2005 Upgrade issues/questions

[Anonymous]

I have added a 2005 install to my system, along with 2004.

We use a network based catalog, symbol library, etc. The catalog currently in use is a merge between our custom 2004 cat and the new 2005 catalog. Consequently, there are some tables that have 'CAT' and 'MFG' column headings spelled out (the 2005 tables), and the custom tables created in 2004 do not. Also, the pinlist table has been made compatible with 2004, but it appears to work fine in 2005 (the reverse is not true).

To set up 2005 to work with these network items, I added a Support File Search Path in ACAD Options for this network location. I also compared the 2005 wd.env file to my current wd.env, and I did not see any new changes, so I substituted my custom 2004 wd.env file for the 2005 wd.env. This basically tells ACADE to find the catalog and symbol libraries on the network, not my computer.

Problem: When clicking on the Insert PLC button, I simply get an error message that says C:\....\plc\ACE_PLC.MDB cannot be found. The "plc" directory and .mdb file are in fact present in the location ACADE is saying that it is looking for it, yet ACADE is saying it can't find it.

None of the changes I made to the ACADE and wd.env configurations (listed above) should have caused this problem.


Questions:
Is 2005 sensitive to the 2004 column headings in our custom tables ('CAT' and 'MFG')? (i.e., should I go through the cat.mdb and make sure all the 2004 generated tables match the format of the 2005 tables?)

Are there symbols or changes in the new JIC125 directory that are not in the 2004 symbol library? (i.e., should I copy over the JIC125 symbols on our network from the 2005 library?)

Are there changes in the symbol Icon menu between 2004 and 2005?

Are there any other update issues that a network user like myself might run into?

Thanks!

- Jay

[Anonymous]

Jay, I can try to answer some of your questions... Both AcadE 2004 and 2005 can run on the same system since they install into their own folder structures. You can share some things "as is" between the two versions and some things you cannot. You have uncovered two that cause problems... 1) the parametric PLC insert and 2) catalog lookup mdb file. 1. The 2004 PLC parametric program accessed a collection of about 120 plc*.dat ASCII text files to cover the various vendors and PLC series. In 2005 these are all embedded into a single ace_plc.mdb file which AcadE 2004 has no clue about. So you'll have to keep your copy of AcadE 2004 looking at its original set of the plc*.dat files. 2. The catalog lookup mdb file was altered in several place, one was to remove abbreviations as much as possible in field names (to make it less cryptic to users working in other languages). So you'll need to keep your AcadE 2004 version looking at its own file since it is not expecting the spelled-out field names. There are some tools to help you move your existing PLC dat files (if you've modified them) and/or your catalog lookup file (if you've modified) from 2004 to 2005. See the AcadE 2005 "Project" > "Extras" pulldown. As far as icon menu and lib additions, I do not have a list but I think that there is little addition to the legacy "jic" and "jic125" libraries.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Nate for your response.

The problem I am having is when I use 2005. (Assume that I don't have 2004 installed.) I installed 2005 and made the changes listed above so that 2005 will use a catalog, symbol library, icon menu, etc. located on a network server. Our network catalog is a merged catalog which has the standard 2005 tables and some custom tables created with 2004. When you have custom tables in 2004, they will transfer when you use the merge utility in 2005, but I think they retain their abbreviated headings. So my question is whether this is a problem for 2005.

The PLC problem is also in 2005. It gives an error message saying it can't find the .mdb file in the directory where it expects it, and gives the entire path in the error message. But the actual .mdb file is in fact located exactly where it is supposed to be. It is as if one part of the program knows the full path to the file, but some other part of the program doesn't. As I stated above, I did not remove or change any path entries in ACAD Options. I only added new ones. I also don't think anything I've changed affects the PLC build command. Nothing in wd.env appears to have an affect on the PLC build command. I'll try changing back to 2005 default for one thing at a time to see if I can isolate the problem.

In the jic125 library, was any existing content changed, or were only new symbols added? It makes a difference because I have run across some inconsistencies, including attribute text in the jic125 library that was set to less than .125" high. We have modified these 2004 symbols. If there have been no changes made to the pre-existing symbols in 2005, then I only need to copy any new library content to our network library, ignoring everything that is pre-existing.

The same question goes for the icon menu. Have there been any changes? If there is new library content, and we have a custom icon menu that everyone accesses on the network to go with our custom network symbol library, will I need to merge it with the 2005 icon menu?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Any answers to these questions? I am now about to upgrade from WD 17 to ACE 2005.

[Anonymous]

I don't see the complete thread to this. Can you re-enter the questions or
did someone already answer them?

Pat Murnen
(Autodesk)

wrote in message news:4875448@discussion.autodesk.com...
Any answers to these questions? I am now about to upgrade from WD 17 to ACE
2005.

[Anonymous]

Hi Pat,
Question #1
How do I handle converting my PLC files (from WD Via v17 to ACE 2006)?
I looked at the new ace_plc.mdb. I see the field info, but I don't see where the actual plc blocks are listed to insert for the symbol. What do I do with my old plc dat files? I don't see any new dat files that came in with the new install, or a place in the mdb where they are called.

[Anonymous]

There should be a converter utility supplied with Ace2005/Ace2006. Go to the
"Projects" pulldown menu --> "Extras" and pick on the "PLC DAT file to MDB
Conversion". Hopefully your old ".dat" files can be pulled in to the new
format.

Nate.

wrote in message news:4879492@discussion.autodesk.com...
Hi Pat,
Question #1
How do I handle converting my PLC files (from WD Via v17 to ACE 2006)?
I looked at the new ace_plc.mdb. I see the field info, but I don't see where
the actual plc blocks are listed to insert for the symbol. What do I do with
my old plc dat files? I don't see any new dat files that came in with the
new install, or a place in the mdb where they are called.

[Anonymous]

One additional note to Nates comments, once you run the CONVERSION tool, you
can then go and run the MERGE utility in order to merge the cards you
created prior into the main database supplied with AutoCAD Electrical. Then
from this point, you will only need to make use of the MERGE utilities for
future releases!!

--
=======================
Jared (Autodesk, Inc)
=======================
"Nate Holt (Autodesk)" wrote in message
news:4879714@discussion.autodesk.com...
There should be a converter utility supplied with Ace2005/Ace2006. Go to the
"Projects" pulldown menu --> "Extras" and pick on the "PLC DAT file to MDB
Conversion". Hopefully your old ".dat" files can be pulled in to the new
format.

Nate.

wrote in message news:4879492@discussion.autodesk.com...
Hi Pat,
Question #1
How do I handle converting my PLC files (from WD Via v17 to ACE 2006)?
I looked at the new ace_plc.mdb. I see the field info, but I don't see where
the actual plc blocks are listed to insert for the symbol. What do I do with
my old plc dat files? I don't see any new dat files that came in with the
new install, or a place in the mdb where they are called.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Nate,
I did see the converter utility but was puzzled as to how it knows what blocks to pull in for the modules, so I thought I might still need the dat files. Now I see the DATA mdb files.
Now when I try to merge my catalog database I am getting Invalid Catalog Tables found. Refer to log file for details.
(Paste Errors)
I have renamed my column headings in most of the tables, and have added tables with my own family codes. Do I need to go into all my old tables and name the column heads to match the new ones? Is renaming column headings bad practice?

[Anonymous]

Another thing-
I guess one must edit the "PLC Manufacturer" manually (sigh) in order for the merged PLCs to show up on the insert PLC dialog.

[Anonymous]

Lintt,

I am not sure what you are referring to when you say "Do I need to go into
all my old tables and name the column heads to match the new ones?". I am
assuming that you mean the column headings (fields) in the ace_plc.mdb file
that you had previously renamed. The column headings (fields) in the tables
in this database should not be renamed. That would be the cause of the
merge error. I hope this helps.

Regards,
Mike

wrote in message news:4879809@discussion.autodesk.com...
Thanks Nate,
I did see the converter utility but was puzzled as to how it knows what
blocks to pull in for the modules, so I thought I might still need the dat
files. Now I see the DATA mdb files.
Now when I try to merge my catalog database I am getting Invalid Catalog
Tables found. Refer to log file for details.
(Paste Errors)
I have renamed my column headings in most of the tables, and have added
tables with my own family codes. Do I need to go into all my old tables and
name the column heads to match the new ones? Is renaming column headings bad
practice?

[Anonymous]

Lintt,

If the merge completes without error, you should not have to edit the
database manually for the PLCs to show up in the insert PLC dialog. It is
possible that you encountered an error during the merge, and the
Manufacturer table was not updated.

Mike

wrote in message news:4879846@discussion.autodesk.com...
Another thing-
I guess one must edit the "PLC Manufacturer" manually (sigh) in order for
the merged PLCs to show up on the insert PLC dialog.

[Anonymous]

Sorry Mike,
I was unclear on what I was doing.
I was going on to merge the Catalog Mdb.'
That's where I have renamed column headings.
Lynne

[Anonymous]

And I'm still unclear - I mean my general catalog database, not the PLC database.