The inventory manager panel.

Inventory Groups
Each inventory item is stored in one or more inventory groups.  These groups help organize different types of items into logical collections.  You may prefer to create separate inventory groups for each manufacturer, or you may prefer to organize items by effect type.  However you choose to organize your inventory items, the power is there to create as many groups as you want and name each group whatever you want.

The group listing on the Inventory Manager shows all the inventory groups present in your database.  The contents of each group can be edited by double clicking on the name, which will launch the Inventory Editor. When a group name is selected in the list, a brief summary of inventory statistics will appear below the action buttons under the list.  The name of the selected group can also be changed by typing a new name into the Edit Group Name box.

Add Group- this button will create a new group and add it to the list.  The group will initially be assigned the name “new group,” after which you can change the name to whatever you want.

Delete Group- this button will delete an inventory group from the database, and all items contained within it.  Note that this is a destructive operation that can not be undone, so it is advised that you export a backup to disk before delete an inventory group.  A warning message will give you the chance to abort this operation if you unintentionally click the Delete Group button.

NOTE: There is no un-delete operation, so care must be taken with this feature in order to prevent accidental data loss.

The inventory merge utility panel.

Merge- the merge utility is used to combine inventory items from two separate groups.  The items will be merged into the group that is selected in the list (target), while the group that the items will be moved from (source) is selected from the merge utility panel shown above.  After the merge is complete, the source group will still be present in the list but it will have no items stored in it.  All items originally in the source group will be moved into the target group.

NOTE: There is no un-merge operation, so care must be taken with this feature in order to prevent messing up your inventory groups.

Import- this feature allows you to merge inventory files that have been saved via the export operation.  In addition to the native ShowSim inventory format, you may also import inventory files from a variety of other scripting packages on the market, such as FireOne and SmartShow.  To read more about importing inventory data, read here.

Export- this feature allows you to save your inventory data to disk in the form of a text file.  It is recommended that you periodically make backups of your data by exporting it to disk.  This is especially necessary if you plan to uninstall ShowSim or transfer your setup to a new computer.  When ShowSim is uninstalled, all data in the database will be cleared.  Thus it is critical to export all inventory, show and custom effect data to disk prior to performing an uninstall.

Inventory Summary
When an inventory group is selected from the group list, the summary area will show the number of items stored in the group, along with the sum total of the selling price of each item.  Note that these numbers represent the product of each item multiplied by the number of each item in stock.

Summarize All Groups- if this box is checked, then the summary information will be applied across all inventory groups rather than just the group selected in the group list.

Inventory Alerts- if there are any warning conditions detected for the selected inventory group, then a warning message will appear below the inventory summary information.  Clicking on the warning message will open the Inventory Alerts utility so that you can investigate exactly what alerts are triggered.  To find out more about the Inventory Alert panel, read here.

Current Shows
This listing gives the names of all shows stored in your database.  Selecting a show from the list will make it the “active” show and display a brief summary of statistics for the show.  This summary includes the number of items used in the show, along with the total for the product cost (your cost) and the selling price (customer cost) for all items in the show.

In the event that the summary data is inaccurate due to missing information, an star will be placed next to the data in question.  A more detailed description of why the summary data may be flawed will appear below the summary data if applicable.  Typical causes for these warning messages are show items that are not represented by an inventory item or inventory items that are missing price or cost data.

Removing Stock- the right pointing green arrow under the show list is used to subtract the entire show contents from inventory.  This will modify the “Inventory” field of each item used in the show, making it possible to “pull” a show from inventory and adjust the product stock quantities accordingly.  Rather than adjust inventory quantities while you build your show, ShowSim allows you to complete your show and then deduct it from inventory all at once when the show is completed and ready to fire.  This method of inventory deduction also allows you to subtract the same show stock more than once, which is useful for “canned” shows that you may fire on a regular basis.

Returning Stock- the left pointing green arrow button will do just the opposite as the Remove Stock button.  The “Inventory” field of each item used in the show will be incremented by the number of items used.  This feature would be useful for replacing stock for a show that was rained out or canceled for some reason after the material was already removed using the Remove button.  This button could also be thought an “undo” button for the Remove Stock operation.

NOTE: both Remove Stock and Return Stock buttons trigger a warning message that allows you the option to abort the action.