What Is Auto-Generate Next in Sequence in a Routing Import?
User Solutions TeamAuto-Generate Next in Sequence is the routing import option that builds the links between steps for you, chaining them in sequence-number order and connecting the last step to the end product, so you never fill the next-step column by hand. It is on by default, and it turns a routing import from a file where every row must know its own successor into a file where each row only needs to know its own position.
EDGEBIC by User Solutions offers it as a checkbox in the Import Options dialog for a bill-of-routing mask. This article defines what it builds and when to leave it on. For the link it creates, see the sibling term next-in-sequence link in a routing.
How It Works
A routing is not a list, it is a chain. Each step has to know which step follows it, or the scheduling engine has no way to tell that welding comes after milling rather than alongside it. In the data that relationship lives in a next-step link on each row.
A flat file can carry that link explicitly, in a next-step column, but doing so is tedious and error-prone: every row has to name the row after it, and inserting a step in the middle means editing two rows, not one.
With Auto-Generate Next in Sequence on, you leave the next-step column blank and supply only a sequence number per row. After the file is saved EDGEBIC sorts the steps for each end product by sequence number and builds the chain:
- Step 10 links to step 20.
- Step 20 links to step 30, and so on.
- The final step links to the end product, terminating the routing at the finished item.
That last link matters as much as the others. Without it the routing runs out into nothing, and the BOR Designer draws a run of operations that never reaches the product it makes.
With the option off, nothing is built for you. Each row's next-step value is taken as given, and a blank one means the step has no successor.
A Concrete Example
Think of numbering the pages of a report before binding it. Auto-generation is the binder that reads the page numbers and stitches them in order, then attaches the cover at the end. You wrote the page numbers; you did not have to write "next page is 4" at the bottom of page 3. Leave the numbers off and the binder has nothing to work from; write them badly and the report is bound in the wrong order, faithfully.
At Acme Industries the planner prepares one file with all five Bracket-B steps and leaves the next-step column empty:
| Seq No | Step | Chained to |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | Saw-1 | 20 |
| 20 | CNC-Mill-1 | 30 |
| 30 | Weld-1 | 40 |
| 40 | Paint-Booth-1 | 50 |
| 50 | Assembly-1 | Bracket-B, the end product |
After the run the BOR Designer shows the five steps chained 10 to 20 to 30 to 40 to 50 and connected to the Bracket-B node. The planner filled in one column of numbers and got a complete routing.
How EDGEBIC Uses It
The default is on because the chain built from sequence numbers is what almost every routing wants, and because the hand-built alternative fails in a specific and annoying way: a forgotten terminal link. That failure is invisible in the file, which looks complete, and only shows up in the Designer as a routing that does not reach its product.
The option changes what your file must contain, not what the routing can express. Sequence numbers become load-bearing, so number in tens and keep the numbering consistent per end product. Two steps with the same sequence number leave the chaining order to chance, and a routing whose numbering does not reflect the real order will be chained wrongly, exactly as numbered.
What the option does not do is guess at structure. Parallel steps, dependent parallel steps, and alternates are not part of a simple chain, and they are declared through their own columns on the routing file rather than inferred from numbering. The chain is the backbone; anything that branches off it is stated explicitly.
Because a routing import replaces the product's live routing entirely, re-running a corrected file with the option on rebuilds the whole chain cleanly, which makes it the practical fix for most link problems.
For running the import, see how to import a routing from Excel, and for what happens behind the scenes see how EDGEBIC imports routings in two passes. For the numbering the chain depends on, see what is a sequence number in a routing. Browse more definitions in the manufacturing glossary.
It is an option on a routing import mask that builds the links between steps for you. With it on, which is the default, EDGEBIC chains the imported steps in sequence-number order, step 10 to step 20 to step 30, and connects the final step to the end product. You leave the next-step column blank in your file. With it off, each row must state its own successor explicitly.
Yes, and it becomes more important, not less. The sequence number is the only thing telling EDGEBIC what order the steps run in, so the chain it builds is exactly the order your sequence numbers describe. Number in tens, such as 10, 20, 30, so you can insert a step later without renumbering everything after it.
It is connected to the end product rather than to another step. That final link is what makes the routing render as a complete chain in the BOR Designer, terminating at the finished item, instead of as a chain of operations that stops in mid-air. Building it by hand is one of the easiest things to forget, which is a large part of why the option defaults to on.
The chain is missing its last link, and there are two usual causes. Either Auto-Generate Next in Sequence was off on the mask and the final step's next-step cell was left blank, so nothing points at the end product, or it was off and the final step's next-step cell points at something that does not resolve, such as a step number that is not in the file. Both produce the same picture: operations that flow into each other and then stop. The straightforward fix is to turn the option on and re-import the same file, which rebuilds every link including the terminal one. If you need the option off for a reason, point the final step's next-step cell at the end product explicitly and re-import.
Not on a single import run, because the option is a property of the mask and applies to the whole file. What sites do instead is import the routing with the option on so the straightforward sequence is built correctly, then open the BOR Designer and adjust the one link that does not follow the numbering. The Designer is the right place for structure that a flat file expresses badly: parallel branches, alternates, and any successor that skips ahead. Trying to encode the exception in the file, by turning the option off and hand-filling every next-step cell for the whole routing, means you now maintain every link by hand to accommodate one that is unusual, and any future edit has to remember why.
Expert Q&A: Deep Dive
Q: Our BOR Designer shows the routing as a run of steps that is not connected to the product. What went wrong?
A: The chain is missing its last link, and there are two usual causes. Either Auto-Generate Next in Sequence was off on the mask and the final step's next-step cell was left blank, so nothing points at the end product, or it was off and the final step's next-step cell points at something that does not resolve, such as a step number that is not in the file. Both produce the same picture: operations that flow into each other and then stop. The straightforward fix is to turn the option on and re-import the same file, which rebuilds every link including the terminal one. If you need the option off for a reason, point the final step's next-step cell at the end product explicitly and re-import.
Q: We want most of the routing chained automatically but one step needs to feed a later step out of order. Can we mix the two?
A: Not on a single import run, because the option is a property of the mask and applies to the whole file. What sites do instead is import the routing with the option on so the straightforward sequence is built correctly, then open the BOR Designer and adjust the one link that does not follow the numbering. The Designer is the right place for structure that a flat file expresses badly: parallel branches, alternates, and any successor that skips ahead. Trying to encode the exception in the file, by turning the option off and hand-filling every next-step cell for the whole routing, means you now maintain every link by hand to accommodate one that is unusual, and any future edit has to remember why.
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