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How to modify price list?
This document instructs on modifying price lists supplied with DiamCalc
DiamCalc has its price lists stored in a text format, allowing
to examine or modify price lists with any text editor. The
file names shipped with DiamCalc are Price.txt (located
in the folder where DiamCalc is installed), OctBrill.txt
and OctPear.txt (located in System subfolder
of the folder where DiamCalc is installed).
Before examining or especially editing price lists data you
need to study Price.txt file
format and System\OctBrill.txt
file format thoroughly. The best is to keep a printed
copy of those documents with you while working with Price.txt or System\Brill.txt files.
For a less technical description of methods that used in DiamCalc to calculate price of diamonds, see how DiamCalc calculates diamond price.
Please keep in mind that an incorrect modification of price
list files may make pricing not work. Please make a backup
copy of Price.txt, OctBrill.txt and OctPear.txt
files before changing them. Having it will help to restore
a working configuration if something goes wrong. It is especially
important if you made some modifications of those files before,
so there is a risk that your previous work can be lost.
The following examples show how to modify price lists. The examples can be used as a guideline for similar changes in the price lists.
- Modifying price values for a specific cut, mass range, color and clarity
- Setting a different discount for fancy cuts.
Example: setting the price of fancy cut diamonds to 60% of Brilliant cut diamonds with the same mass, color and clarity
- Defining a custom discount for a specific cut except Brilliant and Pear.
Example: setting Marquise price to 55% of Brilliant the same mass, color and
clarity, leaving prices for all other cuts unchanged
1. Modifying price values for a specific cut, mass range, color and clarity
Example: setting the price of Brilliant cut diamonds of 0.08-0.14 carat, I, SI3 to 425 US dollars per carat.
The price lists for Brilliant cut is stored in System\OctBrill.txt file (the reference to it is in Price.txt file).
Therefore, it is necessary to modify System\OctBrill.txt file only. If we would like to change Pear cut data,
we would modify System\OctPear.txt file; for other cuts, the price is calculated as a discounted
price of similar Brilliant cut diamonds.
The step-by-step instructions are given below:
- Open System\OctBrill.txt file with a text editor of your choice (e.g. Notepad).
- Find a price table for the chosen mass range (the file contains several tables for different mass ranges). In our case, look for the string:
Mass: 0.08 0.14
(Note that the other lines describing the table are "Format: clarity 8 5", which sets the dimension of the
table to 8 rows, 5 columns, and "Magnify: 1", which means that all values in the table should be multiplied
by 1, i.e. left the same.) The table we are looking for is below. Its rows and columns have captions to
find necessary combinations of color and clarity.
- Find a number for the chosen color and clarity values. In our case, find a number that is in "I-J" row and "SI3" column. It is 420. Change it to 425.
- The next time DiamCalc is started, it will value Brilliant diamonds with parameters 0.08-0.14 carat, I, SI3 at 425 US dollars per carat
Note: a discount for cut quality will probably be applied also, which will make the price somewhat different.
2. Setting a different discount for fancy cuts
Example: setting the price of fancy cut diamonds to 60% of Brilliant cut diamonds with the same mass, color and clarity.
The price of fancy cut diamonds except Pear are defined in Price.txt file as having 50% of the price of Brilliant cut diamond with similar parameters. To change this number to 60% of the Brilliant, it is enough to modify Price.txt file only.
- Open Price.txt file with a text editor of your choice (e.g. Notepad).
- Find the following line in the file:
Cut: Other
It refers to the cuts that were not specifically processed, i.e. for all cuts except Brilliant and Pear. After this line, other parameters follow.
Source: cut= Brilliant
means that the base price is taken from Brilliant price lists (System\OctBrill.txt), and "Magnify: 0.5" sets the price to be 50% of the base price.
- Change "Magnify: 0.5" to "Magnify: 0.6" (i.e. to 60%).
- The next time DiamCalc is started, the price for all cuts except Brilliant and Pear will be 60% of Brilliant.
3. Defining a custom discount for a specific cut except Brilliant and Pear
Example: setting Marquise price to 55% of Brilliant with the same mass, color, and clarity, leaving prices for all other cuts unchanged.
This example is similar to the previous one, but it shows how to define price of different cuts more precisely.
We will modify Price.txt file in a way that will give different prices for Brilliant (separate price list), Pear (separate price list), Marquise (55% of
Brilliant), and all other cuts (50% of Brilliant in the original file version). You can extend this approach
for other cuts, so that each one can have its own discount relative to Brilliant or Pear.
Possible cuts names are Brilliant, Pear, Heart, Oval, Marquise, Prince, Emerald, Radiant.
- Open Price.txt file with a text editor of your choice (e.g. Notepad).
- Find line: Cut: Other
Make a copy of it along with the following lines Magnify ... Discount ... Source ... DiscountPerFluorescence ...
and place the copy after the original lines, adding a blank line to divide cut types. You can use "Copy" and "Paste" commands in your editor to make a copy.
- Change "Other" in the copied lines by "Marquise" and "0.5" magnify coefficient by "0.55" (it means 55%). So, we appended the following lines to the file:
Cut: Marquise Magnify: 0.55 DiscountPerCut: N/A Source: cut= Brilliant DiscountPerFluorescence: N/A
IMPORTANT! Find line: PriceList: 3
It sets the number of cut types processed separately (Brilliant, Pear and Other cut types are supported initially). As we add a new type, we should change this to
PriceList: 4
- The next time we start DiamCalc, Marquise cut will be priced at 55% of similar Brilliant diamonds.
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