Installation Guide

Version 11.6
Windows 2000 and Windows XP

pdms1160/PDMS Installation Guide

issue 300904
PLEASE NOTE:
AVEVA Solutions has a policy of continuing product development: therefore, the
information contained in this document may be subject to change without notice.
AVEVA SOLUTIONS MAKES NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND WITH REGARD TO
THIS DOCUMENT, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE.
While every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of this document, AVEVA
Solutions shall not be liable for errors contained herein or direct, indirect, special,
incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance or
use of this material.

This manual provides documentation relating to products to which you may not have
access or which may not be licensed to you. For further information on which Products
are licensed to you please refer to your licence conditions.

© Copyright 1991 through 2004 AVEVA Solutions Limited

All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of AVEVA
Solutions.
The software programs described in this document are confidential information and
proprietary products of AVEVA Solutions or its licensors.

For details of AVEVA's worldwide sales and support offices, see our website at
http://www.aveva.com

AVEVA Solutions Ltd, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HB, UK
CHANGE HISTORY

Issue Details
PDMS 11.6 Updated:
150904 Hardware recommendation; Upgrading; Licensing;
AutoDRAFT chapter (versions supported)
New:
Information on .NET and its effect on PDMS
installation; Background Process Manager
Minor corrections and updates
300904 Added Section 4.7 – Running PDMS in batch

pdms1160/PDMS Installation Guide

issue 150904
Contents
1 Introduction.................................................................................................... 1-1
1.1 Contents of this Guide ........................................................................ 1-1
1.2 Associated products ............................................................................ 1-2

2 Hardware and Software Requirements........................................................ 2-1

2.1 Hardware............................................................................................. 2-1
2.1.1 Graphics Cards ...................................................................... 2-1
2.2 Software and Configuration ............................................................... 2-2

3 Installing PDMS ............................................................................................. 3-1

3.1 Basic Installation ................................................................................ 3-1
3.1.1 .NET Framework Installation .............................................. 3-2
3.2 Uninstalling and Reinstalling ............................................................ 3-2
3.3 FLEXMAN License Manager ............................................................. 3-2
3.4 Remote Installation............................................................................. 3-3

4 Setting Up the Windows Environment......................................................... 4-1

4.1 Windows Control Panel ...................................................................... 4-1
4.2 Graphics Card Settings....................................................................... 4-2
4.3 Setting the License File Location....................................................... 4-2
4.4 PDMS Environment Variables ........................................................... 4-3
4.5 Running PDMS from a Command Prompt Window.......................... 4-5
4.6 Customising PDMS Start-Up ............................................................. 4-5
4.7 Running PDMS in batch..................................................................... 4-6
4.8 Plotting ................................................................................................ 4-7

5 Language Support......................................................................................... 5-1

5.1 Preparing Windows to use Supported Languages............................. 5-2
5.1.1 Windows 2000........................................................................ 5-2
5.1.2 Windows XP ........................................................................... 5-2
5.2 Preparing PDMS to use Latin Languages ......................................... 5-3
5.3 Preparing PDMS to use Far Eastern Languages .............................. 5-3

6 Running PDMS under Windows ................................................................... 6-1

6.1 Spaces in Windows pathnames .......................................................... 6-1

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide contents-i

Version 11.6
 Contents

6.2 Linking to Microsoft Excel ................................................................. 6-1

6.3 Windows Parameters.......................................................................... 6-2

7 PDMS Projects............................................................................................... 7-1

7.1 The Sample Project............................................................................. 7-1
7.1.1 Copying Project SAM to Your User Area ............................. 7-1
7.1.2 Users and Teams in the Sample Project .............................. 7-2
7.1.3 MDBs in the Sample Project ................................................ 7-3
7.2 Creating PDMS Projects .................................................................... 7-3
7.2.1 The Sample Project and your own Projects.......................... 7-4

8 Installing AutoDRAFT ................................................................................... 8-1

8.1 Compatibility ...................................................................................... 8-1
8.2 The AutoDRAFT Software ................................................................. 8-1
8.3 Configuring AutoDRAFT with AutoCAD .......................................... 8-2
8.4 Installing and configuring AutoCAD ................................................. 8-2
8.4.1 AutoCAD R2002 .................................................................... 8-3
8.4.2 AutoCAD R2004 .................................................................... 8-3
8.5 Getting Started with AutoCAD.......................................................... 8-3
8.6 Application Macros for use with PDMS DRAFT............................... 8-4

9 Upgrading Projects to Version 11.6............................................................. 9-1

10 Troubleshooting...........................................................................................10-1
10.1 General...............................................................................................10-1
10.2 License Manager Errors ....................................................................10-1
10.3 Entering PDMS .................................................................................10-2
10.4 Problems with Graphics ....................................................................10-3

11 Structure of PDMS on .NET .........................................................................11-1

11.1 Overview ............................................................................................11-1
11.2 PDMSEXE..........................................................................................11-1
11.3 GUI module structure .......................................................................11-1
11.3.1 Wrappers ..............................................................................11-2
11.3.2 .NET Loading rules..............................................................11-2
11.3.3 Win32 DLLs .........................................................................11-3
11.4 Components .......................................................................................11-3
11.4.1 PDMSEXE directory ............................................................11-3
11.4.2 PDMSEXE/Design subdirectory ..........................................11-5
11.4.3 PDMSEXE/Draft subdirectory ............................................11-5

contents-ii VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6
Contents

11.4.4 PDMSEXE/Monitor subdirectory........................................ 11-5

11.4.5 PDMSEXE/Isodraft subdirectory........................................ 11-5
11.4.6 PDMSEXE/Admin subdirectory.......................................... 11-5
11.4.7 Add-ins ................................................................................. 11-5
11.5 Forms and Menus ............................................................................. 11-5

12 Troubleshooting the .NET installation....................................................... 12-1

12.1 Version Error..................................................................................... 12-1
12.2 Wrappers or a dependency missing.................................................. 12-1
12.3 Interface incompatibility .................................................................. 12-2
12.4 Security error with thin client.......................................................... 12-2
12.5 No Add-ins......................................................................................... 12-4
12.6 Window Layout ................................................................................. 12-4
12.7 Serialization ...................................................................................... 12-4

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide contents-iii

Version 11.6
1 Introduction

This guide explains how to install and set up PDMS Version 11.6 on a
workstation running the Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows XP
operating system (hereafter referred to jointly as 'Windows'). Local
Administrator rights are required to perform the installation.
This guide assumes you are familiar with the concepts of folder/file
hierarchies for storing data on disks and with basic Windows
terminology and commands. If you are not, you may also need to refer to
your operating system documentation while you carry out the
installation.
The guide also assumes that you have already gained access to the
PDMS installation files via a CD, from the AVEVA Web site, or by some
other route.

1.1 Contents of this Guide

Hardware and software requirements are described in Chapter 2. For

completely up-to-date information, please see the AVEVA Website at
http://www.aveva.com/engineeringit and refer to the Customer Support
Hardware pages. The Web pages also give hints on ways of setting up
and running PDMS on different computers in order to achieve the most
efficient performance.
Chapter 3, Installing PDMS, describes how to install PDMS 11.6 and
license the software.
Chapter 4, Setting Up the Windows Environment, explains how to
configure the Windows operating system before you run PDMS.
Chapter 5, Language Support, describes how to set up the Windows
Environment to use PDMS with different Language options.
Chapter 6, Running PDMS under Windows, gives some advice on using
PDMS in a Windows environment.
Chapter 7, PDMS Projects, describes the sample project that is supplied
as part of PDMS, and how to set up your own projects.
Chapter 8, Installing AutoDRAFT, describes how to install and configure
PDMS AutoDRAFT.

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 1-1

Version 11.6
Introduction

Chapter 9, Upgrading Projects to Version 11.6, describes how to upgrade

your projects from PDMS 11.5, PDMS 11.5SP1, or earlier releases, for
use with PDMS 11.6.
Chapter 10, Troubleshooting, describes solutions for some of the errors
that you could encounter when running PDMS.
Chapter 11, Structure of PDMS on .NET, outlines the way in which
PDMS in installed and configured in a Microsoft .NET environment.
Chapter 12, Troubleshooting the .NET installation, describes solutions to
some of the .NET related issues you might encounter.

1.2 Associated products

There are various other VANTAGE products that may be used in

conjunction with PDMS. You may wish to consider installing these at
the same time. Those closely associated with PDMS include the
following VANTAGE Plant Design products:
¾ Router for automatic rule-based pipe routing within
PDMS
¾ Global for synchronisation of PDMS projects between
world-wide sites
¾ Model Management for change & status control of engineering
objects (e.g. pipes, welds, …) from system
design through detailing and into deliverable
production
And new at PDMS 11.6:
¾ Final Designer AutoCAD editing of PDMS DRAFT drawings,
including final detailing
For details of the installation of these ‘add-on’ products, please refer to
the relevant installation guide. If they are required, it may be advisable
to read these before installing PDMS.

1-2 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6
2 Hardware and Software Requirements

This section describes the hardware and software configurations that

PDMS requires to run under Windows.

2.1 Hardware

The following list gives a minimum specification for your computer.

• Processor Intel IA-32 architecture, e.g. Pentium
- at least 1 GHz.
• Memory 256 MB minimum,
512 MB or more highly recommended.
• Graphics Card High performance card recommended
- see below.
• Display A resolution of at least 1024x768 (XGA) is
strongly recommended
• Storage Approximately 670 MB
- see AVEVA web-site for details.
• CD drive CD-ROM will be used for media distribution.
• Mouse 3-Button mouse required;
Mouse with wheel strongly recommended.

2.1.1 Graphics Cards

PDMS uses standard OpenGL for its 3D graphics.
Due to the continuously and rapidly changing list of hardware
accelerated OpenGL graphics cards commercially available, an up-to-
date list of supported graphics cards cannot be included in this
document. However, the AVEVA Web pages
(http://www.aveva.com/engineeringit) contain a current list of both tested
and supported graphics cards in the Support section.
Other graphics cards which fully support the OpenGL standard should
also work, but AVEVA cannot offer assistance in configuring these. You
may also find some problems, for example, when picking items in PDMS.

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 2-1

Version 11.6
Hardware and Software Requirements

2.2 Software and Configuration

The following software should be installed and configured on your

computer to enable PDMS 11.6 to run.
• PDMS 11.6 is fully supported under:
¾ Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 4
¾ Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 11
Note that Windows 2000 and Windows XP Service Packs and Hot
Fixes from Microsoft are required for PDMS to run effectively.
Please refer to the AVEVA Support web site, or contact the AVEVA
Support team for details of the latest recommended Windows 2000
and Windows XP environment for PDMS.

• PDMS 11.6 databases must be on an NTFS File System: FATC

partitions are not supported.
• The license manager must have a drive called C: available for
writing temporary information. In the case of double boot machines,
where D: is the system disk for Windows XP/2000 and C: is used for
an earlier version of Windows, the license manager will still work,
since it does not require NTFS.
• PDMS 11.6 requires Microsoft’s .NET Framework: it will be
installed from the CD if necessary.
• Optionally, you can have Microsoft Excel installed for outputting
reports.

1
PDMS 11.6 will run on Windows XP SP2, but requires changes to the default settings. The Internet
Connection Firewall (ICF) should be turned off or configured to ensure access to the database server.
In addition, Group Policy changes (which alter the registry) are required for VANTAGE Plant Design
Global to ensure that RPC requests do not require authentication. Details are given in the Global
Installation Guide.

2-2 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6
3 Installing PDMS

3.1 Basic Installation

Local Administrator rights are normally required to install PDMS.

1. To install PDMS from CD – Insert the CD into your CD-ROM drive.
If you have AutoPlay enabled for the drive, the installation starts
automatically. Otherwise, run Start.htm on the CD.

If you are installing PDMS from the network – Click Start>Run on

the Windows taskbar and type the path to the Start.htm file on your
network.
2. Click on CD CONTENTS and select the product which you want to
install (in this case PDMS Version 11.6), then click INSTALL. Click
OK on any confirmation forms which appear.
3. On the File Download form, select Run this program from its current
location (IE 5.0) or Open (IE 5.5 or later) to install the program files
directly from their current location onto your hard disk. Select Yes
on the Security Warning query about an Authenticode signature.
4. This starts the InstallShield® Wizard, which will lead you through
the rest of the installation process.
During the installation sequence, follow the on-screen instructions as
they appear. You will be given a choice between two levels of installation:
• Full installation: Installs all available product components
(recommended for a new installation unless there are good reasons
for restricting the options available to end users).
• Custom installation: Presents you with a list of all available product
components from which you can select those to be installed.
It is recommended that you use the default settings for folder paths etc.
unless you have good reasons for doing otherwise. You must not use
embedded spaces in folder path names.
The process needs at least 670MB of free disk space for a full installation
of all options. InstallShield checks that there is enough space available
before it starts, and warns you if there is not.

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 3-1

Version 11.6
Installing PDMS

When the process is complete, select Start>Programs/AVEVA/VANTAGE

PDMS 11.6 to reach the Run PDMS, Make PDMS project, Run Background
Process Manager and PDMS manuals options.

3.1.1 .NET Framework Installation

The new graphical user interface included in PDMS 11.6 requires that
Microsoft’s .NET Framework 1.1 be installed. The .NET Framework is
supplied on the installation CD, and is installed automatically if it is not
already installed.

3.2 Uninstalling and Reinstalling

If InstallShield detects an existing PDMS installation, it will display the

options for modifying/repairing/removing the files rather than simply
offering the standard installation options.
To remove installed components from your hard disk, or to add additional
components to an existing installation, select Start>Settings>Control Panel
and use the Add/Remove Programs tool.
As an alternative procedure, repeat Steps 1 to 4 of the installation
sequence detailed above. The InstallShield® Wizard will detect your
existing installation and will give you the following options:
• Modify: Displays the same list of options as the Custom installation.
Select new components to be added and/or deselect any currently
installed components to be removed.
• Repair: Reinstalls all currently installed components (to correct any
corrupted files etc.).
• Remove: Removes all currently installed components.
NOTE:
Uninstalling PDMS will not uninstall Microsoft’s .NET Framework:
this must be removed separately if required.

3.3 FLEXMAN License Manager

You must install and set up the FLEXMAN license system before PDMS
can be used. This will usually be done only on the server. Please see the
FLEXMAN Installation Guide. News and update information is also
available for FLEXMAN on the AVEVA support web-site.

3-2 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6
 Installing PDMS

3.4 Remote Installation

If you wish to have one server installation of PDMS accessed from remote
workstations, you must ensure that the Windows system DLLs on each
remote workstation are upgraded to a suitable version for running the
PDMS 11.6 application programs. You can achieve this by installing
PDMS 11.6 itself in minimal form; that is, select the Custom Installation
type and then deselect everything except 'PDMS Core Components'.
In addition, this release includes a stand-alone 'Thin Client' installer
which can be used on individual workstations to update the necessary
Windows system DLLs, and which also provides start menu shortcuts to
the main PDMS installation.
The Thin Client installer is a self-extracting InstallShield® executable
which is held in the C:\AVEVA\PDMS11.6\thin_client_installer\
subfolder. It is applicable when the main PDMS 11.6 product is installed
either from the 'Full Installation' option or the 'Custom Installation'
option with the 'Thin Client Installer' component selected.

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 3-3

Version 11.6
Installing PDMS

3-4 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6
4 Setting Up the Windows Environment

This chapter describes how to configure the Windows operating system

before you run PDMS. Following installation of PDMS, you should
perform the following steps:
• Check the settings for your graphics board: See Section 4.2.
• Ensure the FLEXMAN License Manager daemon is running, and
set environment variables relating to FLEXMAN: See Section 4.3.
• Configure Windows parameters for PDMS: see Section 4.4.
• You can then run PDMS by clicking on the PDMS shortcut or icon,
which will set up the remaining environment variables required.
Note: In the following instructions it is assumed that PDMS 11.6 has
been installed in folder C:\AVEVA. If it has been installed
elsewhere, substitute C:\AVEVA with the name of the installation
folder.

4.1 Windows Control Panel

The Windows Control Panel contains tools that are used to change the
way Windows looks and behaves. This Install Guide describes how to use
Control Panel tools to configure Windows to run PDMS.
Open the Control Panel as follows:
Windows 2000
Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel
Windows XP
If your computer is set up with the Classic Start menu, click Start,
point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
If your computer is set up with the standard Start menu, click Start
and then click Control Panel.

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 4-1

Version 11.6
Setting Up the Windows Environment

4.2 Graphics Card Settings

You should set your display to a resolution of at least 1024 x 768 and the
colour depth to True colour or 16.7 million colours.
This can be set by opening the Control Panel. Select Display and select the
Settings tab. Make the appropriate selections on the form for your
graphics card.
Due to the rapidly changing list of hardware accelerated OpenGL
graphics cards commercially available, an up-to-date list of supported
graphics cards, graphics device drivers and recommended device driver
configuration cannot be included in this document. However, the AVEVA
Support Web pages (http://www.aveva.com/engineeringit) contain a
current list of both tested and supported graphics cards, along with
advice on configuration of graphics device drivers.

4.3 Setting the License File Location

Before you can use PDMS, you must set up the FLEXMAN license
system and connect to the FLEXMAN License Manager daemon (see the
FLEXMAN Installation Guide).
Each User needs to set a license path that defines the location of the
license file or service. For earlier versions of FLEXMAN, setting the
environment variable LM_LICENSE_FILE did this. However, this
applied to all software using FLEXlm. You can now set
CADCENTRE_LICENSE_FILE instead that applies only to software
using our Vendor License Manager Daemon.
To avoid users having to repeatedly set such an environment variable,
FLEXlm itself now remembers the current setting in the Windows
Registry. This Registry setting will initially come from the value of the
corresponding environment variable, but cannot then be modified by
changing the environment variable – you must use the FLEXlm utility
lmtools or the new command-line lmpath to query or set the license path.
These utilities are installed with FLEXMAN.
The environment variable can be set in one of three ways, either in the
PDMS entry script, as a User Environment Variable in the Control Panel
or manually in a command window.
To set manually or in the PDMS entry script, type the following in a
command window or in the entry script before starting PDMS:
set CADCENTRE_LICENSE_FILE=Port@Computername

4-2 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6
 Setting Up the Windows Environment

To set automatically:
Windows 2000 and Windows XP
• Open the Control Panel.
• Select System, and pick the Advanced tab
• Click on the Environment Variables button
• Set the CADCENTRE_LICENSE_FILE user environment variable
to the location of the license obtained from AVEVA
(Port@Computername). For example:
CADCENTRE_LICENSE_FILE
744@licserv
To confirm the licence environment variable setting, open a command
window and type the command SET. You should see a list of environment
variables, including:
CADCENTRE_LICENSE_FILE=Port@Computername
To check the Registry setting, you will need to use the FLEXMAN utility
lmpath –status
You should see an output including the following:

lmpath - Copyright (C) 1989-2002 Globetrotter Software, Inc.

Known Vendors:
cadcentre: 744@licserv
…

4.4 PDMS Environment Variables

PDMS uses Windows Environment variables to locate folders containing

PDMS system files and users project data. This allows you to locate these
folders anywhere on the file system. The default location for PDMS
system files is C:\AVEVA\PDMS11.6, but the location of the pdms11.6
folder can be changed if desired when PDMS is installed.
PDMS is supplied with a file evars.bat in the PDMS executables folder
(C:\AVEVA\pdms11.6) which sets default values for the environment
variables so that they point to the folder structure as installed. It also
sets the PATH variable to include the PDMSEXE folder containing PDMS
executables.
You may need to modify this file to reflect the folder structure of your
own installation. The following is a list of the variables you may need to
reset, with a brief description of each one and the default setting.

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 4-3

Version 11.6
Setting Up the Windows Environment

Note that all environment variables must be UPPERCASE.

It is recommended that users should not write to the pdms11.6
installation folder or any of its contents:

PDMS System Environment Variables

The following environment variables refer to the location of PDMS
system files.
PDMSEXE Executable folder
C:\AVEVA\pdms11.6
PDMSEXEMAIN Copy of PDMSEXE, but can be a search path
C:\AVEVA\pdms11.6
CADCENTRE_LICENSE_FILE License file
Note that this variable relates to AVEVA’s former name
for historical reasons!
See section 4.3, Setting the License File Location
PDMSUI Application User Interface folder (PML 1)
C:\AVEVA\pdms11.6\pdmsui
PMLLIB Application User Interface folder (PML 2)
C:\AVEVA\pdms11.6\pmllib
PDMSDFLTS Applications defaults folder
C:\AVEVA\pdms11.6\pdmsui\dflts
PDMSPLOTS Applications PLOTS folder
C:\AVEVA\pdms11.6\pdmsui\plots
PLOTCADC Pointer to the PLOT executable.
C:\AVEVA\pdms11.6\plot\plot.exe
PDMSHELPDIR Online help data files.
C:\AVEVA\pdms11.6\onlinehelp

PDMS User Environment Variables

The following environment variables refer to the location of users PDMS
folders. Users must have write permission to these folders.
PDMSWK Temporary PDMS work file folder
C:\temp
PDMSUSER Application Users save/restore setup area (or the users
'home' folder)
C:\AVEVA\pdms11.6\pdmsuser
PDMSREPDIR PDMS Applicationware Report Input and Output folder.
C:\AVEVA\pdms11.6\pdmsui\reports
PDMSDFLTS Applications defaults folder. Note that individual users
may not have permission to change PDMS System
defaults in C:\AVEVA\pdms11.6\pdmsui\dflts, but

4-4 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6
 Setting Up the Windows Environment

they should have their own local defaults area. This is

achieved by setting a PDMSDFLTS search path, e.g.
‘C:\USERDFLTS C:\AVEVA\pdms11.6\pdmsui\dflts’
Project Environment Variables
For each PDMS project, four more environment variables must be set.
For example, for a project ABC:
ABC000 Project database folder
ABCISO Project ISODRAFT options folder
ABCMAC Project Inter-DB connection macro folder
ABCPIC Project DRAFT picture file folder
PDMS is installed with sample project data (See Chapter 7 PDMS
Projects). PDMS Project Environment variables for these projects are set
in evars.bat.

4.5 Running PDMS from a Command Prompt Window

You can run PDMS from a Command Prompt window rather than using
the Start/Programs menu. To do this you must set your PATH variable to
include the folder where PDMS is installed.
Windows 2000 and Windows XP
• Open the Control Panel.
• Select System, and pick the Advanced tab.
• Click on the Environment Variables button.
• Edit the system variable Path to add the PDMS folder (for example,
C:\AVEVA\pdms11.6) to the list of folders in the Path variable.
Once the Path variable includes the pdms11.6 folder, you can run PDMS
by typing pdms at a command prompt.

4.6 Customising PDMS Start-Up

There is a batch (.bat) file supplied in C:\AVEVA\pdms11.6 called

pdms.bat which allows entry into PDMS.
You can run PDMS using this batch file in any of the following ways:
• Use the shortcut in the Windows Start menu,
Start>Programs>AVEVA>VANTAGE PDMS 11.6>Run PDMS

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 4-5

Version 11.6
Setting Up the Windows Environment

• You can create a shortcut on your desktop to run your batch file.
With the cursor in the desktop area, click with the right-hand
button and select New>Shortcut. This shows a sequence of dialogs to
help you create the shortcut. Type in the location of pdms.bat, for
example:
C:\AVEVA\pdms11.6\pdms.bat
then press Next and give the shortcut a name.
Press Finish.
You should now be able to double-click on the shortcut icon to enter
PDMS.
• If you have C:\AVEVA\pdms11.6(the path name for the pdms.bat
file) in your PATH environment variable, just type pdms in a
command window to execute the batch file.
• Otherwise, navigate to the folder where the batch file is stored and
type pdms or pdms.bat.
You can set up your own batch files to run PDMS. For example, you may
wish to run design checking utilities every night, or update batches of
drawings overnight.
Begin by creating a batch file, for example, runpdmsmacro.bat.
Type the following line into this file:
C:\AVEVA\pdms11.6\pdms.bat TTY SAM SYSTEM/XXXXXX /STRUC $M/mymacrofile

Where:
• TTY tells PDMS not to start the PDMS GUI. This gives command line
only operation.
• SAM is the project name.
• SYSTEM/XXXXXX is the PDMS username/password to be used when
running the command macro
• /STRUC selects the required MDB
• mymacrofile is the pathname of a PDMS command macro, containing
the commands that you want to execute in PDMS.
In this example, running runpdmsmacro.bat will enter PDMS in project
SAM, as user SYSTEM/XXXXXX, in MDB /STRUC, and run the PDMS
command macro mymacrofile.

4.7 Running PDMS in batch

PDMS creates a separate PDMSConsole process to manage the

command-line input/output for all modules. When PDMS is invoked

4-6 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6
 Setting Up the Windows Environment

from a .bat file, processing of this file resumes as soon as you leave
Monitor – even though you are still using PDMS.
To help manage this situation, PDMSWait.exe is distributed as part of
PDMS and can be used to make a PDMS script wait for PDMS to
complete before continuing.
PDMSWait uses Windows facilities to wait for an event triggered by
PDMSConsole when PDMS finishes. Because you can be running more
than one PDMS session on any one computer, both PDMSWait and
PDMSConsole look for an environment variable
PDMS_CONSOLE_IDENTIFIER before doing this. You can set
PDMS_CONSOLE_IDENTIFIER to any unique string. In a .bat file you can
use the %RANDOM% or %TIME% values provided by Windows; in a Perl script,
you can use the process number, accessible as $$.
Example:
echo Start PDMS at %TIME%
set PDMS_CONSOLE_IDENTIFIER=%RANDOM%
call %PDMSEXE%\pdms
call %PDMSEXE%\pdmswait
echo Returned to .bat at %TIME%
This will start PDMS, then wait until it has finished before resuming the
script.
The VANTAGE PDMS MONITOR Reference Manual provides more
details on running PDMS batch programs.

4.8 Plotting

To plot in a Windows environment, we recommend that you use the

plotcadc.bat file supplied in the pdms11.6 folder. Note that you may have
to modify the plotcadc.bat file to suit your local printer installation.
The Network Plotter must be mapped using the NET USE command. See
your network documentation for more information.
To run the plotcadc.bat file, give a command in the format:
C:\AVEVA\pdms11.6\plotcadc.bat plotfile format printer options
Where options are the AVEVA PLOT utility options, and may be omitted.
See the PLOT User Guide for more information. Note that the options
must be enclosed in quotes.
For example:
plotcadc.bat c:\pdms\plot1 ps \\ntserver\NTPostScript
plotcadc.bat c:\pdms\plot1 hpgl \\ntserver\NThpgl 'CE=Y'

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 4-7

Version 11.6
5 Language Support

By default, your PDMS project can use any language whose characters
are contained within the Latin-1 character set. The Languages covered
by the Latin-1 character set a listed in the table below. If you want to use
any of the other, non-Latin-1 languages supported by PDMS, it is
necessary to configure your PDMS project and the Windows operating
system. This chapter describes how to use PDMS on Windows 2000 and
Windows XP Professional in each of the supported language groups:
• Latin-1
• Latin-2
• Latin-Cyrillic
• Far Eastern

Supported languages

Name Description Languages covered

Latin 1 ISO 8859-1 Latin alphabet 1 Danish, Dutch, English, Faroese,
Finnish, French, German,
Icelandic, Irish, Italian,
Norwegian, Portuguese,
Spanish, Swedish,
Latin 2 ISO 8859-2 Latin alphabet 2 Albanian, Czech, English,
German, Hungarian, Polish,
Rumanian, Serbo-Croat, Slovak,
Slovene
Latin Cyrillic ISO 8859-5 Latin/Cyrillic Bulgarian, Byelorussian,
alphabet English, Macedonian, Serbo-
Croatian, Ukrainian, Russian
Far Eastern Japanese, Korean, Simplified
Chinese, Traditional Chinese

PDMS does not support any other language character set, nor does it
support the mixing of any of the above, except for mixing one Far
Eastern language with English.

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 5-1

Version 11.6
Language Support

5.1 Preparing Windows to use Supported Languages

5.1.1 Windows 2000

To add an additional language in Windows 2000, follow these steps:
1. Open the Control Panel.
2. Double-click Regional Options to show the Regional Options dialog.
3. Click the Input Locales tab.
4. In the Input Locales box, click the required language, and then
click Properties.
5. In the Keyboard Layout box, click the required keyboard layout,
click OK, and then click OK.
6. Click the General tab. Click to select the check box next to the
language group you wish to install, and then click Apply. The
system will either prompt for a Windows 2000 CD-ROM or access
the system files across the network. Once the language is
installed, Windows 2000 will prompt you to restart the computer.

5.1.2 Windows XP
To add an additional language in Windows XP, follow these steps:
1. Open the Control Panel.
2. Double-click Regional and Language Options.
3. On the Regional options tab, under “Standards and formats”,
select the required language from the list.
4. Click the Languages tab, and then click Details under "Text
services and input languages".
5. Under “Default input language”, select the required language. If
the required language appears in the list, click OK.
If it does not appear in the list, then click Add under "Installed
Services", and then click the language you want to add and the
keyboard layout you want to use for that language.
To configure the settings for the Language bar, click Language Bar
under "Preferences". The Language bar is used to switch between
languages while you are using PDMS. Click OK to close the
Language Bar Settings dialog.
Click OK to close the “Text Services and Input Languages” dialog.

5-2 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6
 Language Support

6. Click the Advanced tab. Under ”Languages for non-Unicode

programs”, select the required language. Click Apply. It may be
necessary to install new code page conversion tables. Only member
of the Administrators group can install code page conversion
tables. The system will either prompt for a Windows XP CD-ROM
or access the system files across the network. Once the language is
installed, Windows XP will prompt you to restart the computer.
Note: For Far Eastern language support, it is necessary have the East
Asian support option installed.

5.2 Preparing PDMS to use Latin Languages

In PDMS ADMIN, you must specify a character set for each project by
using one of the following commands on the PDMS ADMIN command
line:

Command Languages covered

PROJECT CHARSET LATIN 1 Danish, Dutch, English, Faroese,
Finnish, French, German, Icelandic,
(default)
Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese,
Spanish, Swedish,
PROJECT CHARSET LATIN 2 Albanian, Czech, English, German,
Hungarian, Polish, Rumanian, Serbo-
Croat, Slovak, Slovene
PROJECT CHARSET LATIN CYRILLIC Bulgarian, Byelorussian, English,
Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian,
Ukrainian, Russian

The corresponding font family must be selected for Draft and Isodraft
drawings. Use Project>Font Families and select the Font Type appropriate
for you chosen language.
For details, see the VANTAGE PDMS ADMIN User Guide and
VANTAGE PDMS ADMIN Command Reference Manual.

5.3 Preparing PDMS to use Far Eastern Languages

You must ensure that your licence file is for the language version you
require.

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 5-3

Version 11.6
Language Support

Before you use PDMS, you must set the environment variable
CADC_LANG as follows:
CADC_LANG=Japanese Kanji
CADC_LANG=Korean
CADC_LANG=Chinese Simplified Chinese
CADC_LANG= TChinese Traditional Chinese
In PDMS ADMIN, you must specify the multibyte character set for each
project by using the command corresponding to your required language:
PROJECT MBCHARSET JAP
PROJECT MBCHARSET KOR FILE /<font filename>
PROJECT MBCHARSET CHI Simplified Chinese
PROJECT MBCHARSET TCHIN FILE /<font filename>
Traditional Chinese

For details, see the VANTAGE PDMS ADMIN User Guide and
VANTAGE PDMS ADMIN Command Reference Manual.

5-4 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6
6 Running PDMS under Windows

6.1 Spaces in Windows pathnames

To run macros with spaces in the filenames, you must enclose the
filename in quotes, without a leading slash. For example:
$m'c:\Program Files\Macros\space.mac' arg1 arg2

Due to the way in which PDMS parses its command lines, this format is
also recommended for use with filenames containing Asian characters.

6.2 Linking to Microsoft Excel

You can make your reports load directly into a Microsoft Excel
spreadsheet, as comma-separated files:
• Select Utilities>Reports>Modify from the PDMS main menu bar.
• Pick a report template.
• Click on OK: the Modify Template form is displayed.
• Select Options>Other Formats... from the Modify Template form menu
bar. This displays the Report Format form. From this form:
• Choose the CSV option from the Format drop-down list.
• Click on OK: this returns you to the Modify Template form.
• Select the Overwrite radio button
• For the filename enter %PDMSUSER%/fname.csv (the .csv
extension is important).
• In the System command text box enter
'cmd/c “C:\<excel folder>\excel.exe” %PDMSUSER%\fname.csv'
where C:\<excel folder> is the location of Excel on your system.
Note that it is necessary to enclose Windows command arguments
in double quotation marks if the argument contains embedded
spaces. :\<excel folder>\

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 6-1

Version 11.6
Running PDMS under Windows

6.3 Windows Parameters

The following setting can be used to improve performance when

repositioning forms in PDMS. These are optional Windows Parameter
settings.
Windows 2000
Open the Control Panel. Select Display and select the Effects tab. On the
form, uncheck Show Window Contents While Dragging.
Windows XP
Open the Control Panel. Select Display, then select the Appearance tab and
click on the Effects… button. On the form, uncheck Show Window Contents
While Dragging and Show shadows under menus.

6-2 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6
7 PDMS Projects

7.1 The Sample Project

PDMS is supplied with a sample project, which can be used in several

ways:
• It provides you with examples of the use of PDMS.
• It provides you with sample libraries, catalogues and specifications
which enable you to use PDMS before you set up your own, and can
be used as starting points when you do start to create your own.
• It provides you with starting points for the tutorials in the following
manuals:
Pipework Design Using PDMS
Pipework Spooling Using PDMS
Structural Design Using PDMS
Industrial Building Design Using PDMS
Support Design Using PDMS
HVAC Design Using PDMS
Reporting from PDMS
Drawing Production Using PDMS
• It provides an example of how to set up your own projects.
The sample project is actually two projects in PDMS terms:
• MAS (Master) provides data in read-only databases. This data
should not be deleted or changed in any way, or the rest of the
sample project will become unusable.
• SAM (Sample) contains several MDBs which can be modified, and
so they can be used for training,

7.1.1 Copying Project SAM to Your User Area

The sample project is loaded automatically when you install PDMS. You
should copy the sample project to your user area and run it as supplied.

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 7-1

Version 11.6
PDMS Projects

The project files are held in two directories: sam000 holds all design
data and catalogue data; sampic holds the DRAFT picture libraries.

7.1.2 Users and Teams in the Sample Project

Free User
The Free user has username/password SYSTEM/XXXXXX.

General Users
Team Username/password
CATS CATS/CATS
DEMO DEMO/DEMO
EQUI EQUI/EQUI
HANGER HANGER/HANGER
HVAC HVAC/HVAC
PIPE PIPE/PIPE
SAMPLE SAMPLE/SAMPLE
STRUC STRUC/STRUC
USERA USERA/A
USERB USERB/B
USERC USERCC
USERD USERD/D
USERE USERE/E
USERF USERF/F
USERG USERG/G

General User with Administration Rights

There is a user named ADMIN who is a member of all teams except
MASTER. In particular, ADMIN is a member of the following teams:
CATADMIN
DRAFTADMIN
HSADMIN
ISOADMIN
Membership of these teams gives special administration rights within
the corresponding constructor module.
Each MDB contains databases with appropriate access rights. There are
also teams and users associated with each MDB with appropriate access
rights.

7-2 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6
 PDMS Projects

7.1.3 MDBs in the Sample Project

This section assumes that you are already familiar with PDMS
databases.
The sample project contains the following MDBs which can be used for
demonstration or training purposes:
CATS An MDB for practising using Catalogues and
Specifications.
DEMO A demonstration MDB.
EQUI An MDB for the Equipment tutorials.
HANGER An MDB for the Support Design tutorial. This MDB
contains suitable pipework, steelwork and civils as a
starting point.
HVAC An MDB for the HVAC Design tutorial. This MDB
contains suitable steelwork and civils as a starting
point.
MASTER An MDB containing the master Catalogues and
Specifications, Lexicon Dictionaries etc.
MASTERCAT An MDB used for practising the use of Catalogues and
Specifications.
PIPE An MDB for the Pipework Design and Pipework
Spooling tutorials.
SAMPLE An MDB for the Reporting from PDMS and Drawing
Production tutorials. This MDB contains design data
from which reports and drawings can be produced. You
can also produce isometrics.
STRUC An MDB for the Structural Design tutorial.
TRAINA to
TRAING Additional MDBs available for training purposes.

7.2 Creating PDMS Projects

For full information on setting up your own projects, see the VANTAGE
PDMS ADMIN User Guide.
You will need to create project folders for each project; for example, for a
project xyz:

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 7-3

Version 11.6
PDMS Projects

md xyz000
md xyzpic
md xyziso
md xyzmac
Set the corresponding environment variables that point to these
directories. You can do this by setting Environment Variables using the
Control Panel, or by modifying the evars.bat file used to configure your
PDMS Windows installation. (see Chapter 4, Setting Up the Windows
Environment, for further details). Alternatively, type the following in an
MS-DOS window:
set XYZ000=pathname\xyz000
set XYZPIC=pathname\xyzpic
set XYZISO=pathname\xyziso
set XYZMAC=pathname\xyzmac
Note: Users converting from UNIX should note that there is no direct
equivalent of the .cshrc file in which these variables can be set.
Use the 'Make PDMS project' icon supplied to start the PDMS Make
program, then enter:
XYZ
$m/%PDMSEXE%/makemac.mac
FINISH
Note: Users converting from UNIX should note that the makemac.mac
file is the same as on UNIX. The executable for each module is
also named identically to that on UNIX, e.g. DESIGN runs
%PDMSEXE%/des. The extension '.exe' needed by Windows is
added automatically.

7.2.1 The Sample Project and your own Projects

You can add databases from the sample projects SAM and MAS to your
own projects from within PDMS ADMIN, using the Install options on the
main menu bar. Note that these options are only available if you have
the project environment variables for SAM and MAS set.

Note on DRAFT Libraries:

You must have DRAFT libraries available in your current project before
you can enter the module. You may find it convenient to install the
libraries supplied by AVEVA in the MAS project (using the Install
options), even if you wish to create your own libraries for the project.

7-4 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6
8 Installing AutoDRAFT

This chapter explains the steps needed to install and configure

AutoDRAFT.
AutoDRAFT may be run in stand-alone mode or it may be run from
PDMS DRAFT or ISODRAFT. You can use the adraftde, adraftbe and
adraftse scripts as described in the VANTAGE PDMS AutoDRAFT User
Guide. The DRAFT and ISODRAFT applicationware generates interface
files for AutoCAD, which are then used by the scripts.
AutoDRAFT generates interface files for DRAFT, which can be imported
using the DRAFT applicationware.

8.1 Compatibility

The version of AutoDRAFT released with PDMS 11.6 is compatible with

AutoCAD Releases 2002 and 2004.

8.2 The AutoDRAFT Software

AutoDRAFT software consists of three AutoCAD applications that run

with AutoCAD Releases 2002 and 2004, and PDMS application macros to
link these AutoDRAFT applications with PDMS DRAFT and ISODRAFT.
The three AutoCAD applications are:
• AutoDRAFT Drawing Editor
• AutoDRAFT Frame Editor
• AutoDRAFT Symbol Editor
The Drawing Editor is used to modify drawings transferred from DRAFT
or ISODRAFT. Please note that the new Final Designer product provides
much closer integration between DRAFT and AutoCAD.
The Frame Editor is used to transfer AutoCAD drawings into backing
sheets or overlay sheets in DRAFT.
The Symbol Editor is used to convert AutoCAD graphics into symbol
templates within DRAFT symbol libraries.

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 8-1

Version 11.6
Installing AutoDRAFT

8.3 Configuring AutoDRAFT with AutoCAD

The AutoDRAFT 11.6 software is installed under the PDMS executables

folder:
pdms11.6

autodraftACAD autodraftfonts autodraftACADsource

• The autodraftACAD folder contains .bat files, AutoDRAFT scripts,

AutoLISP programs, binary DRAFT menu files and an AutoCAD
linestyle file.
• The autodraftfonts folder contains AutoCAD font files. All of these
are needed to run AutoDRAFT programs in AutoCAD.
• In addition to the AutoDRAFT binary menu files, text versions are
also provided. These are supplied in the autodraftACADsource folder
for reference/customisation. This folder should not be visible by
AutoCAD.
Note: The AutoDRAFT software will operate properly only if AutoCAD
can be run using the acad command. AutoDRAFT may not work if
the AutoCAD executable acad has been renamed, or if the acad
command runs a user-supplied file which itself runs AutoCAD.

8.4 Installing and configuring AutoCAD

In order to use AutoDRAFT, AutoCAD must be installed and configured

for each computer where AutoDRAFT will be used. The AutoCAD
Installation and Performance Guide supplied with AutoCAD describes
how to do this.
AutoCAD should be configured to locate the extra menus and fonts used
in AutoDRAFT: the method depends on the AutoCAD version, typically:
• Add the appropriate paths to the autodraftACAD,
autodraftACADsource and autodraftfonts directories to the
>Tools>Options>Support File Search Path field.
The AutoDRAFT environment variable setting commands applicable to
each release of AutoCAD are listed in the following sections. The
environment variables are set within the supplied pdms.bat file. These
should be edited to suit the installed version of AutoCAD.

8-2 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6
 Installing AutoDRAFT

8.4.1 AutoCAD R2002

set PDMS_ACAD=2002
set PDMS_ACAD_PATH=pathname for AutoCAD R2002 files
e.g. C:\Program Files\Acad2002;C:\Program Files\Common
Files\Autodesk Shared
set ACAD_VERSION=%PDMS_ACAD%
set path=location of autodraftACAD directory;%PDMS_ACAD_PATH%;
%path%
Before running AutoDRAFT, you need to run AutoCAD R2002 and add
the following as file paths:
Location of autodraftACAD directory
Location of autodraftACADsource directory
Location of autodraftfonts directory

8.4.2 AutoCAD R2004

set PDMS_ACAD=2004
set PDMS_ACAD_PATH=pathname for AutoCAD R2004 files
e.g. C:\Program Files\Acad2004;C:\Program Files\Common
Files\Autodesk Shared
set ACAD_VERSION=%PDMS_ACAD%
set path=location of autodraftACAD directory;%PDMS_ACAD_PATH%;
%path%
Before running AutoDRAFT, you need to run AutoCAD R2004 and add
the following as file paths:
Location of autodraftACAD directory
Location of autodraftACADsource directory
Location of autodraftfonts directory

8.5 Getting Started with AutoCAD

Before using the Drawing Editor make sure that AutoCAD has been
correctly installed and configured by entering the command acad at the
operating system command prompt.

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 8-3

Version 11.6
Installing AutoDRAFT

8.6 Application Macros for use with PDMS DRAFT

The applicationware provides the additional menus and forms required

to run the AutoDRAFT editors in AutoCAD directly from DRAFT and
ISODRAFT.

8-4 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6
9 Upgrading Projects to Version 11.6

It is necessary to upgrade your PDMS projects by using the appropriate

upgrade procedure. The procedure supplied with PDMS 11.6 will work
with all releases from PDMS 11.2 onwards. If you are upgrading from an
earlier version of PDMS, it is necessary to upgrade from each PDMS
version to the next by using the upgrade procedure supplied with the
appropriate version of PDMS.
For example, to upgrade a project from PDMS 10.5 to PDMS 11.6, it is
necessary first to load the PDMS 11.2 product, and use its upgrade
procedure to create a PDMS 11.2 version of your project, before using the
upgrade scripts supplied with 11.6.
No database upgrade is necessary for PDMS 11.4 or 11.5 projects. The
only action of the upgrade in this case is to remove the *vir.dat files from
the project – if you say yes to the prompt. These files are now stored in
PDMSEXE to simplify the upgrade process: the change was made at
PDMS 11.4sp1.

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 9-1

Version 11.6
Upgrading Projects to Version 11.6

9-2 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6
10 Troubleshooting

Here are some suggestions about solving some problems you may
encounter when using PDMS under Windows.

10.1 General

Error: The dynamic link library DFORMD.dll could not be found in the
specified path.
Explanation: This is supplied with PDMS. Perhaps you have not set your PATH
variable. The PATH setting must include ‘C:\AVEVA\pdms11.6’.

Error: STOP. The application failed to initialise properly (0xc0000135). Click

on OK to terminate the application.
Explanation: This occurs after a number of other errors. The most likely reason is a
problem with the PATH variable.

10.2 License Manager Errors

Error: When you start up lmgrd it says <time> (lmgrd) Can't make folder
C:\FLEXlm, errno: 2 No such file or folder, etc.
Solution: There is no C: drive for the license manager to write to. As the System
Administrator or a Power User, you need to make a shared disk called
C:. This can be done on a networked or non-networked computer.
Within the Windows Explorer’s File menu, create a new folder (e.g.
D:\C_drive) and make it current. Select File>Properties and select
the Share tab. Click on the Shared As: radio button and then click OK.
Then from the Tools menu select Map Network Drive. Select C: from
the Drive: drop-down list in the displayed form and type
\\hostname\C_drive
in the Path box. Then click on OK. (C:) should now appear in the list of
available drives in Explorer.

Error: <time> (lmgrd) "<host>": Not a valid server hostname, exiting.

Explanation: The hostname used by AVEVA to create the license file does not
correspond with the computer on which you are running PDMS. The
hostname comes from the variable COMPUTERNAME, which you can

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 10-1

Version 11.6
Troubleshooting

obtain by typing 'env|findstr COMPUTERNAME' in a Command

Prompt window. Compare this with the license file contents, and
resubmit if necessary.

Pop-up Mess.: FLEXlm: checkout failed: Cannot connect to license server (-15,
10:10061) WinSock error code.
Explanation: lmgrd has not been started up - see above for details.

Pop-up Mess.: FlexLM: checkout failed: Cannot find license file (-1,73:2) No such file
or folder.
Explanation: lmgrd has not been started up - see above for details.

Pop-up Mess.: FlexLM: checkout failed: Licensed number of users already reached
(-4,132).
Explanation: You have exceeded the permitted number of users specified in your
license file.

10.3 Entering PDMS

Error: (43,9) Environment Variable not defined for project name.

Explanation: You have not set the environment variable for the project, e.g. XYZ000.

Error: (43,1) Project <xxx> not available!

Error 7 allocating system database.
Explanation: The environment variable for the project does not point to the correct
location. Either the disk and/or folder do not exist or are not readable.

Error: <username> not found.

or
Bad password.
Explanation: You are trying to enter PDMS without a valid PDMS username and/or
password.

Error: PDMSWK environment variable not set.

Solution: Set PDMSWK to c:\temp or some other folder where PDMS can create
temporary files.

Error: Error 34 opening variables file.

Explanation: You cannot create a file in the location pointed to by environment
variable PDMSWK.

10-2 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6
 Troubleshooting

Error: Project <xxx> is pre version 8.

Explanation: This can happen if you have transferred the project from UNIX using
FTP in ASCII rather than Binary format.

10.4 Problems with Graphics

Error: Cannot pick certain items in DESIGN 3D shaded views.

Solution: There is probably a problem with the display driver for the graphics
board that you are using. Make sure you have the version of the display
driver recommended on our supported display drivers Web page.

Error: Incorrect colours.

Solution: Check the setting of your Display. The colour resolution should be set to
‘True Colour’ or 16.7 million colours.

Error: Graphics speed (for example in 3D views) is poor.

Solution: Check the setting of your Display.

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 10-3

Version 11.6
Troubleshooting

10-4 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6
11 Structure of PDMS on .NET

From PDMS 11.6, the GUI uses the Microsoft .NET environment including the
latest WinForms based user interface components. Using this state-of-the-art
technology enables docking forms and toolbars in PDMS and provides a robust
foundation for the future provision of standard application programming
interfaces.
This does affect the way PDMS is installed: this section gives a brief overview
and the following one outlines how to troubleshoot the installation.

11.1 Overview

This section describes the overall structure and components of the PDMS .NET
installation, and the environment necessary to run it. Each PDMS GUI module
now consists of a thin .NET exe, a .NET Wrapper DLL and a Win32 DLL plus
some other shared components including 3rd party controls from Infragistics.
The .NET components are private assemblies installed under the root directory
%PDMSEXE%.

11.2 PDMSEXE

The environment variable %PDMSEXE% is used to locate the executable on

module switch. It is also used to locate attlib.dat (attribute and noun definitions),
message.dat (message definitions), desvir.dat (schema definition) etc. Normally
PDMS is started from pdms.bat which is located in your %PATH%. Both
%PDMSEXE% and %PATH% should include the install directory.

11.3 GUI module structure

Each GUI module is structured in the same way. For Design the structure looks
like this

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 11-1

Version 11.6
Structure of PDMS on .NET

des.exe

Wrappers.dll

des.dll

where des.exe and des.dll live in the directory %PDMSEXE% and Wrappers.dll
lives in the Design subdirectory below %PDMSEXE%. So, when running a PDMS
GUI module %PDMSEXE% is used to locate the executable, .NET loading rules
are used to load Wrappers.dll and Win32 DLL loading rules are used to load
des.dll (and other Win32 DLLs on which des.dll depends).

11.3.1 Wrappers
For each GUI module (Design, Draft, Admin, Isodraft and Monitor) there is a
Wrappers.dll in a subdirectory with the same name as the module. Each
Wrapper.dll has a dynamic link to the appropriate Win32 DLL for that module.
.NET loading rules are used to load the appropriate Wrappers.dll for a given
module. So, when running des.exe, the version of Wrappers.dll linked with
des.dll will be loaded. Design and Draft subdirectories also contain a
drawlistWrapper dll which is used by the Drawlist add-in.

11.3.2 .NET Loading rules

All the .NET assemblies are Private assemblies and are installed under
%PDMSEXE% (Assembly Base directory) or a subdirectory below. .NET loads
private assemblies from the base directory of the application. If it can’t find the
private assembly here it uses the applications configuration file called
<module>.exe.config to see whether it contains any path hints. Path hints are
stored in the <probing> element. So, for example, des.exe.config has the
following probing path <probing privatePath="Design" />. This means that
Wrappers.dll is loaded from the subdirectory Design below the application
directory.

11-2 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6
 Structure of PDMS on .NET

11.3.3 Win32 DLLs

Each Wrappers.dll depends on the given module’s Win32 DLL, e.g. Design’s
Wrappers.dll found in the Design subdirectory depends on des.dll. Win32 DLL
loading rules apply here. These are:
• The directory from which the importing component loaded. (e.g. the
Design subdirectory where Wrappers.dll is loaded)
• The (application's) current directory (where it’s run from)
• The Windows directory (default: C:\Windows) (we don’t install anything
here)
• The directories that are listed in the PATH environment variable
Since the module DLL does not live in the same directory as the Wrappers.dll
then unless you are running from %PDMSEXE%, your %PATH% will be used to
locate the module DLL. (The Wrappers.dll subdirectory is the directory which is
first searched for all the Win32 DLL’s on which Wrappers depends i.e.
<module>.dll, sglNet.dll, udDNet.dll, …)

11.4 Components

The following components will be installed under %PDMSEXE% or one of its

subdirectories. This is not a complete list but a list of all .NET related files for
GUI modules (Design, Draft, Isodraft, Admin and Monitor). Each module has an
.exe and corresponding dll e.g. des.exe and des.dll, a config file, a manifest file
and an Addins file. The config file is used to specify the location of the Wrappers
dll’s for each application, the manifest file is used to set the visual style of the
application and the Addins file defines which add-ins the application will load
(e.g. Explorer, Drawlist, …).

11.4.1 PDMSEXE directory

Design/Spooler
des.exe, des.dll, des.exe.config, des.exe.manifest, DesignAddins.xml,
SpoolerAddins.xml

Draft
dra.exe, dra.dll, dra.exe.config, dra.exe.manifest, DraftAddins.xml

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 11-3

Version 11.6
Structure of PDMS on .NET

Monitor
mon.exe, mon.dll, mon.exe.config, mon.exe.manifest

Isodraft
iss.exe, iss.dll, iss.exe.config, iss.exe.manifest, IsodraftAddins.xml

Admin
adm.exe, adm.dll, adm.exe.config, adm.exe.manifest

Shared
Depends.dll, DrawList.dll, DrawListAddin.dll, ExplorerAddin.dll,
ExplorerControl.dll, ForeignLanguage.dll, HistoryAddIn.dll, MyDataAddIn.dll,
ReferenceListAddin.dll, PDMSCommands.dll, PDMSFilters.dll,
PDMSResources.dll, PDMSResources.resources, StartUp.dll,
ApplicationFramework.dll, udNet.dll, DruidNet.dll

Infragistics
This is a third-party GUI tool-kit:
Infragistics.Shared.v3.dll, Infragistics.Win.UltraWinDock.v3.dll,
Infragistics.Win.UltraWinExplorerBar.v3.dll,
Infragistics.Win.UltraWinGrid.v3.dll,
Infragistics.Win.UltraWinStatusBar.v3.dll,
Infragistics.Win.UltraWinTabbedMdi.v3.dll,
Infragistics.Win.UltraWinTabControl.v3.dll,
Infragistics.Win.UltraWinToolbars.v3.dll, Infragistics.Win.UltraWinTree.v3.dll,
Infragistics.Win.v3.dll, Infragistics.Win.Misc.v3.dll

System
msvcp71.dll, msvcr71.dll

Other DLLs required by DRAFT

These DLLs are loaded as required by specific DRAFT commands:
Draft_DXF_LI.dll, Draft_DGN_LI.dll, Draft_Test_LI.dll, Draft_SVG_LI.dll

Other DLLs required by DESIGN

sgl5NET.dll

11-4 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6
 Structure of PDMS on .NET

11.4.2 PDMSEXE/Design subdirectory

drawlistWrappers.dll, Wrappers.dll

11.4.3 PDMSEXE/Draft subdirectory

drawlistWrappers.dll, Wrappers.dll

11.4.4 PDMSEXE/Monitor subdirectory

Wrappers.dll

11.4.5 PDMSEXE/Isodraft subdirectory

drawlistWrappers.dll, Wrappers.dll

11.4.6 PDMSEXE/Admin subdirectory

Wrappers.dll

11.4.7 Add-ins
These new user interface .NET components are loaded by the Application
Framework. Each module has an addin file which defines the set of add-ins it
will load, e.g. for Design this file is DesignAddins.xml. The toolbar entries to
show and hide each add-in are defined in PML.

11.5 Forms and Menus

Most of the User Interface is still defined in PML located in %PMLLIB% and
%PDMSUI%.

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 11-5

Version 11.6
11-6 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide
Version 11.6
12 Troubleshooting the .NET installation

12.1 Version Error

Error: System.IO.FileLoadException: The located assembly's manifest

definition with name 'PDMSResources' does not match the assembly reference.
Solution: All .Net assemblies must be the same version. Check
File>Properties>Version Assembly Version on all assemblies is 11.6.0.0 or whatever
the current version is.

12.2 Wrappers or a dependency missing

Error: An exception ‘System.IO.FileNotFoundException’ has occurred in

mon.exe.
Additional information: File or assembly name Wrappers, or one of its dependencies,
was not found.

Solution: All the .NET assemblies are Private assemblies and are installed under
%PDMSEXE% (Assembly Base directory) or a subdirectory below. .NET loads
private assemblies from the base directory of the application. If it can’t find the
private assembly here, it uses the application’s configuration file called
<module>.exe.config to see whether it contains any path hints. Path hints are stored
in the <probing> element. So, for example, des.exe.config has the following probing
path <probing privatePath="Design" />. This means that Wrappers.dll is loaded
from the subdirectory Design below the application directory. Each Wrappers.dll
depends on the given modules Win32 DLL e.g. Design’s Wrappers.dll found in the
Design subdirectory depends on des.dll. Win32 DLL loading rules apply here. These
are

• The directory from which the importing component loaded. (i.e. the Design
subdirectory where Wrappers.dll is loaded in the case of Design)

• The (application's) current directory (where it’s run from)

• The Windows directory (default: C:\Windows) (we don’t install anything here)

• The directories that are listed in the PATH environment variable

Since the module DLL does not live in the same directory as the Wrappers.dll then
unless PDMS is running from %PDMSEXE% the %PATH% will be used to locate

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 12-1

Version 11.6
Troubleshooting the .NET installation

the module DLL. (The Wrappers.dll subdirectory is effectively is the directory which
is first looked in for all the Win32 DLL’s which Wrappers depends on i.e.
<module>.dll, sglNet.dll, udDNet.dll, …)

Make sure that both %PDMSEXE% and %PATH% point to the root directory in
which PDMS is installed.

12.3 Interface incompatibility

Error:
An exception ‘System.MissingMethodException’ has occurred in mon.exe
Or
An exception ‘System.IO.FileNotFoundException’ has occurred in mon.exe
Additional information: A procedure imported by 'Wrappers' could not be loaded.

Solution: The interfaces between components are not compatible. Check

File>Properties>Version Assembly Version on all assemblies is 11.6.0.0 or whatever
the current version is.

12.4 Security error with thin client

Error: An unhandled exception of type 'System.IO.FileLoadException' occurred

in Unknown Module.
Additional information: Unverifiable assembly 'Wrappers' failed policy check.

Solution: .NET security gets in the way when running PDMS across the network
where the assemblies reside on a different machine to the .NET runtime. The
default security level for the local intranet is not set to Full Trust which means that
programs may not be able to access resources on the local machine. To overcome
this, the intranet security may be set to Full Trust. However this means that any
.NET assembly may run. Alternatively, Full Trust may be given to a specified group
of strongly named assemblies. This is done using the code access security policy tool
caspol. This should be run on each client machine to add all the assemblies on a
given server directory to a group and give Full Trust to this group.

Use Administrative Tools>.Net Configuration 1.1>My Computer>Runtime Security

Policy>Machine>Code Groups>All Code>LocalIntranet_Zone to check the group
properties.

If the security Policy has not been set, this can be done by hand using:

12-2 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6
 Troubleshooting the .NET installation

caspol -m -ag LocalIntranet_Zone -url

\\<ServerName>\<FolderName>\* FullTrust -n "<Name>" -d "<Description>"

where <ServerName> is the UNC (Uniform Naming Convention) - the format of a

UNC path is: \\<servername>\<sharename>\<directory>

Or

If you are not concerned about other .NET remote assemblies running on your
machine, this can be set for the entire intranet using:
Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Microsoft .Net Framework 1.1
Configuration>Configure Code Access Security Policy>Adjust Zone Security>Make
changes to this computer
Then change Local Intranet to Full Trust

VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide 12-3

Version 11.6
Troubleshooting the .NET installation

12.5 No Add-ins

Problem: Add-ins missing from module

Solution:
Add-ins loaded by each module are defined in the following xml files:
DesignAddins.xml
DraftAddins.xml
IsodraftAddins.xml
SpoolerAddins.xml
If Add-ins are missing, check that these files exist in %PDMSEXE%

12.6 Window Layout

Problem: Window layout is not restored e.g. Add-ins position and/or docked
state, …
Solution: The file <module><version>WindowLayout.xml in the %PDMSUSER%
directory stores this information for the each GUI module. If this file is deleted then
the window layout will return to its default.

12.7 Serialization

Serialization is the process used to store the data – e.g. history stacks, toolbar state
– for the GUI in a .NET environment.
Problem: Information is stored per project and per module in the following files
in the %PDMSUSER% directory:
<project><version>Settings.bin
<module><version>Settings.bin.
Solution: These files may be deleted or transferred between users working on the
same project.

12-4 VANTAGE PDMS Installation Guide

Version 11.6