Managing Specimens via Locations

Users have the ability to drag and drop specimens within the current box, between boxes in the Locations manager, or from a box layout into a container in the location tree. This is a quick way to transfer specimens between virtual storage containers.

To drag and drop single/multiple specimens within the same container:

1. Expand the locations tree and select the container.

2. Using the Location Manager Preview pane, select one or more specimens to be moved and hold down the mouse button.

3. Drag the mouse pointer to the unoccupied spaces within the box and release the mouse button.

To drag and drop single/multiple specimens between containers:

1. Expand the Location Tree, press the Ctrl button on the keyboard, and select two of the containers you wish to transfer specimens between.

2. Right click on one of the selected specimens and select Move Specimens.

3. The Drag and Drop Specimens Transfer Editor will appear.

4. Select one or more specimens to be moved and hold down the mouse button.

5. Drag the mouse pointer to the unoccupied spaces in the new location and release the mouse button.

To drag and drop single/multiple specimens from a box layout tab into a container in the location tree:

1. Expand the location tree and select the container which holds the specimen(s) you wish to transfer, so that the box layout tab is displayed.
2. Expand the location tree again to expose the 2^nd container where you will move the specimen(s).
3. Select one or more specimens from the box layout tab and hold down the mouse button to drag them into the new container. Release the mouse button.
4. A confirmation message should confirm the success or failure of the drag & drop operation.

*Note – To move specimens between or within a container via drag and drop, the container layout must be displayed. The container layout may not be available if two specimens occupy the same container row and column space. You can select Edit from the right mouse button menu to edit these specimens and assign them new location values.

Specimens in all containers—except repository, building, and room—can be condensed to maximize the number of available spaces. Boxes will be filled, starting with the first box listed, by shifting specimens into empty slots using a left-to-right, top-to-bottom fill pattern. If the user chooses to condense a rack, specimens may be moved to a new box.  If the user chooses to condense a freezer, specimens may be moved into a new box or even a new rack.

To condense a container:

1. Right-click on the location to be condensed in the location tree and select Condense Specimens from the right mouse button (RMB) menu. To select only a few boxes within a rack or freezer, select the first box, then select any subsequent boxes while holding the Ctrl key.

2. The Change Box Size dialog will be displayed. Select Yes to open the look-up table associated with box size, No to continue without changing the box size or Cancel to exit the dialog and return to the Locations manager. If Yes is selected, choose the new box size from the code list and press OK to continue. The new box size must be large enough to fit all specimen after condensing.

3. If the specimens can be condensed, a dialog will be displayed with the following counts:

   • Specimen Moves - How many specimens will be moved.
   • Empty Boxes - How many empty boxes will be available in the location.
   • Available Slots - How many slots will be available in the location.

4. Click Cancel to exit without condensing or click OK to condense the location.

It is not possible to condense a location if there are locks or location reservations that would be violated on any of the containers and sub-containers involved. Multi-Specimen Containers (MSCs) or boxes not contained in racks will be ignored if the user has selected them.

If the condensing locations will violate study reservations, a warning will appear before the condense process has started. Users can press Cancel on the Condense Container Estimations dialog to exit without condensing. Closing the Condense Container Estimations dialog will prevent any study reservations from being overridden. If the user presses OK on the Condense Container Estimations dialog, the condense process will be carried out and study reservations will be ignored.

It is not possible to condense boxes that are different types (for example, a 2” 9x9 box will not be condensed into a 3” 9x9 box). If the user attempts to condense two boxes with different formats, they will receive an error stating that this cannot be done. The user will need to choose a box with the same format.