Report for Quicksplits / Breakout Boards

[PyroExec]

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I’m looking for a report to get the total count of quick splits / breakout boards needed for a show and also how many cues needed for each one?

 

The wiring report gives you this but requires you to have to manually count / process the data which is a time killer for larger shows.

 

I would ideally like a custom report that shows me the below data.

 

Total count of QS / BB with 2-4 cues needed

 

Total count of QS / BB with 5-6 cues needed

 

Total count of QS / BB with 7+ cues needed

 

How can this be done, if at all?

 

Thanks

 

[PyroExec]

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Any thoughts on this DrewFinale

[DrewFinale]

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Hey PyroExec, I think you can certainly make it easier than manually counting lines in the Wiring Script report.

 

As a starting point, it’s helpful to understand the basic capabilities and limitations of the report engine in Finale 3D.

 

What the report engine essentially does is export data from one of the Finale 3D table windows and format it in a useful way. For example, any report including things like addresses or event/effect times is pulled from the Script window because that data exclusively resides there. Similarly, rack related reports are generated from the Racks window, etc.

 

The report engine can sort and combine data rows and display any columns that exist in the source window. What it currently cannot do is dynamically generate rows or columns that do not exist in the source window. This means a report cannot have extra rows or columns for counts, subtotals, or anything that doesn’t exist in the source data/window.

 

Armed with this knowledge, you can customize a report to meet your needs. The Wiring Script is a great starting point because it is already sorted by address and includes the Quantity column. Addresses are key because quick splits / breakout boards aren’t directly represented in the Script window (or anywhere else in Finale 3D). And the Quantity column is key for knowing how many items per QS / BB.

 

Here are some examples of customizations you can try:

 

1) By default, the Wiring script report only combines rows when the Rail and Pin and Position and Part Number are a perfect match. This is critical for show setup, but for your needs, you can remove Position and Part Number. This ensures the report shows one line item per Rail and Pin (which is one Address), equating to one QS / BB.

 

2) By default, the Wiring Script report shows everything that needs to be wired up. But you don’t care about items that don’t require QS / BB. So, you can filter out anything that has one e-match per pin by adding this filter expression: flightcount != 1

 

To make it fancier, you could create a filter that shows only lines for addresses with 2-4 e-matches per pin. The filter expression would be: flightcount >= 2 + flightcount <= 4

 

This will give you a report with one line per QS / BB that uses 2 to 4 e-matches. At that point, the only manual work is counting the lines on the report to get your final answer. Alternatively, you can save the report as an XLSX file instead of a PDF and use an Excel function to do the counting.

 

 

To learn more about filtering, check out: https://finale3d.com/documentation/search-expressions/

 

To learn more about Flight Count or any other Script window column, check out: https://finale3d.com/documentation/script-table-columns/

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