The PropertiesPalette used by PlantExpressTools and PlantDataManager will allow copying user-definable property values from a source object to multiple target objects.
 

In versions prior to version 8.1, the Calculation Editor dialog displayed a preview of calculations with formatting preserved, including carriage returns, making it easy to read. However, in the updated version, the calculation preview no longer retains carriage returns, making it harder to read and interpret.

IMAGE NEEDED
 

When selecting objects of different classes the PropertiesPalette showed all properties which are common in the selected classes. This only worked for user defined tabs in the PropertiesPalette, but not for the P&ID or 3D tab.

When switching the language, the labels for the proxy settings are not updated, but all other labels.

When editing Tags the NPOs which haven't been imported yet didn't appear in the Assign Tag. Now the NPOs (whether they haven't been imported yet or not) appear with their color in the Assign Tag dialog.

The Assign Tag dialog was converted to use DevExpress controls now.

When editing the Tag of Not-Placed Objects (NPOs) against Placed Objects (POs) or other NPOs the Tag is checked for uniqueness.
 

When entering the property values of a Tag the resulting Tag will be checked instantly. If there is a conflict a warning icon appears in front of the Tag and the Assign button gets disabled. There are also tooltip on the icon and Assign button.

When opening a project it looked like PlantDataManager is migrating the ChangeLog database. This was not the case. It actually already finished the process, but didn't show a line for loading the Data Caches into memory. This process was very slow and is now about 60 times faster.

You will see a new line in the loading dialog when the data cache files are loaded.

When importing changes for multiple drawings PlantDataManager Plugin always kept the drawings open till the all changes were imported for all drawings. Then depending on the setting the drawing would be saved and closed or just saved.

Now there is a new option to close a drawing right after all its changes have been imported. This keeps the memory consumption low.

The text on the tabs of PlantDataManager Plugin were hard-coded and therefore didn't appear in German when using PlantTools in German.

When using the Refresh button in PlantDataManager, the Columns (order, width, sorting) as well as Filtering and Grouping will be restored after the refresh.

When using the Refresh button in PlantDataManager, the Columns (order, width, sorting) as well as Filtering and Grouping will be restored after the refresh.

When using the Refresh button in PlantDataManager, the Columns (order, width, sorting) as well as Filtering and Grouping will be restored after the refresh.

When accepting changes from multiple users the performance is better now.
 

When using PlantReporter Reports view and you double-click in a label in the layout, the editing dialog opens. After typing in the value, the user had to click on the OK button to save the change.

Now you can simply press Return to close the dialog.

When pasting in a lot of cells, PDM takes quite some time to finish the job.
 

When closing the project or PlantDataManager dialog #00162 appeared even if no changes were made.

When the Change Log function is activated, the icon appeared multiple times in the grid when resizing PlantDataManager or the columns.

When enabling Override Acquisition Mode the state is not saved in the lcf file.

When opening a Collaboration Project in PlantReporter or PlantDataManager an error appeared.

When opening a Collaboration project the PlantReporter layout files of version 22.2 weren't downloaded. Only the rcf files.
 

If PlantDataManager was set to 2024 or lower, the DWG Number wasn't shown.

When accepting a single change in PlantDataManager Plugin the notification dialog informing the user about pending changes appeared after every accepted change.
 

When making a change and another user changes the same property, the cell shows cyan instead of magenta. Magenta must be used if the current user and another user made a change. No matter if both users typed in the same or different values.

In addition, the tool tip only showed the other user's changes, but not the current user's own.
 

If a project was already loaded in PlantDataManager and then you changed the AutoCAD Version in the Settings the project was loaded twice after the restart of PlantDataManager.
 

For some rare cases an error appears when using Windows display scaling other than 100% when opening the Calculation dialog in PlantDataManager or the Calculation or Link Result dialogs.
 

When starting PlantDataManager with Command line parameter the parameters weren't passed through from the PlantDataManager.exe to the PlantDataManager.FrameWork.exe or PlantDataManager.NetCore.exe.
 

When having a grouped grid and then click on the Refresh button, then the grouping was gone.

PlantTools now support AutoCAD Plant 3D 2025.

PlantTools support AutoCAD Plant 3D 2020 - 2025 now.

Updated DevExpress controls and tools to version 23.2.6 in all PlantTools.
 

We added a function in the context menu in PlantDataManager to remove the change the user made.

Up until now the user had to type in the current database value to remove the change.
 

If PlantDataManager or PlantDataManager Plugin open data cache files, the file(s) will be checked out to prevent other users to check them out as well. However, if a crash happens now, then the data cache file is still checked out and PlantDataManager or PlantDataManager Plugin couldn't differentiate if the checked out file was because of a crash or because of another user had the file correctly checked out.

Therefore, we implemented a locking mechanism with some information in order for PlantDataManager and PlantDataManager Plugin know if the file was checked out by PlantDataManager or PlantDataManager Plugin on this machine. If this was the case, then PlantDataManager or PlantDataManager Plugin can safely use the already checked out file.

This mechanism is not only implemented for Collaboration projects, but also for regular network projects (SQLite or SQL Server).
 

In the general attempt to improve the performance of PlantDataManager with larger projects (larger number of rows or larger in number of properties) we improved the scrolling speed if there are a lot of acquisition icons visible in the grid.
 

The Result dialog of the Calculation function has a more modern user interface.

PlantExpressTools and PlantDataManager have a more modern user interface for the Calculation configurations.

The title of PlantDataManager and PlantReporter shows the set AutoCAD version now.

PlantLink and PlantDataManager have a more modern user interface for the link configurations.

The Result dialog of the Calculation function has a more modern user interface.

Due to the upgrade to DevExpress 23.2.6 the layout files must be updated as well.

If you have PlantReporter set to 2025, you first need to change the setting to 2024 again in order for PlantReporter to be able to migrate the layouts. Otherwise you will see this dialog:

During the migration of the layout you will be shown a progress bar.

After the layout have been migrated you can switch back to 2025.
 

When using a SQL Server project and opening PDM Plugin, then no lock file was created for the data caches which were ready for import.
 

If PlantDataManager Plugin gets opened and it tries to remove obsolete changes from a data cache, but the data cache contains changes which aren’t ready for import, the data cache doesn’t get checked out and therefore removing the records from a read-only data cache leads to a FATAL ERROR.
 

If there is already a PlantDataManager folder in the project, then PlantDataManager created the dcf file, but not the database.
 

Because of a very special user case, it could happen, that other user's changes from their data cache file were copied to your own data cache file and marked as Not ready for Import.
 

Another very special use case were data could be removed from the data cache.
 

If the Disk symbols gets enabled due to new changes being made and then switching to another view (e.g. from Project Data to Drawing Data), the Disk symbol got disabled. This also didn't trigger the Saving dialog when closing PlantDataManager or the project.

When opening a project in PlantDataManager Plugin any obsolete data in the data caches weren't removed.

Obsolete data are changes made for an object which doesn't exist anymore.
 

When having referenced files used by a link configuration and these referenced files were stored in the Related Files folder, then these referenced files appeared under Related Files\ACPlantTools\Related Files\[FILENAME]. This is not only irritating, but prevents sharing such a project with ACC. Now the referenced files will appear directly under Related Files in Project Manager or PlantProjectManager.

Even if the project was using SQL Server, PlantDataManager sometimes creates the data cache file as a SQLite database instead of an xml file.
 

Since the beginning of PlantDataManager there was always a DataCache folder within the PlantDataManager folder in the project. This is not happening anymore, because the data cache files will be stored directly in the PlantDataManager folder.
 

When using PlantDataManager with Non-Collaboration Projects PlantDataManager creates a lock file for the user's PDMDataCache_[USERNAME].dcf.

However, the lock file wasn't removed when the project was closed in PlantDataManager or when closing PlantDataManager completely.
 

Some of the PlantDataManager settings were reset to their default values after loading another project.

If the PlantDataManager settings are set like this and then you make a change, save the change, click on the Refresh button, and then click on the Delete button to Remove All my changes an error appeared, because the file was empty and was supposed to be removed, but there was still a file lock on it.

The PDMDataCache_[USERNAME].dcf file was created and the database itself was created on SQL Server as well, but the dcf file was not added to the PnPDrawings table in the MISC database. This prevented the PlantDataManager Plugin to check for the lock file to prevent importing changes while the changes were still open in PlantDataManager.
 

Opening larger projects can take very long in PlantDataManager as well as PlantDataManager Plugin. Now we improved the loading process in PlandDataManager Plugin.

There is a new chapter about how to improve the performance when loading projects in PlantDataManager. See Performance Improvements.
 

A file watcher is implemented to check which communication between PlantDataManager/PlantReporter and the acccoreconsole.exe is exchanged. This is especially useful when helping customers with support.

Details can be found under File Watcher.
 

Because of Collaboration project we had to change the whole workflow of how NPOs can be created through PlantDataManager.

Details can be found under: Not-Placed Objects, Relationships, and Not-Placed Objects & Relationships.
 

When using Collaboration projects PlantDataManager and PlantReporter adds configuration files (e.g. for links, calculation, reports and so on) to the MISC database to have them shown under the Related Files folder in Project Manager. This is also important when using Create Project Backup with Project Manager, that these PlantTools configuration files are also backed up.

The following files are handled:

•Report Configuration Files (rcf) & Layout Files (*.layout.xx.x) & ReportConfiguration.Collection.xml

•Link Configuration Files (lcf) & Related Files (udl, SQLite, accdb, mdb, xlsx, xls) & LinkConfiguration.Collection.xml

•SQL Scripts (sql)

•Calculation Configuration Files (calc) & CalculationConfiguration.Collection.xml

•PropertiesPaletteConfiguration.xml

•PDMDataCache_[USERNAME].dcf

•NPO_[DWGGUID].xml
 

For Non-Collaboration projects we use our own locking mechanism for the data cache files to avoid use cases where a user is still in PDM and another user tries to import the changes.
 

When PlantDataManager/PlantReporter check or need to download the files referenced in the collection files it will be done now in a batch process to reduce the number of calls to the accoredconsole.exe.
 

When retrieving information from the registry about the installed version we disregard ACAD versions which the installed PT don’t support.

E.g. a customer has 2025 installed, but the installed PTs support only 2019-2024.
 

If the drawing number is not given for a drawing, then PlantDataManager will use the DWG Name to make it more convenient to know which row belongs into which drawing.

When opening a Collaboration project in PlantDataManager, and PlantReporter is set to Project, PlantDataManager will download the rcf and layout files when loading the project.

The Relationship Type which could be extended through PlantDataManager and PlantSpecDriven are now stored under \ACPlantTools\PIDRelationshipTypes.xml and not the ACPRelationshipTypes table in the ProcessPower.dcf. It is also handled for Collaboration projects.
 

Due to our effort to change all UIs to DevExpress to have the possibility to use different styles the Relatioship Types dialog was updated. This dialog is used by PlantDataManager and PlantSpecDriven.

When installing PlantDataManager the logging of accepted or rejected changes isn't activated anymore by default. The function can be activated if needed. The reson for the deactivation is, that the ACPChangeLog.dcf database prevents the project from being shared as a Collaboration project. Also the Change Log function of PlantExpressTools needs to be redesigned in order to work with Collaboration projects.

The setting is in PlantDataManager Plugin Settings.

The Find & Replace dialog in PlantDataManager was recreated to use DevExpress controls and looks more modern like PlantDataManager itself. The checkbox for wildcards has also a tooltip to inform about the possible options.

When closing a project in PlantDataManager, the PDMDataCache has still a lock on it which prevents PlantDataManager to store more changes after opening the project again.
 

Dialog #01181 appears after clicking on refresh even if the data was just saved.

When clicking on the toggle button to show not only the changes, but also the classes and rows with no changes, then only the drawing view was updated to show the drawings with no changes. But the class tree and the data grid still only showed the changed classes and rows.

When you click in the empty space under the data grid and then click CTRL+S an error message appeared.

The sub nodes in the Relationship Panel didn't show the Tag of Placed Objects (POs). It worked for Not-Placed Objects (NPOs) though.

The Project/Drawing Data (PlantExpressTools Palette) views only showed the correct DevExpress style initially, but eventually didn't render the data grid properly.

The setting for the option Save Changes or Lose Changes...

...wasn't available as a combox box in the settings dialog in order to change the setting in the settings as well.

The Project Data (PlantExpressTools Properties Palette) view didn't use the property's Display Name, but the Property Name.

When no project is open, then the Refresh button created an error.

The External Databaseviewer used the wrong style for the top part of the user interface.

When selecting a node in the RelShip Panel, it shows the “wrong” background color.

Several functions to create and deleted relationships with PlantDataManager stopped working several versions ago when the user interfaces were changed to use DevExpress controls.

When importing an xlsx file into a project, there is an error in the log file which shouldn’t be there, if the import works faultless.

When importing an xlsx file into a project an error appears in case the xlsx file is still open in Excel.

Now the data will be imported even if the file is still in use.
 

When creating links or calculations in PlantDataManager the files weren’t even created and therefore nothing was checked in.

When deleting existing values in an Excel files and then import this change, the values weren't deleted in PlantDataManager.

When trying to export data to an Excel file, but the file was imported before in the current PlantDataManager session, then an error appeared.

When editing properties which are used in the Tag the Tag property doesn't get updated in the PropertiesPalette. then an error appeared.

Changing properties which are used in the Tag back and forth will false claim a Tag conflict.

If you change the number from 100 to 001 the Tag changes correctly.

If you now change the number back to 100 the Tag will show a ? indicating a duplicate Tag instead of updating the Tag back to P-100.

If you try to use Assign Tag dialog and you click Assign...

...you get an error.

When shrinking PlantDataManager in height the P&ID Classes / P3D Classes options disappeared.

This is how it looks then.

The dialog reporting a successful import appears again although it was removed in PlantDataManager 4.3. already. No it will not appear anymore.

There is a very special user case some customers experienced when there are existing changes which are already in the Data Cache and now additional changes are mode, but they are not saved and there is no error message. Also nothing in the Log File.

The use case involved existing changes where the property was also using acquisitions. We couldn't find a way to reproduce this case yet, but it must be some combination of changing data in Plant 3D parallel to changes in PlantDataManager.

However, we now catch this special use case and the saving of the added changes works again.
 

if PlantTools download/check out, check in, or remove one of its configuration files we now show a progress panel with the file name and path to see which file is handled.

We had to temporarily deactivate the Not-Placed Objects functions again when using Collaboration projects, because the NPOs aren't checked in properly.

We are working on a solution to mitigate this issue.

Remark: NPOs can still used when created through PlantSpecDriven.
 

PlantTools for Collaboration projects are available only for AutoCAD Plant 3D 2023 or higher. This is due to the fact, that the API PlantTools rely on were improved in 2023.

Some functions may still work, but it is not supported. Make sure you install Plant 3D 2023 or higher.

The number of commands to download the various PlantTools configuration files was reduced to greatly reduce the time when downloading the PlantTools files.

In case the \ACPlantTools\PlantExpressTools\ClassesAndProperties\PropertiesPaletteConfiguration.xml file contains, properties, classes, groups, or tabs which aren't used anymore in the project, then the user will get a dialog when opening the PropertiesPalette settings or when having the PropertiesPalette open and selecting an object in the drawing or the data grid.

The settings can be changed if needed.

When opening a project with link configurations we check the following:

1.Ignore external columns if it contains spaces and Plant 3D prior 2024 is used.

2.Ignore external columns start with SQL keywords.
SQL Keywords we checke are: "ADD", "ALL", "ALTER", "AND", "ANY", "AS", "ASC", "BACKUP", "BETWEEN", "CASE", "CHECK", "COLUMN", "CONSTRAINT", "CREATE", "DATABASE", "DEFAULT", "DELETE", "DESC", "DISTINCT", "DROP", "EXEC", "EXISTS", "FOREIGN", "FROM", "FULL", "GROUP", "HAVING", "IN", "INDEX", "INNER", "INSERT", "IS", "JOIN", "LEFT", "LIKE", "LIMIT", "NOT", "OR", "ORDER", "OUTER", "PRIMARY", "PROCEDURE", "RIGHT", "ROWNUM", "SELECT", "SET", "TABLE", "TOP", "TRUNCATE", "UNION", "UNIQUE", "UPDATE", "VALUES", "VIEW", "WHERE" (see https://www.w3schools.com/sql/sql_ref_keywords.asp)

In those cases the columns will be ignored but not removed from the link configuration.
 

When creating new link configurations with the Wizard of PlantLink we check the following:

1.Ignore external columns if it contains spaces and Plant 3D prior 2024 is used.

2.Ignore external columns start with SQL keywords.
SQL Keywords we checke are: "ADD", "ALL", "ALTER", "AND", "ANY", "AS", "ASC", "BACKUP", "BETWEEN", "CASE", "CHECK", "COLUMN", "CONSTRAINT", "CREATE", "DATABASE", "DEFAULT", "DELETE", "DESC", "DISTINCT", "DROP", "EXEC", "EXISTS", "FOREIGN", "FROM", "FULL", "GROUP", "HAVING", "IN", "INDEX", "INNER", "INSERT", "IS", "JOIN", "LEFT", "LIKE", "LIMIT", "NOT", "OR", "ORDER", "OUTER", "PRIMARY", "PROCEDURE", "RIGHT", "ROWNUM", "SELECT", "SET", "TABLE", "TOP", "TRUNCATE", "UNION", "UNIQUE", "UPDATE", "VALUES", "VIEW", "WHERE" (see https://www.w3schools.com/sql/sql_ref_keywords.asp)

In those cases the columns will be ignored but not removed from the link configuration.
 

With PlantTools version 6.0.0.2267 (first support for Plant 3D 2023) we linked the PlantTools files (located under [PROJECT]\ACPlantTools) into the MISC.dcf database so the PlantTools files appear under the Related Files folder in Project Manager. However, this cause a problem with Vault projects when we started to check in/out/download the PlantTools files for Collaboration projects in later versions.

Now the PlantTools files are still linked into the MISC.dcf, but they are not checked in/out/downloaded anymore if current project is using Vault.

You can now just copy PlantTools files from another project or template project into your Vault project and open the project in Plant 3D again. Alternatively, you can follow the Workflow with Vault and PlantTools.
 

When switching between AutoCAD Workspaces the PlantTools palettes weren't restored to the previous setting. For example, if a palette was open before, it may be closed after the switch. Now the palettes will be opened again if they were open before.

This applies to the following Palettes:

1.PlantSpecDriven Tree

2.PlantSpecDriven - Inconsistency

3.PlantDataManager Plugin - Data Import

4.PlantExpressTools - PlantProjectManager

5.PlantExpressTools - PropertiesPalette

6.PlantExpressTools - SymbolsPalette
 

When exporting data from PlantDataManager as a csv file no Progress Bar appears as it does with XLSX export.

The PropertiesPalette Settings dialog can be resized now in order to make it easier to manager the moving around of the selected properties.

When changing the workspace twice or more, the PlantTools ribbon looks like this:

When opening a Collaboration project in PlantDataManager the PropertiesPaletteConfiguration.xml won’t get downloaded at all.
 

When PlantDataManager isn't set up in a way to group line groups which span multiple drawings, and the line groups therefore appears multiple times in the data grid an error appeared when trying to edit the properties.

When selecting the P3D Classes view, the 3D Line Groups didn't appear at all.

When PlantDataManager/PlantReporter use Collaboration projects the accoreconsole.exe will be started in the background to execute the BIM functions (refresh, check out/in, , download). Sometimes the start of accoreconsole.exe took to long. Now they retry till the accoreconsole.exe is ready.
 

When exporting data from PlantDataManager as an xlsx or csv file, the property PT_ObjectType was exported twice. This lead to issues when importing.

PT_ObjectType contains a value whether a row (object) in the data grid is a Placed Object (an object in a drawing), or a Graphical Not-Placed Object (G), or a Non-Graphical Not-Placed Object (NG).
 

Due to the issue PT-2537 the data couldn't be imported. This issue applied to every duplicate columns. Now the last appearance of the column will be considered and previous columns with the same name will be ignored.

Due to the issue PT-2537 the data couldn't be imported. This issue applied to every duplicate columns. Now the last appearance of the column will be considered and previous columns with the same name will be ignored.

When opening a project with link configurations, then the links weren't activate right away after opening the project. Only when you opened the Link Configuration Dialog and close it again were the link configurations active.
 

When creating a new project using the Project Manager function, then Plant 3D will create a second ACPlantTools folder.

We provide a function which removes the unneeded ACPlantTools folder. Use the following command:

AQAPTRemoveDuplicateACPlantToolsFolder
 

We forgot to update the new digital certificate in the Setup.exe and Update.exe. This is necessary to let Windows and AutoCAD know, that our files are trustworthy.
 

The CalculationConfiguration.Collection.xml and all *.calc files will be check in/out or downloaded when using Collaboration projects. The user doesn't need to manage the file manually anymore.
 

The PropertiesPaletteConfiguration.xml file will be check in/out or downloaded when using Collaboration projects. The user doesn't need to manage the file manually anymore.
 

For Collaboration projects we need to know which PlantTools settings files still need to be downloaded in case they don't yet exist locally.
 

We watch PlantTools folder and configuration files in order to recognize changes (made by another user) in those folders and files. If files change, we need to invalidate the cached PlantTools settings in the Plant 3D session to ensure, the PlantTools use the latest settings.
 

The exported work sheets were always set to protect mode. Now they are set to unprotected mode, because typically you want to edit data after the export.
 

When changing the order of properties for the PropertiesPalette, the order was written into the PropertiesPaletteConfiguration.xml, but not instantly used. Only when reloading the project the new order was used.
 

The PDMDataCache of the current user was set to Read-Only when the user clicked on the Save icon to save the changes. The files was also correctly checked in, but wrongfully set to Read-Only which led to an error when later trying to close and save the changes.

If there is already a PDMDataCache of the current user and then the use clicks on Cancel on dialog #00162 when closing PlantDataManager, the PDMDataCache file was checked in and set to Read-Only.

Since Plant 3D 2024 Plant 3D had its own DocumentFormat.OpenXml.dll which was older than the same file we used for PlantTools. This lead to an error when tryting to ex- or import.DocumentFormat.OpenXml.d
 

When exporting to CSV in PlantDataManager leading 0 were cut of when exporting to csv, e.g. 12 instead of 012.
 

When importing changes from a CSV file which requires to set the acquisition mode to override, the mode will not be changed, and because of that the new value cannot be set.
 

When importing changes from a CSV file which has an empty column name, an error appeared.
 

A text in a property can contain the character which is set in Windows' region settings as the delimiter. This can cause problems when opening or importing such a file in Excel or another application. Therefore, such texts which contain the delimiter character will be wrapped in quotation marks, e.g. "This is a test, by XYZ" or "This is a test; by XYZ"

Be aware the delimiter may be different depending on your country.

After exporting and making changes, some old data was still in memory which cause a problem when importing. Unless the project was closed before the import.
 

PlantTools now support AutoCAD Plant 3D 2024.

PlantTools support AutoCAD Plant 3D 2019 - 2024 now.
 

The Not-Place Object functions for Collaboration projects are enabled.

Details on how NPOs work in a Collaboration project can be found here: Not-Placed Objecs Workflow
 

If more than one drawing is selected or PlantDataManager is using some Project View, then the user is shown a new dialog to select a drawing to which the NPOs will be linked too. This applies not only to Collaboration projects.

Details on how NPOs work in a Collaboration project can be found here: Not-Placed Objecs Workflow
 

The warning dialog when NPOs were assigned to only the project and not to a drawing was remmoved due to the changed workflow for NPOs. Therefore the Message tab in the PlantDataManager settings isn't needed anymore.

Details on how NPOs work in a Collaboration project can be found here: Not-Placed Objecs Workflow
 

When creating Not-Placed Objects (NPOs) with Graphics (Symbols) the dialog showed all PID classes. Not just the ones which actually have symbols. This led to the effect, that an Graphical NPO was shown in PlantDataManager Plugin, but the NPO couldn't be inserted, because no symbol was available for the class.

Now only the classes which actually have a symbol, will show up in the tree.

To get the info which class has what Symbols, we export the \ACPlantTools\PIDStyleDefinitions.xml when the project gets closed.

The class tree can now be filtered in order to find a class.

When creating graphical NPOs the Non-Engineering Items classes are available now (if they have symbols).

In the past we filtered out the Non-Engineering Items class, because there was no use case.

Since NPOs are often NOT linked to a drawing or an object in a drawing, AUDITPROJECT was deleting the NPOs from the ProcessPower.dcf database.

We changed the methodology which makes sure that NPOs are always linked to a drawing. Details can be found under Not-Placed Objects.

Details on how NPOs work in a Collaboration project can be found here: Not-Placed Objecs Workflow.
 

The CalculationConfiguration.Collection.xml and all *.calc files will be check in/out or downloaded when using Collaboration projects. The user doesn't need to manage the file manually anymore.
 

The PropertiesPaletteConfiguration.xml file will be check in/out or downloaded when using Collaboration projects. The user doesn't need to manage the file manually anymore.
 

If PlantDataManager restarts because of a change of the AutoCAD version setting, a previously loaded project will be reloaded.
 

If the checkbox Automatically refresh data on tree node selection is enabled, the changes of other PlantDataManager users are also reloaded. This way you always see the latest changes when selecting another node or view.

This does not apply to Collaboration projects, because that would require to download the PDMDataCache files from the other users and this would take too long.

Due to the fact, that the report layout of DevExpress 22.2.5 isn't backwards compatible with DevExpress 21.2.6 we start to split up the report layout information (stored in the RCF files) in a separate file with the DevExpress version number. This way we don't run into the incompatible issue again in the future, because we can fall back on the previous DevExpress version for the layout.

Since Report Configuration files can be used in PlantDataManager too, PlantDataManager will also trigger the separation of the rcf file into 2 files.

The new file with the layout info is stored in the [RCFNAME].layout.22.2 file where 22.2 is the current DevExpress version used with the 7.0.0.x PlantTools.
 

We updated DevExpress controls and tools to the latest version 22.2.5 in all PlantTools.
 

The Log files are written into the %programdata%\ACPlant Consult\PlantTools\Log folder.

Existing log files will be moved from the old folder to the new folder.

For convenience there is a folder junction in the old location %appdata%\ACPlant Consult\PlantTools\Log

The \ACPlantTools\PIDTagFormats.xml is not encrypted anymore.

The file has version number 2 now.
 

Only when closing Plant 3D was the \ACPlantTools\PIDTagFormats.xml written. But not when the project was closed in Project Manager or the user loaded a different project.

The PIDTagFormats.xml contains the Tag Formats of the PID classes, because the formats aren't available outside of Plant 3D, but they are needed in order to edit Tags in PlantDataManager
 

When opening a project with Plant 3D version 2018 or older, PlantDataManager set the appropriate version (e.g. 2017 and restarts). After it then automatically opens the project again you get the same message again. This is an endless cycle.

Now the user gets the info to first migrate the project.

When changing the AutoCAD version in PlantDataManager Settings, PlantDataManager didn't start after clicking Yes on dialog #00222.

When opening a regular network project (not a Collaboration project), then the Log file showed error messages.
 

PlantReporter and PlantDataManager downloaded the UDL file, but the referenced file in the UDL file (e.g. an MS Access DB) wasn't downloaded. Only when you opened the project again was the referenced file downloaded.
 

When using CTRL+S to save changes, the PDMDataCache_[USERNAME].dcf file was checked in, but it wasn't kept checked out. Therefore, any additional changes after CTRL+S weren't saved.
 

Due to the adaptation of PlantLink for Collaboration Projects, PlantDataManager is also handling link configuration files for Collaboration Project.

Details regarding the various workflows when using Collaboration Projects can be found under Collaboration Workflows.
 

When opening a project in PlantDataManager we now show a line when PlantTools settings are loaded. Since this sometimes took a while it cause confusion about what the delay was about.

As part of the strategy to move all PlantTools settings into PlantProjectSetup, we started moving the common settings Language, DevExpress Skin, Update Check, and Proxy Settings into PlantProjectSetup and make it accessible through all Desktop PlantTools (PlantCenter, PlantDataManager, PlantReporter) and Plugins (PlantClashDetection, PlantDataManager Plugin, PlantExpressTools, PlantLink, PlantSync, PlantSpecDriven).

Details can be found under: PlantProjectSetup
 

As part of the move of the common PlantTools settings (Language, DevExpress Skin, Proxy Settings) we also updated the Update Installer.

Details can be found under: Update Installer
 

NPOs are now activated when selecting Project Reports view.

When using the dialog to open a Collaboration project, the previously used Collaboration Account and Project will be preset. This behaviour is consistent with AutoCAD Plant 3D.

The Plant 3D Collaboration API used in PlantDataManager and PlantReporter isn't very reliable. Therefore PlantDataManager/PlantReporter sometime get empty values. This happens for example when PlantDataManager/PlantReporter try to get the available Projects for the user interface. Now we try multiple-times with a delay in between to make sure we get data.
 

In PlantDataManager the accoreconsole.exe was kept running while the Collaboration project was open in PlantDataManager. This was changed to use the accoreconsole.exe only if needed. For example when downloading the project or checking in the PDMDataCache file.

PlantReporter already behaved this way.
 

Making sure, that the PlantTools ribbons in AutoCAD Plant 3D use the current language.
 

The server location of Collaboration projects wasn't considered yet.
 

When you opened the Collaboration for Plant 3D dialog to download a Plant 3D project in PlantDataManager, but then closed the dialog without selecting anything, then the dialog didn't open again when you wanted to open the dialog again.
 

When you opened the Collaboration for Plant 3D dialog, but no Plant 3D project was available, PlantDataManager and PlantReporter crashed when you clicked on Open Project.
 

The AutoCAD language code for French Plant 3D wasn't supported in PlantTools. This effected all PlantTools.
 

When using a Collaboration project, PlantDataManager Plugin now checks drawings out in order to accept the changes.
 

When opening a Collaboration project in PlantDataManager and then clicking on the delete button and delete all user changes, then the PDMDataCache_[USERNAME].dcf of that user get deleted correctly, but the file is still referenced in the Misc.dcf where the links to the Related Files are stored.
 

The checkbox which makes sure, that drawings are saved and close after the import is done, was not considered at all. Drawings were always save and then closed.

The SymbolsPaletteCustomClasses.xml which is used for the PlantExpressTools SymbolsPalette was created by every PlantTool Plugin (PlantClashDetection, PlantDataManager. PlantLink, PlantSpecDriven, PlantSync) and not just be PlantExpressTools.
 

When downloading a Collaboration Project with an existing PIDTagFormats.xml, the first time opening/downloading the project the xml file wasn't downloaded

When a Collaboration project was downloaded with PlantDataManager or PlantReporter first, and the the project was opened with Plant 3D, the project was downloaded again as a copy.
 

When making changes to a filtered grid, then the changes were applied also to the filtered rows.

In case of errors during saving changes made in PlantDataManager, previously made changes were lost.

Now existing (already saved) changes will be updated (if needed) and the new changes will be added.
 

PlantDataManager already had CTRL+S implemented to save changes. However, it was working only if the main user interface of PlantDataManager had the focus. If you were currently editing in the data grid or the properties palette, then CTRL+S was ignored.
 

Link Configuration names can be edited/changed in the Wizard itself.

PlantDataManager and PlantReporter can now open Collaboration projects which haven't been opened with Plant 3D before and therefore aren't available in the local work folder yet.

Before using PlantDataManager or PlantReporter make sure that you have read Using ACC/BIM projects with PlantDataManager and Using ACC/BIM projects with PlantReporter!
 

Allow the execution of SQL Scripts when a project is loaded. This helps with the creation of views often used for PlantLink. And avoids the manual execution of SQL Scripts when a project has just been created.

It is also important when using Collaboration projects, because the views used by PlantLink do not exit when the project is first downloaded to the local work folder.

Details under: Execute SQL Scripts on Project Load
 

PlantDataManager didn't check if Plant 3D 2023 was installed which caused error when trying to open collaboration projects.

When exporting to or importing from excel in PlantDataManager the progress bar uses the wrong style. It is pink instead of the blue style we use elsewhere.

When creating an extended links it didn't show active in the main form.

Some files had a wrong path to the Development Express DLLs in the PlantToolsCommon project, which potentially could could error for some controls. However, that apparently never became an issue.
 

PlantDataManager and PlantReporter do support Collaboration projects. This is only available for AutoCAD Plant 3D 2023 and future versions, because if new technology Autodesk implemented in AutoCAD Plant 3D 2023, but not lower versions.

Before using PlantDataManager or PlantReporter make sure that you have read Using ACC/BIM projects with PlantDataManager and Using ACC/BIM projects with PlantReporter!
 

To avoid issues with different build versions of PlantTools, we now force users to update all installed PlantTools to avoid any issues with shared files between PlantTools.

After installing one PlantTool and not updating others you will see the following dialog which allows you to individually download PlantTools or to download all available updates at once (green arrow).

The updates will be downloaded and stored in the download folder.

After closing the desktop PlantTools (PlantCenter, PlantDataManager, PlantReporter) or closing Plant 3D the downloaded updates will be installed automatically.
 

When opening a project in PlantDataManager the dialog received rework and it using the current skin set in the settings of PlantDataManager.

When opening a project in PlantDataManager or PlantReporter the user interface is disabled so the user cannot interact with the user interface while the project is being loaded. Interacting with the user interface caused issued with when loading collaboration projects.

For several versions now, PlantDataManager didn't consider acquisitions/relation ships anymore. For example when editing the Size of a line segment, the inserted valve gets the Size as well, but the class isn't showing the change, nor is the valve.

In cases were a project name appeared multiple times, there could be an issue when opening a project, because the correct path to the selected project couldn't be identified.

PlantDataManager didn't have DarkSkin2020 as a skin while PlantReporter and PlantCenter had it.

When opening a project where the MISC database doesn't exist you get an error.

This applies typically to old projects where the MISC database didn't exists from project creation on. Only when you added files or folders under 'Related Files' was the MISC database created.

The Plugins like PlantClashDetection, PlantDataManager, PlantExpressTools, PlantLink, PlantSpecDriven and PlantSync will create the file on project load.

PlantDataManager and PlantReporter show the following dialog as an info. The project will be loaded anyway.

If you extend the dialog you get information on how to create the MISC database.

The PropertiesPalette of PlantExpressTools and PlantDataManager sometimes showed a tab twice.

When starting PlantDataManager 6.0.3.2349 and there is no Plant 3D installed, PlantDataManager shows an error.

When trying to open the Viewer dialog in PlantDataManager an error appeared.

When importing changes which were created with PlantDataManager 5.2.0.2163 or earlier, then the column PnPGuid was missing in the PDMDataCache file. In this case the error appeared and changes in the PDMDataCache were sometimes deleted.

When opening a SQL Server project in PlantDataManager and the ACPChangeLog database doesn't exist an error appears.

When deleting a value in XLS/CSV file and then importing the XLS/CSV file, the value will not be deleted in PlantDataManager. The existing value will stay in PlantDataManager.
 

With the last release we reformatted the \ACPlantTools\PlantExpressTools\ClassesAndProperties\AssignTagProperties.xml and \ACPlantTools\PlantExpressTools\ClassesAndProperties\PropertiesPaletteConfiguration.xml files and inserted a version number in those files. However, the function was faulty which led to wrong data in the XML files which then cause an empty PlantExpressTools and PlantDataManager Properties Palette as well as an error when opening the PlantExpressTools Settings or the Properties Palette Settings in PlantDataManager.

If you already opened the PlantExpressTools Settings with PlantExpressTools 6.0.0.2267 you have to update to this latest PlantExpressTools and PlantDataManager version and restore the two xml files from another project which you haven't opened yet.
 

PlantTools now support AutoCAD Plant 3D 2023.

PlantTools support AutoCAD Plant 3D 2018 - 2023 now.
 

Change made in PlantDataManager are stored in the PDMDataCache. Each change was stored under the PnPID of the object (symbol, line segment, line group) for which the change was made.

However, when using BIM360/ACC or Vault projects, the objects (symbol, line segment, line group) get new PnPIDs. Therefore, the changes made previously couldn't be associated with the objects (symbol, line segment, line group).

We now added the PnPGuid property and use the GUID to associate a change with the object.
 

In PlantDataManager Settings you can enable/disable the behavior of link configurations and calculations being updated on project load.

This gives you better control about the performance when loading a project.

If the updating is disabled, the link configurations and calculations will still work when you edit data. The update won't just be executed on project load. Up until now the calculations weren't updated anyway.

The PnPGuid property is now also shown in the PropertiesPalettes in PlantExpressTools and PlantDataManager. This is the globally unique identifier used by Plant 3D and now PlantTools and is especially important with BIM360/ACC and Vault projects., because in those cases the PnPID isn't reliable anymore.

We updated DevExpress controls and tools to the latest version 21.2.6 in all PlantTools.
 

The ACPAssetOwnership table in the ProcessPower.dcf (P&ID Database) isn't needed anymore and therefore will be removed. The relationships stored in that table between Placed Objects and Not-Placed Objects used in PlantSpecDriven as already stored
 

When the user is selecting ‘Project Reports’ view and a project report ‘s xml file isn’t available, we hide the project report as P3D’s Data Manager does.
 

Due to the changes made with PT-1467 the change log database will also be switched from PET_GUID to PnPGuid. Existing records in the database will be migrated.
 

When ex- and importing to/from csv files we now use the setting in Windows and not use the delimiter from the Windows culture.

Even without changes made it could happen, that the 'Ready for Import' dialog appeared.

When using a Project Report the rows appeared twice:

When first making changes in PlantDataManager in the Properties Palette, then entering PlantDataManager Settings and clicking OK the following error appeared:

When using 'Open..." in PlantDataManager and then cancel when the File Dialog appears, the File Dialog won't appear again if you try to use 'Open...' again.

If there were 3D changes made in PlantDataManager, an error appeared when opening PlantDataManager Plugin.
 

For example, Raster-Design uses relative URIs for the ribbons which caused a FATAL ERROR when hovering over a button in the Raster-Design ribbon.
 

The reason for this bug is that whenever the PropertiesPalette is displayed for an object, it is created but not disposed after that, the surviving objects accumulate in the memory over time and pass the Windows limit.
 

When the project is open in Plant 3D and PlantDataManager at the same time, and the user removes an object from a drawing and saves the changes in Plant 3D, editing the row in PlantDataManager caused exception.

Now we catch this exception and show a proper dialog

When closing the project in PlantDataManager or when closing the PlantDataManager Plugin Palette there was still a lock on the PDMDataCache.dcf which prevented deleting the file.

If the Windows user name contains an apostrophe it cause error when PlantTools tried to access one of its databases (PDMDataCache.dcf, ACProject.db, ACPChangeLog.dcf, ACPProcessPower.dcf)
 

We increased the performance when using 'Update calculations in project'.

Because of duplicate PnPIDs in ACPProcessPower and ProcessPower databases the migration failed.
 

The function to convert Graphical Not-Placed Objects (GNPOs) into Non-Graphical Not-Place Objects (NGNPOs) and vice versa wasn't available anymore.

The function is still deactivated for BIM/ACC and Vault projects.

When typing in a value in a cell and then deleting the change...

...the cell was still shown the background color.

PlantDataManager showed the 'Ready for Import' dialog when closing the project, even if there had been no changes made.

PlantDataManager showed the 'Ready for Import' dialog when closing the project, even if there had been no changes made.

The performance when opening a project in PlantDataManager was improved.
 

While migrating ACPProcessPower into ProcessPower it could happen that both databases contain the same PnPID. If this PnPID is used inside relationships it happened that the wrong PnPId (the one from ProcessPower and not the one from ACPProcessPower) got converted.

This resulted in a silent exception and therefore wasn't obvious to the user.
 

The ACPRelationships table can contain owner PnPIDs where the PnPID doesn’t exist (anymore). Those relationships will be ignored, but written into the log file if you see the following dialog:

Not-Place Objects that are not linked to a drawing were ignored while migration of the NPOs from the ACPProcessPower to the ProcessPower database, if this object does not have a relationship.
 

With version 5.0 all PlantTools will be updated to that version. Because of shared resources and code is mandatory that all PlantTools on a machine are updated. If this is not the case the following dialog will appear and lists all the installed PlantTools on a machine and which ones require an update.

The PlantTools with the red arrow require an update. The dialog will appear until all PlantTools are updated to the required version.

The language of PlantTools can be set globally now. In the Plugins (PlantClashDetection, PlantDataManager Plugin, PlantExpressTools, PlantLink, PlantSpecDriven, PlantSync) you can select AutoCAD, English, or German. AutoCAD tells the PlantTools to use the AutoCAD language. If you change the setting, the PlantTools Plugins will change the language of the user interfaces and ribbons instantly.

If you select English or German in the Plugins, the Desktop Apps (PlantCenter, PlantDataManager, PlantReporter, MigrationTools and PlantProjectCreate will use this language.

If you select a language in one of the Desktop App Settings, all Desktop Apps will use this language and not the AutoCAD language.

The ACPProcessPower.dcf database hosted the Not-Placed Objects (NPOs) which were created by PlantSpecDriven or PlantDataManager, and also used by PlantReporter.

The NPOs will now be stored in the ProcessPower.dcf (P&ID database) directly. This applies to SQL Server projects as well.

The advantage is, that when using Vault or ACC/BIM projects, those NPOs will also be check in/out.

The first time you open a project PlantDataManager, PlantDataManager Plugin, PlantExpressTools, PlantLink, PlantReporter, or PlantSpecDriven will migrated an existing ACPProjectPower.dcf and its content into PID's ProcessPower.dcf.

If you are updating any of the following PlantTools (PlantDataManager, PlantExpressTools, PlantLink, PlantReporter, PlantSpecDriven) you MUST make sure, that the other PlantTools you have installed are also updated to version 5.0.0.x.
 

For now the NPO features in PlantDataManager when using Vault or ACC (BIM) projects are disabled.

We may be able to find a solution with Plant 3D 2023.

NPOs created by PlantSpecDriven are still handled properly.

When entering or pasting a string value longer than the defined length of the property database field (typically 255 characters), we show a waring icon with a tooltip to let you know, that this isn't possible.

The same will be shown in the Properties Palette in PlantDataManager or in the PlantExpressTools Properties Palette.

When exporting data to Excel, the speed was improved significantly.
 

When exporting to Excel the progress dialog can be closed which terminates the export and deleted the export file.

The import progress bar now looks the same as the export.

When importing from Excel and the changes exceed the length of the property field length Dialog #01166 appears and informs you about the exceeding values.

It states, that the changes will be imported in full. Only when importing the changes, those exceeding changes will be trimmed with the PlantDataManager Plugin.

When changing properties in the Properties Palette in PlantDataManager or PlantExpressTools which then triggers an update of other properties, these triggered changes weren't instantly shown when selecing another tab in the Properties Palette.

For example: The change in Flow Speed triggered several calculations and a link configuration which results in the selection of Size 65 on the "FlowData" tab.

When selecting the "Basics" tab you instantly see the new values.

When exporting to Excel the progress dialog can be closed which terminates the export and deleted the export file.

Improved performance when using the 'Show only changed objects' toggle button in PlantDataManager.

When exporting to XLS/XLSX or CSV with PlantDataManager, the last column header now shows PT_ObjectType instead of ACP_ObjectType. This is due to the changes introduced with PT-1079.

When we change the Relationship panel to DevExpress controls we forgot to implement the Drag & Drop function to relate objects with each other.

You can use Drag & Drop to create relationships which are allows according to the Relationship Types definitions.

When importing changes from a CSV file into PlantDataManager the following error appears.

When importing reserved XML data from Excel (e.g. x < y) it showed wrongly like this.

Now it looks correct.

Silent exceptions where thrown when the Properties Palette in PlantDataManager or PlantExpressTools tried to convert MM or IN for natural sorting.

Although the was no error dialog (hence silent exceptions), but it caused slowness in the PlantDataManager/PlantExpressTools Properties Palette.
 

When exporting to Excel the progress dialog can be closed which terminates the export and deleted the export file.

When exporting to Excel the progress dialog can be closed which terminates the export and deleted the export file.

We accidentally released parts of the code with PlantDataManager 4.3.0.1971 which shouldn't have been released. Therefore an error message appears when PlantDataManager tries to create the ACPReleationshipTypes table in the ACPProcessPower.dcf.

Because of PT-1079 this bug fix is obsolete.

When having multiple PlantTools Plugins (PlantClashDetection, PlantDataManager Plugin, PlantExpressTools, PlantLink, PlantSpecDriven, PlantSync) installed and they are set for different languages then Plant 3D crashed if the tooltips for the PlantTools ribbon buttons are supposed to be shown.
 

When opening a project with existing changes where the changes exceed the length of the property field length Dialog #00172 appeared and prevented the opening of the project.

Now these exceeding changes will be imported. And the following dialog will be shown. It states, that the changes will be imported in full. Only when importing the changes, those exceeding changes will be trimmed with the PlantDataManager Plugin.

In some PlantTools the URL to the online documentation pointed to the old location.
 

You can now filter the data grid, hide columns or change the column order and only what you see is what will be exported.

When importing an Excel file where the imported value is for a property which has the acquisition mode set to 'Acquire', the mode will now be changed to 'Override'.

The Calculation function in PlantExpressTools and PlantDataManager allow using project and drawing properties now. This eliminates the need for acquisitions.

The checkbox 'Export P&ID tag formats on project close' in the PlantDataManager Plugin settings has been removed. To avoid confusion, the PIDTagFormats.xml will always be exported on project close.

If you open a project in PlantDataManager with existing changes in PDMDataCache and these changes were set as 'NOT Ready for Import', PlantDataManager will show the 'Ready for Import' dialog (#00162). This allows you to save the changes now as 'Ready for Import'.

When importing an Excel sheet into PlantDataManager the speed has been improved significantly now.
 

When exporting or importing data to and from Excel in PlantDataManager we don't show the Success dialog anymore and close the progress bar only. Unless there was an issue while exporting/importing.

There was still the old PlantDataManager icon in the top left corner of the dialog.

If there are multiple changes for a property the user will see a dialog to choose which change to accept. When the user clicks on cancel, then both changes were removed from the PDMDataCache.dcf.

When using the 'Cancel' button, both changes where deleted from the PDMDataCache.

It was also possible to multi-select changes in this dialog and click on 'Accept' which is disabled now.

If a property shows changes made by multiple users, the property didn't appear in cyan anymore. The tooltip still showed the various changes.

When selecting the GNPO tab in PlantDataManager Plugin and selecting different classes, the data grid doesn't show the correct properties and values.

Here for example the Blower class.

When having an expression for a property in PlantExpressTools/PlantDataManager calculation UI and then switch to another class and then back again, the expression is gone.
 

The error occurred in PlantDataManager 4.2.0.1876. But it was resolved during the development of other tasks.

PlantDataManager showed the column context menu when using the 'PlantReporter Reports' view.

Project Reports can have the same Display Name for different properties. This can lead to columns with the same header. When importing, only one column was imported.

Now PlantDataManager exports the class name in front of the property name to differentiate the two columns.
 

When importing changes and using 'Drawing Data' view, then only the last drawing was closed, but the other drawings stayed open even when the option to close the drawings was checked.

When scrolling through the data grid and Not-Place Objects (NPOs) are shown in blue or green, then clicking into a cell of a Place Object will use the text color of the NPO.

When changing the order of the rows, the cells marked with changes didn't follow the new ordering leading to the wrong cells being colored.

When changing the order of the columns and then use 'Freeze Panes' the new order wasn't considers for the freezing.

Pasting a value in the Auto-Filter control copies the value in the last selected cell instead of the Auto-Filter control.

When enabling the Auto-Filter header in PlantDataManager Plugin and then move the mouse into the header the following error appeared.

When opening a drawing for which changes do exist and you click on 'Review Changes'...

...the PlantDataManager Plugin will now not only change the View to 'Drawing Data' but also check the drawing you just opened. So you can instantly see the changes for this drawing.

If you tried to override a change made by another user with the value currently in the database/drawing it failed.

In this example, when you typed in "Assemblies" is wasn't accepted.

When opening a drawing one of the two error messages appeared.

This was an unexpected return value to out code which creates the GUIDs for the PET_GUID property when opening a drawing.
 

Link configurations can be deactivated for being use in PlantDataManager.

At the last page of the link configuration wizard you can deactivate the use of a link configuration. This can be done in PlantDataManager as well as PlantLink. This setting will be stored in the lcf file for this link configuration.

When disabling link configurations in PlantDataManager...

...or disabling the use of a link configuration in PlantDataManager...

...the deactivation or activation wasn't used instantly in PlantDataManager.
 

Up until now, only the PlantExpressTools Change Log function created an additional property "PET_GUID". Since more and more PlantTools and functions require this property, the property will now be created on project load if it doesn't exist yet.

It will be created for all 'Base Classes' like Pipe Line Group, Signal Line Group, Engineering Items, and Non Engineering Items. It will now also be created for 3D (P3d Line Group, Piping and Equipment, Steel Structure, and Pulled Pipe Bend.

The PET_GUID will be filled (if empty) on drawing load.

The PET_GUID will also be filled right away as soon as an object is created. In addition of filling the PET_GUID with a new value if PET_GUID is empty, there are two rules which apply:

1.Copying (copy, array, mirror, CTRL+C/CTRL+V, using grips for copying, and more)
The copied objects will get a new PET_GUID because not two objects can have the same GUID.

2.Move (move, using grips for moving, rotate, CTRL+X/CTRL+V, and more)
The moved objects will keep their GUID.

The two rules apply also when copying and moving between drawings.
 

We now:

•prevent expanding all nodes at once, each expand loads the respective table from the database causing the plugin to take too long

•prevent updating the View multiple times

•prevent loading the same tables multiple times
 

When using the 'Zoom all new loaded drawings to extents' PlantDataManager Plugin is executing the zoom commend first before saving the drawing. Otherwise the zoom command will trigger another saving of the drawing.

When PlantDataManager's data grid is in edit mode the grid is now still scrollable.

Having a cell in the grid in edit mode is important to ensure, that the various flyouts (e.g. History, Acquisition Mode) can extent at the first click.

When installing PlantCenter, PlantDataManager, PlantReporter on a PC a a dialog informed the user about denied access when starting the PlantTools from the Desktop. PlantClashDetection, PlantLink, PlantSync, PlantSpecDriven had to be activated everytime Plant 3D was started, because the registration information couldn't be written either. This happened only when installing the PlantTool for the first time or after uninstalling previous installations. desktop shortcut.

If the link configuration used an Oracle provider, an error appeared when opening the project.
 

This was due to the fact, that the records in the ACPChangeLog database which were added when the object was created were also considered as modified and not just the records which actually showed the modification.
 

The popup History Grid showed history records which aren't needed. This was due to the fact, that changes accepted/rejected through importing changes of the PlantDataManager Plugin lead to these unneeded records.
 

When loading a project into PlantDataManager sometimes the following error appeared:

This was due to SQL statements which became to long.
 

We replaced the old notification dialogs with the new ones.

This one when opening a project:

This one when opening a drawing for which changes exist:

When switching between work spaces Plant 3D gets very slow all of a sudden. Also the memory consumption increases. For example when switching between "3D Piping" and "PID ISO" 10 times. In Task Manager you can see "Not responding". Eventually Plant will react and you can close it.

It looks like this:

If PlantClashDetection, PlantDataManager Plugin, PlantExpressTools, PlantLink, PlantSync and PlantSpecDriven cannot acquire a network license when Plant 3D starts, the performance became very slow. This was due to the fact, that these PlantTools Plugins checked for a network license multiple times a second.

If no network license was available you get the next two dialogs.

Now these PlantTools check just on startup.

Properties linked by extended link types in PlantLink are now appearing in PlantDataManager's Data Grid and Properties Palette.

When importing Excel files into PlantDataManager, the import sometimes wasn't successful.

This was fixed through a different method which also ignores empty columns and rows now.

We now support AutoCAD Plant 3D 2022.

The new "Project Compare" is included in PlantProjectManager also.
 

PlantTools trigger the "Update License" check of the network license in auxaliaLicenseServer service on your server.

auxaliaLicenseServer is checking the license every 15 min to ensure, that your license information (e.g. number of license, expiration dates) are updated automatically without your need for involvement.

There is no need to keep the auxaliaLicenseManager open.

If a PlantTools is started and it finds an older CADSTUDIOLicenseManager or auxaliaLicenseManager installed on the server, the following dialog shows up.

You can decide when you want to be reminded again. The maximum is 2 weeks. After that, you will have a maximum of another week, then another 4 days and so on. That gives you a grace period of 4 weeks till auxaliaLicenseManager must be updated. If you don't do this, you will be reminded every time the PlantTools is asking for a license.
 

We updated DevExpress controls and tools to the latest version 20.2.6 in all PlantTools.
 

We discontinue the support for AutoCAD P&ID 2016/2017 and AutoCAD Plant 3D 2016/2017.

Typically we only removed only one version when adding the newest AutoCAD Plant 3D version, but since hardly any customer is using AutoCAD P&ID 2017 or AutoCAD Plant 3D 2017 anymore we decided to cut off the two oldest versions. Another argument was, that there is no migration needed between 2018 and 2022 which makes it more convenient for customers t use those newer versions.
 

PlantTools will run run 14 days in trial period before they stop working.

Several dialogs informing about anything related to licensing (expiration dates, rental dates, issues with activation and more) have been improved to make it clearer what the dialog is all about.
 

A very strange issue appeared, which didn't update the data in the drawing when accepting all changes. The data in the project database was updated though. This lead to the result, that when opening the drawing the Drawing Checked wanted you to review the differences between drawing and project database data.

We add the REGEN command at the end of the process of accepting all changes for each drawing.

When using SQL Server to store changes in the PDMDataCache, those changes weren't removed from the data cache table. Also the changes still appeared in yellow, although they were imported already.

When selecting "Project Reports" under Views in PlantDataManager Plugin...

... the following error message appeared.

When using "Show linked data..." the external data viewer showed ALL records of the view/table not just the one which match the property values for the linked fields.

Now you will find an additional setting in the link configuration wizard where you control the behavior when using 'Assign Data'. It is enabled by default.

In case you want to have the old behavior you disable it. Then you always will see all records from the table/view.

When using 'Assign Tag' you can still change the behavior with the Tri-State checkbox. This still allows you to see all records.

We added more selection options to the drawing control. In addition to the three menu items we also support multi-selecting drawings and folders with CTRL and SHIFT keys.

We added another setting in PlantProjectManager for the change log feature which allows the showing of the history icon in the data grid of PlantDataManager.

If this check box is enabled the history icon will show.

If you click on the history icon in the data grid the same flyout dialog appears as in the Properties Palette. You can also make a right click to restore an old value.

We added a toggle button in the toolbar to filter the data grid to show only rows which have a history icon in one of its columns/properties.

We also rearranged the icons and moved the three toggle buttons to the right.

When a property already shows a history icon and you change the value, the icon will change to orange. Indicating that there is a new value which hasn't been written into the Change Log.

We added two settings in the PlantDataManager settings to control storing accepted and rejected changes in the change log database. Until now these changes were automatically saved into the change log database. Now you can disable that independently for accepted and rejected changes.

If you use the change log feature of PlantExpressTools, you may not need to store the changed imported through PlantDataManager Plugin, because the changes will be stored anyway through the PlantExpressTools Change log feature.

We now show the icons for selection lists, acquisition state and Tag edit buttons in the data grid. This give you a better overview of your data.

We created a new view for PlantDataManager ("Change Log") which is available if a Change Log Database does exists. It shows the whole change history of the project and can be used to review and find changes.

If you click on a change the current data of the object behind the selected change will be shown. From here you can also restore previous values if needed.

When switching classes or clicking on the refresh button, PlantDataManager lost the column settings (width and order) as well as any grouping or filtering.

When PlantDataManager Plugin accepted the all changes, the Change log data weren't written. Of course, only if the check boxes for the triggers are enabled.

The PlantDataManager Plugin user interface got a major overhaul. All standard WinForms controls where replaced with DevExpress controls. This results in the same user interface as the other PlantTools palettes (SymbolsPalette, PropertiesPalette, PlantProjectManager Palette).

The PlantDataManager Plugin uses still WinForm controls which must be replaced with DevX. Similar to PlantDataManager itself.
 

We added an icon in-front of the menu item "Restore to this value" in the context menu of the history panel. To see the context menu better.

The three toggle buttons in PlantDataManager are now reset whenever a project is loaded. This will be handled when PlantDataManager will be started and a project is opened, but also when PlantDataManager already has a project loaded and a new project is loaded.

We removed the project settings from the PlantDataManager Plugin settings, because the changes which are accepted/rejected when importing changes from PlantDataManager are already logged in the Change Log database anyway.

Before:

After:

We improved the speed of presenting the data in the data grid though two steps.

Firstly, when loading the data into the grid, the grid was refreshed several times during this process. This was reduced to render the view only at the end of the process. This is also important when clicking on nodes in the tree with the classes where the data in the grid has to be refreshed every time.

Secondly, existing records in the Change Log database caused delays of several seconds before a cell could be edited. This was noticeable especially when the Properties Palette was open and the data with their history was supposed to be shown. This was solved by creating indexes in the Change Log database.
 

It could take a while when storing the changes made in PlantDataManager, because each change was stored individually. Now the changes will be stored in one dump.
 

The PlantDataManager Plugin didn't store ClassName, PCNmae and PET_GUID (new property for the PlantExpressTools Change Log feature) in the Change Log database.

In addition, the TimeStamp will be stored in GMT time zone in UTC format (e.g. 2020-07-16T15:16:26Z).
 

PlantDataManager will now also use GMT time zone and UTC format (e.g. 2020-07-16T15:16:26Z) when writing changes into the data cache table.

When accepting changes in PlantDataManager Plugin and the changes are supposed to be written into the change log table (see picture below), then they will also use GMT time zone and UTC format.

In both cases the Project Part field in the database will use PnId (for P&ID data) or Piping (for 3D data).

Exiting records won't be adapted.

When changing the state of an acquisition from "Acquired" to "Overridden" PlantDataManager will show the previously acquired value. But this value wasn't stored in the Data Cache database which then led to wrong coloring when loading the project with previous changes in PlantDataManager again.

Every time the change the column width of the Properties Palette the width will be reset to 50/50 when another object gets selected.

When selecting a new object, the width of the two columns is reset to 50/50.

Now the splitter keeps its position while in PlantDataManager.
 

When closing a project in PlantDataManager the following dialog appeared:

When selecting No, the "Ready for Import" column in PDMDataCache database wasn't set to false which allowed the import of the changes.

The dialog was replaced with this:

When making the explorer panel narrower the combobox controls will be cut of. At least that what it looks like, because a horizontal scrollbar appears.

Now the Explorer Panel gets a minimum width and the combobox controls will be set properly to this width.

This bug appeared when using the find function and there were hidden columns.

The text color settings in PlantDataManager's settings weren't used right away when changed in the data grid. Only after restarting PlantDataManager.

The text color in the Relationship tree didn't show the color set for NPOs in the PlantDataManager settings when the node was selected.

When editing a value of an NPO the text color didn't show what was set in the PlantDataManager settings.

This bug happened when a project which uses UNC paths was exclusively opened in PlantDataManager with the Properties Palette open and a record was selected in the grid.

This bug happened when a project which uses UNC paths was opened in Plant 3D and a drawing was open. And then you opened the project in PlantDataManager with the Properties Palette open and selected a record in the grid.

When a property is used on multiple tabs in the Properties Palette, the history icon wasn't shown for all properties.

The following error appears when trying to open the Properties Palette.

This bug was introduces with 3.4.0.1000 with the new Change Log feature.

The Change Log feature will be activated in PlantExpressTools. In PlantDataManager the history of changes can be reviewed though.

Change Logging will store all properties values of a drawing. The storing also includes when an object was inserted, deleted or substituted.

When the changes are supposed to be stored can be defined by triggers.

The changes can later be viewed in the PlantExpressTools/PlantDataManager Properties Palette.

In the PlantExpressTools/PlantDataManager Properties Palette it looks like this:

We started to put more information in our Message Boxes to give you more background details to reduce support questions or the need to look into the online documentation.

Also, all dialog boxes have a number which helps with support.

When using F1 in PlantCenter, PlantDataManager, PlantReporter, MigrationTool, PlantCenter or any button in the PlantTools or PlantExpressTools ribbon we open our own browser window.

When typing in a value in a selection list property the Properties Palette tried to find a suitable value in the list and if it found one, the selection list lost focus and therefore any additional value was which was typed in wasn't recognized.

In the Properties Palette the acquisition mode cannot be changed.

When setting Override mode...

It looks correct...

When the control loses focus it's back to acquire.

When trying to change from override to acquire, nothing is happening at all.

When selecting local BIM project (currently BIM projects cannot be opened directly from BIM 360), we show the BIM icon infront of the project name to indicate that it is a BIM project.

You can now remove you own changes in PlantDataManager. Simply click on the "Remove" button.

You then have three options.

Option 1 removes the changes you made since opening the project in PlantDataManager and ALL previous changes you may have made before.

Option 2 removes only the latest changes made since opening the project in PlantDataManager. It has the same effect than closing the project without saving your changes and opening again.

Option 3 doesn't remove anything.

The two types of Not-Placed Objects can be reversed.

Converting a NGNPO into a GNPO.

Converting a GNPO into a NGNPO.

When clicking on "Reject all changes",

you will be asked whether you want to lose all your changes or not.

Drawings which are currently open by other users will be skipped over when accepting all changes to ensure an uninterrupted process.
 

You can now multi-select drawings to select or unselect them.

After accepting/rejecting all drawings, these drawings which have been selected in the tree will be unchecked.
 

We are now consistently use in all PlantTools the file name of the drawings.

PlantDataManager will now automatically show the Auto Filter Row and the Find Panel.

When using "Show all Properties",

we show multiple lines in the properties palette in case the same property has different DisplayNames.

The order of folders and drawings in DWG trees in PlantCenter, PlantDataManager and PlantReporter is now consistent with the order in AutoCAD Plant 3D's Project Manager.
 

When using "Show only changed objects", the drawing tree wasn't filtered.

This was the same issue as in PlantDataManager.
 

When trying to open a project which uses a UNC Path, the following error message appeared.