From version 13 and higher, when creating a countertop using the Countertop Wizard, it will ask you questions in order to provide you with the corresponding countertop. While answering the questions, the Countertop Wizard goes through a few processes to make sure that Design is providing you with the countertop you requested.
Anytime you make a change to the countertop, either by size or placement, the program needs to perform a validation to make sure it is still following the choices you initially made when creating the countertop.
Using the Countertop Wizard also provides information to other parts of the program such as the reports, more specifically the Countertop Plan in the reports.
This is a report that gives you accurate dimensions and all the information necessary to provide to your countertop maker. Designers are required to validate their countertops if they want to utilize the Countertop Plan report because that is how the program checks for the correct information required for pricing.
It is important to use the validation tool as it will look at everything that the vendor has available to double-check and make sure they can fabricate it. There are a lot of variables, so depending on how the catalog is built, the Countertop Wizard could guide a designer toward the best available choices.
The Countertop Plan will generate a material list to outline the things that have a fee.
In this example, there is a charge for:
72 square feet of material
528 linear inches of defined edge
77 linear inches of appliance edge
If the countertop is not validated, the report will not show you accurate information. The validation process is to make sure that the program is still offering you an accurate representation of the countertop you requested as well as making sure the program is giving you the correct information in the countertop plan.