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View Full Version : Cax Generator Interest? Screenshots inside



Mitco39
March 13th, 2018, 05:02 AM
So as someone who regularly dabbles in making and editing CAX files I know how tiresome the format can be using a program like notepad, Notepad +++ is not much better either. So for the longest time I would have to keep track of everything either in a separate text document or in a spreadsheet so that I could keep all the IDs the same to be able to keep them the same so scripts work between different OS's etc. If you have played with Cax's at all you know the struggle.

Well awhile ago I decided to try and work to come up with a proper way to display Cax's and allow for a simple form that you could simply fill in the fields and it would insert them in and space all the fields properly so no longer would you need to manually scroll through to find the exact field you are looking for. The program can open existing CAX files (if properly formatted), if there is an error in your existing cax file it will tell you where that error is and why it cannot open in the software (see screenshot below).

The layout of the form followed the format quite nicely as you will see you can look at ID and how it is displayed makes sense and you can quickly move between different IDs by clicking on the left. You can right click and copy entries between different Cax files (perfect for mapping the same tables to different OS's where only the address is different.

Complete record editing with simple syntax check on the fields (not enough information to do a strict check).
Multiple copy/cut/paste/delete of records in the list.
You can also copy and paste records between a text editor (or just system in general) and CAXEdit (so you can right-click copy on items on list and paste them into Notepad, for example).
Lets you add new empty records.
Has Ctrl+c, Ctrl+v, Ctrl+x, Delete shortcuts for list editing
you can also edit multiple files at ones and copy/paste between them

It does not support:
1) Your comments (they will be lost after saving the file). It's very unclear how to determine your comment from a "table" comment, and in general makes a complete mess of any parsing or editing algorithm. If you really need comments, there would have to be some convention on how they're written or edited.
2) Incorrect records. After you open the file, it would read all of the available records and mark incorrect ones with "ERROR" mark. It will also show you a log of all first-in-record incorrect lines that it encountered and explain you the kind of error. If you don't want to lose these records after saving, please open the file in a text editor and fix the mistakes. (I think 95 of total of ~97 errors are the same copy-pasted error that can be fixed by Find-Replace function in any text editor in less than a minute).
3) Symbolic records between the actual records.
Any lines in the beginning of the file are fine, and will be saved, they can also be copied and pasted, but don't insert of put any lines inside of the list of actual records. If you do, no data would be lost on save, but the next time you open the file - it will mark the preceding record as an error record, and possibly lose it on save.


Just looking to gauge interest and see if anyone would be interested in this (with permission from Ross) as it quite nicely rounds out the V7.5 platform.

21922


Mitch - CCSTuning

joecar
March 13th, 2018, 05:18 AM
A cax field entry/checking/format tool... sounds like a good idea to me.





Note to casual reader of this thread:
you would already have to know the table/parameter addresses/representations,
this tool just makes it easier to create a cax file for them.

Mitco39
March 13th, 2018, 05:23 AM
Note to casual reader of this thread:
you would already have to know the table/parameter addresses/representations,
this tool just makes it easier to create a cax file for them.

100% this doesnt magically make the file for you, just allows you a method to keep track of them all and easily edit and change them around.

turbo_bu
March 14th, 2018, 04:08 AM
I know that I have had to just keep them all separated while I was playing with them. Then after I would get one working correctly, I would manually add it to a master file. I would love to try it out.

1FastBrick
March 18th, 2018, 02:37 PM
That is pretty neat !

Mitco39
March 19th, 2018, 09:19 AM
I think what ill do is ill just upload it for anyone who wants to try it, if you like it and it helps you out feel free to pay what you feel its worth. I put my own $$ into it so just looking to recoup some of the costs of getting it built.

Going to do one more revision then post it up.

THanks

Mitch

GMPX
March 19th, 2018, 09:25 AM
I'll make it a sticky thread if you need Mitch.

Mitco39
March 19th, 2018, 09:42 AM
Sure once I post it up I think it could help out quite a few guys that do backend stuff.

:)

Mitco39
March 20th, 2018, 04:39 AM
Here you guys go.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fior7n2t9nljdv6/CAXEdit_V1.00.rar?dl=0


If you use it and its helpful please feel free to send whatever you feel its worth. I put some of time and $$ into this and anything I can recoup would be great.

paypal - sales@ccstuning.com


Hopefully it helps you guys as much as it helped us!