|
RefinateHome
The Basics
Examples
Screenshots
One-row-per-part
——————
Download Refinate
Register
——————
Revision History
Support
Quick Exercises
HyphenateRanges.XLS
ExpandRanges.XLS
JoinCells.XLS
Assy Versions.XLS
Redundant_Part_Info
Netlist Sorting
Procedures:Compare
Company Info
| |
|
AnalogDigital Engineering |

Rated

|
|
Refinate |
Quickly make lists more readable and make them
compatible with downstream processing while reducing errors.
|
|
Revision 2.0 |
Sort and Count Items (Including Delimited
Items) • Find and Manage Duplicates • Rearrange Lists • Join Cells • Split
Cells • Log Changes • Much More
Refinate
is for everyone who works with lists. Use it to verify, modify and create
lists. A unique strength of Refinate is its ability to operate on "regular"
comma-delimited items as well as indexed items such as R1, R2, R4-12.
This makes it especially well-suited for working with product assembly lists
(BOM) that include reference designators. And for this reason, some features
are described in terms of how to use them when working with assembly lists.
Refinate works with any list pasted or
opened into Excel. Simply drag the
mouse to select items of interest and click a button to:
• locate duplicates
• automatically record and display changes
• determine actual quantities
• identify missing items
• automatically generate different list versions based on do-not-includes
(e.g. new assembly versions)
• re-format into a consistent standard
• make comparisons
• rearrange lists horizontally or vertically with drag and click assistance
• automatically convert lists so that all data for each unique part number
is placed on a single row (as a record)
• expand range notation to show individual identities (or group individual
indexed items into ranges)
• sort every node of netlists
• use the new parsing feature for importing lists
• much more...
Send the verified original or the
re-formatted output to the downstream process.
Revision
2.0 of Refinate has many
new features but perhaps the most significant
new feature is Query.
It will automatically find, tag and bring to focus each fault so that it can
be edited, deleted or just left with a tag for later reference. A history of
edits will be logged into a visible comment tag at each edited location and
these comments can be included in the print-out. This automated feature is
closely related to the new manual Query feature. Now, you can locate any
item even if the indexed item (e.g refdes) resides within a hyphenated range
(Excel's normal FIND would not see it). This Query feature has made it
possible to eliminate the step of "painting" commas at the end of each cell.
Just select the cells of interest and click to count and/or re-format them.
Refinate
dramatically cuts back the tedious work and errors when modifying and
verifying listed information. |
For
a picture of the very basic operations, see
The Basics.
 |
You
do not need to commit to a database program -- no formal structure is
required. |
 |
You
do not need to change your document style. Just verify the integrity of
the list if that is all you want to use it for. |
 |
Nobody else in the process flow needs to use Refinate except you, and your
worksheet file can be used by anybody else. |
How is it
useful?
Refinate can quickly
rearrange lists of text, locate duplicates, count delimited items and find items
that Excel's FIND can not find. It adds functionality to Excel so that you can
now work with comma delimited text/numbers including indexed items that might
also be represented as hyphenated ranges (e.g. R1, R3-R12). An “item” is any
text or number which is separated by a comma within a cell, or an item is the
whole cell content if there is no comma present (whether a comma is present or
not, hyphens can be used to represent multiple items). Lists put into Excel need
not be comma delimited and Refinate has features that will convert back and
forth between delimited and not delimited.
Drag the mouse to select an entire (or partial) list and then you can find all
duplicates while counting all items. Refinate’s new Query feature can
automatically locate and tag problem cells. Changes made will be logged within
the comment tag and can be seen on-screen and in the print-out if desired. You
can use the Query feature to find any space delimited or comma delimited item.
It even locates indexed items within ranges (e.g. R8 will be found in a cell
containing the text R3-12).
Type a list of do-not-include items and a new list will be generated with those
items omitted (ideal for creating or verifying different assembly versions based
on a master list).
Highlight a list of numbers (or indexed items) and Refinate will show the range
so that you can find missing numbers (e.g. 1,2,3,4,6,7,8 can be shown as 1-4,
6-8). It shows missing parts on a BOM, for instance.
Use Refinate to sort delimited items within each cell of a column of cells so
that it becomes possible to compare lists against each other that previously had
no columns that could be sorted identically. For those who work with printed
circuit board netlists, there is a netlist sorting function included which takes
advantage of this ability.
Use the One-row-per-part feature to convert a list into record format and the
door is then opened to using Excel functions in a simplified manner (sorting,
using comparison equations, formatting, column widths, printing, etc.). This
feature can filter out redundant items which appear on every row belonging to
the same part (such as is found in some BOM lists).
Refinate provides a parsing feature that goes beyond Excel’s normal ability.
More options are available for how text is split into cells. Now you can define
up to two strings of any number of characters as parsing delimiters. Control is
provided for splitting lines at consecutive space characters as well as at
specified single space characters. Leading spaces are handled automatically.
After text is split into cells, Refinate provides the ability to quickly rejoin
cells as needed – including the ability to gather and move to one line every
cell highlighted.
As with any good tool, you
will find many creative ways to use
Refinate
to produce the most reliable worksheets quickly.
Get
Refinate
for Excel 97 or newer.
Click here to send
requests and comments.
AnalogDigital
Engineering. Revised:
07/19/07.
|