Custom Search

Editing the Trouble Comments File

QuickDog gives a user the ability to "program" more phrases to determine "Troubled Races". QuickDog "reads" the comments of racing results and looks for certain key words to indicate trouble. We've received additional words and phrases and implemented them into the QuickDog "brain", however, some of you may find others and wish to add them yourselves. To do so, we've added this menu bar drop down menu feature and  a "button" to both the results display and outings display which will allow you to edit a simple text file called "trouble.txt". 

Look for the "EDIT TRBL FILE" on the "color legend" of the outings display for any dog. Or, look for the "EDIT TROUBLE FILE" on the results display. The first time you use either button, NOTEPAD will ask to create the file "trouble.txt", and you should say YES.

To add words or phrases, simply type the word or phrase on a line, then press ENTER so that only one word/phrase is on each line in this file.

For example:

trouble
went wide
blocked in

Do not use:

trouble went wide blocked in

---------------- end of samples ------------------

In addition to adding phrases, some users have asked for additional flexibility to mark races as troubled. For example, some users wish to discard a race as "troubled" if the dog finished 7th or 8th. To provide this flexibility to QuickDog we've added additional "expressions", you may place in the trouble.txt file, that QuickDog will recognize. For example, place the text:

F>6

by itself on a line in the TROUBLE.TXT file. QuickDog will understand this expression to mean: If the dog finished greater than 6th, ie 7th or worse, then mark this race as troubled.

Likewise, some users want to exclude races in which a dog broke poorly.

Therefore, you may use:

1>7

This expression tells QuickDog to mark all outing in which a dog was 8th or worse at the 1st Call (1st Call > 7) as troubled outings. Also, you can describe the 2nd Call and stretch requirements, for example:

2>6 

would mean any dog which is in 7th or worse position at the 2nd call would be classified has having a troubled outing, or

S>5

would mean that any dog running 6th or worse in the stretch had a troubled outing. When using the "expression" feature, make sure you don't space between the 3 characters used. You must use B,E,S, or F as the first letter, the second letter MUST BE a "greater than" sign '>', and the last must be a number from 1 to N (where N is the number of dogs in the race)  inclusive. If you don't do this, the QuickDog will be unable to read your request.

Of course, if you don't wish to use this feature, then DO NOT place any of these expressions in the TROUBLE.TXT file.

In addition to allowing you to FORCE a line to be "troubled", QuickDog allows the "less than mneumonic", to "inhibit" a trouble comment. Here's how this works.

Suppose a dog comes in 3rd or better, BUT the chart writer notes trouble in his comment. This race will be thrown out by QuickDog IF you set TROUBLE to NO. Well, you might want to include this race as "untroubled".

To do so, you use the "less than mnemonic". Simply enter as the last line in your trouble.txt file, the following:

F<4

"F<4" will mean, "If a dog finishes better than 4th place, then set the race as untroubled". You can also use the "less than mnemonic" for Break, Early, and Stretch calls if you wish. For example:

B<4
E<4
S<4

Of course, you can use any number 1 through "N", where N is the maximum number of dogs in a race.

Finally, three additional features of the trouble.txt file are the following: 

TRB=NO 

Place this text on the very first line of the touble.txt file to override the QuickDog Brain that determines which races have trouble. If you place this in your trouble.txt file and save it, then CONVERT all your programs again, you will find that there are NO troubled races. If you add your own trouble text phrases after this line, those are the only phrases that will be used to mark a race as troubled. 

And

^

This character, upper case 6 key on your keyboard, tells QuickDog to mark races in which a dog FELL or was otherwise out of the finish photo as troubled. QuickDog typically assigns the ART for this race as the Winning Time of the race PLUS .7 (7/10th) seconds. By using this ^ mark in your trouble.txt file and telling QuickDog NOT to use TROUBLED RACES, you will eliminate these times when QuickDog averages speed for example.

And

STYLE=

This command is used to create phrases which will give Running Style Points to a dog. The phrases and points are up to you. You should however use numbers from 1-255 which indicate the Running Style of a dog based on how you want to use this in Custom Methods.

Here's an example of a STYLE line - "STYLE=INS,1"

You type this on a line by itself in the trouble.txt file and QuickDog will look for the letters INS on the comment line. If these letters are found, by themselves, then QuickDog will assign the value of 1 to the running style for that dog for that race line. Once this value is assigned no more STYLE lines will be looked at for that race line. You may have as many STYLE= lines in your trouble.txt file as you wish, for example:

STYLE=INS,1
STYLE=MID,2
STYLE=OUT,3

etc.

Futher flexibility is offered to you if you use "PENCILOUT" commands within your trouble.txt file.

PENCILOUT commands are exactly like the ones used to indicate TROUBLED lines, except after you type in the phrase or command, type a space character then "pencilout" or "PENCILOUT". If the phrase or condition exists for that outing, then that outing will automatically be penciled out and that means it will be as if it didn't exist. DO NOT USE THE "<" - less than -  (see above) phrases with "pencilout" as these are phrases which will inhibit a TROUBLE INDICATION which doesn't make sense for use with PENCILOUT.

When finished, simply save the file. Then you MUST do a REBUILD on your Database so that the import programs will use these new words/phrases/expressions.  To do a REBUILD, first exit QuickDog, then restart it, and select the REBUILD button on the first popup of QuickDog AFTER the "I AGREE" license page.