THE ERROR and REPORTING SYSTEM

Generally

EstimatorVJ has an extensive error MONITORING/REPORTING system built in.

During critical functions such as Recalculating and printing, VJ carries out data validation and reports data/data format which may cause unexpected results or is in context invalid.

These are then stored in the Project until fixed. Furthermore, if FATAL errors are detected, no Printing will be allowed until these FATAL errors are corrected.

Error Collection

During operations like the Recalculate and Collection of Markups and Distributions,  errors detected will be stored by the Project behind the "Project Error Flag" which is located on the Project Window as such :

Clicking this flag will present a combo box listing the errors.

Format of the Error Listing

When the error flag is clicked, a listing panel similar to below will appear:

Click the Combo Box, and the full list of errors will appear like below:

Each entry in this lists represents an error, with the following structure:

[<fatal flag>]<What is the Top Sheet><details>
where:

<fatal flag> is '*' if this is a fatal error preventing printing
    or blank if not

<What is the Top Sheet> will be either:
    'Library' if the error is inside the Resource Library
    The Section Code ('CO') if the error is inside an Estimate Worksheet

<details> which will describe the error

Locating Errors

When you select (click on) one of the errors, VJ will automatically locate the error by opening all parent worksheets and finally the offending worksheet and highlight the offending entry.

VJ will also add the option ("Next Error") into the Options Panel:

Correcting Errors

When you have located the error as described above, fix the error.

NOW click the 'Next Error' option, and the Error will be removed from the Error list and then locate the Next error in the list. Most importantly, this list also contains the number of FATAL errors, so if this error is a FATAL error, the fatal error count will be decremented.

As a precaution, printing will not be allowed until ALL FATAL errors have been fixed.

When all the errors have been fixed and removed, the error flag in the Project Window will disappear.

You may find that in some cases fixing one error may also fix another error in the list, however clicking the flag will only remove the one you are dealing with. When you are taken back to the other error which has been fixed by the first, make sure you still click the flag so it is also removed from the list.

If you forget to click the flag after fixing the error, this error will remain in the error list. The only way to remove an error from the error list is to select the error in the list, then click the flag while in the offending worksheet.

Resetting the Error List

At any time you can reset the Error List by clicking the Reset button as shown below:

This will remove all errors from the list, and the error flag will disappear. The program at the next opportunity will recollect any errors if they still exist and haven't been fixed.

Unresourced Error Warnings

EstimatorVJ is 'resourced centric' and as such expects every cost in the estimate to be based on using a Resource Code to control the estimate through the Resource Library.

Consequently, if a cost in the Estimate exists without a resource code, then a non-fatal error will be generated and reported.

There is a Preference setting for ignoring these errors for users/projects where resources are not essential. The setting appears as below: