the rip 3 (rapid item placement) processor places products according to the space allotted for the product. so you can give one product 6 inches of space, another gets 12 inches and so on and rip 3 will fill the allotted space with as many products as will fit, even capping the products if this option is selected..

the rip 3 screen is shown below. it has a list of he item names of products to place. each item name is entered once and the amount of linear space, in inches or cm, is assigned for that product.

you can place the products on any side, front side or top, and determine the merchandising style to be used. if there's any available space leftover, the product can be optionally capped horizontally and vertically.

options let you have fixed spacing so the allotted space is preserved if not used by products or variable spacing so if room is leftover, the next product can start filling.

using the information in the above screen and the empty plan on the left, here's how the rip 3 processor will automatically fill the plan, which is shown on the right.

        

the first 2 products on the top shelf are given 12 inches of space each. the 3rd product is given 16 inches of space, and the 4th product given 6 inches. this adds up to the 48 inches of shelf space available. on the next shelf, the 2 products equally share the 48 inch shelf space, each product is given 24 inches.

on the 3rd shelf down, the vive cereal product is assigned a8 inches and allowed to have horizontal capping. two vive cereal product faces were placed and there was enough room leftover to have one horizontal cap.

on the bottom shelf, the products are short enough so multiple faces can be placed vertically. this is a good example of how rip 3 fills the available space with products.