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Articles by Randy Bownds

Director of Data Products

Untraceable products
01/25/2011 – 1:11 pm | Comments Off
Untraceable products

Occasionally, we receive data requests for products that we are unable to find online. We call these products untraceable.
Untraceable products present a challenge for our data team, since the only information we have is whatever …

What is proposal ready data?
12/16/2010 – 2:11 pm | Comments Off
What is proposal ready data?

At D-Tools, we define three levels of data completeness. These allow us to focus our efforts on the information our subscribers need the most, improving both response time to specific requests, as well as overall …

Data Services Q4 Update
11/11/2010 – 12:48 pm | Comments Off
Data Services Q4 Update

Wow. What an amazing year it has been. We started out in January knowing only one thing: we needed to improve the quantity and quality of our data. So we embarked on a mission …

The Data Edge
10/26/2010 – 11:36 am | Comments Off
The Data Edge

Welcome to The Data Edge! This new section of the D-Tools blog is here to provide the latest information about what is happening with D-Tools data. Find information about manufacturer updates, new data services, new …

Data Services 2010
06/24/2010 – 9:50 am | Comments Off
Data Services 2010

Welcome to a new era for data services at D-Tools! Back in January, our CEO Adam Stone took a hard look at how we collect, publish, and manage data for our MVP and Data Subscription …

SI5.5 Initial Product Satisfaction Survey
04/27/2009 – 2:06 pm | Comments Off
SI5.5 Initial Product Satisfaction Survey

Have you recently updated to System Integrator 5.5, or a new customer just getting started with SI5.5? If so, we’d love to get your opinions on the experience of installing and using our newest version.
This …

SI5.5: Revisions do not always promote correctly
04/07/2009 – 3:12 pm | One Comment
SI5.5: Revisions do not always promote correctly

In SI5.5, the Promote Revision feature will occasionally malfunction, causing the selected revision to not be promoted, and promoting another revision instead. This can lead to the user thinking that a revision has been promoted …

SI5.5: Reports will not run if project has wires with zero length
03/18/2009 – 3:38 pm | 2 Comments
SI5.5: Reports will not run if project has wires with zero length

In the current release of SI5.5, standard reports will not run on a project if there are any wires in the project with wire length = 0. This is a bug which will be fixed …

SI5.5 Installation Quick Tips
03/16/2009 – 3:23 pm | Comments Off
SI5.5 Installation Quick Tips

If you’re getting an error message after updating to SI5.5, it may be something you can quickly fix for yourself.
Check out this list of common problems and what you can do to fix them: SI5.5 …

Backing up custom reports
03/11/2009 – 12:15 pm | 2 Comments
Backing up custom reports

This document discusses how to back up and restore custom reports. The process is slightly different depending on whether you are using SI5, or SI5.5.

Rolling back the SI5.5 desktop update
03/03/2009 – 12:47 am | 5 Comments
Rolling back the SI5.5 desktop update

This posting describes how to undo the SI5.5 desktop update and roll back to the previous version of SI5 originally installed from disc. This is useful if you mistakenly update your desktop, but your system …

SI5.5 Release Notes
03/03/2009 – 12:01 am | One Comment
SI5.5 Release Notes

SI5.5 is now available to all users. Please see the links below for important information about this release.
Launch Notice – when and how to download
Features and Enhancements – what’s included
Known Issues – important information about known issues and …