Entering Spec Sheets into OASIS

There are 3 different methods for pulling PDF's into OASIS.

1. Scanning catalog pages in using a scanner
2. Moving PDF's from a CD-ROM by "dragging and dropping".
3. Downloading them from the manufacturer's website.

1. SCANNING PDF'S

Use your scanner to create a pdf file and then save it to your desktop.

2. PDF'S BY CD-ROM

Open the CD to view the PDFs it contains, you may "drag and drop" the files directly into OASIS.
Note: It is possible to move a number of PDFs at one time. However, the more you are moving at one time the longer it will take to complete the task. Further, we recommend that before you move a large number of PDFs from CD to OASIS that you manually view and resize the first one or two to make sure that they are loading correctly. We occasionally find that some PDFs are encrypted or corrupted and do not load correctly. If you find that the PDFs are not loading appropriately, you might want to send us a copy of that particular file so that we can determine what the exact problem is.

3. COPYING PDF'S FROM A MANUFACTURER'S WEBSITE

More and more manufacturers are providing copies of their cut sheets in PDF format on their websites. Choose the individual cut sheet that you wish to move to OASIS and open it. If it is a PDF file, it will open into Adobe acrobat. Then you can save it to your desktop using the save feature under the file menu.
Note: Most of the time you can move these into OASIS. Occasionally, a manufacturer will encrypt its PDFs. In those cases, you can print out the PDF and then scan it in following the instructions above.

Once you have the PDF’s stored on your machine – desktop, files, etc. You can move them into OASIS

Open OASIS

• Go to Manufacturers – you should see drop downs for Cut Sheets and Pricing
• Then click on Cut Sheets.
• If you do NOT see your manufacturer in the list, follow this step.
  1. It is recommended or may be required that an “Admin” person create a new manufacturer.
  2. Click on the Manufacturers.
  3. Then File, then “New”.
  4. Follow the steps to create a new manufacturer. Click Here for instructions on entering new manufacturers.
  5. If you need help call us.

• Find the Manufacturer in the list

• Then right-click the manufacturer name.
• Click "New Catalog"
• New Catalog window will appear

• Enter your catalog name
• NOTE: OASIS can handle multiple catalogs so identifying catalogs is important for reference.
• Hit OK.
• Then double-click on the manufacturer and the catalog should appear below the manufacturer. (As shown in the picture below)
• Then Highlight the catalog.

• Then right-click the new catalog you created and select "New Section".

• Enter the name of the Section - this could be Parabolics, Troffers or any number of ways you want to divide up the catalog – this is for your benefit, call us if you need help understanding this process. The most common way to label these sections are the follow the same method that the manufacturer uses in its website or printed catalog so you will be looking for the PDFs in the same fashion that you normally do.
• NOTE: Sections are the only place you can drag and drop PDFs
• Hit OK.
• Double-click on the catalog and the section should appear below the associated catalog name.

• You are now ready to drag and drop PDFs into the section under this manufacturer. Dragging and dropping is as easy as clicking on the file and moving it to the catalog (hold the mouse button until you release the copy where you want it to save). A "+" sign should appear near your cursor to indicate that you are moving a copy of the file. You can drag and drop one or several PDF files into a section at a time. Just highlight one or multiple PDFs and drag and drop them into the section
• After you drop the PDF(s), the Preview Images window appears.

• This option allows you to preview the images and size them before they are stored in OASIS for building submittals.
• NOTE: It is a good practice to view and size the images going in to your catalogs.
• Selecting NO will allow OASIS to re-size the images automatically, but you may need to sample the cut sheets to see if OASIS re-sized properly due to different styles and types of PDF files.
• Selecting YES will bring the image into the OASIS viewer window as shown below

• Sometimes part of the image is cutoff and needs to be re-sized to fit the window
• Note: You can drag the image around by holding the left mouse button down.
• To Vertically and Horizontally resize the image, use the buttons on the toolbar OR use the F7 and/or the F8 function keys
• By using the F7 key the image automatically re-sizes to fit the window
• When you are done re-sizing, hit OK.
• If there is more than one page of this image set, each page will appear in succession until the set is complete. Repeat the steps above to store all pages.
• Below is what your section should look like after the images have been successfully dropped into the catalog. This example had 2 pages.

• NOTE: At this point some agencies will create a Section called “Highlighted” for images that you have modified while creating a Submittal. Remember you can only drag and drop these modified images (cut sheets) into a Section.
• Once these modified images have been saved back in a Section, the pages icon will be yellow, to let you know that these are pre-highlighted.
• You can store a large amount of these highlighted images in OASIS since the base image (PDF) is only stored once. We encourage the saving of these highlighted (modified) images back into OASIS using the "Learn" button. This will train OASIS to go and find that same part number (highlighted cut sheet) the next time that you create a Submittal set containing that part. As you begin building your image library and highlighted image sets, it will become a very valuable tool and speed up greatly the process of creating professional submittals