When you login to a database which has a version older than your current product version, Impact checks to see if any database updates are required. For example new product features might require modifications to your existing data. If there are any required updates, then they will be displayed; if there are no required updates, the form will not be shown at all.
Alternatively you can connect to the database as the ADMIN user and open the form from Database Administration, by choosing Tools - Automatic Updates.
Automatic Updates
You should always ensure you have a recent backup of the database before running any of these updates. You should consult Arden personnel if you are unsure what effect any update will have, because some of them can result in data loss.
Some of the operations can take a long time to perform on a large database, and so might be interrupted by a database timeout. To mitigate this, you may wish to enable Wait indefinitely for database operations.
Available Updates
Update Impact database from 1.3 to 2.0
This option will perform the changes required to convert a database from Impact 1.3 to any later version.
Check drawing being modified counts
The DRAWINGS table has a field called D_BEINGMOD which keeps track of the number of times a project is currently checked out. This option updates that field and also sets the project/customer checkout status, so that everything is consistent.
Convert V1 project revision history to V2
Prior to Impact version 2.0, project revisions were stored in a different format. This option will open the Convert Revisions form, allowing you to update the revision data.
Check SQL tokens in table and field names
This option looks at all the database tables and their respective field names and warns you if any of them are reserved SQL tokens.
Import Database Windows from Standard.dbw
This option will import any database window descriptors from the file standard.dbw. In very old databases, prior to database windows master tool settings, this file would contain the definitions and it would be in the database folder.
Check Auto Tasks
This option checks that all the defined automated tasks have an entry in the database. Any that are missing will be added to the MACRAUTO table. Sometimes a new Impact version will have additional auto-task triggers.
Check Table and Column options
This options reads all of the database table information from the file ipds_ddb.dbs and checks that the tables and columns exist in the current database. You will be warned about any missing tables and columns.
Convert Sheet Sizes to master tool settings
If you have a legacy SHEETS table in your database, this option will read the information and convert it into entries in the Machine / Sheet Settings MTS.
Convert Symbol Patterns to master tool settings
Similarly, if you have legacy PATTERN and PAT_SYMB tables in your database, this option will convert the information into entries in the Symbol Pattern MTS.
Convert v1.3 user settings
This option allows you to update any legacy user settings, by opening the Convert Settings Wizard.
Copy existing flatbed dieboard settings to rotary dieboard settings
This option will make a copy of each of the Flat-bed dieboard Master Tool Settings and add them to the Rotary dieboard Master Tool Settings. If a Rotary setting of the same name already exists, then the copy will not be performed.
Check database settings files
This option looks through the database for the defined database settings files as shown on the Database Administration form. If any are missing then it looks in the Settings path for them and uses them if they exist.
Convert palette database colours
This option will update the colour definitions in the PALETTE database table.
Check MTS references to layers
This option will check all Master Tool Settings in the database that refer to the Layer Setup MTS, reporting on any that are missing.
Initialise MTS Audit Trail
This option will initialise the history items for each of the Master Tool Settings in the database.
ImpactCAD.net Setup
This option will open the Arden Online Wizard, allowing you to specify whether the advanced features of the ImpactCAD.net support website should be enabled, and for which users.
Revise string storage types in database
This option allows all string data types to be converted from ANSI (single-byte) to wide (multi-byte) strings. Many non-European languages need wide strings in order to correctly store the characters, but using wide strings can result in a larger database. This option will open the Database String Type Conversion form, which will advise you how many database columns will be affected.
Encrypt User Passwords
This option will restructure the USERS table to store encrypted passwords and convert all passwords in the USERS table to the encrypted form. Storing encrypted passwords provides better security; the passwords themselves are unaffected.
Automatic password encryption will do the following:
* Restructure the USERS table to store encrypted passwords
* Convert all passwords in the USERS table to the encrypted form
The conversion will render the database incompatible with some older versions of Impact, and is irreversible. It will not be possible to recover the original unencrypted passwords. Please note that password tests will become case-sensitive, which will affect any new passwords that are created.
Convert user messages to xml and store meta-data
Prior to Impact 2014 (version 8.0), user messages were stored within the SYSDATA table as binary data. In later versions, they are stored in XML format, so any legacy messages need to be converted.
Assign user type to existing users
From Impact 2014 (version 8.0) onward, users are assigned a user type of either CAD User or nServer User, for improved user management on databases which have many hundreds of users. This option will assign the type CAD User to the U_USERTYPE column for every user in the USERS table where this column is not already assigned a value.
Update document records
From Impact 2015 (version 9.0) onward, the tools for storing and manipulating documents are very different to earlier versions. This option will update all legacy records in the DOCUMENT table so that they are compatible with the newer format.
Update recorded document file sizes
From Impact 2016 (version 10.0) onward, document file sizes are stored (in the DC_FILESIZ column) for every document, both for blobbed and file databases. Earlier databases need to be updated so that this value is present.
Update GUEST document records
From Impact 2016 (version 10.0) onward, documents which have been added to the database using the Impact Viewer product with the GUEST account are stored differently. This option updates any documents which had been added by this method in an earlier version.
Remove redundant database tables
This option will remove any tables from the database that are no longer used. Examples of these legacy tables are LOCKER, MODIFYS and MANIMP.