Here's the thing
Hi there,
It’s Robin from CFD Engine & this is an extension of the products email I sent about a month ago. You see…I made a thing. Then I forgot about the thing. But you might like the thing. So here’s the thing…
It’s my take on a run-summary card, one that can be auto-generated from the command-line when a simulation completes. I post them to Slack, but you could use them anywhere you need a quick run summary.
I’d forgotten about them, but they seem to pass my “something I use, something you might use & something I can build” test – maybe they could stand as a product on their own?
I’m looking for some feedback, but here’s a little context first…
A little context
Imagine the scene, one of my remote instances has just finished a simulation…
Just before the Allrun script shuts it down, it grabs the key run metrics (average forces, mass-flows etc) & sends them to me by email.
That email is my notification that the simulation has finished, but it also means I can add the key metrics straight into a summary spreadsheet, without having to log in to another machine or grab any extra files.
Once the spreadsheet is up to date, I’ll ping my client on Slack to let them know new results are available & give them a short summary.
As part of that step I found myself screenshotting the spreadsheet & pasting it into the chat. It worked, but it wasn’t easy to read, especially on mobile.
So I created a new table & tweaked it for legibility – better, but still a bit Excel-ish…
I iterated on it & ended up with a way of generating summary cards (like the one at the top) from the command-line, on the cluster, as soon as the case finishes.
I’ve been using it for a while & I kind of forgot about it, but now I’m starting to wonder if it might be a better first product than those I’d previously shared 🤔
The proper version
My current version involves search-&-replacing text in an SVG, rendering it as a PNG & then posting it to Slack using curl. You need to install codes on the cluster & script it all up. It’s not for everyone.
The proper version wouldn’t need you to download or install anything. It would be a URL that accepts your data via query parameters & immediately returns a PNG (like the one at the top of this email).
It would probably feature a handful of different templates (sizes, styles & metrics), but I’d leave auto-posting it to Slack/Teams/Discord/email up to you (at least for now).
Later versions could include custom templates, branding, notes or who knows what 🤷♂️
But that’s for another day, today I’m looking for feedback…
- Does it make sense?
- Is it something you might use?
- Would it fit with your current workflow?
- What questions do you have?
- What would you change?
On the flip side, if the service sounds rubbish, but you’d like to know how to make the cards yourself, then let me know & I’ll put something together.
Keen to hear your thoughts 😬
Until next week, stay safe,
