ESP
FAQ
Click
on a topic heading from the list below, or scroll down to read
through the entire list. If your question is not answered here,
please get in touch with us. See our Contact
page.
INSTALLATION
AND UPDATES
GETTING STARTED
ORGANIZING PROJECTS
SELECTING UNITS, OPTIONS, AND ACCESSORIES
PROJECT BACKUPS, RESTORATION
PRINTING REPORTS
PROJECTS UNDER DEVELOPMENT
Installation
and Updates
1a. How can
I update my existing version of ESP to the latest build?
Visit the MCTG website at www.mctg.com and click on the "Downloads"
link, located at the navigation bar near the top of the page. This
will bring you to a page showing all the latest versions / builds
of MCTG software, including ESP. Click on the latest version / build
of ESP. Project files created with previously installed versions
of ESP will not be overwritten as a result of installing
a new version.
1b. How
do I get help installing ESP?
On each download page, there is a link to a Download / Install
Tips page. This steps you through the
download process. If you do require further assistance, please
visit the Contact Us page.
1c. Why
should I register ESP?
Registering ensures that we can get back to you when you contact
us. You will also be advised of program updates and new version
announcements. Registering ESP is simple, and can be sent a number
of ways that each only require a moment of your time. In the Help
menu, choose "Register ESP"... and complete the form
to register by mail (or FAX), or choose "Register Online"
if you are currently connected to the Internet.
1d. How can I purchase a copy of the program on CD?
If you have
a CD Burner, you may actually burn your own copy of ESP on to
CD, using the disk images. We provide for download. This does
not work with the internet install files. If you do not have these
capabilities, you can purchase a copy on CD directly from MicroComputer
Task Group. Currently the price is $30 to have a copy sent overnight,
and $20 to have it shipped via the US Postal Service.
1e. Will
my data be overwritten when I install a new version of ESP?
Newer versions of ESP will not overwrite your old data.
However, backing up your data regularly is always recommended,
particularly before installing any new software.
1f. Can
the program be used in a multi-user (network) situation?
Yes, although ESP was not designed with full record locking
in mind, it can run over a network with some minor customization.
If you are interested in using ESP via a network, please contact
us.
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Getting
Started
2a. When should
I enter my user data?
After you install a new version of ESP, you should enter your
user data. This User ID data will appear on all Quote Reports and
be the default information for the Quotation Options screen. To
change the User ID information, click "User ID for New Projects..."
under the Preferences drop-down menu. Enter or edit the proper information
and click OK. All projects created after the User ID was changed
will have the new information included.
2b. How do I change the summary page to remove the "Company
logo here"?
There is a file called "LOGO.BMP" embedded in the
Summary Page. ESP ships with this file displaying "Company
logo goes here..." To change this to your company logo, you
may do one of several things. If you already have your company logo
in electronic form, convert it to bitmap (.bmp) format. (There are
several programs freely available that can do this, including Paint
Shop Pro) Name the file "LOGO.BMP" and copy it to your
\ESP2001v26\dwgs sub-directory and overwrite the existing file.
If you don't have your company logo in electronic format, you may
create one using the Windows Paintbrush program. Save it as "LOGO.BMP"
and place it in the previously mentioned directory. You can also
contact a local advertising agency or graphics art company and have
them create one for you.
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Organizing
Projects
3a. How can
I save a Project file?
Click the "Save As..." button on the Project Data
screen. Enter the New Project ID and the New Project Name. Then
click OK. All the records from the opened Project will now be included
in the new project.
3b. How
do I delete units from a project, or delete entire projects?
To delete a project, select Delete in the Project Controls
section of the Project Data screen. To delete a unit from a project,
select Delete in the Unit Controls section of the Project Screen.
Use the directional buttons to move the projects/units that you
want to delete from the left side of the screen to the right side.
The single arrow pointing to the right moves the highlighted project/unit
to the delete side of the screen. The double arrow pointing right
moves all the projects/units to the delete side of the screen.
The buttons pointing to the left do the exact opposite. To complete
the deletion, click OK.
3c. Does
ESP have project synchronization capabilities, so that I can coordinateprojects
between multiple computers (i.e. over networks, or between a desktop
and a laptop)
The current version does not have project sysnchronization. This
feature is under consideration for a future version.
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Selecting
Units, Options, and Accessories
4a. When entering
data in the Equipment Selection dialog, I get the message "No
units meet these design conditions. Revise one or more parameters
or tolerances..." What does this mean?
This message appears when you ask the program to select a unit
that is not available, based on your search tolerances. The most
common cause is selecting single-phase equipment voltages and looking
for larger size equipment. Another reason could be selecting "Options
that Affect Equipment Performance" (in the Selections button)
that are not available in the size that you are selecting. You may
also get this message if you set your search tolerances too tight,
or if the external static pressure is too high or too low for your
application. Slightly change your search conditions and run the
selection again.
4b. Why
are selected options and accessories unselected when I change
the model selected?
All the options and accessories are unselected when you select
a different model. This is done because the options and accessories
previously selected may not be offered with the new model. When
this occurs, a dialogue box will appear, notifying you and reminding
you to re-calculate performance for the new unit.
4c. How
do I price equipment so that it will appear on the reports?
In the units grid on the main screen, there is a Price Ea.
column. Enter the system price, and be sure to enter the quantity
in the Qty. column. The quotation reports will then display the
proper pricing for the system.
The Millennium
units offer a new pricing feature now available for evaluation.
To access the Millennium Pricing menu, simply right mouse click
on the blank area to the left of the Close button on the main
screen. Choose "Price units in open project (MI units)."
The program will price the selected Millennium units with all
their options and accessories based on NIN-CURRENT MLP pricing.
A sample BOM or Order report may also be previewed and printed
for the project from the same menu. We welcome any comments or
suggestions you may have for this new feature. Send them via our
Contact Us page!
4d. I would
like to enter some outside air into the calculations for my unit
but I do not want to enter mixed air. How do I only enter outside
air?
First of all, do not check mixed air. In the cooling mixed
air section of the performance screen, enter the desired amount
of outside air in the CFM box under the outdoor air column. This
is the only box that allows you to enter a value if the mixed
air checkbox is not checked. The amount of outside air entered
will appear on all reports as Outside Air in the Supply Air Blower
Performance section of the report.
4e. I would
like to change the order my units were entered into a project.
How do I reorder them?
Units are automatically assigned a sequence number starting
with "001" in increments of 1. If you have deleted one
or more units, or would like to re-arrange them for reporting,
you can reassign unit sequence numbers manually or use the Re-sequence
feature. If you have one unit you want to move to the end of the
project, simply assign a higher sequence number than the last
sequence number. To invoke the Re-sequence feature, simply right
mouse click on the "Seq" header of the units grid, and
the units will be displayed in the new order.
4f. I entered
a very long description for a User Defined Field Installed Accessory
on one of the model screens, and this description is not showing
up on any report except the Quote Report. Why?
Every User Defined Field Installed Accessory Field can accept
a description of up to 254 characters, however, a maximum of 125
characters is recommended. The 254 characters will appear only
on the Quote Reports and only 125 characters will appear on all
other reports.
4g. I entered
different User Defined Field Installled Accessories on two of
the same types of units. The schedule report lists only one of
the accessories. Why?
When multiple User Defined Field Installed Accessories are
specified for multiple units that appear on the same Schedule
Report, the report lists only the User Defined Field Supplied
Accessory for the unit with the highest sequence number. We are
currently considering ways to improve the Schedule Report to list
all User Defined Field Installed Accessories. Currently, the Quotation
reports list all User Defined Field Installed Accessories for
each unit.
Click
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Project
Backups & Restoration
5a. How do
I backup my Projects?
Close the Project Data screen. Choose Backup... from the File
drop-down menu. Select your Backup directory location or accept
the default a:\projects.zip backup file and click Start.
To restore
the projects, choose Restore... from the File drop-down menu.
Select the file you want to restore, or accept the default a:\projects.zip
file and click Start.
5b. How
do I copy a Project to a floppy disk or another folder on a hard
drive?
Caution: Be
sure your ESP Projects (Jobs) Directory is backed up before proceeding.
Click Copy… on the Project Data screen. From the "Copy Open Project
to Projects in Target" tab, click Select Directory… and choose
the drive and directory where the opened project will be copied
to. Choose "Append to Jobs/Units Files" and click OK. If the target
directory (or diskette) already has existing jobs/units files
on it this will ADD records from the opened project to the target
directory. If the target directory (or diskette) does not have
any jobs/units files on it, follow the instructions to create
them and then click OK to copy the opened project to the target
directory. You may also choose "Overwrite Jobs/Units Files" in
order to REPLACE the records in the target directory with the
opened project records.
Click
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Printing
Reports
6a. Can ESP
reports be output in an electronic format that can be emailed?
If you have the full Adobe Acrobat program (which includes
the Acrobat Writer / Distiller), then you can print to PDF files
with ESP2001v2.6. The only drawback is that the process is merely
semi-automatic - you have to set the Acrobat Distiller as your printer,
and provide file names for each report to be printed. Currently,
this works most conveniently with the quotation report, as this
is just a single page report, and would prompt you for a filename
only once. In the upcoming version 2.7 of ESP, we are adding a fully
automated report option to output ESP reports to the Acrobat Writer
/ Distiller in PDF file format.
6b. Some
of the units I have selected are not showing up in my quotations
report.
The quotation reports include only those units for which performance
has been calculated appear in quotation reports. You need to re-select
units for which the performance has not been calculated, and check
to make sure that performance has been calculated for all units
in the project.
6c. My
quotations reports are not showing the user id information I entered.
To get to
where you need to change that information, first close the project.
Next, click the Tools menu, and choose Options. There is a User
ID tab, and that's where you enter your user id. Any new project
created after fixing that will have the new user id, but it does
not go through and change previous reports.
6d. How
do I change the summary page to remove the "Company logo
here"?
There is a file called "LOGO.BMP" embedded in the
Summary Page. ESP ships with this file displaying "Company
logo goes here..." To change this to your company logo, you
may do one of several things. If you already have your company
logo in electronic form, convert it to bitmap (.bmp) format. (There
are several programs freely available that can do this, including
Paint Shop Pro) Name the file "LOGO.BMP" and copy it
to your \ESP2001v26\dwgs sub-directory and overwrite the existing
file. If you don't have your company logo in electronic format,
you may create one using the Windows Paintbrush program. Save
it as "LOGO.BMP" and place it in the previously mentioned
directory. You can also contact a local advertising agency or
graphics art company and have them create one for you.
6e. Are
there plans to improve the quality of the product drawings in
the submittal reports, so that there are fewer chances for reader
error?
The entire set of product drawings is currently undergoing
a significant image enhancement to provide consistent, higher
quality reports that will withstand the quality degredation associated
with faxing and low resolution printing. The improved submittal
report drawings will be part of a future release.
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Projects
Under Development
Product additions
and new program features are under development and are planned for
implementation in upcoming versions of ESP.
E-mailing
Reports Option - The option to output reports to the Adobe Acrobat
Writer / Distiller in PDF file format will be fully automated
with an optional link to your Microsoft Outlook email address
book.
Submittal
Product Drawings - The entire set of product drawings is currently
undergoing a significant image enhancement to provide consistent,
higher quality reports that will withstand the quality degradation
associated with faxing and low- resolution printing.
Sales Tracking
- The ability to track the status your projects and follow sales
results and trends. An optional Customer Quote Alarm will remind
you to send a customer a quote or alert you after a period of
time if you have not heard anything back from the customer. An
option to export sales tracking reports to Excel format will provide
for the consolidation of sales tracking data for multiple users
in an office, branch, region, etc.
Order Pricing
- The ability to maintain user customizable MLP pricing database,
beginning with Millennium units pricing, followed by pricing for
residential units and other commercial products. Includes an option
to export Pricing database to Excel spreadsheet.
Orders Report
- The ability to generate line item orders using pricing database,
beginning with Millennium units pricing, followed by pricing for
residential units and other commercial products. Includes an option
to export orders to Excel spreadsheet.
Bill of Material
Report - The ability to generate a Bill of Material for each unit
in a project, beginning with Millennium units pricing, followed
by pricing for residential units and other commercial products.
Residential
Units - The ability to select and determine residential units
performance will be provided. At present, the RSVP program can
be used to select viable system combinations.
Job Specifications
- The option to add and edit job specifications in Word document
format and generate associated job specifications reports.
User Interface
- An alternate user interface similar to Microsoft Outlook will
be offered. This new interface will enable you to designate up
to nine different project "groups" where projects can be saved.
You will be able to copied or moved units with project of entire
projects from group to group to another with relative ease. Project
synchronization at the unit level will be included.
Roof Curb
Weights - Curb weights will be added to roof curb drawings and
submittal reports.
Center of
Gravity Report - The addition of the Center of Gravity report
to the Submittal Reports.
50 Hz Selections
- The ability to selected all available 50Hz commercial and residential
units.
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