This is more of an opinion question before I decide how to handle volume UOMs…
We have a volume UOM class. Its base UOM is a gallon because we have several products that involve liquid.
However, we have just been through an exercise of getting shipping weights and dimensions. One of those dimensions is … volume, but the base UOM there should really be cubic feet.
So… if we add cubic foot as a UOM to the existing volume UOM class, we have to create a completely absurd relationship between gallon and cubic foot.
Option 2 is to create a second volume UOM class, but that also seems silly.
Is there a third option I should be considering?
Right now I am leaning toward keeping only one volume UOM class and just dealing with the absurd relationship, but didn’t know if there were any negative consequences.
it is totally appropriate to put gallons to cubic feet… remember that you can specify the denominator so that your conversion factor is always a whole number.
I typically reserve the special UOM classes for UOMs that “cross over” UOMs (Feet to Pounds, Gallons to Each, etc). Although I have also been known to create special UOM Classes per “part Class”… in other words, I create a UOM Class for “Wire” which has “Spool”, “Feet” (the base measurement) and “Pounds”… then create conversions for pounds to feet, and pounds to spool.
Tim, what’s your opinion of using a single UOM Class with a default of Each and making every other UOM part specific in the same class? This would allow you to change UOM’s for any part because all of the conversion information is stored at the part level.
that would work, but it also “breaks” the rules. Every UOM must belong to a base class of some type, and can only belong to one base class. the only UOM Classes that can have a UOM that is in another base class is class that is in “Other” class.
You could create a new Other class, and make EA what everything is based from, and then include all the other UOMs as Part Specific. Seems like alot of work, unless all your parts cross over the UOM Class boundary.