>>That sounds painful. :P
>>
>>So the end result is a printout? Not a file? Is it printed locally, or to a network printer?
>
>Network printer. Very few people have a local printer here, but there are some.
>
>The result is a "Creel Diagram" that displays how the creel is to be loaded with various yarn components to produce the necessary beams to use in tufting the carpet. It's a fairly complex problem.
>

Is a creel a piece of machinery? Or is it a fish? <g>

Not that you need any more layers, but there is absolutely no way the local COM server could dump the information to a central server, which in turn created the spreadsheet (via Excel) and printed it to the appropriate place?

It's probably only a theoretical question, since you should be able to get this solved in 1-2-3.