ARC396 - Issues and/or Thoughts

[Jay911]

I just started using ARC396 as I'm looking for something with a little more 'meat' than the UASD software, and to boot, since the AVC396 project seems dead (repeated emails to the programmer have never been answered), I'm hoping that the virtual control/logging/recording features in ARC396 will accomplish what AVC396 could have become, given more attention.

I'm posting here rather than emailing Butel/Gommert directly because some of my issues may be things other users can set me straight on, or have had similar experience with in one way or another.

Oh, and before I begin - it may be worth noting that I am running the demo of ARC396PRO 2.0, as I'm waiting for the key info, which apparently won't be released until the stupid PayPal "e-check" clears after 8-10 days (around 08 May). PayPal frustrates me so..

Anyway, having said that -

1. Why is there no way to center justify group tags, only system tags and channel tags? It kind of ruins the effect when all your group tags are left-justified and all the rest are centered. EDIT: While typing up this message, I blundered onto the way to accomplish this, but it's not accessible without mouse clicks and not very intuitive in how you get to it.

2. Importing of my hundred or so systems from UASD .usd files worked well, except the Channel Delay Time and System Hold Time were both lost - reset to the default 2 seconds. I haven't tried the same in ARC996 (which I also purchased/DL'ed, and have companion UASD996 .usd files to work with).

3. Is there a reason that the software doesn't follow Windows standards in some places? For example, hitting Enter in most Windows dialog boxes will commit the changes and close it, while Esc will abandon the changes and close it. Marking a block of cells with Shift+cursor keys and then Ctrl+V will paste, but in at least a couple of places, I've had to paste only one row at a time - the program would not allow multiple-row pasting. (Clarification: Besides the fact that it's better to follow Windows conventions when writing Windows-based software, some of us, while we have been using computers since before Bill Gates could walk, are much quicker using a keyboard than we will ever be with a mouse, and I'd like to be able to accomplish all the tasks I need to without moving my hands from the keyboard.)

I don't mean to sound so critical/negative; there's stuff that ARC396 does awesomely compared to any other programming software I've used - such as the 'graphical' viewing of assigned quick keys and allowing the user to drag and drop systems 'into' them. My concerns are brought up because the positives of this program make me want to keep it and use it, and for that reason, I need to find out if my 'negatives' are legitimate beefs/bugs/problems, or simply things I'm just misunderstanding or unable to locate/operate properly.

Thanks, all,

 

[Butelsoftware]

1. Why is there no way to center justify group tags, only system tags and channel tags? It kind of ruins the effect when all your group tags are left-justified and all the rest are centered. EDIT: While typing up this message, I blundered onto the way to accomplish this, but it's not accessible without mouse clicks and not very intuitive in how you get to it.

Select Setup _ groups. Now you can center the group tags.

2. Importing of my hundred or so systems from UASD .usd files worked well, except the Channel Delay Time and System Hold Time were both lost - reset to the default 2 seconds. I haven't tried the same in ARC996 (which I also purchased/DL'ed, and have companion UASD996 .usd files to work with).
,

Some values are set to default when importing data. The import does read all the important parameters like TGid's and frequencies.

3. Is there a reason that the software doesn't follow Windows standards in some places?
,

I need more specific details. Multi row pasting should work.

Gommert
www.butelsoftware.com

 

[Jay911]

Some values are set to default when importing data. The import does read all the important parameters like TGid's and frequencies.

With all due respect, everything that is provided in the source file is important. It would have been nice for the program to honor my programming settings in the systems, instead of making me go through 136 systems one-by-one and edit them manually.

As mentioned in the original post, I did find out how to center groups. I also find that the multi-row pasting is working much more reliably than I first experienced. I did find it happening rather intermittently today, but it's hard to pin down.

I'm a little chagrined that the program has all but shut me out of its usage as of today, 5 days after installing it.. I understand why you have time- or number-of-execution limits on software that is running in demo mode. I may not agree with it, especially considering I purchased the license at the same time as I downloaded the software, and am now waiting for the license to be delivered.. but again, that's your choice to make.

I do like the logging, as lightly as I was able to do it during my operations today. I couldn't do any audio recording as the audio jack on my computer is malfunctioning.

Anyway, thanks as said before, and eagerly awaiting the license code.

 

[XTS3000]

I find the Butel s/w very unstable on my 3 computers. Especially the ARC996pro version. When set up for logging, it will run for less than 6 hours before crashing. Basically useless for audio recording.
I've tried Butel on 3 systems:
2.8Ghz Intel P4 (built myself)
2.?Ghz AMD (Circuit City $599 special (POS))
1.4Ghz Panasonic CF-29 laptop

Aside from downloading systems directly from RR to the scanner, there's not much Butel software offers.

I often ask myself, why do people pay for software when there is free software that works just fine?

 

[tomandnic]

Sounds like a memory problem.. either on the actual PCor the hard drive/folder.

I find the Butel s/w very unstable on my 3 computers. Especially the ARC996pro version. When set up for logging, it will run for less than 6 hours before crashing. Basically useless for audio recording.

 

[slicerwizard]

I'm posting here rather than emailing Butel/Gommert directly because some of my issues may be things other users can set me straight on, or have had similar experience with in one way or another.

Well, my experience has been that ARC246 and ARC396 are a pain. Issues:

I was creating a new conventional system and chose to enter all the channel names before entering the frequencies (less likely to make mistakes or miss one that way); after entering dozens of channel names, I saved the system and ARC396 wiped all of the channel names - no warning, no indication that what I was doing wasn't acceptable, nada. I eventually figured out that I had to enter the frequencies first to stop the bleeding.

System name, group name and channel/talkgroup name fields don't use a fixed pitch font; it would be so obvious when room was running out in a fixed pitch, 16 character field, but no - we have to look at a character counter!?? And forget about trying to eyeball the alignment of elements in those channel/talkgroup lists.

Sometimes, I'll select a particular group in ARC396, and it'll show the contents of another group in that system (or it will just keep displaying the contents of the last group I was working on)

When closing a system or exiting the program, it always asks if I want to save my systems, even if nothing was changed. Indiscriminate saving isn't a good idea, as the file dates should tell you the last time you made changes to a system, not the last time you edited one file in a profile and ARC cheerfully touched all 100 system files in that profile.

Moving data (channels/talkgroups) between groups is a clicky-clicky PITA. I got so fed up, I wrote my own ARC .mem <---> readable ASCII .txt conversion programs and just do my major editing with a real text editor.

Logging in ARC246 is broken; I get all kinds of garbage logged. So I wrote my own 246T logging program. Hm, I sense a pattern here.

When uploading systems (even just one) to my 396, ARC396 will always unlock all of my systems (er, activate their QK's), which is another major PITA, unless I remember to tell ARC396 to read the scanner's Quick Key status before I start uploading. Why doesn't it do the sensible thing and leave the systems I'm not editing alone? Makes no sense to me.

There's more, but what's the point?

 

[Butelsoftware]

With all due respect, everything that is provided in the source file is important. It would have been nice for the program to honor my programming settings in the systems, instead of making me go through 136 systems one-by-one and edit them manually.

You don't have to do that, global parameters can be set for all systems. Clcik a system then Setup _ Set Parameters for All systems.

I'm a little chagrined that the program has all but shut me out of its usage as of today, 5 days after installing it.. I understand why you have time- or number-of-execution limits on software that is running in demo mode. I may not agree with it, especially considering I purchased the license at the same time as I downloaded the software, and am now waiting for the license to be delivered.. but again, that's your choice to make..

I'm not sure where you ordered the software, when you order from our website you get the registration immediatly after purchase.

Gommert
www.butelsoftware.com

 

[LordJ]

I have ARC396 and ARC996Pro - Both work well with no crashing whatsoever on my XP Pro system. My 996Pro is constantly recording....As in 24/7...no crashes here...
Thanks Gommert!!!

 

[Jay911]

You don't have to do that, global parameters can be set for all systems. Clcik a system then Setup _ Set Parameters for All systems.

I guess it's evident that I didn't read the documentation. I would have hoped, though, that it would be a little more obvious/intuitive. But I do suppose I have to defer to checking more into the instructions before giving much grief.

Respectfully, though, I hope you will take my and others' suggestions/comments, i.e. regarding honoring all the parameters when importing, into consideration for future updates of the software.

I'm not sure where you ordered the software, when you order from our website you get the registration immediatly after purchase.

I hope you do know where I ordered the software... I purchased both ARC396PRO and ARC996PRO on April 30th. Unfortunately, and I freely admit that this is not your fault, the geniuses at PayPal have decided to withhold my funds from you until, at their estimate, May 8th or later, because it is being treated as an "e-check". So, no, I didn't get the registration immediately after purchase, but I'm laying the blame for that part squarely on PayPal.

 

[Butelsoftware]

Respectfully, though, I hope you will take my and others' suggestions/comments, i.e. regarding honoring all the parameters when importing, into consideration for future updates of the software.

Ofcourse, your feedback is much appreciated!

Gommert
www.butelsoftware.com

 

[Jay911]

Ok, this time, I have bothered to check the manual beforehand, so I am reasonably certain my issues are more than just me not RTFM.

1. Why can I not find an undo function? Occasionally, I will hit Ctrl-X twice, for example, which cuts the selection, and then, the second time, cuts the blank area still selected, wiping out the data which I initially wanted to move somewhere else (or do something else with). There're lots of other reasons I might want to undo something I just did.. it seems ARC396 and ARC996 do not have this feature.

2. I have noticed that pressing Escape when in a field (i.e. the "Name" field in a talkgroup/frequency group page) does the same thing as hitting Enter - in other words, rather than discarding any changes, it commits them. Windows convention is that Escape abandons the changes.

3. Occasionally, in a pattern I can't seem to replicate with any regularity, right-clicking and selecting "Remove selected lines" results in the selected lines instead being duplicated throughout all of the remaining lines in the page. Example, if I have three lines I want to get rid of in lines 8, 9, and 10 of a freq/talkgroup page, sometimes it works as designed, and sometimes lines 8, 9, and 10 instead get replicated in lines 11 thru 200, over and over. This overwrites all the data previously existing in the sheet, and without an undo function in the software, recovering from this is severely difficult, since you have to actually close the system, remembering to NOT save (and losing any other changes you made that you wanted to keep since the last save), then reloading it.

4. Is there any truth to the claim that audio recording/logging does not work for channels/talkgroups/freqs that have invalid MSDOS characters, i.e. *, /, ?, and etc., in the name/alpha tag/group tag/system tag? I've heard that the audio file will not be created in this case, presumably because Windows disallows the filename. Am I going to have to go through every text field in every system I have and change every instance of this? I am hoping this isn't the case.. especially since I have a system named "*scratch*" which is successfully saved as "_scratch_.mem" by ARC396.

5. FYI ... I'm not sure if this is intended behavior or not.. but I'm finding that systems which I download from RR are being written to the root of my C: drive, instead of to the folder where all my other system files are stored.

6. I've also noticed that the program allows you to type 17 characters in the "Name" field for various alpha tags, and truncates it after the fact (i.e. when you choose to Center the tags).

 

[mike_s104]

I find the Butel s/w very unstable on my 3 computers. Especially the ARC996pro version. When set up for logging, it will run for less than 6 hours before crashing. Basically useless for audio recording.
I've tried Butel on 3 systems:
2.8Ghz Intel P4 (built myself)
2.?Ghz AMD (Circuit City $599 special (POS))
1.4Ghz Panasonic CF-29 laptop

Aside from downloading systems directly from RR to the scanner, there's not much Butel software offers.

I often ask myself, why do people pay for software when there is free software that works just fine?

I like how your issue was just skipped over. Mine does the same. I have not bothered to email Butel/Gommert on this since last time I posted issues with ARC396Pro, he never really gave me an answer other than "it must be your PC". I have to use ARC996Pro in Windows XP Compatibility Mode to keep it from crashing while I want to log and record. If I need to add a system or open another profile, I have to open it without compatibility mode, create the system or open the profile, then close the app. Then, reopen it with compatibility mode enabled. Its a pain, but it works. When I use Windows 98/ME mode, it runs for weeks without issue. Below is the link to enable this:

Windows XP (go to manual setup)
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/appcompat.mspx

Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;279792

here's a link to my past post:
http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54780

 

[Butelsoftware]

I like how your issue was just skipped over. Mine does the same. I have not bothered to email Butel/Gommert on this since last time I posted issues with ARC396Pro, he never really gave me an answer other than "it must be your PC".

I didn't skip his issues, he is not the OP but he just reported his findings and he is entitled to do so. I have told you before if there are serious issues with the software you should contact us by email.

Gommert
www.butelsoftware.com

 

[Butelsoftware]

1. Why can I not find an undo function? it seems ARC396 and ARC996 do not have this feature.

Correct, there is no undo option.

2. I have noticed that pressing Escape when in a field (i.e. the "Name" field in a talkgroup/frequency group page) does the same thing as hitting Enter - in other words, rather than discarding any changes, it commits them. Windows convention is that Escape abandons the changes.
).

In some fields Escape is ignored, we are aware of this and will improve this.

3. Occasionally, in a pattern I can't seem to replicate with any regularity, right-clicking and selecting "Remove selected lines" results in the selected lines instead being duplicated throughout all of the remaining lines in the page. Example, if I have three lines I want to get rid of in lines 8, 9, and 10 of a freq/talkgroup page, sometimes it works as designed, and sometimes lines 8, 9, and 10 instead get replicated in lines 11 thru 200, over and over. This overwrites all the data previously existing in the sheet, and without an undo function in the software, recovering from this is severely difficult, since you have to actually close the system, remembering to NOT save (and losing any other changes you made that you wanted to keep since the last save), then reloading it.
).

Is this ARC396PRO 2.0? We had a simular problem in a previous release but is fixed in ARC396 2.0 and will be fixed in ARC996 2.0

4. Is there any truth to the claim that audio recording/logging does not work for channels/talkgroups/freqs that have invalid MSDOS characters, i.e. *, /, ?, and etc., in the name/alpha tag/group tag/system tag? ).

No, the software filters these characters.

5. FYI ... I'm not sure if this is intended behavior or not.. but I'm finding that systems which I download from RR are being written to the root of my C: drive, instead of to the folder where all my other system files are stored.
).

You mean the system file? Did you set a default path in the software? The system should be stored in the default path or the path that belongs to the profile.

6. I've also noticed that the program allows you to type 17 characters in the "Name" field for various alpha tags, and truncates it after the fact (i.e. when you choose to Center the tags).

This allows small changes to be made, when we limit to 16 chars it becomes more diffilcult to change the name tag. We do clearly show the number of characters.

Gommert
www.butelsoftware.com