Managing Materials

Forge MRP organizes materials into a three-level hierarchy: categories, types (grades), and specs. This structure keeps your material library organized and makes it easy to select the right material when building quotes or creating RFQs.

For example:

Stainless Steel          (category)
  └── 17-4PH             (type / grade)
        ├── H900          (spec)
        └── H1025         (spec)

Plastics                 (category)
  └── Delrin             (type / grade)
        └── White         (spec)

Specs are optional. If a material type doesn't need further distinction, you can leave it without any specs.

Adding a Category

  1. Go to Settings > Materials.
  2. Click Add Category.
  3. Enter the category name (e.g., "Aluminum", "Stainless Steel", "Plastics").
  4. Click Save.

The new category appears in the material tree on the left. You can now add types inside it.

Adding a Material Type

  1. In the material tree, find the category you want to add a type to.
  2. Click Add Material Type.
  3. Select the category (pre-filled if you clicked from within a category).
  4. Enter the grade name (e.g., "6061", "17-4PH", "Delrin").
  5. Click Save.

Adding a Spec

  1. Find the material type you want to add a spec to.
  2. Click Add Spec.
  3. Enter the spec name (e.g., "T6", "H900", "Natural").
  4. Click Save.

Archiving and Restoring

You can archive categories, types, and specs that you no longer use. Archiving removes them from material pickers throughout the application (quotes, RFQs, purchase orders) but never deletes data. Existing quotes, RFQs, and purchase orders that reference an archived material continue to display it correctly.

Cascade behavior: Archiving a category automatically archives all of its types and specs. Archiving a type archives all of its specs.

To archive, click the archive icon next to the item you want to remove.

Viewing and Restoring Archived Items

  1. Toggle Show Archived at the top of the material tree.
  2. Archived items appear dimmed alongside active ones.
  3. Click Restore on any archived item to make it available in pickers again.

Restoring only brings back the item you click. If you restore a category, its types and specs stay archived until you restore them too.

Built-in Materials

Forge MRP comes with a standard library of common categories and grades (Aluminum 6061, Stainless Steel 304, Alloy Steel 4140, and so on). Every shop shares this library, so you can't rename or delete its entries. You can hide any of them for your own shop.

To hide a built-in category or type, click its archive icon, the same way you archive your own materials. Hiding a category also hides its built-in types and archives your own types and specs inside it.

Hiding only affects your shop:

  • Hidden materials no longer appear in your material pickers.
  • Other shops still see them.
  • Your existing quotes, jobs, RFQs and purchase orders that use a hidden material still show it.

To bring a hidden material back, turn on Show Archived and click Restore. Hidden built-in materials are listed there with your archived ones.

Using Materials in Quotes

When you add a material to a quote part, the material picker shows fully qualified labels in the format Category > Grade > Spec (e.g., "Stainless Steel > 17-4PH > H900"). You can search across all three levels — typing "H900" or "17-4" or "Stainless" will all find the same material.

If a material type has no specs, the picker shows just Category > Grade.

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