Matrix Software

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Chunky C
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Post by Chunky C »

Drew: Thanks for all you help! You're the best Beta Tester one could ask for.

If everyone can live with what we've got so far, I would like to release a final version, V2.1. Let eveyone use it for a while and decide what they like and dislike, realy dislike i what we're after here.

As for the text files, my thoughts on those are realy only for someone who doesn't have Excel. Yes there are a couple of people who doesn't have it. I would realy prefer to use Excel for printing. This way, the font's can be changed, colors changed, ... In other words, be formated in a WYSIWIG type of application. Much more purdier IMO.

What does everyone think about that?

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Chunky C
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Post by Chunky C »

We are getting close!

Check out this Excel file that I generated. Let me know what you think. I tried to make the heat sheet a sort of "card" that could be printed and then handed out. Hopefully this is sort of what Ed had in mind.

http://spadfest.rcspads.com/albums/user ... Open_B.zip

I haven't added the actual heat numbers yet - the easy part, the hard part is the damn formating! It took me 4 hours to format the Heat Sheet. Venting Off. lol.

I also tried to set the page breaks so that it would print w/out needing a bunch of formating to get it to print correctly.

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Ed Kettler
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Post by Ed Kettler »

HI Chunky,

Just to let you know we really appreciate all of this work that you have been doing. This is really super.

I ran a test this evening using a modified version of the LSN Open B file with two sets of 3 pilot frequency conflicts, and it looks like it did a very good job of balancing the pilots. In a seven round contest, they flew against each other at least twice, with only a couple of pairings in consecutive rounds. This is very good!

On the Excel file, you can stack the rounds on the same page. I can't see a need to have one page per round. The CD would use that format to control the contest. Having it look like the "Round Card" above is perfect.

The Heat Sheet tab looks like it is on the right track with the headers, need to see it with some data on the Round/heat info as I'm not quite sure where you are headed.

This is very cool! Thanks again!
Chunky C
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Post by Chunky C »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Ed Kettler</i>
<br />HI Chunky,

Just to let you know we really appreciate all of this work that you have been doing. This is really super.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Glad I could help. I only wish we could get more feedback from more people. Keep silent and you get what you get, that's what I say.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Ed Kettler</i>
I ran a test this evening using a modified version of the LSN Open B file with two sets of 3 pilot frequency conflicts, and it looks like it did a very good job of balancing the pilots. In a seven round contest, they flew against each other at least twice, with only a couple of pairings in consecutive rounds. This is very good!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Try it with no conflicts. [xx(] It's still not the best, but it's better than it was. This still needs some TLC I'm afraid.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Ed Kettler</i>
On the Excel file, you can stack the rounds on the same page. I can't see a need to have one page per round. The CD would use that format to control the contest. Having it look like the "Round Card" above is perfect.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Well right now I'm going to leave it as is. Doing one round / page like this is the easiest way to program it. If later on, this becomes an issue, I'll change it then. OK?

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Ed Kettler</i>
The Heat Sheet tab looks like it is on the right track with the headers, need to see it with some data on the Round/heat info as I'm not quite sure where you are headed.

This is very cool! Thanks again!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I have all of the basic needs meet. I am ready to release V2.0. I'm going to continue testing here putting it through it's paces to see if I can come up with any more issues. I should release one more Betta but there's only like 2 - 3 people testing it that I can tell. That's not nearly a large enough sample group to determine if there are any platform specific issues that I missed. Time will find those as more people use it I guess.

There could be some issues using Excel, but hopefully my research has found all of the issues with that.[B)]

ED:

I update the spreadsheet. D/L it again as it's the final version. It's the same filename as the last one.

http://spadfest.rcspads.com/albums/user ... Open_B.zip

Maybe that will clear up some things?
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Ed Kettler
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Post by Ed Kettler »

Thanks Chunky. The revised heat sheet cards look great. I sent you a couple of emails. I'll enlist a couple of the CDs to do some more testing.
Hat Trick
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Post by Hat Trick »

What if you don't have excel?
ZenManiac
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Post by ZenManiac »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Hat Trick</i>
<br />What if you don't have excel?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
<font size="2">Mike,

There is a public domain Excel knock-off available as a part of OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org/. This is an MS Office compatible public domain suite. Of course, depending on the use of macros, etc, there are some compatibility issues. I've not tested the new Matrix system on it.

d.</font id="size2">
KamiKaze
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Post by KamiKaze »

Chunky, Can you link the newest version. I downloaded V2 and questioning if its the correct one. Cause after entering all the pilots, it seems that the first pilot in the line up is in the first heat and first pilot of every round. Please help me with this.. I have a event this weekend and would like to use it. How to print the heat cards also???? is there an instruction manual to this yet? Just let me know what I need to do, thanks
drewjet
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Post by drewjet »

Chunk. Excellent work. That heat sheet is perfect. Now how do we generate it?
Chunky C
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Post by Chunky C »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by ZenManiac</i>
<br /><blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Hat Trick</i>
<br />What if you don't have excel?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Mike,

There is a public domain Excel knock-off available as a part of OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org/. This is an MS Office compatible public domain suite. Of course, depending on the use of macros, etc, there are some compatibility issues. I've not tested the new Matrix system on it.

d.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I have no idea if Matrix V2 is compatable w/ Open Office. Maybe if someone uses Open Office and can test it. ?? I my gut fealing is that it is not compatable.

And if you don't have Excel, there are text versions for the Round Card and Heat sheet. (see below)

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">]<i>Originally posted by KamiKaze</i>

Chunky, Can you link the newest version. I downloaded V2 and questioning if its the correct one. Cause after entering all the pilots, it seems that the first pilot in the line up is in the first heat and first pilot of every round. Please help me with this.. I have a event this weekend and would like to use it.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
This has been address twice before in this topic.

This is the lastest Release: http://spadfest.rcspads.com/albums/Matr ... ta1_03.zip


<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by KamiKaze</i>
How to print the heat cards also???? is there an instruction manual to this yet? Just let me know what I need to do, thanks<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

The only way to print the heat sheets and round cards is open the file in notepad and print it from there. They are just just plain text files. They are saved when you click File > Save Matrix (CTRL+M)and are placed in the same directory. One will have a "Matrix" in the file name (the Round Card) and the other will say "Heat Card". Here's an example: <b>LSN-Open B-Heat Card.txt</b> <b>LSN-Open B-Matrix.txt</b>

No manual yet.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">That heat sheet is perfect. Now how do we generate it?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Unfortunately you're going to have to wait until the next release. I'm trying to get everything worked out and release a final version V2.0 here soon, but not before the weekend it looks like. Ed sent me an email yesterday telling me that he found an issue in with the matrix generation where the program hung. We can't have that.
Chunky C
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Post by Chunky C »

KamiKaze asked about a manual, all there is today is the readme and the readme that is with Betta 1.03 and lower doesn't cover how to use it, but the V2.0 readme does have some help in it. Here are the instructions from the V2 readme file. Obviously ignore the part about exporting it to excel.

Code: Select all

Basic "get started" instructions:

OPTIONS:
   If this is your first time using the program, configure the options
by selecting "Options" (F3) from the File Menu.  Select the "I/O - Input 
Output" tab and configure your save directories.

   The Default Pilot File Name can be handy if you would like to use MatrixV2
for club combat meets since you will most likely have a repeat of fliers from
meet to meet.  All you have to do is remove any pilots from the list that may
not be fling that day.

   The "Misc" tab is currently not used - for future use. 

MATRIXV2:
1) Load pilots from a saved pilot's list, V1 or V2 capable.
2) Add pilots manually from the Add / Edit boxes.
3) Configure your matrix as to how many Rounds and Heats / Round to fly.
3.1) Matrix V2 will automatically calculate the minimum number of heats that 
     are required based on the number of frequency conflicts there are.
3.2) Matrix V2 will automatically calculate the number of people per round
     based on how many pilots there are and how many heats / round are flown.
4) Enter the Contest information into the spaces provided.
5) Save the pilot's list (CTRL+S).
6) Press generate button to generate the matrix.
7) Save the Matrix, Round Card and Heat Sheet text files (CTRL+M).
8) Export the matrix to Excel. You MUST have Excel installed on your computer
   for this function to be enabled.  Else, you will have to just use the text
   files that are generated.


Good luck!

Send bug reports to

matrixv2@rcspads.com 
The message line "BUG REPORT"
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Ed Kettler
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Post by Ed Kettler »

Microsoft provides a free viewer for Excel files that can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=EN

or do a search on "Microsoft Excel Viewer" in Google
Chunky C
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Post by Chunky C »

It will not work with Open Office. I got a couple of people to try it with OpenOffice. [8]

<b>You MUST have MS Excel installed for this to work.</b>

The viewer will do you no good because the program can't even generate the file without MS Excel installed.

The one's w/out MS Excel will have to use the text files.

Sorry about that.

cc
Chunky C
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Post by Chunky C »

<b><font color="red">BUG REPORT</font id="red"></b> - Heat Sheets

This is a bug in making the Heat Sheet, text version, in Beta 1.03. I have corrected the problem and the fix will be in the next release.

<b><font color="green">Work Around</font id="green"></b> - None
Chunky C
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Post by Chunky C »

<font color="red"><b>BUG REPORT #6</b></font id="red"> - Zones will some times add multiple identical zones to the zone drop down window.

<b><font color="green">WORK AROUND</font id="green"></b> - Minor issue - The zones aren't being used at the moment and it's only a "cosmetic" issue at this point. It can be safely ignored for the time being.

<hr noshade size="1">

<font color="red"><b>BUG REPORT #7</b></font id="red"> - Adding Pilots manually with a frequency conflicts. The Pilots list does not get sorted correctly leaving a freq conflict at the bottom of the list. -- <i>All of the conflicts are placed at the top of the list so that they are entered into the matrix first.</i> --

<b><font color="green">WORK AROUND</font id="green"></b> - Add all of the pilots in order according to frequency. I have this corrected for the next release.

ED:

I think, and it is pure speculation on my part, the problem that you wrote me about is probably because of #7. I suspect that you added a pilot(s) with a freq conflict(s). That caused the pilots list not to be sorted correctly. Then when the program tried to place that pilot into a heat, all of the heats were either full and/or already had a pilot listed there with the same frequency. Thus causing an endless loop, a hung program.

If this speculation is not correct, please send me the file that you were working with and I'll see if I can duplicate your problem.


Keep up the good testing everyone!

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