Design a product's spec sheet
Audience: operators · Scope: the Spec Sheet Design settings on a product · Last reviewed: 2026-07-20
What this does — Controls how a product's spec sheet PDF is laid out: which design it uses, its cover image, where the page breaks fall, and how dimensional diagrams are shown.
Read this first: spec sheets do not update themselves. The site keeps a saved copy of each product's spec sheet so it downloads instantly. Editing a product does not rebuild it. After any change that should show on the sheet — a price, a description, an image, performance data, these settings — you must click Refresh cached specsheet PDF on the product. See below.
Before you start
- Be signed in — see Log in to the admin area.
- Open the product — see Add or edit a product — and find the Spec Sheet Design section.
- Have the cover image ready if you're changing it: 16:9, at least 1600 × 900.
The settings
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Use new Design | Switches this product to the newer spec-sheet layout. Leave it as you found it unless you're deliberately migrating a product — the two designs look quite different. |
| Spec Sheet Cover Image | The large image on the front page. 16:9, minimum 1600 × 900. |
| How to display diagram images | Grid of images or Full page images. Full page gives each drawing its own page; grid packs several together. |
| Page break before … | Eight separate switches — before Product Features, Design Options, How to Order (full), How to Order (short), Technical Data, Performance Data, TM-30 Data and Dimensional Diagrams. |
The page-break switches are how you stop a section splitting awkwardly across two pages. Turn one on if that section keeps starting halfway down a page; turn it off if you're wasting a page.
The two lengths and two unit systems
Every product has four spec sheets, and they are all rebuilt together:
- Full and Short versions
- Imperial and Metric versions
You don't choose between them here — visitors pick, and the How to Order page-break has a separate switch for the full and short versions because they run to different lengths.
Refresh the spec sheet
- Open the product.
- Click Refresh cached specsheet PDF at the top.
- Wait for the confirmation. It rebuilds all four versions, so it takes a moment.
What happens next
- The saved copies are replaced, and the next visitor to download gets the new version.
- Until you refresh, everyone keeps getting the old sheet — including from the Downloads page and the product page.
Good to know
- Refresh after anything that should appear on the sheet. Product text, images, options and prices, performance data, disclaimers, diagrams, and these design settings all require it.
- A brand-new product's sheet is built on first download, so the first visitor waits a few seconds. Running the refresh yourself avoids that.
- There are 20 slots for full-page diagram images, but a couple of the other download formats only use the first 10. If a drawing appears on the spec sheet but not in the separate Dimensional Diagrams download, that is why — keep the most important drawings in the first ten slots.
- The cover image is decorative — it doesn't affect anything else on the site.
- Don't switch "Use new Design" casually. It changes the whole layout of the document customers receive.
Troubleshooting
- The spec sheet still shows old information. Click Refresh cached specsheet PDF. This is nearly always the answer.
- A section starts halfway down a page. Turn on the page break before that section.
- The document is longer than it needs to be. Turn off page breaks you don't need — each one forces a new page.
- A change to performance data isn't on the sheet. Re-run the performance data import first, then refresh the spec sheet.
Screens and labels can differ slightly between environments — if a label doesn't match what you see, check with your Beta-Calco contact.