Working Environment - Data Exchange

The main tool of the working environment is located behind the "Data Exchange" function. Here you have various options to save, load and manage individual settings. The possibilities are very extensive, which is why the dialog box may appear very complicated at first glance. However, once the possibilities are recognized, a wealth of options opens up for the user to organize their data.

Starting the data exchange takes relatively long because the program must read a large amount of data and build it into a tree structure. It is precisely this tree structure that makes the mountain of data very clear.

On the left side of the dialog box the current program settings are always displayed. On the right side the window can be empty if no working environment has been selected yet, or the most recently used working environment will be shown.

The topmost displayed level on both sides of the dialog box we call the working level. On both sides there are usually two working levels with the same label. These working levels differ only by the preceding letter. This can be an "E" or an "I". The "E" stands for settings and the "I" for icon bar. Because an icon bar can change with the settings (see favorites), icon bars can also be saved within a working environment.

If you expand the tree by clicking the plus signs, you can find up to four levels of the tree. As described above, the top level of the tree is called the "working level." In part you will find the model areas here, but there are also working levels that cannot be clearly assigned to a model area. The next level is the "function level." Here you will find functions such as "tenon," "purlin input" or "wall executions." The next level is the "group." These groups do not necessarily have to exist. These are the groups that you can create yourself when saving settings, but do not have to. On the lowest level you will find the individual settings. This can be a saved "tenon 4x4," but also a rafter setting or an "11.5 masonry." If a setting is marked as a favorite, that is also displayed.

As mentioned above, the left side of the dialog box always shows the current settings of the program system. On the right side you either see an empty list or the working levels of a working environment. Above this large right field there is a line in which the path and name of the current working environment may be displayed. The last directory in this path corresponds to the working environment. The name of this directory is the name of the working environment. If you want to choose a different working environment, click the browser icon at the right end of this path display.

A dialog box opens with a tree element that displays all directories of the hard drive (and, if applicable, the network). If you had already selected a working environment, the cursor in this tree will also be on the most recently used working environment. In principle, you can place working environments anywhere you want, but it is intended that you save them in the "Working Environments" directory of the current system. To allow quicker selection of other directories instead of searching for them in the tree, there are the large buttons in the upper area of the dialog box. Thus, it may be useful to save a working environment with all current settings in the current project so that the used settings remain with the project.

To create a new directory in which you might save a new working environment, you can use the button below the tree. This directory then corresponds to the new working environment. The name of the directory is the name of the working environment. With the "Apply" button at the bottom of the dialog box you select the highlighted directory or the highlighted working environment and close the dialog box. This working environment then becomes the current working environment. Because the program must analyze the data of the working environment, if it already contains any, to build the tree structure, it may take some time before the main data exchange dialog box is available again.

With the data exchange you can save data from the program system as a working environment or you can load data from a working environment into the program system. For both cases there is a coarser but quick method and a detailed but somewhat more complex method. The quick method is the one you should use for your daily work. The somewhat more elaborate but finer method should be used for detailed maintenance of the working environments.