Here is a quick and dirty much improved spreadsheet I used to make all the files for the Omega Ares21 AOE system for a NAL swim meet. Now our club has upgraded to Quantum I have found this can also be used for Quantum.
Why use a spread sheet, because I don’t like typing all the events in to the Ares21 software, I always make mistakes. This way I can check and generate the files outside the Ares21 software. It is also easy to bulk update the date for all events and start time, and yes that is being pedantic!
And here is the sort of thing it should help you generate:
26/3/2021 – First attempt at adding team names
27/3/21 – Fixed problems in V2 identified by Mr E (thank you), not yet tested on my Ares21 laptop but looks ‘fixed’.
27/3/2021 – Tweaked a few more details like the start time of each event is now calculated to be a bit closer to reality. Loaded in to my copy of Ares21 and gives sensible results.
And here is the sort of thing it should help you generate:
In an effort to make all this a easier and simpler here is a version with a single button to click that saves all the files. The down side is this needs a macro and some people are rightly suspicions of what macros could possibly do to their PC. If you don’t trust macros then feel free to inspect what the macro does, it’s fairly short and obvious. If you are unhappy with macros, use V2.2, it’s more work but has not macros in it.
Updated for 2024
For Quantum put all these files in a folder and use the IO settings to create a Data Handling link of type “LST files”, then import the meet schedule and swimmers.
What chance of an enhancement to include team names? Even if you don’t have an alpha scoreboard it still puts the team names on the A4 results print, which always pleases the officials.
You need a Competitors List file LSTCONC.TXT, a Start List file LSTSTART.TXT and the ARES help gives some detail on the format.
This is all good for Quantum too.
Ok, always up for a challenge ;-).
See version 2 above. Not tested it on Ares21 yet but the output looks reasonable.
Allow up to 10 lanes and has different IDs for each clubs Male, Female, Boys, Girls, Mixed events which might be a bit unnecessary.
Very good, needs just a little tweaking:
-LSTCONC.TXT column labels are id; bib; lastname; firstname; birthyear; abNat; abCat and all text needs to be quoted so 101;””;Team 1;””;””;””;M; needs to be 101;””;”Team 1″;””;””;””;”M”;
-LSTSTART.TXT rows need a trailing semicolon added.
Thank you!
It might be better that I add this to the NAL recording sheet, this has the actual swimmers names, hence these could be included in the Ares files.
Yes, I had thought about that too. It’s usually organised chaos between rigging and running one of these galas. After processing all the late changes poolside and battling with the rankings check, to then add a further five minutes while the AOE files are regenerated for names, then transferred and tested, with the referees breathing down your neck to get going, isn’t likely to be understood by many other than you or me. Committing the AOE files at team level a few days’ in advance is a reasonable compromise I feel.
Thank you for the further revision, will play later. The smell of chlorine is getting closer…
Hopefully fixed those problems and added the club identifier as the ‘Nationality’ which, from looking at some files I have from county champs, is how this can be populated. Not had a chance to dig out my AOE laptop and try the files on a real Ares21 install but with the corrections the output look better. Let me know how if it works for you.
Marvellous, output tested in ARES and works a treat – thank you.
Good that it works in LibreOffice Calc too – a licensed copy of Excel for each of our laptops is a bit of a stretch.
Intriguingly Calc warns of a link to another file “KJL_Gala_Recording_sheet_2020_v0.8.xlsx” yet won’t show me where the link exists.
Roll on the second Saturday in October…
I’ll look for that stray link to the KJL file and see if I can fix that.
FYI the KJL sheet is similar to the NAL recording sheet and allows pasted team lists, result entry and scoring. I have also worked out how to talk to my ares21 over serial to fetch the results, next task was to allow to scoring sheet to fetch the results electronically 🙂