It's important to know that the GenSum excel file has a copy of the item master in the file, this is a hidden worksheet.
- So, with the GenSum excel file you can specify either the 2023 spec year or earlier spec years. These options are provided within a drop down (as shown below)
- The newest version of GenSum has an update spec year button. This button when clicked will retrieve the newest spec year version if available.
Tip: If a spec year is missing from the dropdown use the refresh spec years button to refresh the dropdown with the currently available spec years.
- You can refresh this copy of the item master by selecting the Green Refresh Item Master button (in the General Summary worksheet). This will update the copy of the item master within the GenSum file with the latest item master that’s posted on our share point site.
Tip: So, after clicking the refresh spec year button it’s good practice to click the refresh item master button. This will update the project GenSum to the latest spec year and the latest changes to the item master.
- It will tell you when the last time the item master was refreshed in the General Summary worksheet.
- All the formulas within the GenSum excel file are retrieving the specs within the projects copy of the item master which is housed within the GenSum file itself.
For the sub-summary sheets, it’s important to know that they DO NOT have a copy of the item master within them. They are instead linked to an item master within the projects GenSum.
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- Most likely these sub-summary sheets have a broken link to the GenSum to start with (unless you have the exact setup and drives letters as ODOT does).
- To fix these links or change where they link to, you can use the Item_Master_Addin.xlam. Which is located within the ODOT standards (Standards/OHDOT Utilities/GenSum/Add-ins/) In this add-in there is a button called Fix Links.
This Item Master Add-in currently isn’t utilizing ProjectWise integration. This means that if your project is within ProjectWise then the following steps for the fix links process will utilize the ProjectWise working directory for your project Item master.
- When you select the fix links button you will get the dialog below. You can click the Add Files button to add all the sub-summary excel files you want to fix/change links for. Then you specify what spec year you want the sub-summary files to be linked to. There are 4 options.
- Use Active Spec Year: This means it will use whatever you have selected within the add-in itself to use as the active spec year via the preferences buttons.
- 2016 Spec: This means to link the listed sub-summaries excel files to the 2016 item master.
- 2019 Spec: This means to link the listed sub-summaries excel files to the 2019 item master.
- Select Location: This allows you to select an excel file that contains a copy of the item master (ex: GenSum) and link the listed sub-summary excel files to this file. (You use the
button to select the excel file.)
Tip: It is recommended to use the 4th option (Select Location) and link your sub-summaries to the copy of the item master that’s inside your projects GenSum file. This way all the excel files are linked to the same copy of the item master and you only have to refresh the item master once for a given project.