When upgrading from Advance Steel 2012 to Advance Steel 2013, we can migrate almost all the user settings (drawing styles, prototypes, newly added bolts) by performing the following steps, depending on the type of customizations:
1. Any setting made in a "User" category, like Drawing Styles, Drawing Processes, Manual label configurations, Prefix settings, BOM templates and preferred sizes are saved in the AstorAddIn.mdb database. To transfer the settings to Advance Steel 2013, the database must be copied from its AS 2012 location, C:\ProgramData\Graitec\Advance Steel\2012\User2\Data, to the equivalent folder in Advance Steel 2013
2. If the modification appeared in a different database than the AstorAddIn, for example:
• symbol configurations
• materials/coatings/model roles manually added to AstorBase
• Drawing scales
• Weld types
- AstorRules:
• Saved joint library entries
To transfer the settings made to these databases, we need to merge the databases with a tool provided by Graitec Advance Manager ( GAM ) :
- To complete the merge, press « Convert » (if only some tables are are required for merge by the user) or « Convert All » (to convert all the tables).
3. Bolts, anchors and shear studs are transfered from Advance Steel 2012 to Advance Steel 2013 through the export/import option in GAM, as follows :
• Highlight the bolt (anchor/shear stud) you want to transfer to 2013, and click « Export »
• Open GAM 2013 and go to Settings / Bolts (Anchors / Shear studs)
• Press « Import » and select the GAM 2012 exported .mdb file.
4. Support dwg files like Prototypes, BoM on Drawing templates, Standard part template files, templates (dwt files) and Symbol dwg files can be simply moved from their Advance Steel 2012 folder to the equivalent Advance Steel 2013 folder, and then converted to Advance Steel 2013 format.
The Advance Steel 2012 support files can be found in the following folders, and they should be copied to the equivalent 2013 folder :
BoM templates : C:\ProgramData\Graitec\Advance Steel\2012\Shared\Support\BOMTemplates
Symbols : C:\ProgramData\Graitec\Advance Steel\2012\Shared\Support\Symbols
Standard part template : C:\ProgramData\Graitec\Advance Steel\2012\Shared\StandardPartTemplate
Templates (dwt files) : C:\ProgramData\Graitec\Advance Steel\2012\Shared\Support\Templates
The convert is required because even if an older file is recognized by Advance Steel 2013, it is recommended have the files saved with a newer version before using them, to save the time that Advance Steel would require to convert very time it tries to access or use one of those dwg files. For example, during detailing, Advance Steel would require to convert the prototype each time it creates a drawing, leading to a speed decrease of the detailing operation.
To convert a file:
- Use the Save as option, and select as a file format AutoCAD® 2010.