Visual Freezers: Part 4
Visual Freezers Part 4
In this final video on Visual Freezers, we'll show you how to set up a freezer's subdivisions before configuring its picture, then finish with an example of an exception.
If you just want to know how to configure them visually, skip to the 3:50 mark.
Introduction – 00:00
Hey guys, welcome to the Freezerworks 2019 Learning Series, your visual guide to our sample management software. Today, we finish up our series on Visual Freezers. So far, you've seen it in action throughout the program – in Explore Freezers, Move Aliquots, and Aliquot Entry – how do you configure your freezers to look like the real world? Well, we're going to start by discussing how to set up a freezer’s subdivisions prior to configuring its picture and then finish with an example of an exception. If you've already got Freezers set up and just want to learn about how to configure them visually, skip to the 3:50 mark.
How to create a Freezer – 00:50
To begin, open the Configuration menu and select Freezers on this mini-menu, just select Freezers again. This is your list of freezers; click Add New. Start by giving your freezer a name and then provide any other information that you find important here. Depending on your freezer, you may or may not have what we call Freezer Sections, which are listed here. One part of a freezer may be constructed or organized very differently than another part of a freezer, but it's all the same freezer – these are Freezer Sections. If you don't have sections, simply create a single one for the freezer and treat it as the whole freezer. Click Add New to create a section. If you have created sections already and saved them as templates, you'll be able to start from one of them at this point. This is very handy as the configuration process can be tedious. We're going to start from scratch, though.
Freezer Section Configuration – 01:50
Name your section whatever you like and provide a description too, if need be. Now, it's time to map out our Freezer’s organization by defining the subdivisions. If at any point you need a much more detailed explanation of this page and what defining a freezer means, click this Help button to open our User's Guide topic on Configuring Freezers. Anyway, think about the first layer of your freezer – are they Shelves? Racks? Drawers? You can choose from a predefined list of subdivisions, or enter whatever yours is called. I'm going to select Shelves. Then enter how you want the first subdivision labeled, numerically, alpha characters, or by double alpha characters? Then think about the quantity. How many shelves are in my freezer? I've got six. Finally, enter the first position for the subdivision. Typically, this will just be 1, or “A,” but say your numbering system moves across sections or even whole freezers. Maybe the last section’s shelf was 6, so this one needs to start at 7. There, one subdivision down. The process is the exact same for the rest of your subdivisions. Just continue to imagine your freezer, what the layers are called, how they are organized, and how many of each. Once you get to the box-level, you'll need to think about how the individual aliquots are positioned. You may have a freezer where you organize them according to a single position or according to a Row-Column format. Since I just have a box and position, I want aliquots strictly defined by position. You may not even want unique positions, as perhaps the location of the individual aliquot doesn't really matter; just that you know where they are in general. If this is the case, check off “Assign each Aliquot to a unique position” and then tell the system the estimated amount of aliquot your container can hold, for capacity purposes.
Configure Visual Freezers – 03:50
Alright, we've set our Freezer up, let's design the picture. Click Configuration Picture. You'll see your freezer visualized, and you can start exploring it here if you like, but to actually configure it, click Edit Freezer Picture. You'll start seeing each subdivision visualized separately, starting with the first one. My shelves are visualized here. We can see that it's organized into one row and six columns, for a total of six shelves. This is fine, but not realistic when it comes to what we expect from ‘shelves.’ If we instead switch it to six rows and one column and click Update, we'll get a more realistic representation of our shelves. When we have more columns, setting the direction of assignment will make more sense. The “Box Exceptions Centered” checkbox is really only important when you are visualizing pie-shaped boxes. To learn more about this, see our Pie-Shaped Boxes example in the User’s Guide topic, Freezer Configuration Examples. Let's click Next though, since our shelves look good. Now we're here at the 2nd subdivision level, the Racks. These are organized into one row and five columns, a total of five racks. This actually looks realistic when it comes to racks so we can leave this level alone. Click Next, and we see a long line of boxes. I don't think a single freezer’s boxes are organized like this. Let's make it look good. With 20 boxes, we can instead arrange them in a 4 x 5 format, like they might be in the real world. Click Update, and there we go. Now that we have a more complicated arrangement, setting the direction of assignment comes into play. Determine whether to number your containers horizontally or vertically. What boxes look good? Let's see what it looks like inside one. In my box, I've got 81 positions and they are already arranged 9 x 9, just how I like it. Now, I can just decide whether the numbering is vertical or horizontal, and at what corner the numbering begins. Click Next in the final subdivision and you're finished configuring the picture.
Exceptions – 05:50
Go ahead and explore it to ensure everything looks the way you want it to. For instance, perhaps you realize that in all of the racks in shelf 4, there should only be 12 boxes, not 20. This is called an Exception, and to set that up, click Define Exceptions here on the left. Freezerworks will tell you what the standard configuration of the freezer is in the upper left. Click Add to create an exception. So, if you are trying to create an exception for the number of boxes in all of the racks in shelf 4, you'd enter 4 for the Shelf, All for the Racks, and leave the Box field blank. You'll see the quantity field right here and Freezerworks will tell you what subdivision you're defining to the right of it. Enter 12 for the Boxes. Provide the first position like you did on the Define Freezer page, I'll just enter 1. And finally, determine what the picture will look like – the Number of Rows and Columns. You might want it to be an even square like the others, so 3 for the rows and 4 for the columns. Click Save, Cancel, and your exception is listed like so. To see the exception in the picture though, you'll just need to save and reload the Freezer Section.
Conclusion – 07:10
And that's it for our series on Visual Freezers. I hope you've learned a lot from these videos, at least enough to get started, but if you want more help, check out our User's Guide or contact our dedicated support staff. Thanks as always for watching, see you next time!