Help decide what gets built
Most of what's in View is there because somebody in a shop told me it was missing. None of it needs you to write code, and none of it needs your drawings.
Tell me what broke
This is the one that matters most and the one people skip. If a measurement came out wrong, a chest imported with the wrong unit weights, or the thing crashed on a 400-sheet set, I want to hear about it the same day.
What helps me fix it fast:
- What you were doing, in the words you'd use to a coworker
- The version number, from the bottom right corner of the window
- What you expected the number to be and what it said instead
- A screenshot, with anything confidential cropped out
Don't send me the drawing set. I don't want it and I can usually work it out without it. If it genuinely can't be reproduced without a sheet, I'll ask, and you can send one with the title block blacked out.
Other ways that actually help
Send a chest that won't import
If a .bpx or .btx file comes in wrong, that file is the fastest way for me to fix the importer. Tool chests hold shapes and unit weights, not job information, so there's usually nothing confidential in one.
Say what's next
There's a long list and I can only work down it in one order. Offices that tell me what's costing them time get counted twice when I pick.
Test before it ships
I'll send a build a week or two early to anyone who wants to run it against real work first. You get the fixes early and I find out what I broke before everyone else does.
Check my numbers
Run a job you already priced and see whether the tonnage matches. If it doesn't, that's the most useful message you can send me.
Tell another shop
There's no ad budget here and there isn't going to be one. Somebody mentioning it to an estimator they know is how this spreads.
Write the docs you wished existed
If you worked something out the hard way, send me the write-up and I'll put it on the site with your name on it.
Code
The source isn't public yet, so I'm not going to put up a page asking for pull requests on a repository nobody can open. That would be nonsense.
The plan is that the free desktop app goes public as it's ready. The Office server stays commercial, because that's what pays for the free one. When the repository opens I'll post it here and on the release page, and anyone who's asked to hear about it gets an email.
If you write software and want to be on that list, say so and I'll add you.
What you get
Your name in the credits if you want it there, and left out if you'd rather not be named. Some people's employers have opinions about that, so it's opt-in.
Early builds before they go out. And mostly, the thing you asked for, built.
What I won't ask you for: your drawings, your job data, your client names, or a testimonial you didn't offer.
Start with one message
Tell me what you do, what you're using now, and the one thing about it that wastes your afternoon. That's enough to go on.