forensic engineer report generation
Budget: $15 – $25 USD
I am an engineer that inspects properties (homes and commercial buildings) for damage after storms and I have to create reports explaining the cause of the damage. The reports each have some information that could be pulled from a database, excel form, or some other document. It's tedious to setup the reports and enter the standard information so I'm looking for a programmer that can help create something to expedite the process. The inspections typically involve going out to look at a house that was damaged by wind, hail, foundation movement, or other forces and then writing a report explaining the cause of the damage. The reports typically contain some standard information that could be pulled from an Excel or a Google doc and then inserted into the report. Such information typically includes things like the homeowner's name and address, client's name and address, the report date, and scope. There is also standard boilerplate information that can be different depending on the type of damage. For example, there is boilerplate information to explain what hail damage to shingles looks like. There is also information such as the inspection date, the inspector, and weather data. What I envision is using a tool such as GoCanvas to gather the information. Once the data is gathered, there would be some process that would be used to populate a standard report with the information pertinent to the specific house and client. Ideally, it would be nice to be able to select the photos to be placed into the report with captions. The first four photos are the front, left, right, and rear of the house. The captions could be added to the photos after the report is generated or taken from the software used during the inspection.
In the attached document, the following would be helpful:
Page 1: The date, from, client, file #, address, claim #, and insured party should be able to be imported from a table, excel file, etc. The photo on the first page could also be automatically inserted.
Page 2: Table of contents. This would be mostly standard with the exception of page #'s and headings being revised.
Page 3: Introduction - the site visit date will change for each report, the inspector name could change, and the people present could change.
Background - all of the background information could change. The data from the appraisal district will be different on each report. This information may need to be manually entered each time as it may be too difficult to extract the info from a website.
The photo comes from Google Earth. This may also need to be manually inserted unless there is a way to do this automatically,
Weather Event Summary - This is information that will have to be manually changed depending on the property.
Page 4: The SPC image would probably need to be manually inserted.
Page 5: The Opterrix images would also probably have to be inserted manually. They are not always in the report.
The property description would change each time. This could either be pulled from the inspection software such as GoCanvas or manually changed.
Field Observations- this will always be different depending on the client scope. However, it would be helpful to be able to add a standard list of observations that are specific to the type of inspection. I would envision a drop down or check box that would add typical observations to the report. These observations could be deleted or modified in the report.
Page 6: Analysis - This first paragraph is a boiler plate statement to explain hail damage. I envision a check box form to add these various boiler plate statements to the report.
Page 7: Some of this is still boiler plate but it will be necessary to manually enter specific information.
Summary and Conclusions - these bullet points will change for each report but there should be a place holder for the conclusions.
Page 9: There should be a drop down to add reference information. The first one always had the date of the inspection. The others could change or more could be added.
Pages 10 to 21: These are the inspection photographs. There may be 200 photographs taken during the inspection but only 20-30 will be in the final report. The first 4 are the front. left, right, and rear. Each photo will have a numerical number and description. I would anticipate being able to choose the photographs that would go into the report with the description. Most likely, the descriptions would be added after the report is generated.
Features that would be nice but not necessary:
1. Pulling weather data from PDF's on my local machine and from the internet. I'm not sure how this would work or if it's even possible.
2. Entering the Aerial view from Google Earth. This would probably have to be done with manual in
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In the attached document, the following would be helpful:
Page 1: The date, from, client, file #, address, claim #, and insured party should be able to be imported from a table, excel file, etc. The photo on the first page could also be automatically inserted.
Page 2: Table of contents. This would be mostly standard with the exception of page #'s and headings being revised.
Page 3: Introduction - the site visit date will change for each report, the inspector name could change, and the people present could change.
Background - all of the background information could change. The data from the appraisal district will be different on each report. This information may need to be manually entered each time as it may be too difficult to extract the info from a website.
The photo comes from Google Earth. This may also need to be manually inserted unless there is a way to do this automatically,
Weather Event Summary - This is information that will have to be manually changed depending on the property.
Page 4: The SPC image would probably need to be manually inserted.
Page 5: The Opterrix images would also probably have to be inserted manually. They are not always in the report.
The property description would change each time. This could either be pulled from the inspection software such as GoCanvas or manually changed.
Field Observations- this will always be different depending on the client scope. However, it would be helpful to be able to add a standard list of observations that are specific to the type of inspection. I would envision a drop down or check box that would add typical observations to the report. These observations could be deleted or modified in the report.
Page 6: Analysis - This first paragraph is a boiler plate statement to explain hail damage. I envision a check box form to add these various boiler plate statements to the report.
Page 7: Some of this is still boiler plate but it will be necessary to manually enter specific information.
Summary and Conclusions - these bullet points will change for each report but there should be a place holder for the conclusions.
Page 9: There should be a drop down to add reference information. The first one always had the date of the inspection. The others could change or more could be added.
Pages 10 to 21: These are the inspection photographs. There may be 200 photographs taken during the inspection but only 20-30 will be in the final report. The first 4 are the front. left, right, and rear. Each photo will have a numerical number and description. I would anticipate being able to choose the photographs that would go into the report with the description. Most likely, the descriptions would be added after the report is generated.
Features that would be nice but not necessary:
1. Pulling weather data from PDF's on my local machine and from the internet. I'm not sure how this would work or if it's even possible.
2. Entering the Aerial view from Google Earth. This would probably have to be done with manual in
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