Once Again Life Returns To Normal (Whatever That Is)
June 23rd, 2007
Wow! It has been a crazy few months. This past Monday we rolled out our new ordering system – a system that has been in the works for 17 months and was completely re-done in the past three. As I have mentioned here before, we were working on implementing DriveWorks, automation software for SolidWorks. Our problems started quite early on in the game when we realized that we would be completely unable to automate the creation of our wetstamp drawings using SolidWorks. The main issue was the placement of field detail callouts – these little bubbles with numbers in them which reference detailed drawings later in the drawing package. When you are sitting in front of SW placing these is no problem but SW themselves told us there is no way to do it programmatically.
So, with SolidWorks basically bringing nothing to the table we realized we’d need to keep using AutoCAD to generate the drawings. Considering that DriveWorks automates SolidWorks this effectively removed all benefit from using DriveWorks. Also, we were having massive scalability problems with the web interface to the program, DriveWorks Live. So, the decision was made to build our own custom front and back end systems.
That was three months ago. That was 16,700 lines of code (not counting *anything* for the db) ago. That was untold hours of overtime ago. That was seemingly a lifetime ago.
So, now that we have that out of the way, life can begin to return to normal. At least as normal as it can be when expecting a baby and building a new house. Speaking of which, I have pictures of the house and pictures from the 3D ultrasound of the baby that I will be adding to the galleries in the near future. Lindsay is almost done her Computer Science class (C++ for a first year class?!?!!) and after that we just might start playing World of Warcraft again…if we can pry ourselves away from the Wii, that is.
So, expect to see more content here in the near future. I know I say that a lot and never come through but I am going to make a real effort this time. I have lots to talk about…it’s all been brewing up inside me and must be released. Later.
