When upgrading from Advance Steel 2013 to Advance Steel 2014, 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 2014, the database must be copied from its AS 2013 location,
C:\ProgramData\Graitec\Advance Steel\2013\User2\Data, to the equivalent folder in Advance Steel 2014, C:\ProgramData\Graitec\Advance Steel\2014\User2\Data.
2. If the modification appeared in a different database than the AstorAddIn, for example:
• new owners (Authors table)
• new materials
• detailing scales
• model roles
• new owners (Authors table)
- AstorRules:
• Saved joint library entries
• Saved compound profiles
To transfer the settings made to these databases, we need to merge the databases with a tool provided by Graitec Advance Manager ( GAM ):
- Open GAM with the shortcut located on the desktop or the button present in the Manage ribbon.
- Use the Convert database option located on the Settings tab.
- Use Open database button and then select the old version of the database (for example the AstorGratings.mdb from Advance Steel 2013, located in C:\ProgramData\Graitec\Advance Steel\2013\Steel\Data). The convert tool will know automatically the equivalent AS 2014 database to which the merge is done.
- After the database is evaluated, in the Databases section of the dialog (left side) we'll get a list of the valid mergable tables. Clicking on the name we'll display us a list of tables that are up for merge.
- 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).
- The merge operation will copy any existing new entries in the source database to the destination database, and also compare all the entries that exist in both databases and update the ones in the destination database if any differences are found between them.
3. Bolts, anchors and shear studs are transferred from Advance Steel 2013 to Advance Steel 2014 through the export/import option in GAM, as follows:
• Highlight the bolt (anchor/shear stud) you want to transfer to 2014, and click Export
• Open GAM 2014 and go to Settings / Bolts (Anchors / Shear studs)
• Press Import and select the GAM 2013 exported .mdb file.
4. Support dwg files like Prototypes, BoM on Drawing templates, Standard part template files and Symbol dwg files can be simply moved from their Advance Steel 2013 folder to the equivalent Advance Steel 2014 folder.
Note: even if an older file is recognized by Advance Steel 2014, it is recommended to convert the files to the newer version before using them, to save the time that Advance Steel would require to convert them every time it is accessed or used. For example, during detailing, Advance Steel would require to convert the prototype each time it creates a drawing, leading to a speed decrease for the detailing operation.
To convert a file:
- Use the Save as option, and select as a file format AutoCAD® 2010.
5. Custom connections (user joints) are saved as dwg files, so to convert them and make the custom joints from Advance Steel 2013 avaliable in 2014 version, it is required to:
AS 2013 custom connections are stored in the following path: C:\ProgramData\Graitec\Advance Steel\2013\Shared\ConnectionTemplates.
The destination folder associated to Advance Steel 2014 is: C:\ProgramData\Graitec\Advance Steel\2014\Shared\ConnectionTemplates
The file is converted to the new version by using the steps mentioned in point 4.
In addition to the convert, there are extra steps required to edit the custom connection support dwg to make it valid for the 2014 version.