Suggestions for timing software wanted.

Well, you have yourself in a small corner. The License for SST will let you run Club & USSA software. The same key and license works with both. The problem with both of them is they only allow 2 runs (1 on each course of a dual) and on a single course everyone needs to take a "first" run and then switch the software into the "second run.

So.....the freedom of Fiddleware and the amount of runs is only available in SST NASTAR program which is not open to the public.

Strong point of NASTAR is that it is point based and incorporates some sort of % for snowboards in awarding the team point thus allowing Snowboards and Skiers to compete easily on the same team.

Because of 2 things (1. multiple runs greater than 2, and 2. Handicap racing with the snowboards) there is no software that will directly score your race. Fiddlware will TIME your race and SST NASTAR will TIME and ALMOST Score your race if you use the NASTAR team points system.

Your best option is to pick a software program and adjust your team rules for the coming season. You will then have to figure which rules should be more heavily weighted (multiple runs) or Handicap time.

If you could use the NASTAR points system, this would be your best possible match. If you can contain the race in 2 runs, the SST Club program has a very strong a versatile "Scoring" matrix that we use all the time.

One last option is to let a spreadsheet do all the scoring and directly import race results to do the major scoring. If this is the way, Fiddlware will work fine, but you are right that Unclassified( DNS/DNF/DSQ) racers do not appear in the results, but their is a column in the "EXPORT" that does show status of the run. The export looks something like this...

Run 1, Course #, OK, Run 2, Course #, DNF,

and so on with many fields that you could use for sorting. Snowboards also have a column that exports.

No easy answer, but using EXPORT on fiddlware will allow you to get closest to your current situation but you will have to have some serious spreadsheet work to make it happen. Even a database such as Access may work, but they don't seem to handle the math as easy.

Good luck, and download ALL the demo's of SST and hunt around for the different possible scoring scenaria that the each incorporate and see if it is time to change the "rules" for this season.

JK

Try TOM KENDALL
221 STEVENS MILLS RD.
AUBURN, ME 04210
207-784-1522
teambart@aol.com

He has great software http://www.bart.chipco.com/

With Fiddleware, I can get by the DSQ/DNF issue by manually entering the data, so maybe that isn't a big an issue as I thought. The team scoring I can do through my spreadsheet, since it isn't exactly rocket science. I may just stick with Fiddleware and see if it works in a race situation.

Here's another question- Why does my database size stay at 0 when I enter times and data? I can't do more than half of the results because of this. Any ideas?

Chase-
Thanks for the suggestion. If the Fiddleware thing doesn't work out, I may end up contacting them.

In Fiddleware, the database used to be the Old NASTAR database of racers. You do not need the database for timing a race. If you are using the same group of racers all year long, I can give you further details on how to make that happen, but is a bit tedious at best. Basic CSV file that needs to be "processed" by an older version of Fiddleware to extract the database into a useable form.

For timing you will have 1000 bibs possible (0-999) and can have up to ???6 times for each racer (6000 stored times).

quote:

In Fiddleware, the database used to be the Old NASTAR database of racers. You do not need the database for timing a race. If you are using the same group of racers all year long, I can give you further details on how to make that happen, but is a bit tedious at best. Basic CSV file that needs to be "processed" by an older version of Fiddleware to extract the database into a useable form.

For timing you will have 1000 bibs possible (0-999) and can have up to ???6 times for each racer (6000 stored times).

Thanks Jim-
I'd be interested in setting up a racer database, since our membership is fairly stable after the first race. However, I don't have an older version of Fiddleware. The tedium I can deal with, since I used to manually input times into a database and set up different reports with the data.
-Mike

Ok, here you go....You will want a csv file named "nastarreg.txt" with the following:

Comma-delimited, as follows:

Nastar code, Last name, first name, middle initial,,address,city,state,zip

Note that the field in between MI and address is blank. That should do it, although you'll probably have to put a bunch of blank fields at the end to make the parser work.

You can also use the following fields

13 = 0 for skier, 1 for snowboard, 2 for telemark

nr.team_code:= parse_for_field(14,s);

nr.team:= parse_for_field (15,s);

nr.family_code:= parse_for_field(16,s);

nr.family:= parse_for_field17,s);

nr.club_code:= parse_for_field(18,s);

nr.club:= parse_for_field(19,s);

nr.resort_code:= parse_for_field(20,s);

nr.instructor_code:= parse_for_field(21,s);

nr.instructor_resort:=parse_for_field(22,s);

nr.patrol_code:=parse_for_field(23,s);

nr.patrol_resort:= parse_for_field(24,s);

nr.shop_code:= parse_for_field(25,s);

nr.shop:= parse_for_field(26,s);
Email me directly and I will send an old version of "Nastar". You will find a menu item for importing database which you will run and the database will extract the Nastarreg.txt file into 26 different files which will need to be manually copied into the folder of the current version of Fiddlware and everything should work. I've had problems with Male/Female working, but everything else ports over fine.

Thanks for the help, Jim. That doesn't sound too painful, considering what I've done in the past.
If you don't mind, e-mail me the old NASTAR version at MAHancock@gci.net. I'm hoping that I can make everything work before the snow flies.
-Mike

Mike,

You might want to check out GMS, a software program that Special Olympics has used at their World Winter Games in 2001 and 2005 for Alpine, Nordic and Snowboarding events. It links directly with Alge timing and allows multi-part scoring for all events.

http://www.bespoke.com