Hello. I found this site, probably like others, while searching for ballistic software; looks like a place to pull up a chair, pour a glass of sippin' whiskey, and stay awhile.

Anyway, I downloaded the PointBlank Software and it seems to be a great product. I am having a few issues, the most frustrating being that when I go to the Ballistics "tab" or menu, there is no database tree on the left. The load variables input are on the left.

I can go back out to the "Load Database" tab, click on a different load or target and then go back into the Ballistics tab and it will have changed the load.

Any words of advice?

Welcome to HuntingNut, fish_guy! Definitely pull up a stump and join in. They guys from down under pass out the brews and the guys from across the pond add some unique perspectives.

Sorry, can't offer you advise on PBlank. But it won't be long before others do.

fish_guy10

I've been using pointblank since v1.8 and I always had to start my own database from my reloads. Once you add a firearm, then you can add a load for it, then enter target shooting results and it will give loads of info.

I'm not aware that it comes with a pre-installed database, if I'm wrong then Dallan C will let us know.

fish_guy10 wrote:

Hello. I found this site, probably like others, while searching for ballistic software; looks like a place to pull up a chair, pour a glass of sippin' whiskey, and stay awhile.

Welcome, glad to have you!

Quote::

Anyway, I downloaded the PointBlank Software and it seems to be a great product. I am having a few issues, the most frustrating being that when I go to the Ballistics "tab" or menu, there is no database tree on the left. The load variables input are on the left. I can go back out to the "Load Database" tab, click on a different load or target and then go back into the Ballistics tab and it will have changed the load. Any words of advice?

Ah yes. I can explain this.

So one problem with PointBlank, is that there are two distinctly different types of users. Type 1 doesnt care about load data, they just want to be able to quickly input different variables and compute the result. Type 2 doesnt care about inputing and computing data directly, they want to calculate their load data.

So when I created the new version, I kept this in mind. Anyone can switch to the ballistics tab and input any data they want and compute it, quickly and easily.

If someone wants to compute data from a load in the database, he simply browses to that load in the database, then clicks to the Ballistics tab. Doing so will copy over that load data into the ballistics calculator field.

If for example, you want to compute and compare 2 different loads, You browse to load A, switch to the ballistics tab, you should then see your load data copied over. On the ballistics tab, switch to Load 2. Now go back to the database treeview and select the next load. Switching back to the Ballistics calculator will now copy the load data into the Load 2 tab.

So switching back and forth between database treeview and the ballistics calculator will change the data ... a few people have gotten confused with this, so possibly I might need to add a popup box alerting the user that switching to the ballistics view will result in data being copied over (maybe a yes / no ability).

Does this help? I am open to suggestions to streamline this and make it more intuative, but bottom line is we have 2 distinctly different types of users and the way they want it to behave is slightly at odds with each other.


-Dallanc

fish_guy10 wrote:

looks like a place to pull up a chair, pour a glass of sippin' whiskey, and stay awhile.

Yes it is..........Welcome to Hunting Nut !!!

I'm kinda lost here too. I dont see a 300 win mag. Also, I got into adding a weapon and bullet dia. there was no .300 for me to select.

All those slk files dont seem to help. I cant find a path to access them.

The SLK files should be in the same folder as the PBPatcher.exe and the PointBlank.exe, it shouldnt be trying to load them from any other folder. Please verify if this is the case.

There is no reason for most users to ever open the calibers file, it should contain most all common calibers as is, including .300WM (users with wildcats and other custom calibers can edit the users_calibers.slk file).

SLK is just a very old yet very common spreadsheet format. I've concidered converting over to XML but few users have XML editors or understand how to edit it in a text editor.


-DallanC

If I do load database, new firearm, I have to go into .308 to find any .300's and no, .300 wm or win mag is NOT there. Closesest is 300 um and that's not the same. But when I click on it or any of them I get a bunch of blanks ti fill out all the blanks about that gun. I was hoping the database was or could be loaded so I can play with many choices to find what's best.

ps, yes all the slk files are all in the same point blank main file location/folder.

Technically, .30cal bullets are .308 diameter, which is what this is listed under. Internally things are organized by bullet diameter hence the .308 section including the 30 cal bullets.

I will look into clarifying this.

.300 Winchester is listed however.


-DallanC

yes 300 win, am looking for 300 win mag not the 300 um (ultra mag) or 300 wsm

Had the same problem as FishGuy after switching to Vn. 2 of the program. Problem solved, Dallan. Very slick program. I'm sending in my $30.

Glad you like it and find it useful.

The mobile version (first iteration) is nearly done as well. Its quite simple compared to the main program, primarily designed for recording notes at the range, or computing a quick trajectory. Need to finish up the data importing into the PC version along with a few minor tweaks.


-DallanC