Impact CAD 2019 (v11.0) Release Notes

This is essential reading if you are planning to upgrade your Impact workstations and database to Impact 2019. Please ensure you have read and understood all the issues described before you proceed. If you are unsure of anything covered here, please contact your support representative.

WARNING: If you are upgrading from a version prior to Impact 2016 R4, please also see the corresponding Release Notes for each of the earlier releases.

Licensing

Before proceeding with an upgrade, please ensure that all of your licences allow the use of Impact 2019

If you are using software-based (Nalpeiron) licences, then the licence on each workstation may need to be activated once again. Similarly, if you are using Impact Licence Server, you may need to install new LIC files on the server.

Licensing in Impact 2019

Impact 2016 R4 introduced an improved licensing system. Consequently, if you are upgrading from Impact 2016 R3 or earlier, you will need new licence codes in order to run Impact, so please be sure that you have obtained these from Arden Software before you upgrade.

If you are already able to run Impact 2016 R4, you can skip this entire section.

Activating Your Licence Online

When starting Impact for the first time, you will be prompted to enter your licence code (which will be an 18-digit code starting with 4965).

If your computer has an internet connection, you can press the Activate button for immediate activation, after which you can continue to connect to your Impact database.

Advanced Options

If your company uses a proxy for internet access, you should press the Licensing Options button in the bottom-right corner of this form, and enter the proxy server address, the port, your user name and your password, as necessary. You also have the option to use HTTP or HTTPS for the activation.

If your company security policies stop Impact from contacting the activation server, you may need to ask your IT team to open the firewall to this location (https://my.nalpeiron.com, port 80 for HTTP or port 443 for HTTPS).

Activating Your Licence Offline

If your computer does not have an internet connection, you can press the Manual Activation button to generate a request code.

Once you have this code, you can generate a confirmation code by visiting this website (from any computer): http://www.impactcad.net/?redir=activate, or you can email this to your Impact support team and they will generate the confirmation code for you.

Paste the confirmation code into the area provided, then press OK. If the request code and the activation code match, the licence will be activated.

Licence Details

You may view the licence details using Help > About, Licence or from Options > Environment, Workstation, Licensing. If you need to, you can deactivate the licence from either of these forms.

Virtual Machines

If you wish to run Impact on a virtual machine, please note that your licence will have to be activated every time you start Impact. When you first activate the licence, there is an option to “Automatically attempt to activate this licence when Impact restarts”.

Additional Information

Unlike before, this new licensing system does not need any Windows service to be installed. Previously a service called “Nalpeiron Licensing Service” was required.

And unlike before, there is no separate activation utility (previously “ImpactActivation.exe”).

Licence Server in Impact 2019

If instead of having an 18-digit software-based licence code, you use Licence Server then you do not need to perform any licence activation. Instead, just ensure that your licences are valid for the version of Impact that you are using.

NOTE: In the past Licence Server automatically allowed the use of test versions (for example for beta testing). From Impact 2016 R4 onwards, this behaviour is controlled by a licence feature. If you are planning to run a test build, you should first ensure this feature is enabled on your licences.

Operating Systems Compatibility

For further details, refer to Impact 2019 system requirements.

Impact 2019 is fully supported on Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8 and Windows 7.

On versions of Microsoft Windows prior to Windows 10, attempting to run Impact throws may indicate an error:

The program can't start because api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0.dll is missing from your computer.

Install appropriate version of KB2999226 from https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2999226/update-for-universal-c-runtime-in-windows

This update applies to the following operating systems:

• Windows Server 2012 R2
• Windows 8.1
• Windows RT 8.1
• Windows Server 2012
• Windows 8
• Windows RT
• Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
• Windows 7 SP1
• Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2)
• Windows Vista SP2

Impact 2019 will not install or run on Windows XP, because Microsoft ended support for XP in April 2014. Similarly, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 are no longer supported.

NOTE: We do not recommend that Windows Vista is used because Microsoft ended mainstream support on 10 April 2012. Similarly, we do not recommend that Windows Server 2008 / 2008 R2 are used for the same reason.

Database Servers Compatibility

For further details, refer to Impact 2019 system requirements.

Impact 2019 supports the following database environments:

• SQL Server 2008 SP1, version 10.00.2531 or later
• SQL Server 2008 R2, version 10.50.1600 or later
• SQL Server 2012 (11.0)
• SQL Server 2014 (12.0)
• SQL Server 2016 (13.0)
• SQL Server 2017 (14.0)
• Oracle 11g Release 1, version 11.1.0.6 or later
• Oracle 12c
• MySQL, version 5.1 or later

SQL Server 2005 support has been dropped for this release as a primary database connection, though may continue to be used for remote connections/DBWs.

NOTE: For SQL Server databases, the compatibility level now needs to be “SQL Server 2008 (100)” or higher.

NOTE: For information about SQL Server 2019, please contact our support team.

NOTE: For information about Oracle 18, please contact our support team.

NOTE: For MySQL, we recommend you use version 5.1 of the ODBC driver version.

Database Structure

When upgrading the database, some restructuring will be required. Please be sure that you have an up to date backup of your database before you proceed with the upgrade.

Impact 2019 introduces a new D_GUID protected character column to the DOCUMENT table.

Database Installation Settings

Impact 2019 introduces new sections to the Database Installation settings. You may wish to review these when upgrading your database.

Data Connectors

Data connectors can be used within Report Templates for generating repeating groups of data.

A number of pre-defined data connectors are automatically added to the database.

Security

These settings control Impact behaviour when encountering unsigned scripts and macros.

In Impact 2016, these settings had to be configured per workstation (in Options>Environment, Workstation), but now they are controlled in one place for all users.

The default behaviour is for all unsigned scripts to be disabled, meaning that the execution of any script within Impact will be blocked - this includes auto-task scripts, value mapping scripts, and scripts embedded within reports. To avoid such blocking, the script author should sign their scripts. Please ask your Arden support contact for more information about signing.

Similarly, legacy IML Macros are blocked by default. Macros cannot be signed.

Table Relationships

Impact supports advanced data relationships between both internal and custom tables within the Impact database.

Database relationship links define the structure for storing and accessing data related to other database rows. Impact supports many-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many relationships.

New Tools

This version introduces several new tools, so users may wish to update their appearance settings to include these. Each user will be prompted to do this when they first log on.

Post-Upgrade Considerations

WARNING: The following may affect your existing Impact use and should therefore be given careful consideration before proceeding to carry out production work.

Decimal places for feedrates

The use of the option ‘Decimal places for feedrates’, as found in the Plotter Machine Master Tool Settings Machine Options form, has changed. This option controls the number of decimal places used to output coordinates (in plotter units).

Below is a comparison of Impact’s output when compared between Impact 2016 and Impact 2019 for the following configuration:

Impact 2016:

F30000

Impact 2019:

F30000.00000

Note how the number of decimal places is now being respected, which may cause issues for your machine controllers if not expected and adjusted accordingly.

Installing nServer or ActiveX

Please note that when installing nServer or the Impact ActiveX component on certain operating systems, namely Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016, a misleading error message may appear. The message is “Error 1904. Module …\basecad.dll failed to register. HRESULT -1073741819. Contact your support personnel.” If this happens, please press the Ignore button and the installation will continue successfully.

Compatible Products

Impact 2019 should be used only in conjunction with the following products:

• Impact Viewer 2019
• Impact Licence Server 2019
• nServer 2019
• Impact 3DX any version up to 1.7
• Enterprise 11.0.2 or later – please contact our support team for further information

NOTE: If you use any Impact scripts or plug-ins, you should ensure that they are compatible with Impact 2019 prior to upgrading your database.

WARNING: If you have WEBcnx installed, you must consult your WEBcnx support personnel to confirm compatibility before proceeding to upgrade nServer or WEBcnx.