How to Install and Connect EDGEBIC: First Launch to First Schedule

To install production scheduling software at most shops used to mean a server, a database administrator, and a rollout weekend. Installing EDGEBIC by User Solutions is a Windows setup program, an administrator account, and a six-step wizard that ends with a scheduled job. This post walks the whole first run, then the connection screen you use later if you move to a shared database.

If you are still deciding between a single-user file and a shared server, read EDGEBIC deployment options explained first.

Step 1: Install

1. Run the EDGEBIC setup program as an administrator (right-click, then Run as administrator).
2. Follow the installation wizard. Accept the default installation directory unless your IT policy says otherwise.
3. Choose any shortcuts you want and complete the installation. The .NET 8 runtime installs automatically if it is missing.
4. Launch EDGEBIC from the Start Menu.

A loading screen appears while the application prepares its database. On a brand-new machine this takes a few extra seconds because the database file and all its tables are being created from scratch. You see that pause once.

For a single-user installation there is no database software to install and nothing to configure. EDGEBIC creates a single-file local database in your Windows local application data folder automatically on first launch.

Step 2: Create the Administrator and Sign In

The very first time EDGEBIC starts against a new database, it asks you to create the administrator account. Every later start goes straight to the sign-in dialog.

The default policy is at least 8 characters with an uppercase letter, a lowercase letter, and a digit; the hint under the field shows your installation's actual policy. Click Create administrator, then sign in on the Sign in to EDGEBIC dialog.

This account is a protected system record: it holds every permission and it cannot be deleted, which guarantees the installation can never lock itself out. Create named accounts for the people who will actually use the system as soon as there is more than one of them. That is covered in how to set up users and roles in EDGEBIC.

Step 3: The First Time Setup Wizard

On a fresh, empty database the EDGEBIC First Time Setup Wizard opens. It walks the minimum data needed to schedule a first job, in the order those records depend on each other.

Three behaviors worth knowing while you are in it:

• Forward navigation waits for validation. The Next button enables once the current step's record is saved. If Next will not enable, the record on screen has not been saved yet.
• Backward navigation is always allowed. Click any completed step indicator, or Previous, to review. Nothing you created is lost.
• A Step Complete overlay appears after each of steps 2 to 6, asking whether to continue or add another record of the same kind ("Yes, Next Step" or "No, Add Another Shift").

On the last step the Next button reads Complete Setup, and the completion page offers Finish and Start EDGEBIC. The application restarts into the main window, ready to schedule.

You do not have to use the wizard. Every step is the normal editor for that tab, so if you close it, create the same records in the same order from the main tabs. What the walkthrough in the greenfield setup walkthrough adds is the arithmetic: what those six records actually produce when you run the first schedule, and why the operations land where they do.

Step 4: Connect to a Database (When You Need To)

You only need this when moving off the default local file, typically to share one plan between several planners.

1. Open the Settings tab, then the DataSource sub-tab. The card at the top shows the active connection: a green Connected chip with the provider and the target, or a red failure indicator.
2. Under Database provider, pick the provider.

For the local file, use Browse to pick an existing database file or Create to start a new one.

For SQL Server, fill in the connection fields:

3. Click Test connection. The status line is specific rather than binary: it distinguishes an unreachable server, a failed sign-in, and a reachable server with a successful sign-in where the database simply does not exist yet. That last message is normal on a first setup.
4. A warning card reminds you that switching databases requires a restart, and offers Export current first (a backup of the database you are leaving), Cancel, and Apply & restart.
5. Click Apply & restart. EDGEBIC restarts on the new connection and builds the schema automatically on first launch.

Switching providers does not move your data. The old database keeps everything and the new one starts empty. That is why Export current first exists, and why the move deserves a plan rather than a click. The full sequence is in moving from single user to shared server.

Two recommendations from the documentation: prefer Windows authentication for SQL Server, because there is then no stored password to break when a configuration reaches a different Windows account. And take an Export before every big change: one click creates a timestamped backup next to the database file, safe even while the application is running.

If the Application Will Not Start

A recovery window titled Database Connection Problem appears instead of the main window. It shows the error, embeds the same connection editor so you can fix things on the spot, and offers four actions:

Startup failures also write to a log file that support can read.

Finding Your Way Around After Setup

The main window is one row of navigation tabs, and their order is a map of how the product works.

The toolbar above the tabs carries five actions worth knowing on day one: a reset button (which opens an administrative reset dialog, so read its prompts), Help with version and license information, Launch Kiosk for the shop floor terminal, Check for Updates, and Sign out beside the identity strip showing who is signed in.

One convenience that needs no configuration: every grid and tree remembers your personal column layout, including widths, order, visibility, sorting, grouping, and filters. The layout is restored when you open a screen and saved when you leave it. It is yours alone, so rearranging a grid does not affect anyone else, and new columns shipped in an update still appear even if you saved a layout before they existed. If a grid ever looks wrong, a saved layout is usually the reason, and there is a reset for layouts under Data Management.

After the First Schedule

Once a job is on the Gantt, the next three tasks are usually loading real master data, deciding who can do what, and tuning the scheduling policy:

• Load products, work centers, routings, and orders from spreadsheets with import masks, rather than typing them.
• Create roles and named accounts: how to set up users and roles in EDGEBIC.
• Set the site-wide scheduling policy: how to configure scheduling policy in EDGEBIC.

If you are coming from spreadsheets, the Excel to APS migration guide covers the data-shaping work that runs alongside the install.

Where to Go Next

Read EDGEBIC deployment options explained for the choice between local and shared, and deployment and database mistakes in EDGEBIC for the errors worth avoiding on day one. When a workstation is later replaced, moving EDGEBIC to a new computer covers both cases, carrying the local single-file database across or simply reconnecting to a shared SQL Server database. The full administrator's journey is in the EDGEBIC admin guide.

Bring a spreadsheet of your work centers to a demo of EDGEBIC, and we will import it on the call.