Installation

This section of the document is a guide for installing the Manufacturing Toolbox. It does not contain guidance for the installation of Impact or the setup of standard Impact features.

What’s in the Box

The Manufacturing Toolbox comes as a self-installing msi file that contains the following options.

Details about the features available are below. These can be controlled with a custom installation.

• Manufacturing Toolbox
  • Documentation (These are not installed in a ‘Typical’ Installation)
    • This file you are reading
  • Database Table (These are not installed in a ‘Typical’ Installation)
    • Optionally used to save settings into an existing database.
      • Please refer to Impact’s guides on installing a custom database table. Some databases may already have this table available.
  • Example Files Feature (These are not installed in a ‘Typical’ Installation)
    • Setting Icons
      • A collection of 16 by 16 icons that can be reused for your own settings. These are then embedded within the settings file so are not directly used.
    • Demo Symbols.dts
      • A file that contains some example symbols that are used in the demo files. These can be imported via the Impact Browser.
    • Manufacturing Toolbox Example.ipd
      • The Demo Settings are designed to be run using this Impact file.
    • Demo Settings
      • There are 5 separate settings files, one for each of the available modules within the Manufacturing Toolbox.
        • .MTPCP are Counter Plate Settings
        • .MTPDPT are Display Tools Settings
        • .MTPPC are Perforation Designer Settings
        • .MTPROT are Stripper Routing Settings
        • .MTPSTB are Stripper Rail Settings
        • .MFPRR are for Rotary Rule Settings
• Impact Plugin
  • Display tools
    • Collection of visual tools to help with die making
  • Counter Plate
    • Also known as a thin plate or cutting plate
  • Perforation Designer
    • Design and create custom styles of perforation
  • Stripper Rail
    • Support rails for the female stripping unit
  • Stripper Routing
    • The method used to apply chamfers and milling to a female stripper unit
  • BSI Blanker (requires a Bobst Power Pack licence)
    • Create Assembly Instructions for a BSI Blanker and supports output to the BSI Bender
  • Rotary Rule
    • Used to create rotary rule aligning bridges to notch locations, mainly used for manual rule preparation.

Pre-installation

Ensure Impact is installed and a connection can be made to an Impact database.

You will need to have access to a Windows login that is the computer or domain administration for the initial installation.

Upgrading from Version 1

This step can be skipped if you have not used a previous version.

Version 1 did not support upgrading, so please follow these steps for uninstalling version 1.

Log in to Impact and start the Plugin Manager. If you do not have this in your appearance, it can be found in the Customize Dialog under the category Automation.

Choose the Manufacturing Toolbox and click Unregister. When prompted, do NOT restart and close Impact manually. Then start up Windows Add Remove Programmes, find the Manufacturing Toolbox for Impact and perform uninstall.

Navigate to your Impact Plugins folder and make sure all files relating to the Manufacturing Toolbox are deleted.

Installing

The manufacturing toolbox comes as a self-installing package in the form of a Microsoft Installer (.msi) file. This file is self-executing or you can use it in Windows application deployment to install on multiple machines at the same time.

The application is installed to a defined location much like other applications. This can be changed if you want to install it in another location or drive; the default location is: C:\Program Files (x86)\Arden Software Ltd\Manufacturing Toolbox\

The Installer also places multiple files in the Impact Plugins folder; this is to allow the instances of Impact to recognise the plugin by default; it is in this location:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Arden Software Ltd\[Impact Version]\Plugins\

To confirm the location of your Impact instance it can be found in Impact Options > Workstation > File Locations.

Setup Type

Most users will be fine with the Typical installation. The Complete installs additional files used on first time setup on your database such as symbols, database table, demo settings and a sample Impact file for you to trial.

You can customise the features installed by clicking on the icon next to the name. This is useful if you want to reduce the installation size, limit the user's access to some tools or increase load times.

Advanced Installation

For large organisation it is possible to distribute the plugin silently to multiple computers using Windows group policies or third-party deployment applications.

The features installed can be customised.

All standard msiexec options apply.

The features that can be controlled for this plugin are the following:

• ProductComplete_F
  • DemoFiles_F
  • DatabaseTable_F
  • Documentation_F
  • DisplayTools_F
• ImpactPlugin_F
  • CounterPlate_F
  • PerforationDesigner_F
  • StripperRails_F
  • StripperRouting_F
  • BSIBlanker_F
  • RotaryRule_F

To flag the feature for Installation use ADDLOCAL.

To flag the feature for Removal or Do Not Install use REMOVE.

Example command line that just installed the Stripper Routing Module in the default location:

msiexec /i "Manufacturing Toolbox.msi" /passive ADDLOCAL=ProductComplete_F,StripperRouting_F REMOVE=CounterPlate_F,PerforationDesigner_F,StripperRails_F,BSIBlanker_F,RotaryRule_F

To disable the installation from registering with Impact, set REGISTRYOVERRIDE to 0 REGISTRYOVERRIDE

The directories can be changed by using

INSTALLFOLDER

PLUGINFOLDER

Running the plug-in in line with scripts

There are some cases where a user may want to customise the results or call commands before running the plugin. This can be done by calling the plugin from a script. To do this insert the following code within your script.

Set p = CreateObject("Arden.Toolbox.Manufacturing.Plugins.MTPBSIBlankerBars") p.Execute()

This will tell the plugin it wants to execute. The following objects can be created and executed using the plugin. Simply replace the highlighted text above with one of the items below.

MTPAbout
MTPBSIBlankerBars
MTPBSIBlankerControlPanel
MTPBSIBlankerFull
MTPBSIBlankerParts
MTPCounterPlateControlPanel
MTPCounterPlateCreate
MTPDisplayToolsBridgeSizes
MTPDisplayToolsControlPanel
MTPDisplayToolsDropOuts
MTPPerforationDesignerAdjustmentPanel
MTPPerforationDesignerControlPanel
MTPPerforationDesignerGenerate
MTPPerforationDesignerPath
MTPPerforationDesignerSingle
MTPRotaryRuleControlPanel
MTPRotaryRuleCreateRule
MTPRotaryRuleFinalize
MTPRotaryRuleRebridge
MTPSettingsManager
MTPStripperRailsControlPanel
MTPStripperRailsCreate
MTPStripperRoutingControlPanel
MTPStripperRoutingProcess
MTPStripperRoutingQuickView
MTPStripperRoutingSolidFill

First Time Start-up

If you choose to install without registering with Impact, when Impact is started for the first time after the plugin has been installed, it will attempt to register the plugin to allow Impact to use the plugin’s features. This is indicated on the Impact splash screen…

Installing plugin 1 of 6….

If you install and register at the time of installation, the tools will become immediately available. If you get any permission messages, please see the troubleshooting.

After successfully registering, you will see a dialog showing the new modules available as shown below. These tools can be accessed in the Customize dialog, so you can assign the tools to your user appearance and also create custom shortcut keys for the tools under Options > Environment > Keyboard.

Installation Troubleshooting

Impact Crashes on Start-up

Solution 1: Check if you have correctly uninstalled version 1 as it can interfere with the new version. If any adjustments are needed, reinstall the toolbox.

Solution 2: Uninstall the plugin and on reinstall deselect the Register plugin with Impact checkbox in the installation sequence. This will allow Impact to install the plugin itself, but you may require elevated permissions for the initial Impact start-up to complete the installation.

User doesn’t have enough permissions to finish installing the plugin.

Solution 1: Right-click on the Impact executable or shortcut and choose Run as Administrator. This will give Impact additional permissions to continue the installation. This only needs to be done for the initial install. Thereafter Impact can be started as a standard user.

Solution 2: The active Windows user needs Read, Write and Modify permission to the plugins folder. This can be changed by adjusting the plugins folder permission. Once the user has permission, restart Impact and the installation should continue.

I don’t see the plugin when I start Impact

You may have multiple instances of Impact installed onto your PC, check that your location of Impact and the Impact plugins folder match where the installer is suggesting they are.

Database Installation (optional, highly recommended)

Please note this only needs to be done once per database and not per workstation. For Enterprise installations, install the table at the central database then publish to your separate sites.

The Manufacturing Toolbox has the capability of saving the settings you use either as a Windows file or into the Impact database. It is recommended to use the Impact database as the data will be relevant to the active database in which the tool is run. Arden Enterprise systems will have the ability to distribute this across multiple sites. Automatic backups and administrator functions become more secure. Some core features of rollbacks and history will become available as well.

The downside of this: your database will need to be taken offline while the database changes are done for first time use.

If you do not want to store the data on your database, the alternative is to have a network share that all users of the plugin can access to load the settings files.

Supplied with the Manufacturing Toolbox is the table structure Database Structure.dbs which contains the structure for the database table required to save data onto the Impact database. This file can be found inside the application folder.

To begin the installation of this table, ensure all users have disconnected from the Impact database where you wish to save the Manufacturing Toolbox settings. Then login as Admin. You will not be able to login until all users have disconnected.

Start the Database Administration tool

Go to Tables > Import > Table Description. This will then ask for the dbs file described above.

Once the Table is installed you can log off as the ADMIN user. All other setup can be done as a regular user.

Starting tools for the first time

It is highly recommended to have a drawing open when starting, as plugins cannot read the Master Template for things such as palettes, text styles or bridge styles.

In this example I am showing the Routing tool, though the same principle applies to all tools.

Start the Stripper Routing Control Panel.

Unless you already have settings in your database, the tool will open with no settings available.

Supplied with the installation is a collection of demo settings that are compatible with the demo Impact file. Each module has its own demo settings. These can be imported into the tool by right-clicking on the interface and clicking on import.

You can now run the operation on the active drawing, in this case on the lower stripper.

Once you have adjusted the settings to your needs you can save the settings into the database or export the settings to a file. The dialog can be safely closed and reopened without losing any settings, but please make sure you save before you close Impact.

Upgrading from previous versions

If you are importing or opening settings from a different version there will be a warning. As there may be new features available any new properties will be set to their default values. To remove this warning simply re-save the settings.

Controlling Permissions

Permissions with the Manufacturing Toolbox are very limited. Only users with the administrator flag can save into the database. This can be found in the User Groups Attributes Master Tool Setting. However, any user can open from the database.

If you want to limit the use of the Manufacturing Toolbox, the User Privileges Master Tool Setting can be used to disable the licence.