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Once parts lists and correlated technical drawings have been imported into eVision, the most time-consuming stage in creating a high-quality interactive spare parts catalogue is hot-spot management.

By “stamping” a digital frame around the reference number on a parts drawing, a dynamic link (or hot-spot) is created with the corresponding reference number in the parts list.

This link is what effectively enables users to browse eVision parts catalogues so intuitively and access a wealth of relevant parts information such as pricing, user-specific discounts, cross reference links with other products and real-time inventory values. All by simply passing the cursor over any of the parts in the image.
And with no more than a click on the shopping cart icon, the selected part may also be purchased.


HOW'S IT DONE?


Automatic hot-spot creation
Modern cad systems produce parts drawings as vector files. The resulting image quality is extremely high and the parts reference numbers (or letters) are detected and recognised automatically by eVision’s software. Hot-spots are then created, accurately positioned around the part number itself and dynamically linked to the correlating parts list. No human intervention is required.
This procedure may also be applied to large numbers of vector images and parts lists, which may be imported and processed together in a single session for greater efficiency and time-saving.

NEW semi-automatic hot-spotting
Companies wishing to complete their interactive catalogues with parts data for older products are often faced with a file format dilemma. Digital drawings will most likely only be available in an array of non-vector formats such as PDF, tiff, jpeg or png…..not to mention good old fashioned paper!
These formats are all compatible with eVision, but unfortunately, hot-spot creation requires a little more human effort than with vector files.
eVision’s new semi-automatic hot-spotting module, however, lends a significant hand, enabling considerable time savings over "one-number-at-a-time" hot-spot mapping.

• By loosely clicking on the image reference number, a digital geometrical frame is created around it. The frame centres itself, shrink wraps to fit the reference number and, thanks to optical character recognition (OCR), offers a suggestion as to the number value itself. This may be approved or corrected, following which the dynamic link to the correlating number in the parts list is automatically created.

Whether hot-spot setting is totally automated with vector files or requires a little more attention, as is the case with non-vector files, eVision provides the necessary functionality to get the job done as efficiently as possible.

Additional tools are also provided to eliminate potential mismatch errors between images and parts lists. 
Should the reference numbers in a parts list differ from those present in the parts drawing (yes it happens!), then these will be highlighted for easy correction.


> For more information on eVision's Semi-Automatic Hot-Spot Module, please contact us by clicking here.