I have a question for all Pro Shop Operators regarding Powerhouse BluePrint Software. If you have though about purchasing this software for your business, and have not yet done so, this question is for you. Please, only ball drillers should respond. I appreciate your feedback.

What is the biggest reason/reasons for not buying this software?

Have you given the trial a go?

http://blueprintbowling.com/

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High Game - 300 (15), 299 (7), 298 (1), 11 in a row (10)
High Series - (278 Triplicate) = 834 (7)
HOF induction - 2 (1 Local and 1 Provincial)
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If this program would make laying out a ball easier to get more close to perfect, I think that a ball manufacturer should provide the program for free. It would be a big plus for selling more balls of that particular brand.

Have you tried the demo pinchezr? It is indeed designed to make the layout of a ball much easier/accurate and much more.

What do some of you other guys think?

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High Game - 300 (15), 299 (7), 298 (1), 11 in a row (10)
High Series - (278 Triplicate) = 834 (7)
HOF induction - 2 (1 Local and 1 Provincial)
Is this helpful? Then Click the on the bottom right.

I'm not a pro shop guy but have a question about the value. I like the understand the program brings and enjoyed my time with the demo. BUT when the markings on the ball only have to be within 1.5" I start to wonder if the accuracy it brings is all that translatable to real world value. Even if we expect the PSA & CG marking to be within 0.5" that is a lot of inaccuracy introduced that may keep the program from delivering the value it promises. Or I could be very off base and unaware of its impact in the pro shop.

Thanks for your comments and thoughts. I think I understand where your going with this. I call this garbage in - garbage out when it comes to computers.

If were not talking x-outs or inferior quality KMart/Walmart brands of balls, I believe we're getting what we see marked on the ball reasonably close. Remember, by using a scale an experienced driller can very accurately locate the cg. if the customer is of the type the requires/demands this level of accuracy. It's not for drilling balls for kids, mixed senior league or moonlight bowlers.

We know the pin is where it is. This is 100% accurate. The pin plays a major roll in all layouts so your going to get bang on accuracy here in BluePrint. We know also that the cg is going to be pretty close due to floating the ball on air and we know also that the MB, if its an asym, is 6 3/4" from the pin. I think the totality of all of this gives us accurate information to enable us to enter good numbers into BluePrint so I believe our chances are extremely high it will return accurate results and predictions even with the slight inaccuracies you mention.

So based on the above I believe we're going to get very accurate desired results. The pin as mentioned above plays a hugh part in the layout. The CG is important but does not play as much a factor as do the other variables.

One of the beauties of BluePrint is the ability to try "what if" scenarios. It gives a whole new meaning of quality layouts based on trial and error experience.

I hope this make sense and helps as well.

_________________
High Game - 300 (15), 299 (7), 298 (1), 11 in a row (10)
High Series - (278 Triplicate) = 834 (7)
HOF induction - 2 (1 Local and 1 Provincial)
Is this helpful? Then Click the on the bottom right.

Yes. that does help. I was jsut recalling an old post but JustinWi (http://forum.bowlingchat.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5328&p=42610#p42610) showing how the inaccurate markings on one ball changed the angles some and the pin distance a large amount. that always has amde me concerned the the program is more for understanding than practical application.

I don't understand how his detemrination that the pin distance changed when that the the PAP are the two aboslutes. So i am now understanding that I may be using a poor example to doubt the accuracy of drilling.

OK... this thread is about tightening the specs for manufactures in order to get USBC approval. The USBC is now requiring manufacturers to be more accurate with regards to ball markings. So bottom line here is that the new spec even further allows for BluePrint to be more accurate with it's predictions and yes more applicable to real world situations. On high performance balls you will get very accurate results from BluePrint.

_________________
High Game - 300 (15), 299 (7), 298 (1), 11 in a row (10)
High Series - (278 Triplicate) = 834 (7)
HOF induction - 2 (1 Local and 1 Provincial)
Is this helpful? Then Click the on the bottom right.

Something to be aware of here, JJKinGA. ALL three major axes shift EVERY TIME you drill a hole in the ball on EVERY BALL because EVERY drilled hole raises the RG along the axis into which it is drilled!

How much they shift is dependent on the degree of asymmetry in the undrilled ball. The higher the degree of asymmetry, the less the axes will shift. This is exactly why the PSA shifts to the thumb in ALL sym equipment and even some weak asyms.

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Father, Husband, Bowler, Web developer



15lb Morich DestroyR
15lb Morich Perpetual Motion
15lb Morich Craze
15lb MoRich Frenzy
15lb MoRich Mojave

Highest score: 276
Highest series: 733

Exactly. Kelly is right.

Please see the image below to see these axis changes from drilling holes. The pins coming out and beyond of the ball surface shows the actual shift of these axis after drilling.

Please notice the yellow (low RG axis) has shifted up and to the right slightly from the pin. Thus the RG contours also shifted after drilling. Remember the axis migrations follows the RG contours.

The MB in the image has also moved up but in this example has also moved left. Pin to MB is still 6 3/4".

At this point we know all the characteristics for this bowling ball before having drilled it.

- We know the ball motion we're going to get on just about any oil pattern.
- We know how much it will flare.
- We know where the flare is on the ball.
- We know where the bowties will be.
- We know also where the wet flares will be.
- We know where the dry flare will be on the ball surface.

We know everything about this ball before drilling it.

The best part of this is knowing all of the above and we have not yet drilled the ball.

We can make changes in BluePrint to the layout (drill angel, pin to pap distance, VAL angle) with any one, two or all three of these values in the Dual Angel Layout System. Each change we make we see instant results in all of the above bowling ball characteristics already mentioned.

We can make changes to fine tune and get the exact desired ball motion / reaction were looking for.

No more discussions after drilling about what the ball should do and why its not performing as anticipated. No more talk about "well we can add a weight/balance hole". No more trial and error talk about ball surface changes to fine tune the reaction even though these options are a available in the real world we can also simulate the results in the virtual world of BluePrint and get more accurate perditions.

With BluePrint you WILL get the reaction your looking for after drilling. Your customers WILL get the performance they seek.

It does not get any better than being able to work with and interacting with your customers, using BluePrint, and being able to show them exactly what their going to get before you drill the ball for them.

I hope this helps.

_________________
High Game - 300 (15), 299 (7), 298 (1), 11 in a row (10)
High Series - (278 Triplicate) = 834 (7)
HOF induction - 2 (1 Local and 1 Provincial)
Is this helpful? Then Click the on the bottom right.

At present this program is only available for Ebonite and subsidary equipment.

Is there enough public knowledge to be able to make these same calculations outside of BluePrint (although tedious) on other brand balls? Or does this program require proprietary information not released to the public?

For Example, does the exact data (shape, density, etc) of the core make a difference? Or is knowing the RG values before drilling a sufficient starting point?

Yes, this is the current situation.


Excellent question!
I believe that there is enough public knowledge on all the other brands of balls from their respective web sites to get sufficient data on the bowling ball mass properties before drilling. Your not going to find any core shape dimentions but there are images to give you a clue. I'm sure also that there are a wide variety of EBI products in the database that something "close" with regards to mass properties will exist to an other manufacturers ball.

So yes you could model another ball other than an EBI product but I believe you may or may not be slightly off due to surface friction differences and core shapes. With regards to core shapes your going to run accross differences in distances between the surface of the ball and the outer surface of the core. This will result in slight differences in the weight removed by each hole in the ball. Say in ball A you have to drill 1 3/4 inch to hit the core while in ball B it could be 2 inches. I still believe most of the time we are talking in terms of very tiny difference in mass properties and even smaller differences in ball motion as a result.

Given all of the above, it remains to be seen exactly how much this will change ball motion. I hope to study this in the near futurer for my own curiosity but I suspect it can vary from 0 to 3 boards +/- at the pocket. Again this is unknown and only my personal gutt feeling from my current experience and has yet to be proven.

So what are we left with? I believe at this point we will....
- still know how our ball will flare.
- still know where the bowties will be.
- still have a good idea regarding overall ball motion/performance.
- still have a good idea of drilled ball mass properties knowing it may be off somewhat.
- still know what changes will take place with adding, removing, resizing weight/balance holes.
- still be able to accurately drill the ball and get very close if not exact to our expectations.

Remember it's the same delivery specs. and we are not machines so we can't repeat shots anyway. Also keep in mind we will always have the option to change surface to fine tune our finished product. If we end up with an actual Intermediate Diff of 0.028 in Blueprint and our real Intermediate Diff is +/- .002 different than exactly how much are we going to be off in our anticipated ball motion expectations?

_________________
High Game - 300 (15), 299 (7), 298 (1), 11 in a row (10)
High Series - (278 Triplicate) = 834 (7)
HOF induction - 2 (1 Local and 1 Provincial)
Is this helpful? Then Click the on the bottom right.