About Vendors
GDS software incorporates all of the major architectural aluminum manufacturers in North America. These vendor catalogs contain parts, pricing, and a wide variety of product configurations which allow GDS customers to quickly and accurately create estimates and production reports. Many catalogs that have been configured for GDS contain detail CAD drawings. These details combined with elevations drawings created in our software, allow for complete shop drawings for any given job. The accuracy and completeness of these vendor catalogs is invaluable to those who use the GDS System, and is made possible by the relationships we have developed with the leading manufacturers in this industry.
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Becoming a GDS Vendor
Becoming a vendor in the GDS System may or may not have a cost related, depending on the work required to build the catalog. It is possible for you, the vendor, to do all of the work needed for a catalog to be ready for GDS customers to use. Here is an idea of the steps required to create a new catalog for our system:
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Subscribe to GDS to get a license for WinBidPro
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From inside WinBidPro v16, click Catalogs-Manage Vendors, then Create in the top right corner
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Fill in the name and address information for the catalog
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Start adding part information for all of the parts your company wants to list (this includes pricing, stock lengths, package quantities, etc. )
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Create Framing Systems and the part assemblies that these systems need (this is a key step to ensuring cut lengths and part counts are properly calculated)
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Do the same for Door Leaf and Door Frame configurations
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Add detail drawings for the various assemblies (these are used to produce shop drawings)
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You would now have a usable catalog for any GDS user. We would review the catalog to make sure that everything looks good before publishing it to the server. At this point, GDS customers could add the new catalog to their accounts.
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Answers to Vendor Questions
If you have questions about the process of adding your company to the GDS System, or if you have questions about a particular vendor catalog, contact our sales department below:
858.538.4375 x2
sales@gdsestimating.com