CxAlloy TQ has the best import process of any competing software, and provides one of the best import experiences I’ve ever encountered across any type of software. The clear UI, the flexibility to work with a wide variety of files, and the ability to simultaneously import related data and arbitrary attributes are all fantastic features that make our customers’ lives easier every day.
Today we are taking our amazing import capabilities and making them even better. We are rolling out three great improvements: updating via import, format importing for checklists and tests, and linked attribute importing.
Update via Import
Updating via import opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Now when you import you can choose to update existing records in addition to creating new records. Maybe a contractor hands you a spreadsheet containing CFM values for all the air handling units or the designer emails you a list of the square footage for each room. With the ability to update via import, you can bring that new information into CxAlloy TQ even if that equipment and those rooms are already listed in the project. Updating via import gives you the freedom to work in the way you choose, even if that’s with spreadsheets or other software that can export to spreadsheets.
You can even update the answers to an existing checklist or test with the new update via import!
Import Formatting
Next, we have added format importing. Previously it didn’t matter how beautiful you made your checklist or test in Excel – we ignored the formatting when we imported it. You then had to go in to the freshly imported checklist or test and set the formatting for any lines you wanted to be bold, italic, indented, or a header. That could be a real hassle. Now, when you import a checklist or test you can choose to import formatting as well. We think this addition will save our customers a tremendous amount of time. To learn more about format importing, please read our help documentation.
Import Linked Attributes
The last of our big three new import features is the ability to import linked attributes for checklists or tests. Just like format importing, we think this will prove to be a great time saver. One of the best features of CxAlloy TQ is the ability to link the answer to a checklist or test line to an attribute of the equipment being checked or tested. However, it can be time-consuming to configure each line with the correct attribute. With linked attribute importing its as easy as adding a column to the spreadsheet you import. And when you combine linked attribute importing with our new ability to update via import, it becomes incredibly easy to update existing checklists and tests with linked attributes.
Of course, that isn’t all that we’ve done. We’ve also improved the ability to go back a step during the import process, we’ve made the import UI more consistent, and we’ve improved import performance in certain situations.
We keep working on our import because it is so vital to our customers. We’ve discovered that nearly every project begins with an import of equipment data, and almost all of our customers import checklist and test templates. We hope you like these new features. As always, feel free to reach out to us at support@cxalloy.com with any questions or concerns.
P.S. You may have also noticed that we updated the site with a more vibrant, simpler style as part of this update. Later this week we’ll have a post directly from the designer talking a bit about the thinking behind those changes.