Migration Tips and Tricks


 Product(s):promis.e V8i
 Version(s):through 08.11.12.137
 Environment:N/A
 Area:Migration
 Subarea:N/A

Background

This article describes various Tips and Tricks that may help you get the most out of the migration of legacy data into the promis.e V8i software.

promis.e V8i SELECTseries 7 (08.11.12.137) is the last version to include the ability to migrate data from promis.e 5.0x, Aero, and Aero II.

What do I do first?

There are multiple tabs in the [[Migration Wizard]] to cover the various items you might wish to bring over from your old software. So what goes first? Typically people want to migrate their projects first, but this is generally a bad idea. To get the best possible migration, you should migrate all the supporting components that go into a project (symbol catalogs, page formats, etc.) before you migrate the projects.

The same can be said for the the other objects as well. For example, if you used language text (sometimes called foreign language text in the old version) on the symbols, title blocks, etc. then you would need to make sure you migrated the language text before you migrated the catalogs or the projects.

Do I really need all this stuff?

I have a zillion legacy projects

Congratulations! You've been using promis.e successfully for years, and have a large archive of past projects. But now you're updating to V8i, and not relishing the thought of migrating all those projects. We find that in most real world cases, there really isn't a need to dedicate a large chunk of time to migrating every past job you've ever done. Typically, you will only have to migrate the projects you are actively working on at the time, and probably a few "template" projects that you borrow from frequently. Then when that new job comes up that is "just like the last one EXCEPT....." you can migrate that job as needed.

This symbol catalog is huge

When you are switching to a major new release with all its new features, it is a prime time to do a little house cleaning and decide what stuff you really need and what stuff you haven't used in years or never got around to deleting. So rather than just bringing obsolete data into the new system, take some time to peruse what you have and decide if you really need it in the new system. If you don't need it, don't migrate it.

Here's a tip: the new version does not use the graphical plan macros, so you can clean those right out.

Title Blocks

In legacy versions of promis.e, all macros were just macros. There was nothing to designate title block macros from graphical plan macros, from schematic circuit macros. In promis.e, V8i, they are stored differently and given different properties from the other types, so you need to tell the software which ones are really title blocks when you migrate. So, in order to capture all possible title blocks, the migration step to choose the macros you want to become title blocks in promis.e V8i lists all the macros found in the catalog. You must choose the ones that are title blocks you wish to continue using in V8i.  Remember, anything you aren't using or don't think you'll need, you can just skip and it won't be migrated.

Important: If you use the "Import All" button, all macros will be designated as title blocks, and there will be no macros left to choose from in the "Macro" migration step.

I have no macros!

See the above note for title blocks.  If you select Import All without really reading the screen in the Select Title Block step, then you told the software to designate every macro as a title block.  Therefore you have no macros left to designate as regular macros.  Go back and only select the title blocks you really want, and anything left over will appear in the step to select as the macros you want to migrate.  As mentioned above, the new version does not use the graphical plan macros, so you do not need to select those to be migrated.

Page Formats

If you had customized page formats in the old version, you will need to migrate them.  If you are using the "browse your legacy files" method of migrating, make sure that you have migrated the ladder macros that you were using in the legacy page formats BEFORE you migrate the page formats.  Otherwise, the migrated format could look different than it did in the old version.  The old version had two pieces for each format: the dwg.cfg file and the ladder macros called out in that file.  The new version consolidates that into one file for ease of use.

Page and Project Descriptions

In legacy promis.e, page and project description labels were system settings and therefore not stored with the projects. So when migrating legacy projects and browsing to legacy data files directly instead of specifying the "Legacy promis-e path", customized page and project description labels are not transferred to the migrated projects. When modifying pages or project descriptions in the migrated projects, the labels are incorrect ("Date Drawn" appears instead of "My custom description") or generic ("9. Para").

In promis.e V8i on the Import Legacy Projects tab of the [[Migration Wizard]],  the dialog text file that was modified for custom page and project description labels in legacy promis.e can be selected. Projects migrated with a custom dialog text file specified will have the page and project description labels contained in that dialog text file.

When browsing for the dialog text file, only .txt files can be selected.  promis.e 5.0x users would typically select the "C:\Program Files\ECT\promis-e...\MENU\DIALOG\dcl_eng.txt" file.

promis.e Aero, however, stores page and project description labels in a database instead of a text file, but it is still possible to migrate an Aero/Aero2 project while specifying a dialog text file. A template dialog text file can be downloaded by clicking here . promis.e 5.06 users who have lost their customized dialog text file may also find this template useful. Extract and open this file in a text editor such as Notepad, then modify the page and project description labels as desired.  After modifying the dialog text file, migrate one project and verify the labels are correct, referring to labels on the title block if necessary.  

Note: The dialog text file must be specified for each project being migrated. If there are multiple projects listed in the table on the Import Legacy Projects tab, you would need to specify the dialog text file for each one.

Address Files

Title block (company) address variables are populated by the information found in an address file.  Beginning with promis.e V8i SELECTseries 3, there are various ways to specify from where the address information should be taken by the project migration process.

Each promis.e V8i project points to an address file to find the address information.  The migrated project will point to the file specified in the "New Address File" column, which will be overwritten by the migration process with information found by the "path option" or "browse option" described above.  Therefore:

Migrating Multiple Projects

If the I have a legacy version of promis-e installed option is selected on the [[Migration Wizard]], all the active projects in the legacy promis.e will be listed on the Import Legacy Projects tab.

If using the I want to browse to my legacy data files option, it is possible to specify a parent folder such as "\promis-e\PROJECT\WORK" for the "Import uncompressed project" options.  This will list all the active projects in the specified folder by the project name (not the "_______23.ec1" folder name format).  See screen shot above.

Multiple legacy projects can also be individually browsed to and added to the Migration Wizard dialog and then migrated.

When multiple projects are listed on the Import Legacy Projects tab, set the  check box in the Import column next to each project that is to be migrated when Start is clicked.  Note: it is recommended that a single project be migrated and checked before migrating several projects at once.

Migrate with a local setup configuration

Migration will likely go faster if the source and destination files are located in the local file system (on the workstation) as opposed to a network share.  Project migration would also go faster when migrating while connected to a project database attached to SQL Server running on the workstation.  SQL Server Express can be installed from the promis.e installation file or downloaded.  See [[Installing SQL Server]].

Migrated projects can be then moved to a network SQL Server using the Backup and Restore tools.  See [[Moving Projects]] for details.  Supporting data such as catalogs can be moved using Windows Explorer.

See Also

[[3052|Migrating Legacy Data To promis.e]] 

 Original Author:Tani_S