VW CAD management and plug-in quirks

[Zeibin]

I am currently managing a set of about 20 plug-in objects for an office of about 20 people. I am wondering how people deal with making updates to plug-in objects/tools (like when there are bugs, etc) and distributing these things so that the current files don't break.

As an example, you can't change the plug-in name and redistribute it because on the client machines, files will open and look for the original name. The plugin objects won't be editable.

Same thing happens if you happen to change the name of a parameter: this is worse because all the existing parameter data gets lost.

What other caveats should a VectorScript programmer watch out for? Do you release "versions" of plug-ins and manually update plug-ins?

I'm in the position now where I made some updates and now all of our custom building section markers and detail tags have lost their data. And since I didn't keep a backup of the old plug-ins, I have no way of going back.

Advice for the future?

[Miguel Barrera]

Assuming you are using VW 10 or later:

1. Do not change the name of the parameter. If you want to change the name displayed on the Object Info pane, enter the name in the Alternate Name of the parameter edit dialog.

2. Why do you want to change the name of the plug-in anyways? If you want to keep track of the version, add a string for the version in the VectorScript Plug-In Editor

3. If you need to change the plug-in name or add new plug-ins, then include also the modified workspace with the renamed and added plug-ins.

The only problem is that you would need to remove the old ones manually if you want to keep the plug-ins folder clean.

[Zeibin]

I want to change the plug-in name because some of my plug-in names aren't necessarily accurate. During development I called the plug-in something, but then later down the road after using it for some time, people get confused when they select what they think if a "Building Section Marker" and the OIP shows "Section Cut Tag." It's just semantics, really, but it has an effect on some people in terms of usability and keeping terminology consistent among our office staff. Same goes for parameter names. I like that I can override the parameter name with the Alternate Name, but it would be nice if I could have that change filter through into my script so that I, or whoever maintains these after I leave this firm, knows what's what and where.