Currently KiCost is mixing different catalog codes with the objetive to offer more price tiers.
But this introduces a problem. If you buy less than a reel you get a valid catalog code, but when you buy a whole reel you get the catalog code for "Cut Tape", with the cost of the "Tape & Reel". This will most probably generate a confusion for the order.
I suggest doing the following:
Stop mixing catalog numbers pretending you can create a coherent order later.
Choose which catalog number/price tiers to use according to the number of components. Currently you can specify the number of boards from the command line (not from the GUI! this should be added). So KiCost can detect if buying whole reels makes sense.
Another option:
Analyze which distributors are affected by this issue. I know about Digi-Key because I use it.
Split the affected distributors, so you have something like "digikey" and "digikey-tr". By default both are included in the spreadsheet, but the user can choose to remove any of them.
The DISTRIBUTOR-tr column is for the "Tape & Reel" orders. In this way you can choose to buy a reel and some extra components using a partial reel.
This brings another issue: Buying "half a reel" needs:
A "DigiReel" code
An extra fee for the reeling
So perhaps we should add the "digikey-tr" only if the user asks for it (and/or only when the number of components suggests it), and in this case "digikey" column should use the Digi-Reel code. BTW: I think the reeling fee isn't reported by Digi-Key API (much less by Octopart)
Currently KiCost is mixing different catalog codes with the objetive to offer more price tiers.
But this introduces a problem. If you buy less than a reel you get a valid catalog code, but when you buy a whole reel you get the catalog code for "Cut Tape", with the cost of the "Tape & Reel". This will most probably generate a confusion for the order.
I suggest doing the following:
Another option:
This brings another issue: Buying "half a reel" needs:
So perhaps we should add the "digikey-tr" only if the user asks for it (and/or only when the number of components suggests it), and in this case "digikey" column should use the Digi-Reel code. BTW: I think the reeling fee isn't reported by Digi-Key API (much less by Octopart)