By -
Date 05-22-2001 18:29
I have also written some "in-house" software for tracking welder qualifications. It even does "code interpretation". This has been used for around four years. The point made by "stan ford" is however understandeable for those welding personnel that just want something that can do the basics, and then "get on with the job". Some of us however always want something different, and are not easily satisfied with what is available. Under these circumstances, writing a custom application is quite fast these days if you have a reasonable grasp of an application like MS Access.
I see you are quite keen on writing something for "distribution". If you have written something that you want to "distribute", you can place your software free on the following website:
www.proknownet.com
Then anybody will be able to download it, also free.
Regards
Niekie
Speaking from painful experience, I STRONGLY recommend that you stay away from "in house" development or even development done by a "one man operation". My IT department and I spent over a year and a half developing a WPS/PQR/WPQ/Weld tracking program to my specifications. It was coming along just fine but still had a tons of bugs in it. Then the key computer guy left us for a different job. Unfortunately, he was by far the brains of the VB programming and we wasted a fortune trying to figure out how to complete the job. My VP figured that we wasted over $500,000 on this disaster and commanded me to talk to C-spec and TWI regarding their Welding Co-ordinator. I’m glad we did. Even though I was rather upset over throwing away all that effort, these guys really took care or us. A couple months later (and for a fraction of the price), the guys at C-spec and TWI had us up and running with a system that was far more sophisticated than the disaster that we threw away. They designed the Welding Coordinator part of the development EXACTLY the way that I specified. But as for the WPSs, PQRs, WPQs, and NDE reports, those were already handled in the "off the shelf" programs and they were a whole world better than anything we could produce in house. Plus, we didn’t have to pay for the development costs since they’re "off the shelf". I couldn’t possibly be happier with this system and even more so couldn’t be happier with their support. If ever I need to bounce a code or welding topic off someone, they’re always there. Give them a try, you’ll be impressed. This is not exactly a forum to rant and rave about a service or product but I owe a lot to these guys.
As far as you go Gerald, good luck on entering the QA/QC Welding software market. If you can produce something superior to C-spec and TWI, I’ll be highly impressed and the first one to send some money your way. But before that happens, in addition to catching up with their level of software, make sure that you also have over 100 years of experience in the welding industry so that we are certain that you won’t flake on us like our last software developer did. The C-spec/TWI team is able to offer this level of security which is obviously one of the key reasons why we decided to go with their system.