Over the past several months I have been working on a multi-platform app I am calling YouKon, a meld of the words “unit” and “convertor,” with a bit of theming representative the wilderness of the Yukon range. It is a simple app, but hits on a couple of innovations that I wanted at times in my own career. In YouKon, groupings of measurements are stored together in a project, with all converted into a single, consistent system of units, independent of the system that the user specified.
YouKon is now open for public beta testing on both iOS and Android. If you are interested, you can check it out at one of these links:
iOS: https://testflight.apple.com/join/aKAd0AwD
Android: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.dcengineer.youkon
Also, the source code, as well as additional documentation is posted on GitHub:
What is the use case?
The idea of a unit converter app is, at face value, not unique. In my research, I would say there are approximately seven bunches of apps available on either the App Store or Google Play that fill this use case. However, there are a couple problems, common to engineers, that I think I may be able to help address.
In the real world, people and companies are inconsistent
My job has often involved the linking of multiple systems and subsystems, produced by independent teams, in multiple companies. Each is responsible for standardizing their own processes, and they generally do a good job. However, there is no guarantee that company B will have a process that is at all similar to company A. Suppose that company A maintains a “weight book,” which is an Excel spreadsheet with parts listed by weight in pounds, and company B has a “gravimetrics database” in a JSON file with mass in kilograms. The task of bringing the two products into a single, consistent model, tended to be the responsibility of myself or my team. With YouKon, I hope to make this process a little easier.
Properties should be traceable to a reliable source
In structural engineering, there are quite a few properties that we know by heart, like the density or modulus of aluminum. In many applications, we can get by with plugging in numbers from memory. When business decisions or safety is on the line though, you had better be able to claim the number you chose is the same as that which is listed in some governing industry standard. In my office, this was usually “Metallic Materials Properties Development and Standardization ” (MMPDS). This is absolutely the right source for quoting properties for most common metals, and even some that are more exotic. A couple small issues though:
- MMPDS is long, over 2000 pages
- MMPDS lists properties in Imperial units
In my time, I’m sure I cross-checked the density and stiffness of some grade of aluminum, converted over to metric, and plugged into Abaqus, many times. I know that there are commercial property database plugins for various analysis and CAD software packages out there, and that what I’m doing here is not unique, but I do want to add a layer of convenience by automating some of this process in a mobile app.
Where does YouKon go from here?
Though I’ve just now uploaded the first public builds for beta testing, there is surely more to come in the development before it is a finished product. Two items that come to mind:
- A user should be able to share projects that they create to the cloud, and also download projects from other users
- Projects should be exportable to common file formats used by engineers, or template source code for MATLAB, Python, etc
If this is a utility that you would love to use, please email me your suggestions, or write them in the comments!
Summary
In conclusion, I am nearing the release of a new app for iOS and Android, and am looking for beta testers. The source code is posted on my GitHub page, as I’m using this as an opportunity to get one of my mobile dev projects out into the public domain. This was an opportunity for me to learn the Kotlin Multiplatform framework, which has been painful at times, but shows promise. I may write a separate post talking through some of the pains and small victories I’ve had over the few months of experimenting with Kotlin Multiplatform (and more recently, Compose Multiplatform).
Finally, for anyone who has been following our move to Spain, becoming followers of Athletic Club, hiking, and finding an apartment, expect more to come, and soon. Rachel is planning a “where are they now” post after we’ve completed furnishing our apartment. I might write about my favorite Gildas. Life is good, and we look forward to sharing our experiences.
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