Hi again everybody!. Specially to DallanC a big thanks for continue working in this superb piece of software!.
It's been a long time without visiting you due to high workload, but I hope to go on with you.

I am using the last revision of this software (2.0.7) in a windows 7-64 machine and currently I have different questions that could (maybe) become to feature requests, bug reports or simple comments. Anyway, here you have mi little contribution to try to help to this community:

1) “NeuN” value: when I start PB and go to a created load, the Velocity becomes “NeuN” value. I’ve doubled-checked that I put a valid velocity value before closing the program. Later, sometimes (only sometimes) when starting again the PB software the velocity value becomes “NeuN”. Any error reported in that way? (note: please let me know if you need some of my data files to check)

2) PB software saves all data when exiting, but I think it could be useful to have a “Save” button to be able to save the data without having to exit (to be able that data are safely stored and also if you wan tto change something having the possibility to go back). Do you consider it useful?

3) When calculating the Point Black Range, the table shown in the “Misc” area is only for fixed distances. Is it possible to add an option to calculate the distance given the “Kill zone” distance?

4) I’m in the way to evaluate to buy another firearm for hunting, but I’d like to be able to compare the ballistics of different calibers, and also with different commercial bullets. Example: I’d like to compare the ballistics difference between the 7mmRemMag Remington Swift Scirocco Bonded (150 gr, model PRSC7MMB) and the Winchester Ballistic Silvertip (150 gr, model SBST7). Of course this is only an example, but are there any compilation of commercial bullets to be able to compute them without having to enter them manually?. Also, sometimes it's very difficult to get the data from the manufacturers...

5) I’m a Spanish guy, and I’m used to metric units. I’ve seen the option to use it in PB (thanks DallanC, I asked for it and you added the option!), but is it possible to “remember” that option when exiting the program, instead of having to change to Metric units every time I start the software?

6) There is another message in the forum in which DallanC answers relating to ballistic calculations:

Quote::

Ah yes. I can explain this. So one problem with PointBlank, is that there are two distinctly different types of users. Type 1 doesnt care about load data, they just want to be able to quickly input different variables and compute the result. Type 2 doesnt care about inputing and computing data directly, they want to calculate their load data. So when I created the new version, I kept this in mind. Anyone can switch to the ballistics tab and input any data they want and compute it, quickly and easily. If someone wants to compute data from a load in the database, he simply browses to that load in the database, then clicks to the Ballistics tab. Doing so will copy over that load data into the ballistics calculator field. If for example, you want to compute and compare 2 different loads, You browse to load A, switch to the ballistics tab, you should then see your load data copied over. On the ballistics tab, switch to Load 2. Now go back to the database treeview and select the next load. Switching back to the Ballistics calculator will now copy the load data into the Load 2 tab. So switching back and forth between database treeview and the ballistics calculator will change the data ... a few people have gotten confused with this, so possibly I might need to add a popup box alerting the user that switching to the ballistics view will result in data being copied over (maybe a yes / no ability). Does this help? I am open to suggestions to streamline this and make it more intuative, but bottom line is we have 2 distinctly different types of users and the way they want it to behave is slightly at odds with each other.

I think this is a little bit confusing, and it could be somehow more intuitive to have the option in the load tree area to copy the data to ballistics area to some specific load number, in this way you don’t have to remember to go to the correct load number in ballistics area before going back to load tree. Also in the help section there is a picture stating that the load tree can be viewed at the same time of the ballistic data, so it brings some more confussion.

Of course this last point and also the rest of them are only my thoughts and suggestions, but maybe they can help to give to you some better understanding of what an average user can feel with this software.

That’s all. I’m sorry for the loooong message, but hope that helps.
Best regards to everybody and thanks again in advance for your answers and help!

lince wrote:

Hi again everybody!. Specially to DallanC a big thanks for continue working in this superb piece of software!. It's been a long time without visiting you due to high workload, but I hope to go on with you. I am using the last revision of this software (2.0.7) in a windows 7-64 machine and currently I have different questions that could (maybe) become to feature requests, bug reports or simple comments. Anyway, here you have mi little contribution to try to help to this community: 1) “NeuN” value: when I start PB and go to a created load, the Velocity becomes “NeuN” value. I’ve doubled-checked that I put a valid velocity value before closing the program. Later, sometimes (only sometimes) when starting again the PB software the velocity value becomes “NeuN”. Any error reported in that way? (note: please let me know if you need some of my data files to check)

"NaN" is a printable version of an invalid floating point number. I thought I had the velocity NaN issue fixed... email me your database.xml to dallanc @ huntingnut.com, I will load it and find / fix the issue.

Quote::

2) PB software saves all data when exiting, but I think it could be useful to have a “Save” button to be able to save the data without having to exit (to be able that data are safely stored and also if you wan tto change something having the possibility to go back). Do you consider it useful?

It saves often... but yes I can add a save button.

Quote::

3) When calculating the Point Black Range, the table shown in the “Misc” area is only for fixed distances. Is it possible to add an option to calculate the distance given the “Kill zone” distance?

The definition of "Point Blank Range" is a max range where the bullet stays within the defined kill zone. Max range is computed along with the sight in distance. It doesnt make sense to restrict it to a fixed range distance.

Quote::

4) I’m in the way to evaluate to buy another firearm for hunting, but I’d like to be able to compare the ballistics of different calibers, and also with different commercial bullets. Example: I’d like to compare the ballistics difference between the 7mmRemMag Remington Swift Scirocco Bonded (150 gr, model PRSC7MMB) and the Winchester Ballistic Silvertip (150 gr, model SBST7). Of course this is only an example, but are there any compilation of commercial bullets to be able to compute them without having to enter them manually?. Also, sometimes it's very difficult to get the data from the manufacturers...

Not without having an extensive list of cartridges, it's way too much work currently.

Quote::

5) I’m a Spanish guy, and I’m used to metric units. I’ve seen the option to use it in PB (thanks DallanC, I asked for it and you added the option!), but is it possible to “remember” that option when exiting the program, instead of having to change to Metric units every time I start the software?

Wow it should remember the units mode. I will double check this.

Quote::

6) There is another message in the forum in which DallanC answers relating to ballistic calculations: I think this is a little bit confusing, and it could be somehow more intuitive to have the option in the load tree area to copy the data to ballistics area to some specific load number, in this way you don’t have to remember to go to the correct load number in ballistics area before going back to load tree. Also in the help section there is a picture stating that the load tree can be viewed at the same time of the ballistic data, so it brings some more confussion. Of course this last point and also the rest of them are only my thoughts and suggestions, but maybe they can help to give to you some better understanding of what an average user can feel with this software. That’s all. I’m sorry for the loooong message, but hope that helps. Best regards to everybody and thanks again in advance for your answers and help!

Others have expressed similar confusion. Perhaps I can come up with a more direct method to pull data across. I will look into this.


-DallanC

Wow!. what a quick response!. Some answers below:

Quote::

"NaN" is a printable version of an invalid floating point number. I thought I had the velocity NaN issue fixed... email me your database.xml to dallanc @ huntingnut.com, I will load it and find / fix the issue.

Sent.

Quote::

The definition of "Point Blank Range" is a max range where the bullet stays within the defined kill zone. Max range is computed along with the sight in distance. It doesnt make sense to restrict it to a fixed range distance.

I think I didn't explain clearly what I want: my suggestion is to give to the software the desired kill zone and get the exact zero distance. I hope it's more clear, is it possible?

Quote::

Not without having an extensive list of cartridges, it's way too much work currently

Any help from the community?

Again, thanks for your help and BR

Metric Issue, found and fixed.

Velocity NaN issue found, I fixed the loading of NaN values (if they were written out) ... but I still need to address the source of the problem which appears to be having a sub-target with no bullet holes placed, and therefore no average velocity.

These fixes among others will be pushed up in a day or two.


-DallanC

DallanC wrote:

These fixes among others will be pushed up in a day or two. -DallanC

Thanks again a lot!.

I found where the NaN value was coming from and it is now fixed. I am looking into some of the suggestions now.


-DallanC