• Sector Support for T-LINK Wireless Systems - provides up to 3 segment times.
  • Configurable for 2 or 3 sectors.  Utilizes the spare T-LINK unit (C), and emitter/sensor pair to allow timing of the additional sectors. The systems is configured for up to 3 sectors, which requires an additional T-LINK unit, (D) and another emitter/sensor pair. 
  • Value add to any event, test session, etc., and provides real-time sector feedback for each run.
  • Provides 2 or 3 sector times, depending on the number of additional T-LINKS used.
  • Virtual Time data in Final Reports - combines the best times in each sector to provide 'bench racing times'. 
  • Sector times are additional data only and do not impact the net time in a run.
• Separate results for each day of a 2 Day Event:
  • reports and data are now individual controlled during and after the event.  Prior versions provided only a combined set of results once it was switched to the 2nd day.  Now, raw and Pax data is available for both days at any time, including extended reports.
  • New Final, Raw, Pax and Summary reports are now available for each of the days, at any time.
• Pax Points - Fixed Points - a new Pax Points option has been added to allow accruing Fixed Points across all entries, rather than the default method, which accrues points within each class. 
• Time Slips - Receipt (P.O.S) Printers - enhanced support for Receipt/POS (Point of Sale) style printers. Although an enhancement, the POS style printers provide full Windows support and utilize the Direct Printing controls already build into the software.  The benefit of POS printers is that most, if not all, provide Windows management and differ from the older raw style interfaces used for dot matrix or older printers.  The print drivers for POS printers may differ in functionality and capabilities but should all allow spooling of output and explicit printer management (something that the direct, raw printer did not provide), and thus ease of use. EPSON printers have been selected as a recommended source for POS printers. Please see the documentation for printer recommendations.
• Print Options:
  • Blank Rows Added to Registration Report - blank rows can now be added to the registration listing following each class. This can be used during the registration process to hand write entries onto the list if necessary.
  • Bumping: Paxed option - print Pax Time in Total Column - this option allows you to select either the Raw time (total) or the Pax time to be printed in the Final Results.
• Date Formats - a new Options/Event Settings/Date Format option allows you to select the format of the dates used in the software. This format is used through the various reports and screens, including the title bar that is used to display information about the event. Examples (all representing the same date): "06-10-2007", "Jun 10 2007, "Sunday June 10 2007" etc. The old format YYYY-MM-DD which is now MM-DD-YYYY, and may use weekday names, and month names, both in short and long form.  The Year will remain fixed at 4 digits.
• Penalty Assignments - minor changes have been made to the Penalty Assignments. The DSQ penalty is now based on a run by run basis. This means you can Disqualify a run using the DSQ penalty setting.  Prior versions DSQ'd the entry from the event, which is now handled by a new "Driver Disqualified" penalty.  Note: the DSQ is treated like a DNF (off course) penalty but is to be used for reasons that may include: 'over driving', 'failure to follow safety guidelines', 'ignoring flags', etc.

Enhancements 

• Top Time Listing Control - the list box was been converted to a floating Window that can be sized and put anywhere on the screen. In addition, functionality has been extended to support Sector Timing statistics.  The best sector times for each defined Group are automatically displayed.
• 2 Day Event - Re-Classing Entries - if timing is active the re-class command cannot be completed. Timing has to be ended. This is a requirement since during the re-class operation, the staging data for both days will be updated, which is not permitted while times are being recorded.
• Check for Updates - can now install pre-releases automatically.
• Class Definitions - Blank Rows - special controls have been put into place to ignore blank classes in the class definition file. Such entries cause anomalies resulting in unexpected side affects.  The real solution is to only have valid classes defined in the class definition file.
• Audit Report - has been improved.  The controlling dialog that selects the rows that are to be printed from the Staging Grid is different. It stores all of your prior selections (that were printed) and allows you to select from them or enter the new range of rows.  This offers a more concise view of what was done.
• Column Preferences - now accessible via the Setup Menu (not just just from the headings of the Registration or Membership Grids).
• Insert/Edit Dialogs:
  • Added Popup Dialogs t be used for status information for non-power users. The Event Settings contains a setting to control whether or not the popup dialogs are desired. The popup will display messages about errors, warnings and when drivers are loaded, saved and modified.  The status line in the dialog will display identical information (as before).
  • Added smoother control when using the "Avail #" button so that it's more obvious if the entry is loaded, or newly created.
• Print Control Dialog - when printing reports, the reports are rendered as HTML content.  If the report was not configured to be saved as a HTML file, a temporary file was created but never delete.  As of this version, the temporary files are deleted and if you want to save the reports as HTML content, you must explicitly specify to generate them as such via the Reports menu.
• Bumping - when Bumping is in conjunction with Paxing the target class (Class Definition settings), and the bump occurred after the event or after timing is underway, the class was not automatically re-consolidated (base on Pax results).  This would force the Total column to contain raw and pax timing data, if penalties or additional timing was done.

Fixed

• Unique Car Numbers within Pax Classes - it was possible to bypass the controls that allowed unique car numbers within Pax classes, creating more than 1 entry with the same number. 
• 2 Day Event - Re-Classing Entries - the Re-Class operation would force a busy stage for the active staging grid and thus the updated entries would not be saved during the re-classing operation.  The Result was a disjoint registration data and staging data. The registration data was updated while the staging data was not.
• Admin Client - a propagation error was found that could cause runs to be cleared inadvertently.  The may issue concerned editing RE-RUNS but could also be encountered if earlier runs were modified.  The condition would generally only surface once multiple runs were recorded. The modification would  appear to blank out the runs in the Registration/Standings Grid but this was only seen on the Admin Client itself.  Once this condition was encountered, the results would be inaccurate on the Admin side.  The T&S computer appeared to retain the proper standings data regardless of this issue.  Two main items were fixed in the data exchange between the Admin and T&S server:
  • Re-Runs are properly updated
  • clearing of runs no longer occurs when editing prior runs.
• File Export/To Member File - the File export did not use the correct source entry to update the Membership Entry and this could result in inconsistent membership data. 
• Unique Bar Codes - Membership File - if Unique Bar Codes was active and the Insert/Edit dialog was used, the program could exhibit a crash. The problem was a result of an attempt to access an Event based data item when in fact it shouldn't have been. If the Unique Bar Code setting was OFF, this was not the case.
• Event Settings - the Event Name was blanked out (or reset to an old value) when the date picker was used to set the date.
• Standard Deviation Points Calculations - would at times need to be calculated 2 times due to the active sort column (and the direction of the sort). 
• Membership Grid  - if the Pax Points are hidden from view and the cursor is used to move past the visible columns, into the Pax column locations, the program would cease to respond and would have to be terminated via the Task Manager or other means.
• Direct Printing - didn't accept any other LTP device names except  LTP1.

• JA Circuits Support - Chrono-Timer mode:
  • Newer revisions of the JA Circuits Chrono-timer mode chip (sequence 20 - 101?) will send the net time along with the start and finish trigger data. In addition the start and finish trigger are un-reversed as compared to earlier version of JA Circuits.  Also in prior firmware versions, the Net Times were not included in the data set, but are now. 
  • As a result of the new firmware, a new setting exists in the Timer Setups for JA Circuits configuration. This setting is is a check box that allows you to set "JA Circuits Reverse Chrono mode". If you have the newer firmware and the times you are receiving are huge (and unpredictable), please check this box to force the proper management of the triggers.
• ** NEW ** - AXWare ORM Points Upload Manager: new function has been added to the AXWare ORM Upload functions that now allows you to update the Points Reports on your club's account (based on the active season/year). 

Enhancements 

• AXWare ORM:
  • Membership Upload:
    • Memberships may now be uploaded to the AXWare ORM site directly from the software. A new membership File/AXWare ORM/Upload Members function provides access to this feature.  The functionality is currently identical to that of the executing the Membership Import function from the AXWare ORM site.  This will eventually change and allow explicit control over members, similar to what the Points Update and Export dialogs provide.
  • ORM Upload Dialog: Improved the performance of the Upload functionality (FTP based), and fixed an issue that could cause the upload to error out and never complete. This could have been caused by proxy servers or bridges and should no longer be the case.
• Points - added Clear Event Points - function that allows you to select a specific event to clear.  The prior functionality allowed you to only clear points for all events.
• Points Update:
  • Controlling Conflicts: when conflicts are displayed during the Points Update, editing the car Number will automatically re-class that entry in the event file.  If the first or last name are changed, they will also be altered in the event listing.  This automated update process enhances the points update methods so that the changes are retained for future use as well as including the changes for the points method as well as the Pax points update.  Prior to this edits had to be carried out in both points dialogs which proved to be a hindrance.
• Un-Bump Function: - added to the Edit menu so that any bumped entries can be un-bumped quickly.  If bumping is active for a loaded event, using Start New Event will un-bump all bumped entries automatically.
• Reports - Time Cards:
  • The Car Number was not being printed.
  • New behaviour: The Time Card Report prints a listing of all registered cars either by Class or by Car Number order, based on the active sort column in the Registration List.  The Class based report lists the cars in car number order in each class, while the Car Number order lists them in chronological order.  If the active sort column is neither of these columns, the Class order is used as the default.
• Display Options - Added Chronomix sss.fff display format as a selectable option.
• Bar Code Printing - the bar code label has been increased in width (almost double) to improve scanning.  In prior versions the bar code was smaller to reduce the print area, but this required better print resolution and thus could be more prone to intermittent scan problems.  The new bar code size will help scanners read the data much easier.

Fixed

• Print Final Results:
  • By Heat - if the Print Headers for Classes was OFF, the class field would not print for all entries making the results appear jumbled together even thought the entries were in the proper order and sequence.
  • Strange Results/Registration/Standings order would default to Run Order, which makes it somewhat cumbersome to try and retain the default class sequence order rather than one based on the Run Order (by heat).  Minor change to support either method and configured using the Class Definition/Class Tree by Class Order. When ON, the order is based on the order based on the sequence of the classes in the definition file.  If OFF, the order is Run/Heat based.
• Print By Heat:
  • If a pax class was the last class in the heat, an infinite loop could result when printing by Heat.
• Time Sorting - incorrect sort of a Pax Class based on Pax times.  This problem was introduced in an earlier 6.20.005.02x pre-release and attempted to sort the classes on top of the pax times, resulting in a strange order (based on Class Order).
• Membership File:
  • If you using Lower case classes in your configuration, the Class Tree View and Membership Grid could contain mixed cased classes, which result in a strange sort order.  This may effect events when importing from the Membership file as well, causing the same issue.
  • The default sort order used the Heat based control, which need to be switched to the 'Class Order' sequencing. 
• Heat Assignments - if the heat file (*.hcf) was copied to a different machine and the Class Casing was different between the two configurations, the class per heat order was not retained properly.
• Pax Points:
  • Percentage Points Method #2: this setting was being ignored for the last few revisions. 
  • Method 1: If points for non-members was set is not being carried out the pax points were not properly calculated.
• Bumped Support - Column control: - improved the way Bumped class support is activated and de-activated.  Prior versions could at times not display the Bumped column properly.  A warning has also been added to indicate that a save and reload is recommended when bumped class support is switch in active events.  This activates the control mechanisms to Bumped functionality.
• Pax Report - Printing Ladies Pax Classes:
  • The ladies Pax classes were not being printed due to a error in calculating the number of entries in the Ladies pax class. note: A ladies pax class looks like "TASPL" or equivalent.  It must be a ladies class (last letter is an 'L') and must be part of a pax class ('T' represents the pax prefix). 
  • Class Definition Setting - Separate Ladies Pax Classes: if this setting was turned off, the Report Options - Ladies Reports Printed Separately was never turned OFF but is now.

Version 6.20.004.020

New Functionality

• Port Selection Dialogs (Display, Timer Port, Scanner) - contain new Refresh buttons to reset the list of available ports when necessary.  If a port is added (USB-Serial port adapter), while any of the dialogs are running, pressing the Refresh button should list it if it's a valid and properly installed device.
• Behavior Change - HTML Print Settings:
  • The Style Sheet  is now automatically embedded into all generated reports. Linking to external style sheets has been dropped.  This provides a simplified way of moving generated reports to a WEB site since everything is self contain. 
• Behavior Change - Timing Control: - Timers with Start and Finish Triggers. The need to better isolate the parallel processing capabilities of the system, resulting in a small re-architect of the timing mechanism. The process provides a high level control when the system must complete a critical process prior to manipulating the timing data.  This can occur for a number of reasons including:
  • Edits that are not completed in the staging grid or Registration Grid (active edit). This is ended by moving off of the field or pressing the TAB, ENTER key. Pull-down selections are similar but very quick so these are not of concern.
  • Other dialogs and processes that require persistent control of the staging grid.
  • Back end processes (these are generally quick) but include, networking, auto-saves, saves, or other functions that must explicitly control the staging grid and registrations grid.
  • New Timing Status Control in the Staging Window will display the number of triggered Starts and Finishes. The progress bar continuously displays levels and the number of trips that have occurred.  All trips are now either processed immediately (if the system is not busy) or queued for delayed processing.  Trips are not longer discarded based on the number of Max Cars on Course.  Please refer to the documentation for additional information about the statuses and meaning.

  When any of these occur, the system will queue additional timing events until the system is able to process them. The number of queued times is configurable (In the Timer Settings with values of 5,10,15,20). A warning will be displayed once the threshold approaches.  Note: this queue mechanism will not be used or encountered very often since most functions (including background) processes run very quickly.  If the warning does pop up, please take appropriate actions. No processes should execute for any persistent times so it is expected you may never see this warning.

  Visually, the iterating stop watch buttons, normally iterate for the number of cars on course.  If the queue mechanism kicks in, all of the buttons may start to, and you will see 'T-1, T-2',..etc., in the respective Staging rows, for running timers. This indicator will not display more than the configured number of timers. If you have 3 Stop Watches configured, only 3 will be indicated in the staging grid. 

  Once the 'busy state' is ended, the times will automatically sequence into the staging grid and the appropriate number of running running stop watches will be displayed, along with the 'T-x' timing indicators. 

• Print Time Slips - The print time slips check box has been removed from the Staging Window and added to the Tool Bar. Functionality remains the same but activating and disabling Time Slip printing is new carried out via a new Tool Bar icon or the Timing/Print Time Slips menu function.
• Heat Control - new behavior and functionality:
  • The Heat Control is how Event Centric as apposed to the Class Definition file centric. The Class Definition file still retains default heat assignments but these assignments can be altered for each event, thus retaining heat information on a per event basis. This allows each event to control the heats assignments as it sees fit.  In addition, the Work assignments are now also Event centric.
  • Class Definition Dialog provides new functionality that allows you to sort the class definitions based on the order of the classes, as loaded from the class definition file or Heat based. The Heat assignments will be Event centric when an event is loaded or based on the default assignments if an event is not yet loaded.
  • Heat Assignments Dialog - A new Sort By Class button is introduced that allows the sorting of the classes based on the class order in the Class Definition file. The Sort by Heat button is retained and allows the order of the classes to be displayed based on the active heat Assignments.
  • Heat By Car Number - improved the data exchange between clients when the Heat By Car Numbers assignments are changed.  The Working Heat order also sent, improving the consistency of the Heat settings.
  • Networking - new commands are exchanged between the clients to indicate if any Class Based heat changes were made. In addition, the Work assignments are now also exchanged (these were sent in prior versions).
• Points Update and Export Dialogs:
  • To provide improved and more immediate control over entry conflicts, the Points Update and Export Dialogs now allow you to modify the Car Number, and the First and Last names, directly in the dialog.  You no longer have to exit the process and modify the data in the Registration grid nor re-class the entry if necessary. In addition, a list of 'used' car numbers is displayed via a Tooltip style of window, when you position the mouse over a car number.  This allows you to choose a 'new' and unique car number to fix a driver mismatch conflict (if the driver spelling is not at fault).
• AXWare ORM Membership Upload:
  • Memberships may now be uploaded to the AXWare ORM site directly from the software. A new membership File/AXWare ORM/Upload Members function provides access to this feature.  The functionality is currently identical to that of the executing the Membership Import function from the AXWare ORM site.  This will eventually change and allow explicit control over members, similar to what the Points Update and Export dialogs provide.

Enhancements 

• Modify Event Attributes - when the number of runs is increased, you are now given the option to either automatically re-consolidate the timing data or do so manually afterward.  This is also needed if the event attributes were changed and re-consolidation is necessary to re-generate the respective results.
• Staging Data Entry using Arrow keys - a carry over from earlier versions, when editing the class or car number fields, the edit mode was automatically exited once an edit was carried out and a movement key ways pressed.  With the new software revisions, this is no longer necessary, making the movement keys (arrow keys) behave more naturally.
• Printing Reports:
  • several reports will automatically print the Classes for each entry while printed them only for Pax Classes or when Class Headers was not active.  A new Report Options setting - Always Print Classes In Reports is now used to control whether or not the classes are printed (for base classes).  They will always print for Pax entries.
  • Print Templates:
    • options in pull-downs for templates were not always refreshed if the optional data columns were changed. It required you to exit and reload the software.  This is not longer required.
    • Combined data fields, which can be created from the optional data columns #2 & 3 (default Tire info), and #4 & #5 (Region & Division), were not refreshed appropriate if the headings were altered.  Now custom combo fields can be selected and printed in 1 column of the report rather than 2. This may help save some printing real-estate.
• Find Dialog - the default behavior of most Grids was to search Case In Sensitive in specific situations. As such the Find Dialog would search Case In Sensitive even if the Match case was selected. Also, the Registration and Membership grids now default to Searching 'Down' rather than upwards.
• Behavior Change - the Pax Fixed Points system has been revised to accumulate points on a per class basis. Prior to this the Pax points were assigned to only the top 'n' entries, where 'n' represents the number of fixed points assignments.  The percentage system is much more flexible and adoptable for Pax Points accumulation (more accurate) since it considers points across all entries, and is not class based.
• Bumped Entries - bumped entries now use the 'original class's Pax factor for generating the Pax Time.
• Networking:
  • Loading events on Remote PC's - if the Casing control is set differently from one installation to the other, the remote client machine will load the entries resulting in incorrect class ordering.
  • IP address in shares or mapped drives - incorrect parsing of file name (path) was carried out when the IP address was part of the share path.
  • Auto-Save - auto-save will be disabled for all clients. Prior versions would auto-save as well...which could add a resource load on the T&S machine.
• Edit/Insert Dialog:
  • Unique Car Number Mode:
    When in Unique Car Number mode or Unique Car Number mode for Pax Classes, the following constraints exist:
    1. If the entry is modified, information will be displayed in the dialog Status area. You must decide to either save an edited entry, clear it or enter a new car number and continue entering a new entry. Note: The auto-clear setting has an effect new entries.
    2. If the entry has just been saved, i.e. is not currently in modified state, entering a new Pax or class value will auto-clear the car number and a new entry is automatically started.
  • Status - a new status bar was provided for the dialog. Prior to this the Title overloaded to provide status information. The status bar is multiple line for addition and more verbose information.
  • Edit Membership Data:
    • Edit the membership record while manipulating the Event entry is possible via the Edit Membership Data button in the Edit/Insert dialog. This button was visible if a membership was not linked to the event. This is no longer the case.
    • Improved isolation of the Membership Extended data columns versus the Event Extended data columns.  Since the Extended data columns can be distinct between the Event and Membership data, improvements were made to properly control these data columns.  Prior to this revision, data columns could be exposed incorrectly (accessible) but were not saved, due to the difference between the Event and Membership extended column mappings.
• Membership Reports:
  • Added short form membership designation akin to the Events designation. Rather than requiring the membership data column (Member) to be used in Print Templates, the print setting, Designation Members by an 'm' in the reports will now also affect the Membership Reports.
  • Trophy positions designation has been been altered to not include entries with 0 points.
• NCCC Points Extension:
  • New look to the Points Menu and the Points generation dialog.  Now all aspects of the points control are managed via a single dialog that attempts to guide you in calculating points.  Print buttons have been added to the main Points Generation dialog to allow easier access to these functions.
  • Club Points Dialog - the buttons have been simplified to a single points generation button. This button will calculate the travel points and consolidate the race, work and travel points all in one single process. The Event Number is the very important in letting the software determine what actions are to be taken since travel points are only calculated on Event #1 for each race day.
  • New Co-Chair entry is entered in the Event Attributes. This allows automated points control for both the Chair and Co-Chair.
  • Chair and Co-Chair:
    • Are automatically added to the Worker Table. 9 points are automatically allocated if not running for points, otherwise 0 is specified.
    • Points are now manipulated for both chair positions.

Fixed

• Include Penalties In Time - Staging Grid: when set, and a DNF penalty was entered, the staging row statistics would display a Pax time > 9000+the time, which should have been DNF.
• Points Update - an internal error could cause Fixed Points assignments to assign incorrect point values when points assignments are 2 digits or more. (i.e.: if the points assigned are similar to 50, 25, 15, 10, 9, 8, ...etc. The 2 digit assignments would result in non-1st positions obtaining 1st place values.
• Label Printing Orientation - the label orientation in the Options/Print Settings dialog did not stick. A workaround was to override this setting using the AXWAREW.INI and set PrintTimeSlipOrientation=1 for Portrait and PrintTimeSlipOrientation=2 for Landscape, the reload the INI file using the Setup/Import Program Settings.
• Bumped Entries and Pax Classes with Bumped Control - several revisions back, Pax Classes with Bumped Control was accidentally de-activated (meaning the class was not Paxed as it should have been). This option was to force any classes that contain Bumped Entries to be manipulated much like a Pax class. The standings in such classes will be based on Pax Standings and not raw times.  Entries that belong in this class use the effective classes Pax factor while the bumped entries use the original class's Pax factor.
• Pull-down Lists for Class Fields - the type ahead would skip the 1st element of the pull-down list. As an Example: if SS is the first item in the list and you type 'S', SS would be skipped and the next item matching an 'S' would be displayed.
• Staging Grid:
  • Potential Program Lockups - the software could exhibit an infinite wait state (deadlock) and possibly corrupt the staging file in extreme cases.  These problems were reproduced only under very high stress loads  that should not be seen in normal use.  The reproducibility of these issues depends heavily the circumstances and amount of load that the software is managing.  It also seems dependent on the speed of your CPU since that affects the multi-process nature of Windows. 2 potential concerns were found:

  1. If the Auto-Save Interval was executed in very short intervals, timing occurred VERY rapidly (seconds apart), and if data entry was occurring at the same time. Hard case to reproduce in normal circumstances
  2. Movement keys are continually pressed while timing is occurring very rapidly (with a few seconds with multiple timers running).

  The solution was to improve and isolate the save processes from other running processes, and thus saving after  each car in the staging grid works as expected. This is still not recommended since it will thrash the processor excessively, especially for very large events.  Slow machines will see this impact.

  • DNFs - extra 20 seconds was being added to the total time (even though it's was DNF), akin to the RallyX DNF.
  • Staging a Car from the Registration Grid (via Right Mouse - Stage Car command), the driver information would not be entered for the entry. The class and car number were swapped (it worked only if you had specified Car #->Class staging grid order).  If using the default, Class->Car#, the driver information was incorrect and thus the driver and car info was not found.  Modified to properly manage the class & car number order, driver information is not found in either mode.
• Class Casing Support: if the Class Casing was changed via the Setup/Options/Event Settings/Support Classes In Uppercase while a data file was loaded, reports and the class tree view could become disconnected.  In prior versions, changing the case required exiting the software, then reloading. This would force all data points to use the same casing.  This version synchronizes all data points if the casing is changed and does away with the need to reload the data.
• Heat Assignments - it was possible to force the class on the 1st row to always be placed into the same heat when the Auto-Assign button was pressed.
• Membership Bar Code Label Printing: - the Print Bar Codes for Selected Entries would print in sheet feed format by default if the Dedicated Bar Code Printer was selected. Although this did not print the incorrect items, it would still go through the motion of printing the 2 additional. The problem was the result of the internal template being configured to 3 labels rather than 1.
• Timer Settings: - AC4 With start trigger option was not sticking.
• NCCC:
  • Software GUI preferences (toolbars, window sizes, etc) were not being retained.
  • NCCC Points Extension: 
    • Travel points were being calculated for events other than Event #1.