Uses and Benefits of Truenumbers

problem

ordinary number

truenumber

comment

Knowing meaning of number

Sometimes.  Only if adequate documentation remains associated with
number. No specific format for documentation.

Always. Every truenumber contains its subject, property, units, quantity and
description

Who hasn’t asked “what is THAT number??”

Units & conversion

Manual.  w/o documentation, no way to tell what units a
number is represented in. Conversion has to be done manually every time.

Automatic Truenumbers know what units they are in, and what type of
number (length, torque…).  Unit conversion is built-in.

Units are time consuming and source of errors large and
small

Managing numbers

Rarely and ad-hoc.  Indirectly in standards documents or spreadsheets, requirements managers, special-purpose databases….

Positively. Single data model, dedicated repository. Backs truenumbers in Excel, Word, email and more.

The concept of a central repository for engineering numbers is a new one

Communication/transfer

Lossy, manual. Contextual information manually transferred by writing
comments, footnotes, filling in text-boxes.  Imperfect at best, information easily lost or altered.

Perfect, automatic. Truenumbers are self-contained, just transfer the
hyperlink or ID # and everything goes with it.

Degradation of numbers is a ‘silent killer’!

Keeping custom code up to date

Ad-hoc, manual.  Constants are usually hard-coded, and parameters entered as text. Little accomodation for context.

Dynamic and accurate. Truenumber .NET SDK allows programming with truenumbers. 
Saves a lot of work, and creates a traceable system.  Interoperable with
other systems, and Office. Self-updating as your database changes.

Numbers data in one place, one format, creates opportunities
for better systems and more capability