Getting Familiar with the Aeros LIVE Environment

Aeros LIVE gives you, the user, quite a bit of flexibility in creating an environment best suited to your particular job requirements. Data grids can be formatted to your liking, color schemes can be changed, and unnecessary fields can be removed.

Part of learning software is taking the time to get familiar with the new environment. Things will look a little different in Aeros LIVE, not only because it is brand new software for you to use, but because it uses newer technologies and visual functionality not many users have had exposure to.

In this section, we will identify the main features in Aeros LIVE.

Login Screen

To begin, users must log into the software. Aeros LIVE may be stored directly on your computer, or it may be installed somewhere on your network and accessed through some sort of remote application software. Once the Aeros LIVE icon has been clicked, the following screen displays:

Enter in the unique user name and password and either click on the Login button or press the Enter key. If the user wishes to cancel login, click on the Exit key to exit the application. The password IS case sensitive.

To view the available database connections, click the Login to Server drop down button. The default database for the Cultura|Aeros LIVE system will be preselected. Additional databases can be defined for testing purposes by the system administrator.

User Name Field. This field is where the User Name is entered. A unique User Name is assigned by the system administrator to each individual user. This field is NOT case sensitive.
Password Field. This field is where the user-secured, private Password is entered. The Password field IS case sensitive.
Login Button. After a User Name and Password have been entered, the Login button will become active. Click on this button to process a login request.
Exit Button. To abort the Login process and close the window, click the Exit button.

Main Window Navigation

After successfully logging in, you will see the screen that is shown above. This is the main screen of the Aeros LIVE application.

Ribbon Bar. On the top of the screen is a menu bar which is known as a ribbon bar. The ribbon bar contains buttons you can use to complete tasks. These buttons are grouped together into sections. As you navigate through the software, the ribbon bar will change to display the buttons you are most likely to need. The tabs at the top of the ribbon bar let you navigate to any section desired.
Navigation Panel List. The left side of the screen is our navigation panel list and is used to access the different sections of the program. In this panel will be a list of main entities within the software, such as a list of animal groups or flocks, a list of all the farms, or a list of all the various reports available.

In figure 1.2, notice by the orange #2 circle it says “Broiler – Operations”. This indicates which division is currently active. When in the Live Inventory section, only groups belonging to the active division are displayed. To display other groups, user clicks on the button and changes divisions. The group list repopulates accordingly.
Navigation Panel Buttons. The bottom part of the navigation panel contains navigation buttons. The navigation panel list changes depending on the selections made in these buttons. Each section will be reviewed in detail later in this manual.
- Live Inventory. This section contains a list of all animal groups, and is where you can add or remove groups, enter recordkeeping data, move animals, sell, and settle groups. Any transaction directly affecting your animal inventory will be found in this section.
- Feed Management. In Feed Management, users can manage every aspect of feed. Feed formulas and nutrient data are stored here. Feed Profiles and Scheduling are also in this area.
- Reporting. Here you can utilize Cultura|CMC’s powerful reporting tool. A series of reports are available right in the software and can be customized as required for your specific needs.
- Facility Management. Aeros LIVE stores information on all of your individual inventory houses, farms, divisions, and companies. From this section, every piece of information needed for the various facilities can be set up.
- System.The system section is the area where you work under the hood of Aeros LIVE. Here you can set up everything from Users to Equipment, Expenses to Egg Units of Measurement.
Status Bar. At the very bottom of the Aeros LIVE application, the current user logged in will display. The database being used also displays. This is helpful information, especially when there is a test environment and a live production environment, which most clients will want to have.

Basic Functionality

Aeros LIVE Button.

This button, when clicked at any time, grants the user 3 options:

a. Print Form. Whatever form is open can be printed nicely into a report.

b. Color Scheme. In the image below is an example of how the user can change the color scheme of the application. This setting stores for each individual user, allowing users to change the color scheme based on their own preference.

c. Change Password. User can change their password at any time, as demonstrated in the image below:

Logout and Exit

There are several ways to log off the Cultura|Aeros LIVE application. By closing the Cultura|Aeros LIVE application you will be asked if you would like to Exit the Application. If answered Yes, the Cultura|Aeros LIVE application will close completely. If answered No, the Cultura|Aeros LIVE application will remain open and the system will return the user to the Aeros LIVE main menu interface.

Log Off - Yellow

When clicked, this button will return the user to the Cultura|Aeros LIVE Log On options screen as previously defined in this document

Exit Application - Red

When clicked, this button will Close the Cultura|Aeros LIVE application completely.

Arrange Forms

This section of buttons in the ribbon bar handles form arrangement within the main window. Users may have several windows open at once, and instead of dragging them all around, simply click one or any of the buttons described below to simplify the process.

a. Close all. This will close all open forms at one time.

b. Cascade. Clicking this button will cascade all of the forms open in the application, organizing them and giving the user an easy view of everything out there.

c. Horizontal. This button will arrange all the forms horizontally.

d. Vertical. This button will arrange all open forms vertically.

Other Options

a. Restore Grid. This button will restore a grid to its default setting, clearing out all of the custom filters in place. Easily, a user can wipe out all the various changes made to the form. Another feature of this button is that restoring the grid will help the user if a change is made to the software. Often times, a grid may get buggy when programming changes are made to the software unless the grid is restored. This button allows for that.

b. Print Form. Whatever form is open can be printed nicely into a report.

Working with Grids

Restore Grid

Every data grid in Aeros LIVE can be customized by dragging columns on and off the grid, sorting, and grouping as the user sees fit. The customizations made to each grid is stored for each unique user. To set the grid back to the original layout, when the grid is open, navigate to the "Main Options" tab on the Ribbon Bar and click the Restore Grid button.

On occasion, Cultura may make changes to various forms throughout the application. If functionality is added or removed from a grid, a user may experience an error message after a new version is released. Cultura does its best to minimize these errors, however, if an error message does appear, the first course of action is to click the Restore Grid button. If user continues to see an error message, please contact Cultura Customer Support.

Record Validation

The grids used in the application contain validation. As shown in the address grid example below, if invalid data is input when trying to save the record, validation flags appear in the fields that need to be corrected. To view the validation message, will hover over the validation mark and a tool tip containing the validation message appears. The user will not be able to close the form or move on until the issue has been resolved. If the user wishes to cancel the input, the user will press the Esc key on the keyboard while in the row containing the validation error to reset the entry.

Sorting Data

Click on any of the column headings to sort the data by the selected column. It will Sort ascending or descending. You can also access these options by right clicking on the desired column headers. It will also give you the option to clear any sorting.

The user can also move the column headers around the grid to change the order of the columns.

Removing Unwanted Columns

To get rid of a column you can drag the column header down until a big X shows up and it will remove the column from view. This option is also available by right clicking on the desired column headers. To regain the column headers that were deleted from view, right click on any header and select column chooser. Drag and drop the desired header into the grid.

Filtering Data

The user can click on the small funnel icon in the column headings to filter the data or dates.

Grouping Data

The user can drag a column header to the top of the grid to group by that column. To ungroup drag the column header back within the grid.

Sums and Totals

Within the bottom row of each grid, totals can be added to give the sum, average, count, and other totals needed during data entry. Whenever a sum is added to a grid, and the form is closed, the next time the form is opened for that user, the total will remain. Simply right click within the very bottom row of the grid (pictured below), and select your summary option.

Deleting a Record

The user can also delete an existing record from the grid. To do so, the user must click the record’s row on the left of the record and press the Delete key on the keyboard. You can also delete a row by right clicking on the row and selecting Delete Row. A prompt confirming if the user wishes to delete the record will display. To continue with deleting the selected record the user will click the Yes button, to cancel the delete the user will click the No button.

Object Relation Control

Throughout the software, you will see a field labeled “Relations”. This allows any item in the software to be affiliated with specific Companies, Divisions, and Industries.

Industries are your animal types. In the example below, you see a list of different animal types. If you have purchased this software for your Broiler Breeder and Processed Chicken farms, then you would see these two sections whenever working with the Object Relation Control. This control gives you the flexibility in any item you set up to relate it to the proper Company, Division, and Industry, giving users a more focused, meaningful selection when doing their work.

Aeros LIVE User Manual

Environment