<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation:  Drawing Manager > Technical details > Legacy projects (R32 and older) > Converting projects from R32 or older

In this sub-topic, a number of technical details are discussed concerning the automatic convert process that takes place for old projects. For ordinary use, it is not necessary to study this in detail, even if it can be an advantage to have an at least general understanding of what happens and why.

 

The first time you open an old project (created in cadett ELSA R32 or older) with the Drawing Manager of cadett ELSA R33 or newer, an automatic conversion of the project is made. That conversion is described here.

 

Information is stored in each project about which version of cadett ELSA that opened the project most recently and to which version of cadett ELSA the project has been converted. This information is stored in the PROJECTS.INI file, which is located in the SOURCE directory.

 

The first thing that happens when you start the Drawing Manager, is that the version information is checked and compared with the version of cadett ELSA that you are using. If the project does not have any version information at all, it is old and need an update. If the project has a version flag older than the current version, an update is also required. Otherwise no update is needed and nothing more will happen in that respect.

 

For projects which need to be updated the following will be made:

 

•In old projects the file name composition is stored in the PROJECTS.DBF central database file. In new projects it is instead stored in PROJECTS.INI located in the SOURCE directory. PROJECTS.INI is checked for the file name composition, something that should not be there if the project is older than R33. If that information nevertheless is present, the project must have been updated but later on went astray. An error message is displayed in cases like that and the user is given an opportunity to choose whether the project should undergo the update procedure or not.

 

•If "no update" is selected, the version flag is corrected and thereafter nothing further is made.

 

•If "update" is selected, a complete update is made.

 

•The file name composition is added to PROJECTS.INI. It is created from the old file name composition that was defined in PROJECTS.DBF and is made compatible with that, meaning that the project will act in the same way as before. This means that if you want to start using parts of the new functionality, you need to adjust the project parameters in PROJECTS.INI.

 

•The old database file containing drawing classes and types, including project related ones, for the project in question – the *R.DBF – is converted to a database for document codes according to the functionality of the current Drawing Manager. That database file is called DOCUMENTCODES.DBF. Both the old and the new database file are located in the SOURCE directory of the project.

 

•If the *R.DBF is missing, the central definition of document codes – DOCUMENTCODES.DBF located in \ELSA\SYSTEM (or similar) – is copied to the project.

 

•Old drawing classes and drawing types are converted to the new Class/type *LEGACY* tree.

 

•Old project related drawing types are converted to the new Proj. rel. types *LEGACY* tree.

 

•The content of the *M.DBF database file, which is used as an interstage between mask file (*Z.MSK) and table of contents database (*Z.DBF), and of which there is one copy each in the SOURCE and the TARGET directories, undergoes a simple conversion. The field name ZTEMPLT, which is defined in *M.DBF, is changed to TEMPLT. Please note that this means that the TEMPLT field name is reserved and may not be used for user defined field names in the mask file. (It is recommended to only use field names beginning with "Z" for user defined fields).

 

•The table of contents database *Z.DBF, of which there may be two copies, one in the SOURCE and one in the TARGET directory, is converted according to the *M.DBF, in practice meaning that the field ZTEMPLT is renamed to TEMPLT.

 

•Finally, an investigation is made whether old variables for default values based on drawing classes or drawing types are used in the project. If that is the case, suitable ALIAS definitions are automatically created and written to the PROJECTS.INI. The result of that process is a behaviour that is identical with what it was in the old version before the update. If you want to start using new functionality, an adjustment of the project parameters in PROJECTS.INI is needed.