Phase Dragon Website

[PhaseDragon]

You can now download the Empire Management System from my homepage:

 

Phase Dragon (http://members.cox.net/phasedragon)

 

I will post any revisions to this site and tag them with the revision date. If you have any problems you can contact me or post the error here. I will try to get to every request and problem as soon as possible.

 

There are a couple fonts that I use quite often in my sheets at the bottom of the page. You will need to install these fonts through the control panel to be able to use them.

[athonian]

*worships PhaseDragon*

 

:D :cheers:

:cheers: :cheers:

:cheers: :cheers:

[Hughestrog]

Downloaded everything, and looking forward to trying everything out!

[orin]

Looks good...just have to figure out how to use it.

 

Needs some basic 'how to' with examples (shurg)

[Locklyn]

Good work Ed, really good work but why so many colours

/Locklyn

[PhaseDragon]

Today I went over to a friend's house and downloaded everything from my website to try the system on Office 97 from scratch. In doing so I discovered that the linking system that I had worked out will not work with Office 97. Apparently, Office 97 will not recognize a spreadsheet as a database/list. If I set up the query in Office 2003 and just run it in Office 97 everything works fine. Therefore, I will have to set up multiple empire sets for those using Office 97 tomorrow after work. If you download the files from the internet and are using Office 97 then you will have to save everything in C:\SuperNova\

 

Another oddity in Office 97 is that lookups done with formulas need to establish a link to the file that they link to. Therefore, in Office 97 you will have to open Codes.xls and Galaxy.xls BEFORE opening PopGrp.xls. Otherwise if you answer "Yes" to Update Links, Excel will crash. It won't crash it you open the files which PopGrp.xls is linked to first. The same is true before you open ShipDesign.xls. You need to open Codes.xls first. Office 2003 allows files to access closed files so this error will not occur in Office 2003.

 

Also, there were a number of errors that I discovered and corrected along with a few revisions in how the sheet calculates to speed some things up. Set-up will go a little faster now as well.

 

I am working on a step by step setup system. Hopefully, I can get this done tomorrow although I also need to finish up my SuperNova turns and they will take precedence for now. Pete has pointed out an error in the Colony Survey routine in the Galaxy.xls file that involves earlier versions of the turn results sheet. Hopefully I have corrected this as well.

 

Revisions still to come......

[Hughestrog]

Keep up the good work.

 

[Prospective]

One minor glitch is on the ship design sheet. I entered 1 cargo barge, but there is no value entered for the tonnage column.

 

Thanks for all your work and for sharing it with the rest of us.

 

Steve

[Prospective]

Phase Dragon,

 

I downloaded all the latest files from your website and extracted them into the C:\Supernova directory. However, I'm confused as to how to import a .txt file from my setup data... I have both the .pdf and .mdb files in the same directory. Is there a way to convert the .mdb setup info to a .txt file?

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Steve

[EternusIV]

Here is what worked for me (Using Excel)

 

 

1) Create a folder on your C drive called "SuperNova"

2) Download 1 of CODES, GALAXY, RESEARCH and as many EMPIRE zip files that you need (you'll need a spearate EMPIRE zip for each empire)

3) Extract everything inside the "SuperNova" file. The EMPIRE zip should unzip into a folder. You'll need to drop a RESEARCH spreadsheet into every EMPIRE folder you have. You might have to extract more than 1 research file to fill all the EMPIRE folders.

4) Create a folder called "Text Files" - don't forget that little space in between Text and Files

5) Now - open up each of your .pdfs for all of your empires and save then as text files into the "C:/SuperNova/Text Files"

6) Open up CODES. You'll see a bright blue column under a button that says "Load Text Files" Enter in the name of each text file in your "Text Files" folder -WITH the .txt extension- into this column. Make sure you have the very top slot in the column contain a file.

7) Click on "Load Text Files"

8) Cut and paste your list of text file names and open up GALAXY...this is where it gets really friggin cool. Paste in your text file names and click on "Load Text Files" If you can load them all without bugs you are in business.....if you get bugs, skip the file, take note of it and move on (usually something minor)

 

That should get you started. Did I explain it right, Ed? Thats basically how I got it going.

 

I'm still using my own spreadsheet for production right now but that will change. I'll elaborate on how to use Research and PopGroup from there (similar steps used for the other files)

 

Brad

[orin]

Here is what worked for me (Using Excel)

 

Still getting nothing but errors....sigh (using office 2000)

[PhaseDragon]

Basically I had the whole process working a couple months ago but after GenCon I was asked to make the program work for those with older versions of Excel. In some cases I rewrote whole sections of code because of statements that are not part of earlier versions. Also, the whole issue of earlier versions of Excel not allowing a file to look into a closed file caused numerous problems. That was why I tried to hard-code the queries to specific directories and file names. If you have earlier versions of Excel then you will NEED to place the files in the exact places that I have indicated:

 

C:\SuperNova\

.....Codes.xls

.....Galaxy.xls

.....ShipDesign.xls

.....\Empire1\

..........Research.xls

..........PopGrp.xls

.....\Empire2\

..........Research.xls

..........PopGrp.xls

.....\Empire3\

..........Research.xls

..........PopGrp.xls

.....\Text Files\

..........4851-01.txt

..........4851-02.txt

..........4851-03.txt

 

In the blue boxes where the file names go you need to type the Exact file names

 

4851-01.txt

4851-02.txt

4851-03.txt

 

Also, only the newest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader gives you the option:

 

File - Save As Text

 

Hope this helps. There will be some errors while reading the .txt files because I have not seen every possible order result that could be generated. I can only program for those that I have seen. When you send me errors I need to know more specifics. Just the error number without which program was running, which file it was reading...etc are not specific enough.

[EternusIV]

Ed/anyone else-

 

One last question. How do I convert my old .SNP files? Any insight on that?

 

Thanks again, man

 

Brad

[Dennarian Star Imperium]

PhaseDragon,

 

Is there any way I can call you and have you walk me thru this. I tried to test it using one file. I seem to be doing everything you are saying, but I still get a runtime error 76 every time I try to get it to load the text file.

[Prospective]

Eternus/Phasedragon,

 

Thanks for the info. I followed the instructions and was able to import some info into the "codes.xls" file. However, I'm confused and hope either of you can help.

 

In the "codes.xls" file, the only "Item" that turned from red to blue (column was Iron. Now I assume that the reason for this is due to the fact that it was ANZ'ed on my setup. However, I had assumed that all the basic items (Power, Raw Resources, Caldaran Crystals, etc...) would also have updated and turned blue. So, in order to get the info input to the "codes.xls" file, do I need to ANZ each tech? Or is there an easier/better way to get the updates.

 

Next thing I did was to "load txt file" into the "galaxy.xls" sheet. Again, I entered the correct .txt file name into the blue column, then hit the "load txt file" button. Boom, everything imported correctly so I'm happy with that.

 

Then, I went to the Empire 1 subdirectory and opened the "popgrp.xls" file. Since there is only one blue box under the "load txt file" button, I put the latest turn text file info in that field (and not my setup info), then loaded it. While I do get the hourglass and it appears to be importing information, I don't see any changes. In the "Flow" tab, shouldn't the yields have been imported into column 'T'? Shouldn't the number of mines/IC's/SM's and shipyards/slips have been pulled in from the turn 1 txt file? OR, do I need to manually enter the info? I have no problem doing that, but it seems that I'm missing something as everything else imports so nicely. Any suggestions?

 

Thanks again, this will make empire management so much nicer!!!