The Data Grid vs the Flow Chart View of a Routing

In EDGEBIC a routing has two views, a data grid and a flow chart, and they are the same routing seen two ways. Each node on the canvas is a row in the grid. Each connector arrow is the grid's next-in-sequence value. Save in one view and the other shows exactly what you saved, because there is one routing underneath, not two copies to reconcile. EDGEBIC by User Solutions offers both because a routing has two natures, numbers and structure, and each view is better at one of them.

This post explains what each view is best at, why they never drift apart, and how to move between them without a moment's doubt about which is authoritative. It sits under the visual scheduling guide, and complements the argument in why a visual routing beats a spreadsheet BOM.

One Routing, Two Windows

The most important thing to understand is what is not happening: there is no import or export between the views. The grid and the designer are windows onto the same stored routing. A node and its grid row are the same object. A connector arrow and the row's next-in-sequence value are the same fact.

That means switching views is free and safe. Toggle from Data Grid to Designer with the toolbar buttons and you are looking at the identical routing from a different angle, not a translated copy that might have lost something in translation. Edit hours in the grid, flip to the designer, and the numbers are there. Draw a connector on the canvas, flip to the grid, and the next-in-sequence column reflects it. Because there is one source of truth, the question "which view is right" never arises. They are always in agreement by construction.

The Grid Is for Numbers

A routing carries a lot of numbers: hours per unit, setup time, queue time, transit days, instance counts, transfer batch sizes. Entering and adjusting those is tabular work, and a grid is the right tool for tabular work.

In the grid, each step is a row and each attribute is a column. You can tab across fields, work down a column, copy a value into many rows, and sort or filter to find the steps you want to change. When you need to set setup time on twelve steps or bump hours per unit across a routing, the grid is far faster than selecting nodes one at a time on a canvas. This is why the standing advice is to bulk-edit hours in the grid.

The grid is also where you export a picture of record. Its Export button writes a snapshot of the grid exactly as displayed, visible columns, current sort and filter, markers rebuilt as text, opening with a legend that explains them. That snapshot is for reference and audit, deliberately not the import file format, so it does not round-trip back in. For loading routings in bulk you use the import masks, covered in how EDGEBIC imports routings in two passes.

The Designer Is for Structure

Structure is the other nature of a routing, and it is where the grid falls short. A grid can hold a next-in-sequence value on every row, but it cannot show you the flow those values create. You cannot see a branch, a merge, or a dead-end by scanning rows.

The designer shows all of it. A branch is a node with two arrows out; a merge is a node with two arrows in; a dead-end is a node whose arrow points nowhere. When you add a sub-assembly, reroute a step, or check that a chain reaches the finished product, the canvas is the view that makes the shape visible. Drawing a connector to link two steps is the natural way to express "then do this," and it is far more legible than editing a value in a cell.

The designer also validates the structure the grid cannot. On save it refuses a broken chain: a missing end product, a step that cannot reach the end product, an end product with outgoing arrows. Those are structural faults, and the flow chart is where they are obvious, because a disconnected node has an arrow into empty space while the equivalent grid row still looks complete. Reading dependencies on the canvas is the skill the designer rewards.

Which View, When

The division of labor settles into a simple table.

The one-line version is the rule most planners adopt: grid for numbers, designer for structure. And because both are the same routing, you are never committing to one. A typical session is numbers in the grid, a flip to the canvas to confirm the flow, back to the grid for a correction, saved once.

A Worked Example: Building a Routing Both Ways

Acme Industries adds a new routing for a machined housing: mill, then drill, then inspect, then the finished housing.

The planner starts in the grid, where entering numbers is fastest. Four rows go in: mill at 0.5 hours per unit and 1.0 hour setup, drill at 0.2 and 0.5, inspect at 0.1 and 0, and the finished housing. Values are typed down the columns in under a minute.

Then the planner flips to the designer to set the structure. The four nodes are there, one per grid row, but not yet connected. With the connector tool on, the planner draws mill to drill, drill to inspect, inspect to the housing. Now the flow reads left to right and the chain reaches the finished product. On save the designer confirms the structure is valid.

Later, engineering asks for a plating step between drill and inspect. In the grid the planner adds the plating row with its numbers. Back on the canvas the plating node appears disconnected, an arrow into nothing, which the designer flags. The planner draws drill to plating and plating to inspect, and the routing is correct again. Numbers went in through the grid; structure was fixed on the canvas; it was one routing the whole time.

Two Views, No Compromise

The temptation with any tool is to force a single interface to do everything, and the result is usually a spreadsheet that cannot show structure or a diagram that is miserable for bulk data entry. EDGEBIC declines the compromise. User Solutions has been building routing tools for manufacturers since 1991, for shops and for names like Cummins and the US Navy, and the two-view design reflects how planners actually work: numbers in a grid, structure on a canvas, one routing behind both so neither view can lie about the other.

Use the grid for the numbers, the designer for the shape, and let EDGEBIC keep them identical. Bring a routing to a demo and edit it both ways. Give US a chance to show you one routing from two angles.