Question about GPRM 'New round'

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Tinbendr
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Question about GPRM 'New round'

Post by Tinbendr »

I'm having trouble understanding the advancing rounds using GPRM.

#1 - I chose to allow GPRM to select the top three racers to advance to the next round in the software setup. However, in a recent race, in one group there was no tie between the top three, yet it advanced all three. Should there been another round?

#2 - If I understand the concept of advancing rounds, any tie for the number of advances selected (in the setup), should advance to the next round? E.g. if I have chosen to advance the top three and I have a clear 1st place, and a tie between 2nd and 3rd places, then these five should advance?

I would like to see this automated even more. After the first round, display a splash screen, These racers advanced to the next round. List the racers names underneath. Then the program would autocreate the next chart, without any intervention of the operator. If no more rounds are required, then the splash would display, "The Winners are:"

One other small improvement to wish for is the race results option to 'Show one at a time/Show All' to be sticky. I kept having to click Show all at the end of each round.
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gpraceman
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Re: Question about GPRM 'New round'

Post by gpraceman »

Tinbendr wrote:#1 - I chose to allow GPRM to select the top three racers to advance to the next round in the software setup. However, in a recent race, in one group there was no tie between the top three, yet it advanced all three. Should there been another round?
A tie would not come into play in that scenario. If you had no ties within the top 3 places, then you would get only 3 racers to advance to the next round.

Also, you don't have to run more than one round. It is adviseable if you are running medium to large race groups so you can pull out the faster cars and have them race for the trophies. This will lead to more accurate results in determining the "fastest" cars. Some only want to run one round of racing due to time constraints, regardless of the group size. The software has been popular since it does allow for a great amount of flexibilty. People have used race schemes with our software that I never imagined they would want to do.
Tinbendr wrote:#2 - If I understand the concept of advancing rounds, any tie for the number of advances selected (in the setup), should advance to the next round? E.g. if I have chosen to advance the top three and I have a clear 1st place, and a tie between 2nd and 3rd places, then these five should advance?
No, you would never get racers tied for consecutive places, since a tie leaves a gap in the standings numbers due to a racer(s) being promoted up. Say you had a tie for 3rd (e.g. standings of 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 6, ...) then you would get 4 racers advancing since you have 4 racers within the top 3 of the standings. Notice, there is no 4th place since that racer was promoted to 3rd place due to the tie.
Tinbendr wrote:I would like to see this automated even more. After the first round, display a splash screen, These racers advanced to the next round. List the racers names underneath. Then the program would autocreate the next chart, without any intervention of the operator. If no more rounds are required, then the splash would display, "The Winners are:"
Automating things more is a goal of V6. However, this needs to be balanced with still providing flexibility, since there is an extremely diverse variety of how people want to run their races. Some run different types of charts for a second round. Some run multiple rounds. Some run only one. Some want to manually exclude racers from advancing to a new round due to various reasons. And so on...
Tinbendr wrote:One other small improvement to wish for is the race results option to 'Show one at a time/Show All' to be sticky. I kept having to click Show all at the end of each round.
You lost me there.
Randy Lisano
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Awana Grand Prix and Pinewood Derby racing - Where a child, an adult and a small block of wood combine for a lot of fun and memories.
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gpraceman
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Re: Question about GPRM 'New round'

Post by gpraceman »

Tinbendr wrote:'Show one at a time/Show All' to be sticky. I kept having to click Show all at the end of each round.
I think I understand now. You want the software to remember which of these two options that you selected. I've added that to the V6 improvement list.
Randy Lisano
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Tinbendr
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Re: Question about GPRM 'New round'

Post by Tinbendr »

Also, you don't have to run more than one round. It is advisable if you are running medium to large race groups...
We had about 80 cars total this year. Only about 60% show for the race. We started about 7pm; finished around 8:30.
Some run different types of charts for a second round....
Wow! That's hard to believe. We go for simple! :D
The software has been popular since it does allow for a great amount of flexibilty.
I certainly can understand that. Maybe my comments are more 'wishing outloud'. The flexibility ;) to design a race ahead of time, choosing which charts to use, how many to advance, etc. I realize this maybe beyond the scope of the software.
You want the software to remember which of these two options that you selected.
Yes, that's correct.

Thanks!
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Re: Question about GPRM 'New round'

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Tinbendr wrote:We had about 80 cars total this year. Only about 60% show for the race. We started about 7pm; finished around 8:30.
But how big are your race groups? Do you race everyone together or in different groups?
Tinbendr wrote:Wow! That's hard to believe. We go for simple! :D
Yep. One person ran Lane Rotation charts for the first round and then a Complimentary Perfect-N chart for their trophy round. The LR charts make it easy to crank out the heats quickly so some like them better for running large groups. At least they ran the CPN chart to help make sure the trophy order was as accurate as possible. I have also heard of another user using Stearns and then the Perfect-N type charts.
Tinbendr wrote:I certainly can understand that. Maybe my comments are more 'wishing outloud'. The flexibility ;) to design a race ahead of time, choosing which charts to use, how many to advance, etc. I realize this maybe beyond the scope of the software.
There will be some more automation in V6, but there will be places where the user will be asked if they are ready to move on to the next thing (create a new round, create a schedule, etc.). This at least gives the user the option of manually doing that part of the process or letting the software go ahead and do it for them.
Randy Lisano
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Awana Grand Prix and Pinewood Derby racing - Where a child, an adult and a small block of wood combine for a lot of fun and memories.
Tinbendr
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Re: Question about GPRM 'New round'

Post by Tinbendr »

gpraceman wrote:But how big are your race groups? Do you race everyone together or in different groups?
This is a church function with Royal Ambassadors. We have two groups: Lads (1st-3rd grade) and Crusaders( 4th-6th grade).

We race each grade and pick the top three.

Then we race the top one from each grade in the Lads Group and in Crusaders group.

Then we have the top Lad and top Crusader race for overall.

Number per grade... as few a six, and as many as sixteen.

We use two tracks and race alternately.
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Re: Question about GPRM 'New round'

Post by gpraceman »

Tinbendr wrote:This is a church function with Royal Ambassadors. We have two groups: Lads (1st-3rd grade) and Crusaders( 4th-6th grade).

Number per grade... as few a six, and as many as sixteen.
If your race groups are Lads and Crusaders, then they are big enough where I would recommend that you run a second round. In the software's help file there is a suggested race format. You can also find this at http://grandprix-software-central.com/g ... ormat.html
Randy Lisano
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Awana Grand Prix and Pinewood Derby racing - Where a child, an adult and a small block of wood combine for a lot of fun and memories.
Tinbendr
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Re: Question about GPRM 'New round'

Post by Tinbendr »

gpraceman wrote:... I would recommend that you run a second round.
I think I've got it straight in my head, what to run, and how to determine when to run.

I really wasn't prepared this year. I focused too much on the Judge and getting the software to communicate with it. I didn't take the time to go over the software and how it operates.

So to remedy that, I've started writing a procedure that I'll have at race day. When I reach a certain stage, I can grab the procedure and change software settings to get the results I'm looking for. I'll go over the procedures with the other software operator before hand to educate them on the process. (Live and learn!)
help file there is a suggested race format.
I really struggle with charts. It took me a while to understand the advantage of Perfect-N over double elimination. I have trouble explaining it to parents, too. (A lot of it is the seven deadly words, too. We've never done it that way before!) I usually just say that it's more fair than DE.
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Re: Question about GPRM 'New round'

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Tinbendr wrote:I really wasn't prepared this year. I focused too much on the Judge and getting the software to communicate with it. I didn't take the time to go over the software and how it operates.
You are ahead of a lot of other people. You wouldn't believe the calls and emails we get from people that waited until race day or the day before to even look at the software.
Tinbendr wrote:So to remedy that, I've started writing a procedure that I'll have at race day. When I reach a certain stage, I can grab the procedure and change software settings to get the results I'm looking for. I'll go over the procedures with the other software operator before hand to educate them on the process. (Live and learn!)
Sounds like a good plan.
Tinbendr wrote:I usually just say that it's more fair than DE.
Just let them know that there is no more "two strikes and you are out" and everyone runs on all lanes of the track so everyone will run on the "bad lane".
Randy Lisano
Romans 5:8

Awana Grand Prix and Pinewood Derby racing - Where a child, an adult and a small block of wood combine for a lot of fun and memories.
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