the classical material list but in a clearer structure, both versions of the PDF material list show

• The required quantities per program and paper code in meters and kilograms, organized by outside liner resp. single facer,
• The total quantity to produce per flute type,
• The roll size distribution per paper.

If subsequent programs require the same paper and roll size on the same single facer then the required quantity for this paper code is totalled in the first program where this paper is used.

Additionally, the personalized extended version of the new material list supports paper bar codes for reading with a bar code scanner. The paper bar codes are displayed next to the respective paper codes in a large font size so they are easily scannable with a pistol bar code reader.

The Personnel tab of the PC-Topp.NET Machine Terminal has been equipped with the password-protected possibility to sign in as an engineer (provided the user is marked as engineer in the Personnel Numbers page).

With this new functionality, an engineer can leave comments on the problems he has attended to that will be displayed in the shift report. Besides he can make sure that the time spent fixing a problem will be registered as such.

The dialog for entering comments on articles available in the General Tab of the Machine Terminal has been enhanced to allow entering more than just article comments. It now offers the following options:

• Article Comment
  As before, comments are saved for the article in question and will be displayed at each run of this article.
• New: Production Comment
  Comments are saved in the statistics for this order and will be displayed in the shift report.
• New: Internal Complaints
  Internal complaint comments are saved in the statistics along with their complaint cause and will be displayed in the Internal Complaints report. (This comment type only is available if there is at least one internal complaint defined in the Downtime Causes page.)

The Article Performance Report which used to be available only for the conversion machines has now been released for the corrugator(s), too.

As its conversion machine counterpart, the report lists orders by article. It shows information on produced vs. waste quantity, production time, speed, and trim for the individual orders as well as the totals of the article they belong to. (Partial runs are greyed out.)

The PC-Topp.NET backup functionality now better ensures that in case of data loss there is a current backup available.

• If a backup has failed a warning message is displayed throughout the system.
• The system checks for the last successful backup and, if necessary, prompts the user to run backup more often.

As of now PC-Topp lets you define default reasons for downtimes and waste. This feature prevents unaccounted-for downtimes and waste in the statistics. (You have to use the Detailed Waste functionality for this feature to be available for waste.)

In the Waste Reasons page and the Downtime Causes page there is a new option to mark the default reason in the detailed view of each waste reason resp. downtime cause. If this is checked the default reason is marked with an asterisk in the overview. Setting a default reason has the following effects:

• Default Waste Reason
  If Detailed Waste Entry is enabled and a default waste reason is defined PC-Topp automatically assigns this default waste reason for waste quantities below a certain customizable limit.
• Default Downtime Cause
  All downtimes the user doesn’t specify a cause for are automatically assigned the default downtime cause.

So far the PC-Topp Machine Terminal has warned the operator with a message in the toolbox if the ordered quantity of the current order is exceeded.

Additionally the Machine Terminal now also displays an alert in the toolbox if according to the machine counter more has been produced than fed into the machine (i.e. if  for the current order the produced quantity is larger than the quantity available from the previous machine).