I need to do some fixin on my template.
Any hints on mass applying template changes to existing projects?
I was thinking export all as .vcl from current project to a new project started with the new template.
Will anything be lost?
Georeferenced images don’t transfer through a .vcl file.
hmmmmm… I wonder if there is a way around that without having to re-import/georeference the images. Even if it was another export/import step; as long as they came in georeferenced it’s likely worth it to get the advantages of an improved template.
I’ll have to find some time to experiment.
Actually nevermind. I just tested it and an image does transfer and come in to the correct location. Not sure if they changed that recently or I’m just confused. either way, at least it does work.
Enjoy.
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Sorry Richard I have never tried to do that - what changes are you making to your template that you need to retrofit to older projects?
Why are you updating the older projects?
Alan
Our template is weak in several areas and needs to be progressed to aid in production as you’ve taught us. For initial project startup, I’d rate our template at around a C+/B- or so but it quickly diminishes as the need to run the more advanced TBC features, the production of deliverables ( i.e. using TBC in lieu of C3D), project changes, and known situations/tasks that arise that aren’t addressed by the initial setup. Some examples would be prefilled layers in commands, prefilled object/project settings, pre-setup text styles, point labels, line labels, etc, etc. Admittedly, I haven’t done as good a job at updating the template, over time, that I should have but have set a goal to make the adjustment sooner rather than later. We work the projects over a year or more in most instances, several years in some, and find ourselves doing redundant setup tasks that would otherwise be addressed by a strong template from the get go. My hope was to be able to backfill the improvements made to the template to ongoing projects to help reduce the redundant efforts as we progress to perfect our template to an “A” rating for more than just the initial basic setup of the project.
Thanks for the feedback. In the RPS commands we are beginning to embed RPS Settings as a central non project based settings library. One area we are working on is that when I am in a command - take create slope indicators for example i need a layer / layer group for the objects i am placing and I need a block for the indicator as well as maybe a number of settings to control the length, spacing etc. We are now writing all of the properties of the selected layers and layer groups and blocks and text styles etc into the settings file so even if your template doesn’t contain these items it can find and create them on the fly as you do these things if they don’t exist in the project. When you pull down a layer list you will be presented with the project layers and the RPS Settings layers that don’t yet exist in the project for example.
This will mean that you can configure a lot in RPS Setttings as you do things that is kind of creating a supplement to your project template that is always available centrally and also not dependent on a project template or specific version of TBC to be available.
I believe that thus will drastically improve usability of commands - and I plan to add the ability to add RPS Settings to Project button so you can then leverage in all TBC functions.
We are testing the concept currently and hope to release the first version in the new year.
Alan
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You could create a VCL that has an instance of the things that you want to create ie a polyline on a layer in a layer group will create the Layer, layer group and polyline and linestyle etc if imported to an old project. If you want a text style then again create the text style and then create an object text with that text style and export the created package of data to a VCL. You could create all this at a specific negative coord location so it is easy to find and delete after import to an older project at which point the objects have been created and updated that you need. You could also use eg a sheet view to do this so that it creates the obje to in a location that is easy to find and delete but leaves the definitions behind. You can use this for label styles, line labels, label tables, text styles, linestyles, layer and layer groups etc. You cannot change project settings but most other things could be done this way.
Alan
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