Good evening!
Although the demo was presented in my previous post I have updated it slightly: I added a progress dialog. This is to report how many items have been processed and how many of them is yet to be processed. The progress dialog also ensures the user that the program isn’t hanging without checking that in Windows task manager. Links to source code and installer below. And here’s quick video to demonstrate that:
Future of SheetMetalArranger
This project was developed for purposes of GetNoticed contest. At this moment I can’t say if I’m going to do anything more with it. Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. But if I do here’s what could be added/improved:
- efficiency: this is the most important factor to asses this program. In on of my previous DEV posts I wrote that 82% is good enough. And for the purpose of the contest it is enough, but if Arranger is to really serve its purpose it needs to be more efficient. It could be achiever by improving merging. Now only boxes which are the same width or the same height and are adjacent on equal edge are merger.
- project files: it would be useful if arrangements could be saved and reopened later, JSON or XML would do the job
- export: the demo just demonstrates calculated arrangement in its UI, it also saves generated PNGs in ProgramData folder on C:/ drive. But it would be much useful if a user could click a button and save them in required location. Also export to DXF would be handy and brief look at DXF standard allows me to think that it is achievable.
GetNoticed – my conclusion
As this is my last post for the contest I allow myself to write few words of conclusion. First and foremost the contest was a great boost of motivation. For me personally this is the biggest advantage. I am aware that my project isn’t the best, maybe it’s not even good. But keep in mind that I am still a newbie but I’m excited about the path that’s in front of me.
Thanks for everyone who read even one of my post.
Regards, Michal
SheetMetalArranger on GitHub
ClickOnce installer
