Q & A
Gillian Wolpert Help with Formulas
Hi there,
I've watched a bunch of tutorials and read the transversal logic operators. But I'm pretty new to formula creation and hoping someone can help me.
I'm looking to create a formula for lighting track components. It essentially comes in 3ft (1M) and 6ft (2M) sections (sometimes in 9ft - 3M sections) and then has components like feeds and joiners. For the track itself, I got somewhere with a series of conditions "if the track is under 3ft, use a 1M track" "if it's between 3 and 6 ft use a 2M track" "if it's between 6ft and 9ft use a 2M + a 1M track" etc etc. I'm wondering if there's a way to write simpler logic so I don't have to write a formula for every size possibility up to 100+ ft. Is there a formula that would say "for every 6ft use a 2M track and if the remainder is greater than 3ft add a 1M track"?
Thank you in advance! Had a bit of smoke coming out of my ears trying to figure it out.
I'll see if I can come up for a formula for this for you. I know there's a lot of new functionality on formulas with the release from a couple days ago; may be able to do it without needing a giant formula.
i asked chat gpt to write one as Zztakeoff uses math.js (whatever that is it was a important prompt)
go try it! Here is my results
Here's a formula for you to use that I believe I got to work.
You'll need to set up a linear takeoff with two separate material items like this:
The formula for 3' Track material item needs to be this:
[Linear:FT] <= 3 ? 1 : ([Linear:FT] > 3 && [Linear:FT] <= 6 ? 0 : ([Linear:FT] % 6 > 0 && [Linear:FT] % 6 <= 3 ? 1 : 0))
The formula for 6' Track material item needs to be this:
[Linear:FT] <= 3 ? 0 : ([Linear:FT] > 3 && [Linear:FT] <= 6 ? 1 : (floor([Linear:FT] / 6) + ([Linear:FT] % 6 > 3 ? 1 : 0)))
I tested it and dragged out the linear and it seemed to work correctly. Let me know if it doesn't.
Wow! Thank you both! Just...wow.
Hello! Me again. I've been testing out these formulas and extrapolating. The issue I'm running into is that this formula calculates based on the TOTAL linear feet of a takeoff type and not each segment of linear of that type. For instance, if I have a 3ft run and a 6ft run and a 9ft run, the result will tell me to just get 2 x 9ft runs of track, rather than 1 each of a 3/6/9ft. Any thoughts? Is there a way to apply formulas to singular instances rather than an overall total?
As a workaround try using the same formula in the segment tool
Gillian -- from what I understand, they will be coming out with a Beam Tool soon. The Beam Tool is what you want here. When it rolls out, shoot me a message and I'd be happy to dig into it.