User feedback thread for v1.0

[dlr]

The program has been downloaded a fair number of times. I've received a small amount of feedback from a few specific users, but not much otherwise. I've started this thread to provide a starting point for users to post their thoughts, likes, dislikes, etc. Please feel free to chime in.

Dave

[Jeff S.]

First off, great work so far. I have had a little time to look at W-PCD and found it fairly easy to use. I will continue to play with it and report back. Here is some of the things I’ve come across so far.
1. If you try to load a zma that the program doesn’t like you get a unhandled error. I haven’t tried a frd file yet but chances are you will get the same error. Need to trap error and have it pop a message box saying the file is bad or not compatible.
2. The box for Initial directory always defaults back to C:/. Would really like to have it remember the directory I’m using. Let’s say you load your Saved session file after that when you go to load a frd or zma file the program should open in the same directory as the saves file came from.
3. Boxes for entering uf for C, I think should be 2 decimal places.
That’s it for now.
Thanks for all the hard work you have put into this program. Jeff

[dlr]

First off, great work so far. I have had a little time to look at W-PCD and found it fairly easy to use. I will continue to play with it and report back. Here is some of the things I’ve come across so far.
1. If you try to load a zma that the program doesn’t like you get a unhandled error. I haven’t tried a frd file yet but chances are you will get the same error. Need to trap error and have it pop a message box saying the file is bad or not compatible.

I've got changes in the newest release ready, but I'm not sure if I've got it all covered. If you'd send me a copy of your file, I could easily trace the problem if it still is in the code.

2. The box for Initial directory always defaults back to C:/. Would really like to have it remember the directory I’m using. Let’s say you load your Saved session file after that when you go to load a frd or zma file the program should open in the same directory as the saves file came from.
3. Boxes for entering uf for C, I think should be 2 decimal places.

This directory issue hit me early on as well. It was supposed to default to an entry you make in the initial directly textbox. Initially, if you navigated elsewhere in opening a file, it stayed on the new one. If you leave it at the startup value as default (C:\), that's what stays. Did you try editing the Initial Directory textbox before loading? Edit that and your first open dialog will be in that one.

This is all improved in the next release. The directory dialog now uses the standard Windows directory selection dialog. It also remains as the default. It is saved in the session file, so starting with a session file, you navigate to it and load. When you import a session file, the value in the textbox is over-ridden by the value in the session file. You can change it afterwards, of course. If, however, you load a file from another directory later, the next load will still be from the textbox setting. If feedback shows this to be an issue, I'll consider changing it. I looked at it as users having a project folder in which the necessary files would be placed. It's a tradeoff.

I initially had the cap scrollers set at two decimal places. The problem is that if you use the scroller, the changes are far too slow. It makes the scroller almost useless. You can, however, manually enter any value you want, it just displays a single decimal place. The data is still there. I've never found much need for two decimal places in caps, especially given the usual tolerances of caps.

That’s it for now.
Thanks for all the hard work you have put into this program. Jeff

Thanks for the feedback.

Dave

[Jeff S.]

Dave, That sounds good. The zma file I'll have to find again and email it to you. Question this is to catch the error within the program and give the end user a message box telliing them it's a bad file or are going to try and fix the zma file?

[dlr]

Dave, That sounds good. The zma file I'll have to find again and email it to you. Question this is to catch the error within the program and give the end user a message box telliing them it's a bad file or are going to try and fix the zma file?

It depends on what the error is. The code already ignores some specific issues, but with flat text files there's no way to correct all that could occur. I've tried to anticipate a number of them, but no doubt there will be cases arising that I have not foreseen. Currently the user is notified via popup for errors that are caught.

Dave

[dlr]

Jeff, I tested the file that you sent. As you indicated, it was missing the phase column. I tested it with the version I'm about to release. It handled it fine, notifying the user that it was missing a data column.

Dave

[Jeff S.]

Version 1.1.0 Revision 2

Dave, I like the new look and so far so good, will work with it this weekend some more. And report back.
The new buttons for system tab window and the new schematic overlay are great.
There is a couple of things: I did leave the systems tab window open and tried changing values in the crossover. The system tab window doesn’t update. This isn’t a problem for me just thought I’d let you know.
The other thing that I think would be nice though is to have a system tab button on the tweeter, mid, and woofer pages if possible?
Thanks, Jeff

[dlr]

Thanks, Jeff. To be sure of no confusion, are you saying that you changed the crossover values in the separate overlay window? If so, that is the reason. You can change values at this time in the overlay window, but that does not change the design. There should be a mousehover message saying this on those tab displays. This is mentioned in the Status page, but I should probably make it more prominent. There's a technical reason related to how C# works and how I've set up this window. It was something of an afterthought. The issue is that if the code attempts to modify a control that is currently hidden, as could happen if you change a tweeter, but the other window has the tweeter tab hidden (e.g., the midrange is displayed instead), the update doesn't work. I don't like that, but I've found no way around that yet.

Dave

[Jeff S.]

Dave, I had the system tab open on the bottom of the screen and tried to change values in the tweeter section. I did read the pop up message on the schematic tab and did not try that one.

That was why I thought having a "Open System Tab Window" on the tweeter, mid, and Woofer pages would be nice. I have only thinkered with writing code and not sure if this could be done but here goes. Is it possible to say automatically close the system tab window when you click outside the window area. This way if a user forgets to close it and tries to go back to say tweak a value it would close automatically and then when reopened it would be updated.

Jeff

[JMB]

Hi Dave,

I played around with your new release and it looks good. I think that I noticed a couple of things that you might want to look at. It would be very convenient to have the system tab window able to remain up as you shift from tab to tab, particularly the schematic tab. In addition, it seems that if you set an overlay and then pull in a different configuration, you have to re-choose the crossover type to get the graphic to display the old overlay with the new response.

Thanks so much for working on this. It has great potential and is already very useful.

Jay

[dlr]

Dave, I had the system tab open on the bottom of the screen and tried to change values in the tweeter section. I did read the pop up message on the schematic tab and did not try that one.

That was why I thought having a "Open System Tab Window" on the tweeter, mid, and Woofer pages would be nice. I have only thinkered with writing code and not sure if this could be done but here goes. Is it possible to say automatically close the system tab window when you click outside the window area. This way if a user forgets to close it and tries to go back to say tweak a value it would close automatically and then when reopened it would be updated.

Jeff

I can't replicate the problem. As long as I've selected the wiring configuration on the System page, the updates to the system graphs work. I started with the idea of something like you suggest, but quickly abandoned that to make it a real-time update with the window open. The only thing that has caught me is if I set the electrical order that has zeroes in the 2nd or 4th order section (parallel component in the main section). This is a direct short. Even if this isn't the issue, I should probably post a popup indicating a shorted section.

I see another side issue with the default directory. If it's changed, the import session goes there, but the import file does not. I'll check that out as well. I worked with saved session files to much I suppose. Re-load of them works fine.

Dave

[dlr]

Hi Dave,

I played around with your new release and it looks good. I think that I noticed a couple of things that you might want to look at. It would be very convenient to have the system tab window able to remain up as you shift from tab to tab, particularly the schematic tab. In addition, it seems that if you set an overlay and then pull in a different configuration, you have to re-choose the crossover type to get the graphic to display the old overlay with the new response.

Thanks so much for working on this. It has great potential and is already very useful.

Jay

Did you encounter the issue that Jeff had above? I can't replicate it.

I had considered what you suggest with the system button, but didn't go back to it. I can do that very easily, I'll look into doing it.

When you say "pull in a different configuration", are you saying that you are loading a different PCD v7 session file? If so, that may be the reason. I haven't tried loading multiple v7 session files sequentially. It may be that for those (for now) you would have to manually select that. Save the session to the new format and it should work.

I may need to look more closely at importing v7 session files.

Dave

Edit: Ref. the system window, are you saying to keep it on top at all times? I can do that easily, had considered it. I just didn't know if users would prefer that. I also considered having options to let the user set that as desired. I'll look into doing that, but am not sure where to place that option selector if I do it.

Edit 2: You can design without the system window. Each driver graph has an option that lets you display the system summed response. I didn't make the system window stay on top since this option can be used during design. You don't see the impedance, of course.

[Jeff S.]

Dave, I had the system tab open on the bottom of the screen and tried to change values in the tweeter section. I did read the pop up message on the schematic tab and did not try that one.

Dave, Here's a pic of what I was talking about. I did understand that this wouldn't work and that's why I ask for the bottons to open this window and it does work very nicely. Ok, yes being able to change polarity on the tweeter or mid would be nice. I did find however that if you chance polarity in the small graph and then open the system tab window it is updated and shows the null.

[dlr]

Dave, Here's a pic of what I was talking about. I did understand that this wouldn't work and that's why I ask for the bottons to open this window and it does work very nicely. Ok, yes being able to change polarity on the tweeter or mid would be nice. I did find however that if you chance polarity in the small graph and then open the system tab window it is updated and shows the null.

WinPCD.jpg

I see the issue now. It's all related to the way controls work. The control on the main window has to be in view for the action to work. None of the components work at all because the change required would be too long and cumbersome. I was surprised when I realized this issue. It comes down to doing this as a secondary plan. I also did not have the experience with C# when I began, so it's all new to me. I need to write some new instructions to document this quirk. The polarity buttons do work, but only in the case where the main screen is in view. I was going to leave those buttons off the system graphs window entirely, since it's not often that polarity should change and I figured that doing it only from the main page should be sufficient, but I added them anyway. Maybe it does more to confuse than to help.

Dave

[Jeff S.]

Update, If you look at the pic I posted, the System SPL and Imp. Graph does update when you make a change to any of the xo values. Also you can use the +/- button on the tweeter SPL and it will update the system spl to show you the reverse null. You do not have to open and close the system spl window.
Great Work Dave!!