My “other job” is doing custom software development… so when I wanted to keep track of my model railroad inventory, I wrote a neat little program to do it. If you want a copy, I’d be glad to give you one. I’ll mail you a CD ROM or you can download it from my website (it’s pretty large though if you’re on a dial-up).
It accommodates photos of locomotives and rolling stock, road name heralds, has some nice lookup features and lets you print car cards, rosters, DCC address list, labels, etc.
I’m not doing it as a commercial venture. I’m thinking I’ll offer it as “shareware” and invite folks to send a $20 “registration” fee if they want to. But if you don’t want to or can’t afford to pay, that’s fine too.
I named the program “Yard Office” (seemed clever enough). Click “Web” below if you want to download it. Click “Email” below and send me your postal address if you want a CD-Rom. Let me know what you think of it (or if you’d like other features!)
I downloaded a copy and tried it, but I have a couple questions. First, I couldn’t get it to auto resize. I usually run my size at 600x800, but had to set it to 1152x864 to be able to see the entire frame. At 1024x768 I think it would have fit but ir wouldn’t recenter. Is there a way to get it to fit whwere you can scroll through the different fields?
And in some of the text boxes it wouldn’t fill correctly- the date fields and the price fields. It kept automatically putting the slashes or decimals in the wrong places. Can you just make it a plain 'ole empty box?
I still have to try adding pics, but other than those couple small things it looks good!
I guess I’m in the same boat. I made one up in Microsoft Excel. It covers everything but photos, and I could do that easily enough if I want. Mine also gives a manufacturers breakdown and an equipment percentage mix. I keep the thing in my home PC, the work laptop, and my PDA for easy access. It has eliminated the question of do I have this item in that road number when I’m shopping, as I almost always have the PDA with me. Also makes it easier to not buy an item I don’t really need, for example boxcars in my case. All I need to do is look at the equipment mix, and all of a sudden that car isn’t so great a deal! I can send mine if anyone else would want it, but it really would need a lot of work for most other people to use.
You’re right, areibel, it’s really designed to run in 1024X768 minimum resolution. I’ll have to work on a scrollable sceen for future upgrades. Good idea!
jxtrrx, something you might want to add to your website on the download page is a listing of the operating systems that the software runs on. Not everyone uses the same version of windows and (believe it or not) some peolpe use Mac (Me, for instance), unix, and linux. Just a suggestion. [:)]
Good point, Ray. I’ve always developed applications for the Windows environment, so never thought of it. By the way, my program requires Windows 98 or greater. I’ll add the info to web ASAP!
I developed a Train Inventory Software myself, and that is what it is called, Train Inventory. I have it posted on download.com and also on http://webpages.charter.net/gopherpro. As of right now, it requires SQL Server Express which is automatically downloaded on setup. I am working on making the database internal, and hopfully will have that fixed in version 1.0.0.3 and try to get the printing enabled. If you want, check it out. It’s freeware. One other thing, when it installs the sql server, restart the computer or it will not connect right. It is not done by setup.
I downloaded Yard Office several weeks ago and have been very satisfied with it. I like the idea of being able to post a pic of the rolliing stock. It does all I need in an inventory program. And best of all the work has been done for me and the price is right. I will be sending a check off in a couple of days. A great program!
Terry[8D]
I have a very basic inventory program i made in Filemaker Pro 8. Its a work in progress so it will probably never be finished. I add stuff as I have a need for it. If anybody has Filemaker and wants to test drive it let me know. It was built on a mac but the program is cross platform so it should work on windows. BTW if you don’t have Filemaker you can get a 30 day trial of the full version from their website. www.filemaker.com
(yes it does pictures, sounds and movies)
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