List of online/computer assisted design tools?

[rdeis]

Several references to vehicle design assistant programs were mentioned on the weapons-per-side thread a couple of days ago.

Can you guys provide links to as many of those tools as you know about, preferably with some comment about key capabilities and/or known limitations in them?

Thanks!

[Parody]

I think you saw links to all the "current" ones:

Car Wars Vehicle Designer - Excel spreadsheet.

MADHAT Duel Designer - Excel spreadsheet.

Car Wars Combat Garage - Web-based.

Oddly enough, the only one I use regularly is the CWVD; it's good for throwing together a dueling vehicle as long as you have a copy of Excel. If you have questions or problems, let me know.

The MADHAT one doesn't use macros, so if you don't have Excel but can use LibreOffice (or another capable spreadsheet application) it may work for you.

At least one of our players uses the Combat Garage sometimes; it seems OK, if even quirkier for being an online application with restricted viewports and whatnot.

Give them all a try and see what you think! :)

[kjamma4]

Originally Posted by Parody

Oddly enough, the only one I use regularly is the CWVD

Go figure. ;)

Originally Posted by Parody

At least one of our players uses the Combat Garage sometimes; it seems OK, if even quirkier for being an online application with restricted viewports and whatnot.

For me, the ability to create a printable schematic of the vehicle is a big plus with the Combat Garage.

The few times I've posted actual designs here, I actually used both of these just to make sure they synced and I didn't make a dumb mistake.

My dream design program would be one where you could drag and drop components onto a vehicle and the program would do the math based on that.

[kabson]

Combat Garage works for me; as long as I have a machine with a browser it does the job - no downloads, it auto-updates, plus I haven't owned a copy of Excel for donkey's years (and work frowns upon such things).

Touch/small screen support is a bit iffy, but it's great on a Chromebook.

But all three are good of you have the right tools. Kjamma4's point about comparing results is excellent.

[swordtart]

CWVD works well for me other as it has a convenient custom field that allows me to put in all the house ruled components without breaking the generic stuff.

My only issue with it is that it stored each design as a separate spreadsheet. I am trying to find a way to get the design that is generated (rather than all the underlying information) into some searcheable database.

I have hundreds of designs and I don't need that spreadsheet once I have finalised it, what I really want is a single file with a nice interface that allows me to select "all motorcycles under $3000 with gas engines" (as a veteran software jockey that screams SQL to me, but I fear that may be the "old-fashioned" route).

Hmmm, no let me correct that to Retro-chic. Oh yes, feeling better now.

[Pacey]

I have an MS Access database tool which I inherited from someone else, long ago. I no longer make updates to it, but you're welcome to a copy if you'd like (PM me with your email address and I'll get it sent across after work)

[jimmylogan]

Originally Posted by Parody

MADHAT Duel Designer - Excel spreadsheet.

Oh man! Thanks for the reminder :-) been way too long since I've updated the page

99% of my car was time gets spent on the PBEM – so I don't even think about that page, but I really should dress it up some. :-)

[Parody]

FWIW, I name my files so that I can tell at a glance the Division, type (Car/Trike/Cycle and None/Racing/Offroad/OR Racing), and design variation (generally descriptive, not a list of weapons). I keep all of my designs so I can go back and either reprint the sheets or make variants easily.

If you really don't want to keep the files for whatever reason you could make a sheet with the summaries and put what's important to you in separate columns. (Ex: Name, Cost, Body, Engine, Summary.) It'd be easy to filter but would rely on you to add your designs to it.

Alternatively, if you keep the design sheets you could throw together something in VBA that would search all the .xls files in a folder hierarchy, gather the information you want, and create a spreadsheet with that data in a table that you could then filter. In theory you could even externally link all the data, but I've never tried anything that extensive.

[WilliamTetley]

Thanks Parody! I hadn't realized that the MADHAT designer would work with Libreoffice. It opened and seemed to work fine with Calc version 4.2.

[poofygoof]

Originally Posted by Parody

I think you saw links to all the "current" ones:

What ever happened to klausbreuer and car wars designer?