The ClarkeWare Automation Tool (CAT) — a software solution designed to improve how conduit and cable schedule data is managed through ClarkeWare Circuit Control — is a winner of a 2024 CEC Innovation Award for its practical impact on project workflows.
The tool was developed by Gerald Burnette, Senior Project Manager in CEC Nashville’s Water Resources practice; Dave Gianella, Senior Designer, Electrical, and Mitch Roell, Engineer, Electrical, both in CEC Pittsburgh’s Manufacturing Infrastructure Services (MIS) practice.
Background
ClarkeWare is an Access-based application used to manage conduit and cable data for electrical construction projects. While effective, the system required extensive manual data entry, which became increasingly time-consuming as project sizes grew. For large-scale jobs involving tens of thousands of circuits, the process could take weeks and required specialized knowledge of Access to shortcut the process.
The Solution
To address these challenges, Gerald, Dave, and Mitch developed CAT using Visual Basic 6. The decision to use VB6 rather than something more modern was one of expedience: after years of developing Access-based data management applications for other clients, Gerald already had a tremendous amount of VB6 code that addressed many of CAT’s needed functions. Also, since no documentation was available that described the structure of the ClarkeWare database, reusing old code allowed more time for accurately analyzing the data model on which the database was founded. This would ensure that data entered via CAT would be completely compatible and enable usage of both CAT and ClarkeWare on the same projects without fear of corrupting data The tool allows users to:
- Import and validate large datasets from Excel
- Export data for bulk editing and re-import it into the database
- Handle inconsistent data formats from different vendors
- Generate logs to track changes and identify issues
CAT was designed to be accessible to users with minimal training and Access knowledge, making it easier for more team members to contribute to data management tasks.
Outcomes
Since its implementation, CAT has significantly reduced the time required for data entry and editing. Tasks that once took weeks can now be completed in minutes. The tool has also improved data accuracy and allowed for more flexible updates throughout a project’s lifecycle.
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