Software Projects

Bar Bending Schedule

The Bar Bending Schedule is an application to produce a schedule of steel reinforement bars, in a spreadsheet format, that are to be used in concrete building components on construction sites. The reinforcement bars are bent to British Standard Institute BS 8666:2005 standard. The application is based in a custom designed Microsoft Excel template. There are macros built into the template that, when executed, allow the user to input the job detals, and enter the bending parameters for the steel to be used. The application then calculates the amount of steel needed to produce the bars. If the bar bend shape is not a recognised standard, the schedule automatically inserts a diagram of the shape onto the spreadsheet.

Archive Search System

This ulitity recursively searches a given directory (folder) tree for files and/or directories that have not been modified for the specified amount of time (default is the past three months). Should the child directory (i.e. one below the starting, or parent, directory) that is currently being searched is found to have no files or directories that have been modified, in the entire directory tree, within the given time frame, then that directory is flagged. Once the search has completed the flagged child directories can either be moved or copied to another location, such as an archive, in one complete operation.

Design A Bridge

This fun game was written for, and subsequently used at, the 2002 ’BBC Tomorrow’s World Live Roadshow’ exhibition, at Earl’s Court, London, to inspire young people to take up careers in the science and engineering professions. John Allen Conslting, the Company exhibiting at the exhibition and running the software, offered a prize to the young person who was best able to design a bridge that was the lightest, yet strongest, at supporting its own weight, plus the weight of a lorry travelling across the bridge. The prize offered was sponsorship through university to study an engineering discipline.

Seek & Destroy

This utility automatically cleans up a hard disk by automatically removing specified files (such as backup or temporary files). The program can be run manually or be scheduled to run at specified times (it has its own built-in scheduling system). The program works by recursively searching a given directory (folder) tree and automatically removing any files found that meet the search criteria (filespec).

WorkForce

This application, written for a construction labour supply company, ran the payroll based on the supplied labour’s timesheets. The program also produced the invoices for the construction companies who hired the labour. The labour supply company paid the staff at a particular rate, and invoiced the construction company at a higher rate (this is how the labour supply company made their money). The application also calculated overtime payments automatically. The operator would enter in the previous week’s staffs’ timesheets onto the system every Monday. On Tuesday the operator would print the payroll, including the staff’s wages cheques (for distribution on the Wednesday) and on the Wednesday the operator would print the invoices. Because the staff were paid overtime, at various rates (time and a half, time and a third, time and a quarter etc.), round errors were handled, and the staff’s wages were rounded down and the invoices were rounded up! The labour supply company were naturally very pleased with this, and as the application was so successful that within 12 months, the labour supply company increased the number of their construction staff from 100 to 400.

Spirometry

Spirometry is the study of lung function. A client had produced an electronic device (spirometer) to record patient’s lung function on a regular basis (for example, three times a day for six months). The device is capable of connecting to a personal computer or laptop and an application was written to communicate with the device and download the data for analysis. The computer based sofware was able to produce reports and charts to show the lung performance of each particular patient using the data downloaded from the spirometer. The application was also able to upload to the device a patient’s personal details and therefore which spirometer is being used by which patient, ensuring more accurate results.

Kiln Bending Application

A major cement manufacturer’s research department acts as consultants for other cement manufacturers all over the world. One of their tasks is to design and optimise the use of kilns in the cement manufacturing process. The kilns in this context are very log rotating cylindrical tubes, sometimes over 100m and over 3m in diameter, moumted at a slight angle so that one end is raised above the other. The material is pumped in at the higher end and as the tube rotates the material gets thoroughly mixed. When the material reaches the lower end of the tube the material is heated.

It is in the manufacturer’s interest, in terms of the efficient use of the kiln, to put as much material into the kiln. However, simply put, if the kiln becomes overloaded, it can break, which is obviously not good. Therefore various measurements are taken along the kiln that records the load of the kiln (including its weight, and the bend of the kiln). The total deflection and sheer force on the kiln is then calculated and thus a check can be made that the kiln is operating within safety limits with the current amount of material passing through the kiln.

Doing the necessary complicated mathematical calculations by hand can take up to a week to complete, depending on the amount of data. An application was written to provide the same results within minutes. To use the program all the operator had to do was to input the various measurements taken from the kiln and let the application execute the calculation. The application also produced charts to indicate the total load, the sheer force and deflection to enable the operator to determine whether the kiln was operating within safety limits.

Considerate Contractor Scheme

A major local authority has several construction projects running concurrently, and has an interest in public safety and convenience in and around construction sites. Therefore, some time ago, the authority set up their Considerate Contractor Scheme was established to record how well contractors, working on construction projects, were working in terms of public safety and general consideration to public, including footpaths, cyclists, road users etc. Each site was regularly inspected and results recorded in a standard format and entered into a custom developed database. The database analysed the data and produced several reports enabling the authority to reward the most considerate contractors, with either a bronze, silver or gold award, at an annual prestigious ceremony.

Model Car Racing

Perhaps the easiest way to imagine how this software application works is to think about Formula 1, where racing teams are preparing for each race. The teams need to set up their cars according to the conditions at the time of the race. For example teams need to choose which set of tyres to use, depending on the weather and track surface. The same principle applies to radio controlled model racing cars. In the UK there is a large radio controlled car racing fraternity who meet regularly to race their cars. Each car ideally has optimal setups for the varying conditions at various racing curcuits. A custom database application was written to record and later retrieve such information for each racer’s cars, making it easier for racers to set up their cars and trade different setups with each other. The database application also recorded local information pertaing each circuit such as local hotels, directions to the circuit and track conditions. The database application was further developed with the intention of offering optimal setups, on disk, to be supplied with new model racing cars.

Jewellery Pricing And Purchasing System

A local jewellery manufacturer based the pricing of their products upon the highly volatile precious metals markets. Data was gathered from the markets and entered onto a custom written database application, together with the quantities, in weight terms, needed to produce the jewellery. The application calculated the correct jewellery pricing and produced various management reports. This application enabled the company to become more competive by being able react to changing market conditions very quickly.

On Your Bike

The local Rotary Club organises an annual charity cycle ride to raise funds for good causes. The event attracts many riders and a database applicition was used to support the event by recording riders’s details and entry information etc. The database application also produced several management reports, mail-merged letters, mailing labels, rider labels and so on.

Charity Quiz Evening Scoring System

The local Rotary Club organised a charity fund raising quiz evening and several teams entered the event. During the quiz evening a real time scoring on a large screen was avaialable to the organisers and participants by way of an operator entering the scoring information into a custom written database application. The application also enabled views to see the current standing of teams and which teams had played their ’joker’, all automatically updated as the scores were input.

Printing Job Management and Quotation System

This custom built database system was developed to organise and manage printing jobs for a professional printing company. The system managed quantities and types of jobs and produced quotations and invoices for the printing company’s clients.
 

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