build documentation?

[EW57]

I’m often away from my projects for extended periods of time, and suffer from poor note taking/documentation habits, resulting in a lot of backtracking and wasted time.  Do any of you have a system that you’ve found to be helpful with regards to project documentation?

Thanks!

[John]

For me, every time I change something I change the schematic to match in SCH. After my printout gets too many scribble marks on it, I print out a fresh up to date one and take that out to the milk house. And start scribbling on that one. ;)

[Willabe]

I noticed that Jschem has a sheet tab, does any one know how to add sheet tabs?

I use SCH, but I'm sure they close.

Look top left side, click on sheet, look at the drop down menu, add sheet.


                               Brad      

[Fresh_Start]

I keep a file folder for each build.  Everything goes in the folder - source schematics, ideas, bits of switching circuits, etc.  I try to take notes as I experiment and tweak things.  I print out the current version of the schematic and make lots of notes.  When it gets too cluttered, I save the SCH file with a new name including the date and update it.  It gets even more complicated when I start using the oscilloscope.  I usually just take notes about the wave forms but sometimes take photos too.

Maybe I'm compulsive, but I have 3 data files for a build: schematic (usually SCH), layout (Visio) and bill of materials (Excel). 

Hope that helps,

Chip

[Fresh_Start]

I had one of those homer simpson moments, I went into JSchem and sure enough, what you suggested worked.  Now if we could only name the sheets. 

Fresh Start, Since you have Visio, and Excel, do you have the cababilities of imbedding your BOM in your Visio worksheet?  (I do not have Visio).  Several weeks/months ago, on this forum there was discussion, on creating template objects to use Visio in place of JSchem. 

I am an AutoCAD user, and know that I can create blocks with attributes, which would allow greater details in that could be stored in the background.  I just do not like using AutoCAD on a laptop.

I have all of the "shapes" needed to create a schematic in Visio.  I have no idea about "embedding" an Excel file into a Visio file.  Way above my paygrade!  I use Excel because I'm familiar with it.  The learning curve for Visio is darned flat (IOW difficult despite having used it a lot).  However, the "layers" concept is fantastic for layouts.  Plus the color helps a lot.

I use SCH files for schematics partly because almost everyone on here can open them and they're easy for us all to share.  Also, because I can copy chunks of circuits that Tubenit  has already done.

Hope that helps,

Chip

[DummyLoad]

I have no idea about "embedding" an Excel file into a Visio file.

Insert -> Object -> select MSOff Excel worksheet -> click create from file -> browse -> select file & click OK.

-OR- to build and see an MS excel spreadsheet WITHIN the visio editing environment;

Insert -> Object -> select MSOff Excel worksheet -> create new (inserts a MS excel spreadsheet into your visio doc) -> click OK.
note: click on display as ICON if you just want to see the link to the spreadsheet.

--DL

[sluckey]

The 'tube voltage charts' in my earlier projects (TDR, 5E3, and 18Watt) were all embedded Excel files. You can either link to an external file or actually embed an Excel file into a Visio file, same as linking Word and Excel.

[thelonious]

As far as keeping track of everything in one place, Evernote (http://evernote.com/evernote/) has been a great help to me. It's free up to 60MB of upload per month, and it syncs copies of everything on my computer and online. One of its greatest strengths is that it performs OCR on images, making all the text in them searchable.

So: I make a new note for a project. I tag it "amp", "SE", etc. Then I use web clipper to copy-and-paste forum posts and other info into the note, including images. I drag in mp3s sound clips of similar amps. If I like a paragraph in a book, I can take a picture of it with my phone, and it uploads to Evernote, performs OCR on the image, and makes that text searchable. I drag in any relevant data sheets in PDF or image formats. As I revise a schematic, I drag in each version of the SCH file and it links to the file - with a click, I can open it in JSchem.

Then I can just search for "6L6", and every occurrence in every image or text note is brought up. If you use the premium version it even makes PDFs searchable.

If my computer crashes, no problem, all that stuff is saved in the cloud. If I want to share my entire library of info on that amp with someone, no problem, just send them a link the note.

It's definitely worth checking out.

[Fresh_Start]

I have no idea about "embedding" an Excel file into a Visio file.

Insert -> Object -> select MSOff Excel worksheet -> click create from file -> browse -> select file & click OK.

-OR- to build and see an MS excel spreadsheet WITHIN the visio editing environment;

Insert -> Object -> select MSOff Excel worksheet -> create new (inserts a MS excel spreadsheet into your visio doc) -> click OK.
note: click on display as ICON if you just want to see the link to the spreadsheet.

--DL

Thanks!

Chip

[birt]

i start everything on paper. so there's lots of pieces scattered around and sometimes i find some where i forgot to write down what the schematic of layout is for and i waste a lot of time searching just to find out i don't need that drawing anymore.

on my computer i make a folder with the name of the project and everything is in there. if there are schems in other folders they are copied in the project folder too. works for me.