Help decide what gets built
Most of what's in View is there because somebody in a shop told me it was missing. None of it needs you to write code, and none of it needs your drawings.
Tell me what broke
People skip this one. It is the one I need most. If a measurement came out wrong, a chest imported with the wrong unit weights, or the thing crashed on a 400-sheet set, I want to hear about it the same day.
What helps me fix it fast:
- What you were doing, in the words you'd use to a coworker
- The version number, from Help → About or the bottom right corner of the window
- What you expected the number to be and what it said instead
- A screenshot, with anything confidential cropped out
You don't have to send the drawing set, and I can usually work it out without it. If it genuinely can't be reproduced without a sheet, I'll ask, and you can send one with the title block blacked out. How to get help.
Other ways that actually help
Send a chest that won't import
If a .bpx or .btx file comes in wrong, that file is the fastest way for me to fix the importer. Tool chests hold shapes and unit weights, not job information, so there's usually nothing confidential in one.
Say what's next
There's a long list and I can only work down it in one order. Offices that tell me what's costing them time get counted twice when I pick.
Test before it ships
I'll send a build a week or two early to anyone who wants to run it against real work first. You get the fixes early and I find out what I broke before everyone else does.
Check my numbers
Run a job you already priced and see whether the tonnage matches. If it doesn't, that's the most useful message you can send me.
Tell another shop
There's no ad budget here and there isn't going to be one. Somebody mentioning it to an estimator they know is how this spreads.
Write the docs you wished existed
If you worked something out the hard way, send me the write-up and I'll put it on the site with your name on it.
Code
It's up: github.com/excaliburct/excalibur-view, the app and the Office server both, under the Elastic License 2.0. The steel model reader and the 3D view are in there too. Read it, build it, and open an issue when something in it is wrong. What the license allows.
The Office server is still commercial: what you buy is a license to run it, not access to the code, and that's what pays for the free one. The trade tool chests I sell and the signing keys stay out of the repository. Everything else is in there.
I'd rather have a clear issue than a pull request that guesses at what I meant, so start with the issue. If you've already written the fix, say so in it.
If what you want is your own check or count inside the program, that's a plugin, and it doesn't need anything from me until it's ready to sign. How to write one.
If you're connecting your own software instead, an ERP, a scheduling board or a script, the API and change notices are on the developer page.
If you write software and want to be on that list, say so and I'll add you.
What you get
Your name in the credits if you want it there, and left out if you'd rather not be named. Some people's employers have opinions about that, so it's opt-in.
Early builds before they go out. And mostly, the thing you asked for, built.
What I won't ask you for: your drawings, your job data, your client names, or a testimonial you didn't offer.
Start with one message
Tell me what you do, what you're using now, and the one thing about it that wastes your afternoon. That's enough to go on.